Help setting up entire house w/ SageTV

[StylinLP]

I need a handle on how my home system would work.

I have a CRT Projector in the 1st living room w/ HTPC
Plasma screen in the 2nd living room. w/HTPC
36" Sony Wega with S-video and Componant inputs in the bedroom w/ HTPC

So how could I watch a differant channel in everyroom? WOuld I be able to record these channels on the main HTPC server in the front living room? All 3 computers would be worked with Wireless LAN. HOw many Satelite Set top or Cable boxs would I need and what room would they have to be in. How many Haupauge 350 cards would I need. Or 250 card. How many Satelite dishs? I might even split a line coming into the house to feed another tv in another bedroom that doesnt use SageTV.

Any help is appreciated

[Narflex]

So how could I watch a differant channel in everyroom?
You need a PC connected to each TV, and will need 3 tuners on your network if you want to watch 3 different channels at once.

WOuld I be able to record these channels on the main HTPC server in the front living room?
Yes. You can record them to anywhere on your network using mapped drives/network shares.

All 3 computers would be worked with Wireless LAN.
Make sure it's 802.11a or g. 802.11b isn't fast enough.

HOw many Satelite Set top or Cable boxs would I need and what room would they have to be in.
3 set top boxes, and put them where the tuners are. SageTV can control tuners anywhere on the network.

How many Haupauge 350 cards would I need. Or 250 card.
Get 3 PVR 250 cards, one for each set top box you're recording from.

How many Satelite dishs? I might even split a line coming into the house to feed another tv in another bedroom that doesnt use SageTV.
Not sure about this, depends on what satellite provider or cable, etc.

Anymore questions, let us know.

[StylinLP]

Great answers! Thank you.

Have another question now. What if I don't want to record from one of the bedrooms. Just want to watch TV (satelite or Cable). I know I need Sage CLient for that computer. But wouldnt that be restricted to watching a channel that the main SageTV is set at? That means both main computer with SageTV and the SageTV client will allways be on the same channel.
Do I got that right?

[StylinLP]

Just realized thats too ambigious.

If the main computer has 2 haupauge 250 cards connected to two satelite dish tuner boxs. (dont they sell tuner boxs with two channels?) Then the client computer and the SageTV computer can be on two differant channels I assume. It doesnt matter if the 2nd Sat Box connected to a 2nd Haupauge 250 card in in the CLient computer or the main computer?

[Narflex]

You'll need 2 sat boxes, you can't get dual tuner ones that output 2 channels at the same time.

There's no restrictions on the server and client showing what channel when, if you've got two tuners, then you can watch two separate channels at the same time, everything's independent, and it doesn't matter where the capture cards are.

[Gunn]

I have a question about this. Narflex mentioned the need for only the PVR 250 cards. I was under the impression that I would need a 350 so that I could feed the video out to my TV. I do have a GeForce Fx5200 that has S-video out...what that be good enough, or equivalent?

I am still researching everything I need before I buy the first part, hence my question.

Thanks,

[Narflex]

Gunn, use your GeForce Fx5200's TV output. The 350's TV output only outputs video at this point (no user interface).

[Gunn]

Thanks for the quick reply. Now my only question is with using the GeForce S-video output, is exactly what is shown on my PC desktop displayed on the TV, or can I output just a certain window to the TV?

I would like to be able to use the PC for other stuff (its our only one in the house), in addition to using it for TV...if that is possible. So I'm wondering if someone is watching TV, then we can't be surfing the net too. My parents just got TiVo, and I know I can do more with this setup

The PC I just built is a P4-2.4Ghz/800Mhz FSB with 512MB DDR400 Ram, 120GB HD and GeForce Fx5200 using WindowsXP Home Edition.

Thanks again,

Tom

[jmeeks]

It will display your PC desktop. I surf the net and watch tv at the same time all the time. It's very interactive. Or at least I'm always busy doing something.....

Are you asking if you can use your monitor and TV at the same time? Or, are you asking if you can display something different on the computer display and something else on the tv?

[Gunn]

Originally posted by jmeeks
Are you asking if you can use your monitor and TV at the same time? Or, are you asking if you can display something different on the computer display and something else on the tv?

