What do I need to started with sage tv?

[at2wooden]

Is it possible to make my PC TIVO-like with Sage TV?
I have a 350 Hauppage PVR in my PC and DirecTV in my living room.
(single receiver / samsung sir-s300w with a second set of RCA outs (Audio and composite), a coax (analog?) out, and an S-Video out.
The sage "extender" looks like it might be for that purpose, but I am new to this and totally confused.
My PC runs on XP home edition.
What hardware / connectors and license do I need?
Would I be able to schedule and record programs?
Do I need anything additional to remove commercials?

MSI K8N-NEO2 / Athlon 3700+ San Diego @ 2.4G
4 X 512MB XMS CORSAIR / Antec Neopower 480W
2 X 160GB Hitachi SATA HDs / 200GB WD IDE
ATI Radeon AIW X800XT / Zalman VF700CU
Liteon 1693s DVD-RW / Plextor 230a CD-RW
Hauppauge-350 PVR / SB Audigy 2 ZS

[Opus4]

You would at least need the full version of SageTV. If you plan to watch recordings in another room, you would need either SageTVClient or the MVP extender.

You would have to connect some sort of input to your 350 so SageTV has something to record (the audio/video output from the DircTV box).

SageTV has a trial period for you to see what it is like & the smae downloads page has the PDF manual that you could look through to get an idea of what all you can do. The Customizations section of the forum has user created add-ons, including commercial detection utilities.

- Andy

[at2wooden]

Thanks for the quick help!
So I need to hardwire to the DirectV box. OK.
I thought the extender was wireless, what does it do then if not?
Do I need an USB-UIRT or IR Emitter? (whatever they are)

[chughes]

Well, as someone who is in the late stages of Sage setup, allow me to share a few things with you that I seemed to miss.

If you plan on using your Sage box to play DVDs, you will need to buy some DVD decoders (from nVidia, Cinescope and others, about $20).

You will only need the USB-UIRT if you need to change the channels on your STB, but this can also be done with the Hauppauge IR blaster. Occasionally, an STB will have an IR mini-jack on the back to allow it to receive signals from another device. However, cable service providers will often disable them (and sometimes some other ports) - just like mine. Grrr. A USB-UIRT is a pretty versatile device though, and if you think you might get a universal remote in the future, then it would a good device to have.

Scheduling and recording in Sage is pretty painless, you just have to learn the inteface.

Cabling can vary depending on your setup. There is good guide on it.

Hope that helps. I'm still pretty new at this myself. Good luck.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by at2wooden

I thought the extender was wireless, what does it do then if not?

Hauppauge has said the wireless MVP is coming, but that's all I know about it. There are posts about it from other people around here somewhere. A lot of people run a network cable to wherever they want to use a client PC or MVP, since that is offers a better/more reliable connection than wireless.

Do I need an USB-UIRT or IR Emitter? (whatever they are)

You would need some such method for SageTV to be able to change the channel on the DirecTV box. Don't forget to look into using a serial cable for DirecTV channel changes -- that is faster and less susceptible to errors than IR blasters. (Not that IR blasting is real bad; just that serial is more reliable.)

- Andy

[GKusnick]

Just to be clear: the Extender is a playback device, not an encoder. If you have a wireless game adapter or something along those lines, you can use it to stream recorded video from the PC running Sage to the Extender for viewing on your TV (although I think you might be happier with a wired LAN connection).

However that's only half the equation. You still need to get the DirecTV video signal into your Sage PC so it can be recorded in the first place. The Extender doesn't help with that. For that you need a wired connection (coax, S-Video, or whatever) from the DTV receiver to the capture card in your PC.

[at2wooden]

something like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

Originally Posted by at2wooden

Don't forget to look into using a serial cable for DirecTV channel changes

What kind of serial cable....do you have a link for a sample directv serial cable?
What components does it connect?
Do I need a second Directv receiver?

My apologys in advance for these dense newbie question
I really appreciate the help from all of you