How many extenders do I need?

[theKramer]

Anyone know whether it would be one SageTV extender per individual TV, or one SageTV extender for all tv's in my house?
Thx

[Opus4]

Do you mean how many extenders, or how many extender licenses?

The extender is the Hauppauge MVP, so you obviously need as many of those as the number of TVs you plan connect them to.

For extender licenses, you'll need as many of those as the number of extenders you plan to have in use at the same time. If you have 5 extenders, but only 1 will be in use at once, then you need a single extender license. If all 5 are to be used at the same time, you'll need 5 extender licenses.

- Andy

[jbarr]

Originally Posted by Opus4

If you have 5 extenders, but only 1 will be in use at once, then you need a single extender license.

I think it's important to clarify what "in use" really means. As I understand it, if an extender is turned on and connected to a SageTV server, then it is considered "in use." This may sound basic, but people might mistakenly think that despite it being turned on, if they aren't actually watching it, it isn't "being used". I mistakenly found this out when trying to use PlaceShifter while the extender was "on and connected" but not "being used".

[rickgillyon]

Yep, if it's connected, it's in use. If it's powered off, it's not.

[mdnttoker]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

Yep, if it's connected, it's in use. If it's powered off, it's not.

Do you mean a soft-power off or a hard power-off?

[ybrew]

The licenses are only $25 bucks or so. I'd rather personally buy one license for every extender than have to worry about accidentally leaving an extender powered on.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by mdnttoker

Do you mean a soft-power off or a hard power-off?

As far as I know, the answer to that question is: Yes.

- Andy

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by mdnttoker

Do you mean a soft-power off or a hard power-off?

Soft. Use the green button to put it to sleep, Sage no longer sees it. One way to look is to use nielm's excellent webserver, that shows you all the clients, MVPs and placeshifters currently connected to Sage, and what they are watching/recording. If it appears on that list, it needs a licence!

The webserver also lets you remote-control the extenders, if you want to annoy the kids by changing channels while they watch...
Also, if my daughter leaves Nickelodeon running on her extender once the TV's off and she's in bed, I can stop it from 100 miles away.

[ChePazzo]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

The webserver also lets you remote-control the extenders, if you want to annoy the kids by changing channels while they watch...
Also, if my daughter leaves Nickelodeon running on her extender once the TV's off and she's in bed, I can stop it from 100 miles away.

Does anyone know of anyway to use the custom menus to create a view that lets you do this from within the sage software?

[jbarr]

Don't know about a custom menu, but to me, $25.00 isn't really that much to have a PlaceShifter client always available. Add up the price of a few movies, DVD rentals, or Pay-per-views that you would otherwise spend on, and you could justify the cost pretty easily.

[zakrzep]

Is there a way to power them off remotely? Or maybe a better way would be to have an auto-off setting in the Sage MVP client software if possible.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by zakrzep

Is there a way to power them off remotely? Or maybe a better way would be to have an auto-off setting in the Sage MVP client software if possible.

If you use nielm's webserver I think it has a remote on one of the web screens that will allow you to control a remote client and power it off, among other things.

Gerry

[zakrzep]

Do you think it is possible for the Sagetv MVP client to have an auto off feature?

[banmj]

Originally Posted by gplasky

If you use nielm's webserver I think it has a remote on one of the web screens that will allow you to control a remote client and power it off, among other things.

Gerry

There isn't a way to power the extender off remotely. I've tried the web remote and added the power off command and the extender doesn't recognize it. This would be a great feature. When I have a power failure in my house the extenders come on. Then when I go to use placeshifter the one license I have is being used by the extender and I can't use placeshifter. It is possible to telnet into the mvp and kill the process, but then it needs to be rebooted to start it up.

[jbarr]

Originally Posted by zakrzep

Do you think it is possible for the Sagetv MVP client to have an auto off feature?

Only if it is an absolutely optional feature. I use an MVP in our bedroom, and simply leave it on all the time and turn off the TV when not using it. It takes too long to "boot" the TV otherwise....