Newbie: need some recommendations

[garrubal6]

Hello everyone. I'm posting here b/c maybe someone can remove some of my confusion from all the options there are.

Let's start with my problem statement: I will be moving overseas to a non-English speaking country with a slow internet connection. I would like to be able to make it easy for my family in the U.S. to record shows for me and send them to me (probably with a 8 GB USB card). IMO, recording DVDs for each of the shows I want might be too much of a hassle.

My current set-up: I have a satellite provider with their DVR. I can extract videos from this DVR to my PC. It's a bit of a hassle (it involves taking out the hard drive from the DVR), so I wouldn't want my family to do that. When I move, they'll be switching to digital cable.

Options I've looked at:

- TiVo Series 2 dual tuner: I think it's expensive having to pay $20 a month in addition to paying for the box. A nice feature is that it has TiVo ToGo to transfer shows to the PC. Big downside is that dual tuner is for 1 digital and 1 analog input, not 2 digital inputs. I'm inclined to discard this option based on price and dual tuner limitations.

- DVR provided by cable company does not offer ability to transfer shows to PC. This is no good for me.

- Sling Media: Although I could have a fast internet connection in the U.S., my overseas location will be running at 28K. This is a no-go. It also eliminates Sage TV's Placeshifter.

- This leaves me with setting up a PVR using my PC. I have standard TV (no HDTV). Let's ignore Beyond TV and concentrate on Sage TV.

1. I'll need Sage TV Media Center + a dual tuner card (Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE ). This should allow me to record what I need. Question: how does this compare to stand-alone DVRs? The reason I ask is b/c it seems to me that I am performing an analog recording. I see as a limiting factor that I can only watch TV on the PC. Which brings me to #2.

2. I'll need a Sage TV Media Extender. At the time of this writing, it looks like the wireless version is the only option I have. I'll need to get a wireless card for my PC as well. Question: how is the quality of video displayed on the TV? Is there visible loss of quality by going from cable box to PC to TV?

Other miscellaneous questions: does the Sage TV Media Center software essentially take control over the cable box? I assume it must, since it has to change the channels whenever a recording is scheduled. Let's say my computer is in a room and my TV is in a different room. How does the remote control work? Do I need to be in the computer room or does the Sage TV Media Extender take care of sending the signal from remote to media extender to PC?

Thanks for your patience.

If your response is that this has been answered elsewhere and that I did not search, please be kind. I just need some clarification after searching through various websites.

[paulbeers]

Okay lots of questions, where to begin (I apologize if I miss a few of your questions along the way).

it sounds like your best bet is to setup a computer DVR.

First off, I have heard bad things about trying to use the wireless Media extender. I have no experience as both of my MediaMVP's are the wired type (house has about 30 Cat5e drops, so its a no brainer for me). Your best bet (if you can't run a wire to the Media Extender) might actually be to do a standalone server/client all in one. While this isn't the best way (as most crashes occur during video playback) and it means that any cable boxes you hook to your Sage box will have to be done in the living room (which means more equipment in the living room). Also, speaking of cable boxes, yes Sage can control your cable box but you will need a USB-UIRT that inessence can emit "remote" signals to the box to change the channel. As far as video quality, the MediaMVP is probably your best bet. Seems to do a great job for SDTV, but any fairly current video card by ATI or Nvidia, should be just about as good (especially if your TV accepts component inputs).

I hope this helps, I may have missed something and I apologize if I did.

[zoop]

just as a side note, i have noticed that the purevideo decoders available on later-model nvidia cards do a nice job with SDTV. Better than ATI, IMHO.