Channel Line up and Encoder Merit

[akenis]

Need some help with my lineup and encoder merit.

Have 500MCE and HDHR.

The 500 card has analogue cable on one side and a HD STB on the other side, and uses my local cable lineup and enhanced lineup respectively. In the enhanced lineup, I said that the STB doesn't get the channel ABC (for example) on the analogue (my analogue sucks). This forces it record the ABC HD channel in the upper tier. It's not HD off the supervideo out, but at least it's a digital source that looks a lot better.

The HDHR has local digital broadcast. When I added it to the lineup, I noticed that ABC HD, say ch 424 from the STB (for example) doesn't appear in the guide anymore. I guess Sage knows that the call letters for ABC HD (WXYZ) for example are the same station, and it's displayed as 7-1 for example in my guide. If I want to watch ABC in HD, I must tune and watch from the HDHR source, not the HD STB (it's not really HD). How do I tell Sage that when I want to watch ABC HD to tune the HDHR instead of the STB. Is this the encoder merit property? Do I set it in sage.properties or sage.client.properties since I use service mode?

Thanks for any help.

[carlgar]

I believe what you want to do is to determine what channel the PVR-500 is using for the ABC HD. Then switch back to the ABC lineup and remap it to use the ABC HD channel number. So the schedule appears to be a non HD channel but it will record the HD channel. All ABC HD shows would then then have to be recorded form the HDHR.

[ke6guj]

The HDHR has local digital broadcast. When I added it to the lineup, I noticed that ABC HD, say ch 424 from the STB (for example) doesn't appear in the guide anymore.

Sage displays each call-sign once in the EPG, no matter how many sources have it availible to Sage.

I guess Sage knows that the call letters for ABC HD (WXYZ) for example are the same station, and it's displayed as 7-1 for example in my guide. If I want to watch ABC in HD, I must tune and watch from the HDHR source, not the HD STB (it's not really HD).

Yes, Sage knows that it can record ABC HD off of 7-1 or 424, so it will juggle the schedule to use all the tuners ot the maximum. If you tied up the HDHR with other recordings, Sage would use the analog tuner to record ABC HD off of 424.

How do I tell Sage that when I want to watch ABC HD to tune the HDHR instead of the STB.

You don't. Sage takes care of tuner usage automatically.

Is this the encoder merit property? Do I set it in sage.properties or sage.client.properties since I use service mode?

YOu could set encoder_merit to prefer either the HDHR or analog tuner, whichever you prefer.

[akenis]

Thanks guys,

Makes sense to take the HD channels out of the line up and remap the analogue ones to the HD digital ones.

For favorites...does sage know to use an HD encoder if it's available?

Happy Memorial Day to everyone! Fittitng that I'm shipping out to the dessert today for about 2 weeks. Hopefully I'll have a bunch of HD recordings on Sage when I return.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by akenis

For favorites...does sage know to use an HD encoder if it's available?

Sage is set to prefer HD recordings over SD recording when possible. Some people have asked that it be configurable to prefer SD over HD, or be selectable per favorite, but that functionality is not implemented.

Right now, if you want to prefer HD, then you are all set, but if you want to prefer SD, then you need to limit the favorite's channel to the SD channel.