SageTV Newbie Has Questions, Needs Answers :o)

[pabster]

Hello All,

Recently I was hunting for some software to perform PVR functions with my Artec T14A USB 2.0 tuner. The software bundled with this tuner is bad and I was, frankly, stunned to find SageTV after someone else mentioned that it did indeed work with this tuner.

I wasn't really looking for a Media Center replacement or program with that level of functionality, but I must say, after playing with Sage for the last few days I am thoroughly impressed. I'm planning to buy a license if for nothing else than to have on hand should I decide to build a more involved setup down the road.

At any rate, I have a few questions I'm hoping the more experienced Sage users can answer...

1. Does Sage work with Dish Network? I am getting their new HD DVR box (the VIP 622 I believe) and I'm wondering if there is an easy way to be able to control it via Sage and perhaps I might use the Place Shift functionality at some point in time? (Don't really need any PVR functionality as the box has plenty of that I am told.)

2. I see a lot of people talking about this HDHomeRun box. I think it is pretty neat, but I'm concerned that the software isn't that great and is it worth spending $170 for a device that can only record OTA and non-5C unencrypted cable? Also, does Sage work reliably and fully with this device?

3. What are you all recording with this sucker? I see so many people with extravagant setups and speaking of recording 4 HD streams and even 2 more SD streams on top of that. Good lord! Where are you getting all this great content to record? (And do you actually watch it? )

Again, I'm not really looking at building a massive SageTV Server like some people. I mainly want good, reliable PVR functionality and -possibly- the ability to place shift to a remote location occasionally. Other than that, everything else is just icing on the cake.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by pabster

1. Does Sage work with Dish Network? I am getting their new HD DVR box (the VIP 622 I believe) and I'm wondering if there is an easy way to be able to control it via Sage and perhaps I might use the Place Shift functionality at some point in time? (Don't really need any PVR functionality as the box has plenty of that I am told.)

Er, the Dish DVR seems to me to be at odds with SageTV , wouldn't you rather have one interface for everything? But I might be wrong and someone has them working together

Originally Posted by pabster

2. I see a lot of people talking about this HDHomeRun box. I think it is pretty neat, but I'm concerned that the software isn't that great and is it worth spending $170 for a device that can only record OTA and non-5C unencrypted cable? Also, does Sage work reliably and fully with this device?

I just got one of these and it's way cool . The answer lies in really how much HDTV you watch off of the major networks. I watch probably 50% of my HD off of NBC, ABC, FOX, CBS, PBS or CW so it's worth it. Since there really isn't a good solution (i.e. cheap) for Sage-ing my DirecTV HD channels anyway (RD5000 at $500 per mod is expensive), I can justify the HDHR for my SageTV/HD fix. Oh and the software works well enough. That and the stability are not an issue. I run one tuner for OTA ATSC and the other for cable qam channels and it's a good combo. The biggest pain was setting up the mixed channel matrix under SageTV.

Good luck!

[briands]

I use Sage today with 4 dish boxes, one of which is HD. It is really easy to set up the control using a USB-UIRT IR controller. Today I have the HD (211) box feeding into sage via S-video which yields anamorphic 480i which is pretty good. This is an intermediate measure until I save the $$ for a R5000 mod. I also have the component output on this box attached directly to my projector so I can watch HD if I'm willing to watch LIVE ... who does that anyway