Multiple tuners, multiple playbacks in Video Dist. System

[Red Baron]

I cannot find this topic addressed anywhere.

I have a video distribution network in my home. That is, I have all of my video equipment in an A/V closet, and it is shared by all of the TVs in the house. Anyone can watch my ReplayTV PVR by tuning to channel 86. Or watch a DVD on channel 88.

There is alot of contention for our ReplayTV. The kids have SpongeBob, the wife has her awful shows. And I have my [not-awful] shows. But all of my programming gets preempted because of conflicts. Ugh!

My desire is to have a single Home Theater PC with multiple turners, multiple RCA TV out, each creating an internal TV channel in the house. Perhaps four tuners, and two playback channels. Each RCA TV out feeds a digital modulator that creates an internal household channel. With this, I will get fewer TV conflicts, plus we can all share the PVR.

SageTV looks very promising in that it supports multiple tuners. But I can't determine via googling the web/frey forums if SageTV supports multiple playbacks on a single Home Theater PC.

From what I can tell, it's rather unlikely. Certainly the Hauppauge PVR-350 supports TV out (and I assume it would not display to the monitor). But can you have two PVR-350 in the same box? There is also the issue of the remote control. There would be multiple remotes controlling the same PC. [Windoze is not multi-user friendly as is Linux/Unix]

There are options, of course, but they get more expensive. Have multiple HTPCs, or perhaps Hauppauge MediaMVP. I am leaning towards the MediaMVP myself.

Has anyone done anything similar?

[Menehune]

It does support multiple streams over a network, but IIRC, only one video output per machine. Your best bet may be to use several MVPs connected to the sage server via a switch/hub and the MVP plugin (thereby allowing your to inject each a/v output on it's own channel for distribution thruout the house). As to controlling each MVP from each room, you may need to get a RF remote extender to allow a remote in each room to control the MVP.

Others with more experience will probably have a cleaner, all-in-one elegant solution.

[Menehune]

If you are using XP, it supports multiple video cards so you may be able to run an instance of sage client in each card's desktop. Hopefully you will be able to use each card's video output and not require a scan converter. Hmm, don't know how you would control each screen without a mouse.

[Red Baron]

Originally Posted by Menehune

If you are using XP, it supports multiple video cards so you may be able to run an instance of sage client in each card's desktop. Hopefully you will be able to use each card's video output and not require a scan converter. Hmm, don't know how you would control each screen without a mouse.

Yeah, there are many issues that just make a two or more headed XP system DOA. I bet you could not direct a remote control to a specific SageTV instance. Each SageTV instance would also need to be bound to a particular screen display. And who knows what other resource contentions each SageTV instance would have: Screen focus perhaps?

Also, I do not like the idea of outputting the Windows display to the TV. I don't want those annoying Windows popups displaying on the TV ("Windows has downloaded a patch and it's ready to install"). Plus the HTPC will have other shared duties as well: it will act as the music hub and manage the house lights, HVAC and whatever else I can think of. I don't want to remotely log into the HTPC and disrupt someone elses TV viewing (the HTPC will likely be headless and in the closet too).

The MediaMVP solution is beginning to look questionable too. Each MVP would need to respond to unique set of remote control codes to allow them to be co-located in the AV closet (there is the option of IR distribution zones, but that's a PITA). Perhaps this is do-able. It's not clear from the FAQ.

And looking at the SageTV MVP FAQ it seems pretty quirky at this point. I desire a clean, elegant solution.

Perhaps the best solution is to harvest an old 800Mhz Athlon Thunderbird PC gathering dust and make it a SageTV drone. Each drone would use a different remote control brand, eliminating conflicting codes. And AFAICT SageTV is network savvy. So one can use any SageTV box (HTPC or a drone) to schedule or playback shows, etc. This may be a scalable solution as well, as I can continue to add drones as our kids get older and demand their own PVR. (My 5 year old son expects all of his TV to be pausable. He doesn't understand me when I tell him that this show is not being played on a PVR and we can't pause it. He also does not understand commercials breaks )

The drawback to the drone solution is it costs a little bit more. But sometimes a little more money is worth having a simple elegant solution. Complexity is evil.