Multiple sources

[mr_milo]

I am still evaluating the software, but can't seem to figure out how something works. If I have cable and satellite, each fed to a different capture card, what happens when I select Live TV or Program Guide? Once watching live tv or browsing the guide, how does one switch to the guide for the other source?

[Narflex]

It does it all automatically for you. It aggregates all your channels into one guide and then chooses the appropriate device based on what you select to watch.

[PGPfan]

You never 'switch' to a different guide. Sage in all it brilliants, does this for you. You just select what you want to watch/record from the only 'guide' that comes up when you select guide. When you did your configuration, Sage merged all the relevent guide data from your various sources regardless of whether they are cable, satellite, over the air, or whatever.

It doesn't get much better than this!

FWIW, no 'true' PVR ever really does 'live' tv. It is always recording. What you percieve to be 'live' is really recorded and then delayed by a couple of seconds. That is how you can "Pause Live TV" as they like to say.

-PGPfan

[svalmorri]

And what if you have the same channel from two different sources, for example from an analog cable/antenna and from a satellite? How can you/SageTV decide which of the two sources to render?

My guess is that it's done thru prioritization across the available encoders, is it? I saw a "merit" properties available, is it for that purpose?

Thanks

[Opus4]

If you watch or record from a channel on multiple sources, it picks the tuner based on availability. You can set the merit to force a priority, but it isn't needed unless you really want to have one tuner used first.

- Andy

[svalmorri]

Originally Posted by Opus4

If you watch or record from a channel on multiple sources, it picks the tuner based on availability. You can set the merit to force a priority, but it isn't needed unless you really want to have one tuner used first.

- Andy

OK I thought it was the way it works. But let me submit you a potential issue we may have, perhaps you know how to get rid of it.

Let's suppose I have channel XYZ from two differnet sources, one is analog antenna and one is satellite dish. Channel XYZ appears as a single entry in the EPG lineup and in the Live TV channels list.

Satellite programs usually have a better quality than the terrestrial ones therefore I would tend to assign an higher merit to the satellite one. However there are some programs aired on channel XYZ that for some reasons might be encrypted (black screen), I'm thinking to some sports events or copyrighted movies. With this setup when I select Watch Live TV (or even request event recording) it would grab the satellite channel resulting in a blank screen/recording.

I'm sure there must be an easy solution to that ...

Thanks!

[Opus4]

I don't think there is an easy solution if you've got a channel that blacks out from time to time, since I don't know how SageTV could know when the channel isn't available.

- Andy

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by Opus4

If you watch or record from a channel on multiple sources, it picks the tuner based on availability. You can set the merit to force a priority, but it isn't needed unless you really want to have one tuner used first.

- Andy

Andy,

I have a related situation. Very soon my PVR 500 will arrive and I will hook up both mpeg2 sources to my 2 Satelite tuners. Both tuners are subscribed to the same stations (for the most part), however tuner 2 has about 20 extra stations not available on tuner 1.

My situation is that tuner 2 is unreliable at times and requires user intervention to re-acquire the satelite signal. No prob when I am around watching live tv, but when I schedule a recording I want to make sure that I don't end up recording an hour of a big blue screen saying

'Error- card not inserted properly'.

In other words, I want the merit to be the highest for tuner 1 for all stations (my stable tuner) and tuner 2 will only be used for recording if
A) There is a scheduling conflict and Tuner 1 is busy
B) The show is only available on tuner 2 (with the extra channels)

Sage can handle that then? Is this priority feature only available on V5 or is my v4.1 able to do that?

[Opus4]

The property has been there for a while, but it _might_ be improved in v5 (I don't use it, so I can't comment on that). Look for the mmc/encoders/###/encoder_merit property; higher number = higher priority.

You will still need to use different lineups for both sources if you want to have different channels available on each source.

- Andy

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by Opus4

The property has been there for a while, but it _might_ be improved in v5 (I don't use it, so I can't comment on that). Look for the mmc/encoders/###/encoder_merit property; higher number = higher priority.

You will still need to use different lineups for both sources if you want to have different channels available on each source.

- Andy

For the most part, both input sources are identical with overlapping stations. Source #2 has a few extra channels due to some minor upgrades with my subscription. Only tradoff is that I occasionally have to remove and reinsert the card a couple times a week to re-aquire sat signal.