How to setup A DVR with WHS!

[Lahr]

I have found a simple solution to using Windows Home Server as a DVR.
Use BeyondTV!
I just wish sage would setup as easy.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Lahr

I just wish sage would setup as easy.

Maybe if you went into more detail about what you found difficult, they might be able to make it easier.

[Lahr]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Maybe if you went into more detail about what you found difficult, they might be able to make it easier.

I have been using Sage for years (from 2.x to 6.2) now on an XP box with some mods (commercial skipping, different UIs, even used sage studio to mod my own UI) so I've been around the block. I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and setup WHS and install "Sage for WHS". I tried some of the old tricks to get things going, looked at the list of compatible devices to make sure I was good to go there, tried to find a post by someone with similar hardware and problems or maybe a simple set of instructions to check to see if I missed something but there were none. Well I got fed up and though I would try a trial version of BeyondTV the install went fine and I was up and running in no time. I can't figure out why BTV would work but Sage just errors out (Video playback error blah,blah,blah.....) when setting up the tuners.
My setup: OS-WHS, ATI 650, ATI 550, HVR-1800, Aver A180, PureVideo decoder everything was working with XP. If anyone has a starting point please post!

[Khristopher]

So Video playback errors? I can only guess this is your problem as your post isn't very clear.

[Lahr]

Originally Posted by Khristopher

So Video playback errors? I can only guess this is your problem as your post isn't very clear.

Sage just errors out (Video playback error blah,blah,blah.....) when setting up the tuners.

[bcjenkins]

Usually the blah blah blah contains info on what the error is. Help us help you.

B

[Lahr]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Usually the blah blah blah contains info on what the error is. Help us help you.

B

Got it working with the instructions posted on the "SageTV Media Server (v6.3 for Windows Home Server)" thread!
Ha! Ha! Now I'm as obscure as this fourm can be sometimes.
Thanks anyway!

Use the link below to search SageTV fourms using Google!
http://www.google.com/advanced_searc...lr=&as_qdr=all

[Khristopher]

Well bravo that you got your problem fixed, but if you can't be bothered to a) elaborate on your initial problem, and then b) tell people what you did to fix it (beyond referencing another thread), then *THIS* thread is absolutely useless.

[inlvnv]

I tried both in the past month. BTV simply works "out of the box" and SageTV doesn't, no tv, no hd based dvd playback, audio error, video error etc.etc. Played with BTV for a week, wasn't happy with it, so decided to give SageTV another try. Since SageTV for WHS is really new, there is very little support out there. Anyway, got it working after two days of googling and experimenting. Now VERY HAPPY and bought the program. My hardware: amd3800+ 3GB ram, Hauppauge 1800, 5TB in 9 pooled drives and 200GB recording drive.

The main problem with the initial SageTV install is that, it's default audio/video renderer/mpeg decoding settings just don't seem to work for a lot of people, including me, and are encountering various audio/video errors with no live tv and/or hard drive based dvd playback. And for new users like me, it's a very frustrating experience.

Basically to get mine working: in the detailed setup, video/audio, I changed the following:

video renderer to default,
mpeg2 decoder to sagetv mpeg decoder,
audio renderer to default waveout device and
audio renderer to Sagetv mpeg audio decoder.
also detailed setup, DVD settings were changed to match the video/audio setting above.

Not sure if it will make any difference, but audio was enabled in bios.

Checked both the hard drive based dvd and live tv playback were working. If these settings work for you, great. Otherwise, try different settings until it works.

This was my starting point. Still have bit of issues to work out, but, SageTV right now seems to be the best front end program for my WHS box, if you are storing, music, pics, video, dvd on them. It also doesn't hurt to watch live tv and have dvr capability. My just turned 4 year old can navigate through SageTV to watch kids videos and recorded tv programs. How cool is that.

[Lahr]

This is a bit off topic but here it goes anyway!
I am usually more than helpful, you can check that out by visiting xda-developers.com and checking out my work (TheLoon) or just click this link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=320159. Although I can usually figure things out for myself it is only my opinion that a product that is released to the general public should come with a basic set of instructions and a basic trouble shooting guide without the need to log onto a forum and spill your troubles to whomever happens along to read your post.

My fix was simple and I hope it helps others: By default video acceleration was set to NONE in all I had to do was turn it to FULL.

If a moderator reads this please open a Topic for WHS.

[Khristopher]

Originally Posted by inlvnv

I tried both in the past month. BTV simply works "out of the box" and SageTV doesn't, no tv, no hd based dvd playback, audio error, video error etc.etc.

I think you need to qualify that statement with "for me" at the end.

My personal experience with Sage was that it indeed did work "out of the box" and I had absolutely no issues with setting it up for myself, or my parents when I recently migrated them from BTV to Sage.

[bmtrigger]

Originally Posted by Khristopher

I think you need to qualify that statement with "for me" at the end.

My personal experience with Sage was that it indeed did work "out of the box" and I had absolutely no issues with setting it up for myself, or my parents when I recently migrated them from BTV to Sage.

You were able to install on WHS for all three ? I'm interested in a solution that would work with WHS but from what I've read, it is still too dependent on specific HD devices and workarounds