New to Sage please help

[nettech_gt]

I have done a lot searching and have found a lot of good info, but I'm still not 100% clear if what I want to do will work with Sage. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I'm thinking of setting up a networked multi room system using Sage. I have two "client" HTPC (one in bedroom and one in living room) and a server running Windows XP Pro in another room. The server has 1 ATI 550, 1 ATI 650 and 1 Nvidia Dual TV. I just signed up for Dish Network and have 4 311 receivers. I want to have two of the receivers dedicated for recording and the other two for watching. Can I control all the STBs with two MCE Blasters connected to the server, from different rooms? Or will I need to use USBURTs? Do I need to have a IR blaster (USBUIRT or MCE) connected to each of the "client" machines, to control them?

[GKusnick]

I'm a bit confused about your plan for the four STBs. You have four video capture inputs on your SageTV server, correct? But you want to put two STBs in different rooms and connect them to your client TVs?

A better (or at any rate simpler) solution would be to put all four STBs in the server room and connect them to Sage via your capture cards. Then you'd be able to record up to four programs at once, instead of just two. You'd still be able to watch "live" TV on your clients using Sage's "Live TV" feature, which allows playback of a program as it's recording. Note that Sage does not segregate capture devices into "recording" devices and "watching" devices, nor does it dedicate specific devices to specific clients. Instead, capture devices are assigned to recording tasks dynamically, as needed, where "recording tasks" includes live TV watching on the clients. Two clients watching the same channel at the same time can share a capture device, leaving more devices available for recording.

I don't know much about MCE blasters, but however you control the STBs, it's bound to be easier if they're all right there in the same room as the server. Note that some STBs permit serial control, which is more reliable than IR, but I don't know if the 311 is one of them.

If it's just not physically possible to put all four STBs in the same room, there is a way of configuring your client PCs as "network encoders" with their own STBs and capture cards. But's that more complicated to set up, and more expensive in terms of SageTV software licenses. And you'd still connect the STBs to your PCs rather than your TVs, and do all your live TV watching through Sage, instead of directly off the STB.

[ke6guj]

I also don't know much about the MCE blaster, but I do know that the USBUIRT is a good blaster to use. IT has 3 zones, so it can control 3 identical STBs, more if the STBs are running different IR codes. I've heard that the Dish STBs can be set to run on different IR codes, if so, then you could change one of the STBs to an alternate IR code and still use the USBUIRT. If not, I think you can run multiple USBUIRTs for a total of 6 zones.

[nettech_gt]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I'm a bit confused about your plan for the four STBs. You have four video capture inputs on your SageTV server, correct? But you want to put two STBs in different rooms and connect them to your client TVs?

A better (or at any rate simpler) solution would be to put all four STBs in the server room and connect them to Sage via your capture cards. Then you'd be able to record up to four programs at once, instead of just two. You'd still be able to watch "live" TV on your clients using Sage's "Live TV" feature, which allows playback of a program as it's recording. Note that Sage does not segregate capture devices into "recording" devices and "watching" devices, nor does it dedicate specific devices to specific clients. Instead, capture devices are assigned to recording tasks dynamically, as needed, where "recording tasks" includes live TV watching on the clients. Two clients watching the same channel at the same time can share a capture device, leaving more devices available for recording.

I don't know much about MCE blasters, but however you control the STBs, it's bound to be easier if they're all right there in the same room as the server. Note that some STBs permit serial control, which is more reliable than IR, but I don't know if the 311 is one of them.

If it's just not physically possible to put all four STBs in the same room, there is a way of configuring your client PCs as "network encoders" with their own STBs and capture cards. But's that more complicated to set up, and more expensive in terms of SageTV software licenses. And you'd still connect the STBs to your PCs rather than your TVs, and do all your live TV watching through Sage, instead of directly off the STB.

Thank you for prompt response. Just so I'm totally clear whether all the STBs are in the server room or different rooms if I want to control the client HTPC in either the bed room or living room I'll need a USB-UIRT for each room. So a total of three (1 for the bed room,1 for the living room and one for the server room) Correct?

[ke6guj]

Put all the STBs in the server room. To put STBs in other rooms and still have Sage control them, you would have to run network server installs of Sage, and now you have to run the full version of Sage instead of the client version of Sage. More money.

Use one UIRT for the server, if you can change 1 STB to respond to another IR code, otherwise it would take 2 UIRTS to run 4 STBs. Even if you have to get a second UIRT for the server, it would be about the same costwise as paying for a second server copy instead of a client copy. OK, found this, http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads...1/Chapter2.pdf which shows you how to change the code on your STB so that you can have it listen for different IR codes. That way, you can run 4 STBs on 3 zones, the "altered" STB would run on the same zone as one of the standard STBs. Heck, you could even set it up so that each STB had a different code, and then only have to deal with one zone in the UIRT.

And you would need 1 UIRT for each client. With a UIRT you could use any remote you wanted. Or you could use a MCE remote/receiver or a streamzap remote/receiver for the clients. Cheaper than UIRT and they come with remotes so you don't have as much work configing them. But, the remotes that they come with may be less configurable than a self-supplied remote via UIRT.

streamzap, http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_inf...emote-controls
MCE remote, http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_inf...emote-controls



Once all the STBs are in the server room, the clients merely ask for whatever video content they want, and the server will control the STB as needed to tune to the proper channel and then serve up the content to the client.

YOur client remote is merely to control the client. If you didn't have a remote, you could use a mouse/keyboard to control the client as well.

[nettech_gt]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Put all the STBs in the server room. To put STBs in other rooms and still have Sage control them, you would have to run network server installs of Sage, and now you have to run the full version of Sage instead of the client version of Sage. More money.

Use one UIRT for the server, if you can change 1 STB to respond to another IR code, otherwise it would take 2 UIRTS to run 4 STBs. Even if you have to get a second UIRT for the server, it would be about the same costwise as paying for a second server copy instead of a client copy. OK, found this, http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads...1/Chapter2.pdf which shows you how to change the code on your STB so that you can have it listen for different IR codes. That way, you can run 4 STBs on 3 zones, the "altered" STB would run on the same zone as one of the standard STBs. Heck, you could even set it up so that each STB had a different code, and then only have to deal with one zone in the UIRT.

And you would need 1 UIRT for each client. With a UIRT you could use any remote you wanted. Or you could use a MCE remote/receiver or a streamzap remote/receiver for the clients. Cheaper than UIRT and they come with remotes so you don't have as much work configing them. But, the remotes that they come with may be less configurable than a self-supplied remote via UIRT.

streamzap, http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_inf...emote-controls
MCE remote, http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_inf...emote-controls



Once all the STBs are in the server room, the clients merely ask for whatever video content they want, and the server will control the STB as needed to tune to the proper channel and then serve up the content to the client.

YOur client remote is merely to control the client. If you didn't have a remote, you could use a mouse/keyboard to control the client as well.

Thank you once again! You have been most helpful. I have the server and one client setup and I can control the client w/ a MCE blaster/remote. I still have to get a USB-UIRT though. I'm sure I'll more questions then...