Quick Help Needed for HD

[paulbeers]

Hehehe. I know what you mean. The last time they came to our house, I just had them hand me the box and I hooked it up and told them to take care of the "outside stuff". The guy looked at my setup and said, "I think that would be best"....

Just as a recap, I would go with at least a 7600GS (GT seems to be the recommended though) and an HDHomerun. You should be able to do all that for about 300. My recommendation is also to go with a silent card. I haven't bought a video card that wasn't silent since I started getting HTPC crazy (you never know when your gaming rig vid card might end up in your HTPC).


Just my .02 worth. Let me know if you need anymore help. I am no expect, but I've read enough....

[pvr599]

Hey Paul,
Been reading ALOT. Quick question about the Homerun. Does it need to be connected to my router to work? I thought it was video cable in, video cable out. I think I'm wrong.
My DVR is next to my TV. The router is in another room (computer room).

[paulbeers]

Yes. The two coax "posts" on the HDHomerun are actually for the two different tuners. It allows you to do 2 OTA, 2 QAM or One of each. There are actually two ways you can hook it to your Sage box:

1. You can hook it into your router and it will be available over the network. This is the easiest way IF your Sage box is wired into your network (if you are wirelessly connected then see next).

2. If you are wirelessly connected, then as long as your Sage box has an unused ethernet port you can use a crossover cable and a small dhcp program that will run on your Sage box and inessence what you have created is a 1 port router right off your Sage box (more complicated but others have reported this is working fine).

[pvr599]

Hi Paul, me again,
I was just wondering, would I be able to get all my SD channels through the HDHR?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by pvr599

Hi Paul, me again,
I was just wondering, would I be able to get all my SD channels through the HDHR?

You can only get digital channels on the HDHR. If your CC sends out SD digital channels in unscrambled QAM then you can tune them on the HDHR. Or whatever SD digital-OTA channels may be available. YOu can't tune in any analog channels.

[pvr599]

Ok, so if I have a 1 HD STB and an HDHR and I use one of the inputs on the HDHR through the HDSTB and one just a direct cable line in I will be able to get all the SD channels through the HDSTB and just some OTA channels through the direct line in?
I have:
1 PVR150 - Direct line in
1 PVR500 - 1 input from Digital STB and one direct line in
I want to add
1 HDHR - 1 input from HDSTB and 1 direct line in.

Does this make sense?

BTW: what exactly is QAM? I've looked it up, but can't get a clear understanding.

Thanks for the help!!!

[ke6guj]

QAM is the mechanism in which the CC sends out the digital signal. Each channel can be either sent out in unscrambled QAM, in which any QAM tuner, such as the HDHR or a QAM-tunered TV, can tune in the channel, or scrambled QAM, in which you would need the CC's STB to get the channel.

The HDHR will only work with direct line in from the CC with unscrambled QAM content, or from a OTA antenna. YOu can't hook up an STB to the HDHR's input. The HDHR will record SD-digital and HD-digital content that is unscrambled.


So, in your configuration, anything that you hook up to PVR-150 or 500 will be recorded as SD analog content, even if the STB supplying it is a digital STB or HD-STB. HD content from the HD-STB will be recorded in SD analog format.

The only way to get digital content from the STB and record it in its unaltered digital format is to hook up the STB via firewire and record that way. Now you run into all sorts of new issue. Check out the Mega-firewire thread, http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9288 , for more info.

[pvr599]

Ahhhh, I see. I REALLY appreciate the info especially on QAM. I might finally be able to talk like I know what I'm talking about
I'm trying to decide if I want to get the HDHR or not.

After your reply, I'm starting to think that getting some other type of tuner card that accepts composite (if they make those) or the firewire way, which I'll have to look into. Or maybe trade the HDSTB back for the standard STB and get an HDHR just for OTA stuff. Man, I can't decide. Any suggestions?

I really miss my 3rd tuner for premium channels. I traded a regular STB for a HD one. That is connected directly to the TV right now.

What I'd like to do is use the HDSTB as my 3rd tuner, even if I can't record in HD, that's ok (for now). Just as long as I can get the premium channels (HBO, Sho..etc)

I'm going to check out the firewire thread now.
Dana

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by pvr599

After your reply, I'm starting to think that getting some other type of tuner card that accepts composite (if they make those)

Your PVR-150 and PVR-500 have composite(single video connector) inputs. Perhaps you meant component inputs (3 video connectors), If so, there aren't any consumer-grade component tuners on the market to capture HD. And the cards that are out there save the uncompressed signal and that can run over 1GB/minute, not feasable until it can be compressed on the fly.

or the firewire way, which I'll have to look into. Or maybe trade the HDSTB back for the standard STB and get an HDHR just for OTA stuff. Man, I can't decide. Any suggestions?

Hook up the HDSTB via firewire and see if you get any digital channels off of it that you don't get via the HDHR and can't live without. If you can't get your HD premium channels via firewire (I can, I get all subscribed channels via firewire), then swapping it back to a standard digital STB and capturing it via composite/svideo would be worth it.

What I'd like to do is use the HDSTB as my 3rd tuner, even if I can't record in HD, that's ok (for now). Just as long as I can get the premium channels (HBO, Sho..etc)

Hook up the HDSTB, or trade it in for a standard digital STB (probably cheaper than the HDSTB), to the PVR500 port that is just recording straight cable and then you can capture in SD analog everything that you pay for.

[pvr599]

Jack,
Thank you so much for the helpful info. I am certainly going to check out the firewire way. I'm sure I'll be back with more Q's.

Thanks again.....for now