help with four TV Sage setup

[Nate]

Currently I'm using Sage with one computer and one TV. I'm buying a new house and will have four TVs that I'd like to be Sage enabled. Sage will be recording from digital cable. Three of the four will need HD TV. I'm willing to get 2 or 3 tuners so that multiple shows can be recorded at once and different TVs can watch live TV at the same time. Can you guys help me with how this will be set up?

Is it possible to have one computer that does the Sage recording and sends out audio and video to each of the four TVs? I know I would need one capture card per tuner. How would it send out the audio and video to each TV?

Do I need one computer that does the Sage recording, and then one computer per TV? I know there is a Sage Client software that connects to a single Sage server. With this approach I can understand how the audio and video goes to each TV, but it seems expensive to buy even a cheap computer for each TV.

How does Sage handle multiple tuners? Say there are two tuners and two other TVs in the house are using the tuners to watch live TV. If someone goes to a third TV and tries to watch live TV, what happens?

Can anyone outline how a four TV Sage system like I want could be set up?

[stevech]

wired media extender per TV - ethernet cabled to Sage Server via LAN switch/router.

http://www.sagetv.com/extender.html?sageSub=tv

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Nate

Is it possible to have one computer that does the Sage recording and sends out audio and video to each of the four TVs?

Absolutely, I've got a central SageTV server, and have multiple clients.

I know I would need one capture card per tuner. How would it send out the audio and video to each TV?

Ethernet is used to connect the clients to the server.

Do I need one computer that does the Sage recording, and then one computer per TV?

You need one server, and then a client for each TV.

I know there is a Sage Client software that connects to a single Sage server. With this approach I can understand how the audio and video goes to each TV, but it seems expensive to buy even a cheap computer for each TV.

That's one option, and currently the only option if you want HD playback via the clients. For TVs that don't require HD playback, the SageTV Media Extender (aka Hauppauge Media MVP) is an excellent option, IMO the preferred option for SDTVs.

How does Sage handle multiple tuners? Say there are two tuners and two other TVs in the house are using the tuners to watch live TV. If someone goes to a third TV and tries to watch live TV, what happens?

I believe in that case, Sage will pop up an error saying there are no tuners available. If it's in the middle of recording (not LiveTV on other clients) then I believe it will ask if you want to cancel one of the current recordings.

Can anyone outline how a four TV Sage system like I want could be set up?

Basically it would go something like this:

SageTV server with sufficient HDD space and tuners for your needs. My advice would probably be something on the order of 500GB HDD (not that expensive anymore) and two, dual-tuner TV cards. You'll run your analog cable into the two dual-tuner cards and be able to feed 4 TVs with different live programming simultaneously.

Then for the digital channels, you'll connect as many boxes as you want to pay for into the A/V inputs on those TV cards (say 2 cable boxes). That would allow you to record up to two digital channels, and still two more analog ones at the same time (or 1 and 3, or 0 and 4...).

You mentioned HD, unless you're lucky (do a search for firewire), OTA HD is probably your only option, for that you'll want a ATSC HD card or two, I'd take a look at the Vbox cards.

Then you'll need clients. If you really need HD output/playback for three of them, you're looking at three client HTPCs you can probably do a search for recommended components. For the last (SD) TV, your best option is probably an Extender.

[Nate]

Thanks for the advice!

The media extender seems neat. To be clear, it will provide each extended TV a seperate Sage interface right? It isn't just the same picture on all TVs?

For HD I currently record through firewire.

You are saying the extender won't support HD. Can I build an HTPC client capable of playing HD cheaply and silently? It would be ideal to have basically a small set top box that has no fans that can be my Sage client for playing HD. I will follow your advice and search around for this.

[blade]

Originally Posted by Nate

The media extender seems neat. To be clear, it will provide each extended TV a seperate Sage interface right? It isn't just the same picture on all TVs?

Yes, there wouldn't be much point in having it if they all showed the same thing.

You are saying the extender won't support HD. Can I build an HTPC client capable of playing HD cheaply and silently? It would be ideal to have basically a small set top box that has no fans that can be my Sage client for playing HD.

Currently the only extenders for Sage are SD.

If you want to output HD you'll need HTPC clients. Quiet is very subjective. Personally if I can hear a HTPC running I don't consider it quiet. Others aren't as picky and they can build "quiet" systems pretty easily.

[Enormous]

Originally Posted by blade

Quiet is very subjective.

And to address the other question: So is "cheap"!

[Nate]

Originally Posted by blade

Yes, there wouldn't be much point in having it if they all showed the same thing.

Right. I see it comes with a remote for controlling it too. Neat.

As for cheap... the maximum I'd want to go for the HD playing client computers is around maybe $450 each. One of the rooms is a theater (well currently a garage, but soon!), so it will already have an HTPC for playing HD. One of the rooms is only going to have SD, so it can have an extender. This leaves two rooms where I need HD.

For the HTPC clients to play HD, what are the requirements? Minimum prcoessor speed, ram, etc. This determines if I can build fanless machines. I hope I can, because one of the rooms I want HD in is my bedroom and even a quiet fan machine like I have in the theater is too loud.

Each will need a USBUIRT I suppose. There is $50 per box right already. A nice looking HTPC case is probably spendy as well. I wish there was a better solution! I almost would be happy enough with a regular Comcast box for timeshifting, but the interface is terrible and slow. I wish it were possible to serve different Sage interfaces to multiple TVs with one client.

Are there going to be extenders that can play HD in the semi-near forseeable future? I wouldn't want to build expensive clients just to have them obsoleted by cheaper HD extenders.

[Trepidati0n]

Hijacking his thread abit. Anybody have a rule of thumb for horsepower needed on the server to support each client? I've done a bit of searching and past thread browsing...but just can't seem to find that answer.

[ybrew]

My server is an XMD XP 2600 with 512mg ram and 2 250 gig hard drives

I'm happy with the CPU and memory, but I'd like to add 2 500 gig drives (so I can record at a higher quality and soon start to record HD. Currently I just have 2 Hauppauge 500 cards in my box.

From my research, I could easily run all of this on an 800mhz-1ghz processor.

I'm still not sure how I'll handle my HD needs. I only really need HD in my room above the garage (My theater) and I'm thinking I'll probably just go with a dual tuner HD recorder from the cable company until an HD extender is available from sage.

[Nate]

Not hijacking at all Trepidati0n. Your question and mine are the same:

1) What are the minimum requirements for a client to play HD?

2) Will there be an HD extender for Sage soonish?