Yea, to the second part. Like right now for instance, I'm at home on the computer doing this...my wife is watching something on the TV in the living room. That's the way I'd like to keep it, but with the TV going through the PC for all the features you get.

But if it just displays my desktop, my wife would be SOL right now. So would I basically need a dedicated computer to pull this off? I was hoping to avoid that.

Thanks for all you guys' help in clearing up the fog.

Tom

[pheitman]

Just to make sure I'm straight on this. It sounds like I can build a client/server system with a minimal computer as the client (does TV out, but not TV in, no video capture, no dvd drive, no video or music stored locally). Then I can have a big server that has multiple pvr 250s in it reading from multiple cable boxes. Sitting at my tv (which is connected to the client) I can control the server (specifying which channel I want to watch, which recorded video to play, specify which shows to record in the future, etc). I can even do this with multiple tvs connected to their local client and pick which incoming tv stream to watch, etc).

Is that correct?

If so, does anyone have a list of parts for building the minimal client at minimum cost (except it has to be quiet)?

peter

[jmeeks]

The Server can be the "minimal" computer. The client has to at least be able to decode a Mpeg2 file (ie. play a DVD with playback software.)

Look for threads referencing Epia motherboards. Such as: http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...highlight=Epia

In the near future, hopefully Frey Technologies and Hauppauge will cooperate with one another and get the MediaMPV fully functional with SageClient. That would be truly cool and probably the most cost effective solution for whole house SageClient distribution. See this thread: http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...&threadid=1678

[pheitman]

The MediaMVP is *exactly* what I was thinking of for the client. I need to upgrade to 812.11g to get the bandwidth, but for $99 that's incredible!

So I'm almost ready to make the plunge, but I need to know. What is the probability that the MediaMVP will be supported by SageClient, and in what timeframe? 100% sure within 1/2 a year would be acceptable, because I could go ahead with the server side and add clients later. 50% sure in 4 months means I have to keep thinking...

[turak]

Originally posted by Narflex

All 3 computers would be worked with Wireless LAN.
Make sure it's 802.11a or g. 802.11b isn't fast enough.

If you are using a d-link 802.11b router and a d-link card it is capable of 22mb instead of the normal 11mb of 802.11b. This seems to be fast enough for 2gb/hour great setting. My laptop with the dlink card works great with sageclient. My other laptop with an internal dell card can't handle it.

-Scott

[turak]

Gunn,
You could try using nView to configure multiple desktops. I've never done this myself, but I know it's posible with my GeForce4 Ti4600.

[dkardatzke]

We just recently tested the MediaMVP and you can already use it to access your recorded MPEG-2 files from SageTV and even access the Live TV feed for playback. You can also then access your MP3s and Photos as well. No comment yet on actually running the SageTV client software with the MVP but at least it's an option for cheap access to your stored media from SageTV.

[Ducky]

Originally posted by pheitman
If so, does anyone have a list of parts for building the minimal client at minimum cost (except it has to be quiet)?

Hmmm. Quiet is fairly easy. Just use older computer components. The key for clients are:

• Enough memory for it to be responsive. (128-256MB recommended for Win9X OSes, 512MB for Win2K+)
• A graphics card with Hardware motion compensation for MPEG2(e.g. ATI Rage Fury Pro is good enough) -- presumably, you'd be using the VGA out, so maybe even worse cards will do...
• A fast network card. 10/100 and up for wired, 802.11g for wireless.

The CPU doesn't need to be super-fast. I use PIII-500s for both my client and server, and they do just fine...
For the server, the key points are:

• Enough memory for it to be responsive. (128-256MB recommended for Win9X OSes, 512MB for Win2K+)
• Large, zippy hard disk. Just remember that Win9X can only access 128GB normally...
• Enough TV capture cards to make you happy.
• A fast network card. 10/100 and up for wired, 802.11g for wireless.

And you can get away with less TV cards than TVs if you can set up a recording schedule that records everything you'd ever want to watch, then all the clients can just play back recorded shows without needing a tuner. Doing that cuts down on channel surfing and scheduling your day around TV shows, so you'd probably want to do that anyway.