HDTV

[DFA]

Yep. Wish Sage could take the TS stream from my firewire hookup to SA3250HD STB. Nothing is encrypted at my end (yet). I live in a small town and happen to know from talking with provider that only me and one other person have STB with working firewire in my service area! Geekless oil town!

DFA

[Sailn]

I too have been doing OTA HDTV for about a year, and love it. Pay for compressed HDTV cable, no way!

[Bear]

Yep, overcompressed OTA is free!

(Most stations in my area multicast/simulcast, so we get the shaft no matter what)

Later,
Bill

[Ralphjb]

Originally Posted by Ralphjb

Exactly. It is only for DirecTV and Dish Network. Only certain, older, HD boxes can be modded. In my case, a RCA DTC100. I expect to have the unit next week and can not wait to report my experience.

With business and personal travel, I did not get much of a chance to play around with the R5000 until last night.

First off, let me report that the recording quality is outstanding. It is very cool to be able to record and playback at HD levels. I have not had enough of a chance to watch critically, so I will withold a complete appraisal yet.

The recording/pvr software is very simple and simple to use. It is not pretty, but it has the advantage of being very intuitive. For those critical of the GUI of SageTV 1.x, well you are going to hate this software.

The "pvr" module, really is only a program to schedule recordings. It interfaces with Zap2It, something like the way TitanTV works with various software. Playback is another issue. TheaterTek 2.0 is capable of playing .ts files, and since I planned on upgrading anyways, I bit the bullet. With TheaterTek, you can play files as they are recorded, so this does give the ability for timeshift recording/playback.

The USB communication is 2 way, including control of channel selection. I hope for the day when I can use SageTV to control this device, both for ease of functionality and for reliability of recording.

I am happy to answer any questions on the R5000 that anyone has.

[pengdahl]

I have some questions about the 5000HD:

Can you record SD shows with it in addition to HD shows?

If so, how does the bitrate (and resulting filesize) of the
recorded show compare with, say, an mpg file recorded
with a PVR-250?

It seems to me that a prerequisite for Sage to work nicely
with the 5000HD would be to allow you to choose a different
channel lineup for each tuner. I haven't tried the 2.1 beta
yet, but at least in 2.0, Sage assumes that all tuners have
access to the same channels - already a problem if you have
both cable and satellite, for example.

However, it occurs to me that the 5000HD could dramatically
improve PQ in SD shows as well, since you would be eliminating
two analog-digital conversions - although possibly at a high
cost in disk space.

[salsbst]

at least in 2.0, Sage assumes that all tuners have
access to the same channels - already a problem if you have
both cable and satellite, for example.

What on earth gave you this idea?

[Bear]

Originally Posted by pengdahl

I have some questions about the 5000HD:

Can you record SD shows with it in addition to HD shows?

If so, how does the bitrate (and resulting filesize) of the
recorded show compare with, say, an mpg file recorded
with a PVR-250?

It seems to me that a prerequisite for Sage to work nicely
with the 5000HD would be to allow you to choose a different
channel lineup for each tuner. I haven't tried the 2.1 beta
yet, but at least in 2.0, Sage assumes that all tuners have
access to the same channels - already a problem if you have
both cable and satellite, for example.

However, it occurs to me that the 5000HD could dramatically
improve PQ in SD shows as well, since you would be eliminating
two analog-digital conversions - although possibly at a high
cost in disk space.

1) Record shows in HD? Yes.
2) File size and bitrate is dependent upon the service provider. Both Dish and DirecTV allocate different bandwidth to different channels (both HD and SD).
3) Multiple line-ups? It does this already. Sage only defaults the previously selected line-up when you add a source.

Check this thread at AVS for more info: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=409442

Later,
Bill

[Ralphjb]

Well I see my cohorts have answered for me. Sorry for the delay.

Both replays are dead on correct and I can not add anything. You did ask about recording SD material with the R5000-HD. I admit I have not tried that yet, but I assume it can. When I get a chance, I will confirm for you.

It is very cool. Picture quality is excellent. Integrating with SageTV would a no-brainer setup for me, once it is possible.

[AJ Bertelson]

you can only record SD material with the dish network and not directv systems.

[Bear]

Good catch! Yep, the Dish 6000 is the only one you can use to record both, and isn't it being replaced by Dish? Dish did a card swap not too long ago, but I thought I heard rumors of a full-out swap to 811s for the remaining 6000s out in the field.

For D*, the R5000 really doesn't make much sense anyway. The HD Tivo is both cheaper and allows you to have a dual-tuner system. (all in my humble opinion, of course! ).

Later,
Bill