newb needs some help w/HDTV

[blakeo]

I've spent hours searching these forums and I've learned alot, but so many are doing far more complicated things than I am, so I just thought I would ask...

I have a dual tuner card (500 something??) I got from sage 2 yrs ago with V5. I run 1 media extender, that's it.

I just upgraded my tube to a 61" DLP w/ 1080P. I would like to get my HD programming working through sage.

Right now, cable just plugs into the back of the card, and I use sages guide. I have Time Warner Cable and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I have read that I need to lose the media extender and hook up the server direct the TV and run some PC remote control which kind of confuses me but I'll figure that one out when i get it. I'll probably hook the tv up via DVI to HMDI? (makes sense to me I guess)

What is totally confusing me is the tuner cards. Can I just buy digital cards and replace the analog? Do I have to have both? If I have both, are they intelligent enough so the digital cards record the HD channels and the analog cards regarding everything else? My preference woudl be to just scrap the analog cards and use the digital cards so if available they record in whatever format they are broadcasted in.

Am I taking something simple and making it difficult? I am just a bit confused with all of this.

I am a technical person, but this I know very little about. - Heck I am having trouble getting comskip and such to work. - The PC specs are no issue, I realize there may be a required upgrade with HD programming.

I appriciate any help you guys can provide...

Thanks,

BlakeO

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by blakeo

I have read that I need to lose the media extender and hook up the server direct the TV and run some PC remote control which kind of confuses me but I'll figure that one out when i get it. I'll probably hook the tv up via DVI to HMDI? (makes sense to me I guess)

The current media extender only outputs SD, so if you want HD you have to hook up a computer to the TV and output through the video card. The upcoming HD extender will output HD so you would be able to use that.

What is totally confusing me is the tuner cards. Can I just buy digital cards and replace the analog? Do I have to have both? If I have both, are they intelligent enough so the digital cards record the HD channels and the analog cards regarding everything else? My preference woudl be to just scrap the analog cards and use the digital cards so if available they record in whatever format they are broadcasted in.

You can add digital cards and either replace the analog cards or suplement the analog cards. YOu tell Sage what channels each tuner card can recieve and Sage is smart enough to schedule across all available cards. SAge will auto-preference to record the HD version if it is available in SD and HD versions.

[blakeo]

Thanks for the info.

Any opinion on which HD card would be best?

[ke6guj]

The only one I have experience with is the HDHomerun. It has 2 tuners, for QAM or OTA reception. works fine for me in QAM mode. I'm using it in the older QAM config, not the newer BDA driver confing yet.

edit: I went with the HDHR for a couple reasons, it did QAM before some of the other HD tuners, it connects via ethernet (so it doesn't use a slot in my server), and it had 2 tuners for $160ish. The others were $100 or more, and only had 1 tuner.

[Crashless]

I just recently added an HDHR to compliment my PVR500 and it has been working beautifully.

The only thing I've really noticed is that I need to upgrade my storage to a RAID-0 setup to keep up with things.

I'm able to record 2 streams of HDTV and 2 SD signals and playback one HD stream off of one Samsung 500gb drive, but that's about it. If I want to keep sageTV recording in the background while I play BioShock, load times become unbearable.

Plus HDTV takes about 6gb/hr via QAM for me, so space is running out quickly.