STB firewire recording working, but EPG problem

[Nate]

I have HD recording through my set top box's firewire connection. This is great! I have one problem though. First some quick background...

I followed the advice of Mr. DFA and I setup my svideo connection through my Hauppauge PVR250 to the correct EPG and the STB FW to a very similiar but different EPG. I disabled all HD channels in the svideo EPG and enabled all of the HD channels in the STB FW EPG.

The problem is that Sage thinks it can record both at the same time. Say I am recording a movie on the HD EPG. While this is happening, Sage thinks it can also record a show on the non-HD EPG! This is incorrect. The problem is Sage doesn't know both lineups are actually the same device.

Is it possible for Sage to handle this correctly, triggering conflicts as if they were the same device? Is there any workaround at all?

I searched for a while but I could only find this post by DFA responding to turak asking essentially the same question...

Originally Posted by DFA

For manual recordings, channel is fixed by virtue of what and where you select to record in the EPG. For Favorites, you can configure any Favorite to use "Any" channel or choose a specific, singular channel. Sage gives you everything you need to do what you want as long as you can come up with the EPG's.

But this doesn't actually solve the problem. For example, Sage could still try to record channel 10 at 9pm from EPG1 and channel 113 at 9pm from EPG2.

I'm using v4.1.3.67. Would upgrading to 5 help? I want to upgrade, but I am scared that I will lose the ability to record HD. Can anyone tell me if upgrading will ruin with my HD recording ability?

Thanks for your help!

Edit: I found a post about a setting in SageTV.properties called "encoder_merit". What does this setting do? Are there other "hidden" settings like this that I should know about when using two sources?

[Nate]

No solutions huh? The wife is very close to making me disable the HD EPG. She missed her "Kathy Griffin: Life on the D-List" show and was pretty pissed. We have to monitor the scheduled recordings very carefully to ensure the EPGs don't step on each other. Getting a favorite to record at a different time isn't easy.

[NEOSG]

Nate,

So currently you have:

Coax cable from cable company to cable box. Then, firewire from cable box to pc. Encoder for Firewire connection is configured in sage with EPG for HD channels.

You also have S-Video from same cable box connected to PVR250 via Svideo. Encoder for this connection is configured within sage with EPG source/city and non-hd channels are selected.

if the above is true, why not do the following:

1st, split the coax from cable company before it goes to your cable box. Then, take one of the coax runs and hook it up to your cable box. Then, firewire from cable box to pc. Encoder for Firewire connection is configured in sage with EPG for HD channels.

Take other split from coax line from cable company and hook it up to the coax connection on the PVR250. Then, use the tuner on the PVR250 to tune the channels and have it's own EPG with only standard def channels selected.

make sense? Any reason why this would not work?

Scott

[Nate]

Hi Scott, that is a very interesting idea. Will the PVR250 be able to tune all the channels except HD channels? For example, could the PVR250 tune to the standard def HBO channel 650 (or whatever)?

[NEOSG]

Originally Posted by Nate

Hi Scott, that is a very interesting idea. Will the PVR250 be able to tune all the channels except HD channels? For example, could the PVR250 tune to the standard def HBO channel 650 (or whatever)?

Nope, that is the downfall. You'll only get the analog channels, usually 99 and lower The only way to get the best of both worlds, all channels available on cable box via svideo, and unencrypted HD via firewaire, is to use 2 cable boxes.

BTW, the enocoder merit tells sage which encoder to us first, if more than one tuner can tune the same channel.

[DFA]

Yep.

This is a short-coming. Sage does not know that these two sources actually come from the same tuner. No way I know of to tell Sage that these two sources are from a common tuner.

The only "fix" I'm aware of is to actually get another STB so that these ARE independent tuners so that simultaneous recordings within the same time slot can be achieved irregardless of SD / HD status.

Otherwise, care must be taken in scheduling.

DFA

[Nate]

Doh. That is too bad, it seems like a common thing to record HD content through a STB. Is Sage Co aware of the problem?

Thanks for your input Scott and DFA. I appreciate it!

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by Nate

Doh. That is too bad, it seems like a common thing to record HD content through a STB. Is Sage Co aware of the problem?

Thanks for your input Scott and DFA. I appreciate it!

Just remember the ability to record via firewire is only directly supported in the Linux OEM version of Sage. I just went ahead and got seperate boxes for each tuner card (well one of the tuners I have is on analog cable, we use it for MTV and such), and a seperate firewire-enabled HD box. The HD box will allow you to record things in standard def via firewire as well (on my cable-co anyway), but puts black boxes on either side, making the picture elongated vertically if watching on a SD TV. No way around that so far as I've been able to find yet though.