So How Do I Display SageTV On my TV?

[joe123]

Ok, please point me to the link if this has been explained before.

It is not obvious to me how exactly do I go about connecting my PC to my TV so display on my TV.

My TV has S-Video IN and regular Composite in (yellow, white, red). My PC has a regular video card.

[stevech]

PC to TV...

1. If your PC has a video card (VGA out) that plugs into a PCI bus or AGP bus slot, then replace that video card with one that has an S-Video output. This will connect to your TV's S-video input. This kind of card will cost about $50 if you shop wisely. Buy ONLY a mainstream brand due to software/driver stability. I just bought an ATI board for something like $40 after rebates.

2. If your PC has the video on the motherboard, buy the card above and disable the on-motherboard video.

The PC's stereo audio must go to the TV as well.

The video encoder for recording can be PCI bus cards as from Hauppauge (and others), or a USB2 encoder such as the Hauppauge WIn TV PVR USB2 - "PVR" is the produt you want, rather than the non-PVR product.


If you are running SageTV to really use it's recoding features, give it a dedicated PC that people don't use.

SageTV also has an optional software license to view recorded shows on a desktop PC via a good LAN connection, in addition to the TV set.

[carlgar]

Another approach to consider is use of the media extender (currently about $100 for hardware and software license). This is a small box that sits next to your TV and connects to your server via ethernet cable. It would connect to your TV with the included A/V cables.
You do not state the distance between your computer and TV which can make a big difference in how you connect to the TV. You also do not state whether you already have a remote to control sageTV. The media extender comes with its own remote and the remote receiver is built into the media extender, therefore it would be near your TV, as opposed to being near the computer.
You also do not state if your TV is SD or HD which can also make a difference in the best method to use to get SageTV to your TV.

[joe123]

Thank you for the nice feedback.

Sorry, I was not very detailed in what I have mostly due to the fact that I am new at this.

I have a dedicated PC on which I am trying the SageTV server software. I have a WinTV 150 PCI card. I also put an order for the Sage Client Media Extender so that I can hook up my TV to it. All my rooms are connected with Ethernet to my router - so I have hard wire ethernet from my PC server to all my rooms.

One more question. If my main TV is HD (High Defenition) and I have my SageTV server next to it, what kind of Video card should I get? I know there are lots of brands, I am mostly asking about the type of output? Are there PC Video cards that output Component Video ( Red/Blue/Green )?

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by joe123

One more question. If my main TV is HD (High Defenition) and I have my SageTV server next to it, what kind of Video card should I get? I know there are lots of brands, I am mostly asking about the type of output? Are there PC Video cards that output Component Video ( Red/Blue/Green )?

I have had incredible use out of my 6600GT. I wouldn't go with anything less for HD content. Make sure the 6600GT you buy has the HD encoder built in. I think I have seen some that do not.

G'Luck

B

[Nadim]

For me the Media Extenter is the way to go, It works really well.