How do I record and playback at the same time?

[wr202]

I want to set up a multiple tuner computer for recording and playback. This will be a dedicated video recorder/player. I want to be able to record and playback at the same time. If I have a system with 1 PVR-350 and 2 PVR-250's, I want to be able to record three things at once while watching a fourth previously made recording via the TV-out of the PVR-350. I want to use the hardware decoder of the PVR-350 because I'm trying to keep CPU utilization to a minimum. I don't care if the playback video is shown to the computer monitor. I won't have a computer monitor in the TV room anyway.

This is possible using SageTV. However, I don't have an internet connection in the TV room. I don't really care that much about the online listings. I just want to be able to do what I could now with vcrs. I just want to be able to set the shows to record myself. However, it looks like this might be a real problem with SageTV. Even if SageTV would work without program data, I would need some way to name the files so I would know what I had recorded.

What are my options? Could I use SageRecorder? I've read other threads, and it look like it should record multiple streams at one time fine, but can I playback something at the same time? Would I need some other program to playback at the same time? Could I use SageRecorder and SageTV at the same time? SageRecorder would be doing all the recording and I would use SageTV for all playback.

The concern I have here is with hard disk thrashing. Unless the playback and recording software is tightly integrated, the disk could constantly seek to different parts of the disk to read or write multiple files. If you have two processes that are reading or writing to multiple files, the processes need to be smart enough to get many blocks of data from each file at the same time to reduce the seeking. If a seek is done for every 64KB block, this would be hard on the hard drive and performance for multiple streams would be really bad. SageTV, being a single program, would probably be smart enough to do this right. The potential for problems comes when using two programs that don't know about each other. Would SageTV and SageRecorder play and record well together? Are these two programs tightly integrated so that the playback/record performance would be similar to the performance when using SageTV alone?

Another option I thought about was using xmltv to import data in SageTV. I would make some shows my favorites, then just import that data and it would record them. I wouldn't need SageRecorder at all in this scenario. In order to do this, I would need to know a little about how SageTV writes the filenames. The filename begins with the show title and follows with a number. I would need to know what the rest of the data in the filename corresponds to. Another idea is to write a program to import a list of shows to be recorded. Looking at the data file for SageRecorder, I think it would be easy to do this. Is there anyway to do this with SageTV?

[dkardatzke]

Originally posted by wr202
What are my options? Could I use SageRecorder? I've read other threads, and it look like it should record multiple streams at one time fine, but can I playback something at the same time? Would I need some other program to playback at the same time? Could I use SageRecorder and SageTV at the same time? SageRecorder would be doing all the recording and I would use SageTV for all playback.

You could run multiple instances of SageRecorder, one for each tuner to specify your recordings. However, you can't watch a different show than SageRecorder is currently recording. I also wouldn't recommend using SageTV for playback and SageRecorder to record. There will be numerous issues that I won't get into because it wasn't designed to be used like this. You really need to use one application or the other.

Would SageTV and SageRecorder play and record well together? Are these two programs tightly integrated so that the playback/record performance would be similar to the performance when using SageTV alone?[/B]

Covered above, I wouldn't be concerned about hard disk thrashing. The disk can handle the constant writing of different streams. Maybe some of our current customers can expand on their experiences with this..?

Another option I thought about was using xmltv to import data in SageTV. I would make some shows my favorites, then just import that data and it would record them. [/B]

You could use XMLTV, but I think you need an internet connection for it just like you do for the SageTV Service. Your best bet is to just connect this PC to the internet once or twice a week to get the best data possible using SageTV. Then you could set up your favorites using the Favorites Manager and you could also record three shows at once while watching a fourth.

[Opus4]

Originally posted by wr202
I won't have a computer monitor in the TV room anyway.

Do you plan to have your video card's output go to a different input on your TV? You'll need some way to see the Windows desktop -- either through a monitor or on your TV. If on your TV, then the 350 & the video card will need to go to separate TV inputs.

I don't really care that much about the online listings. I just want to be able to do what I could now with vcrs. I just want to be able to set the shows to record myself.

You may want to reconsider an internet connection... I came from the VCR world to SageTV & it is so nice not to have to manually set up each recording. Beyond that, SageTV will automatically adjust the recording schedule if one of your TV shows is moved to a new time slot.

Check out the SageRecord information pages -- you'll have to manually set each recording, naming the file in the process.

Originally posted by dkardatzke
You could run multiple instances of SageRecorder, one for each tuner to specify your recordings. However, you can't watch a different show than SageRecorder is currently recording.

Dan - this note made me go read the SageRecorder info. On its FAQ page, it states:

Can I watch one program while recording another?

No, within SageRecorder you can only watch what is currently being recorded or previously recorded content.

This made it sound to me that you could watch the current show or something that was previsouly recorded while a show was being recorded, even though the first word is "No". Perhaps you could add ", if nothing is currently being recorded." (or some such wording) to that answer for clarity?

- Andy