Sagetv inquiry...... Don't be mad; I did a little research before this post :)

[johnson636]

Originally Posted by jptaz

You will need two things:

1. An IR Blaster for changing the Channles the STB.
2. Svideo and Audio cables to connect to the PVR-500 Inputs ( No need for the AV Cable set ).

Basically what you need to do is plug the STB into the PVR-500, then go into video sources and for one of the two sources select SVideo as the input and then you need to select the IR blaster you purchased and plugged in. I personally would go for the USB Uirt since you can eventually add 2 more discrete IR blasters.

Hope this helps.

John

First off I like to say hello all I'm a noob and I thought it would be in my best interests to search the site before posting any questions; Don't won't to upset the natives

initially, I had decided to use MCE 2005 for my HTPC, but I found out over at AVS that the only way to acheive the watch one channel while recording another channel feature was to have 2 seperate Digital STBs connected to either of the Hauppage cards (1-pvr-500 or 2 of the other tuners). This was also confirmed by Hauppage themselves. I not willing to pay an extra 15.00 a month for a digital STB to be used for this purpose.

Then a member over at AVS (Naylia ) said that with a pvr-500, only 1 STB, and SageTV I could acheive this. Does the quote above confirm this claim? Can I use a pvr-500 with sagetv connected to 1 digital STB and be able to watch one channel while I record another?

Also, I was reading through some posts here and came across one that included a guy having trouble with his pvr-500 and sagetv recorder. The post went on until a member here informed him the SageTV Recorder does not work with the pvr-500. Obviously I was confused

What is the difference between SageTV and SageTV recorder? I went to the sagetv website and it states that both should be able to watch, record, pause live TV, access files (such as mp3, video clips, movies,etc.) from your pc HDD and so on. Can someone explain?

I'm not finish building my new pc yet (only cpu and tv tuner needed) so I haven't tried sagetv yet, so can someone advise me, with provided information, what exactly do I need to get my HTPC up and running.

Specs:
P4 3.4GHZ
Geforce 6800GS
WinTV pvr-500
1gig RAM
WD 250GB and WD 80GB
500W Antec SP

What I want is to be able to record live tv (such as games, HBO, and PPV channels) while watching another channel, Watch movies and listen to music on my television that is stored on my HDD, etc. My TV is SD and about 10ft from my pc. My cable signal is digital.

Oh yeah, it would be good to have a diagram of some sort on how all of this would be hooked up.

Thanx

[paulbeers]

Well that all depends......

My understanding is that this can be done, but one input would be the STB, and the other would be direct coax. The direct coax would only capture the analog channels and the direct input from the STB would capture all channels. Ineffect you would only be able to record OR watch any of the digital channels (200+), but if they were say in the lower band (2-80 or whatever), you would be able to record AND watch seperate channels (because one would record off the direct coax and the other would record off the STB). Does that make sense? Your STB can only tune one channel at a time, so any actual digital channels can only be recorded or watched. No watching skinemax 1 while recording skinemax 2!

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by johnson636

First off I like to say hello all I'm a noob and I thought it would be in my best interests to search the site before posting any questions; Don't won't to upset the natives

Welcome to the forum. Everyone has to start somewhere & new people aren't picked on here. If anyone picks on a new forum member, I would remove such stuff anyway...

Can I use a pvr-500 with sagetv connected to 1 digital STB and be able to watch one channel while I record another?

As I believe was mentioned in the previous reply, that depends on what you expect to be able to watch. W/a single STB, you can watch all the channels on the STB & another tuner could watch just the analog channels. i.e.: you can't watch 2 channels that both require a converter if you only have 1 converter. If your cable is digital only, then you would have to have 2 converters.

Also, as in the quote in your post above, you will need something that sageTV can use to change the channels on the STB -- if it doesn't have a serial connection or some such option, you would need to use something like the USB-UIRT as an IR blaster... which you could also use as an IR receiver to control SageTV w a remote.

Also, I was reading through some posts here and came across one that included a guy having trouble with his pvr-500 and sagetv recorder. The post went on until a member here informed him the SageTV Recorder does not work with the pvr-500. Obviously I was confused

What is the difference between SageTV and SageTV recorder? I went to the sagetv website and it states that both should be able to watch, record, pause live TV, access files (such as mp3, video clips, movies,etc.) from your pc HDD and so on. Can someone explain?

SageTV Recorder is much more limited w/just time-based recordings and no other media use at all; see: What is the difference between SageTV and SageTVRecorder?

Of those two, what you want is SageTV.

- Andy

[johnson636]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Well that all depends......

My understanding is that this can be done, but one input would be the STB, and the other would be direct coax. The direct coax would only capture the analog channels and the direct input from the STB would capture all channels. Ineffect you would only be able to record OR watch any of the digital channels (200+), but if they were say in the lower band (2-80 or whatever), you would be able to record AND watch seperate channels (because one would record off the direct coax and the other would record off the STB). Does that make sense? Your STB can only tune one channel at a time, so any actual digital channels can only be recorded or watched. No watching skinemax 1 while recording skinemax 2!

Sorry, but I'm having a little trouble understanding exactly what it is he/she is saying so someone correct me if I'm wrong. Does he mean with the 1 pvr500 and 1 STB, I would only be able to watch a digital channel or record a digital channel; recording a digital channel while watching another digital channel would be impossible with only 1 STB. But on the other hand, I could watch an analog while recording either a digital or another analog channel

In other words:

Analog signal- Watch an analog channel while recording a different analog or digital channel
Digital signal- Watch a digital channel while only recording an analog channel (or vice versa)

Is that correct?

[mayamaniac]

seems correct.

Basically, for analog cable, an STB is not needed. So you can split the cable as times as you want and be able to watch and record the analog channels. The signal will get weak if you split it too many times, but you can get a signal booster device to increase it. As for digital channel, an STB is needed and each can only tune one single channel at a time. So a second STB is needed if you want to watch or record a second digital channel.

I have 3 tuners and can watch and record on all. But only one is hooked up to the STB for digital channels, while the other two are just analog. And I'm also using a PVR-500 and a PVR-150.

[johnson636]