Moving to a new Sage Setup

[SJL]

Hello all,
I've been running Sage for the last 2 and a half years on a htpc in my living room using a USBUIRT to change channels. Starting this last September, when channel changes have been 100% accurate, I'm now lucky if It get's it right 70% of the time. I think this is a good excuse to upgrade and expand Sage (plus we're expecting, I may not be able to spend money again for a long time if I don't do it now), and after reading through the forums I'm not sure exactly what I'd need. Here's what I'd like to do: Lose both my cable boxes (currently using TWC) to save the monthly fees and just use the channels available when I plug my tv straight in (I'm told channels 1-99 would be available, a little confused on the standards listed on the capture cards). Set up a new server in the basement and place two dual tuner cards in it, and use my current PC in the living room as a client and to watch DVDs and add a HD media extender for a second tv... Some of the questions I'm not sure of are:
1) What capture cards are recommended for this? Do you just connect the coax directly to the card?
2) Does this eliminate my need to trust the USBUIRT to tune the right channel to record? I would think so as the recordings would be taking place on the server.
3) If I had 4 tuners on two cards, it would be rare that I would ever use more than two at once. When recording shows, if all the tuners are the same, how does Sage determine which tuner to use to record? When watching live tv with a client or extender and pausing/rewinding/etc, how does Sage determine which tuner to use.
4) What about HD from cable? if that's available and unencrypted, can I set up a tuner for that as well?
5) If I decided to keep one cable box (for PPV and the like, keep going back and forth on this one) and use the htpc not just as a client but also as an additional tuner, would I use the recorder software for that instead of a client?
6) Lastly, server choice. I have a Athlon 64 3500+ that while a little outdated, has XP installed and no purpose. I could add a hot swap drive cage to take it up to 2 terrabytes to archive some other media. It sounds like the HD extender places less load on the server than the old extenders, would this be enough CPU power for this? I might also use this server for remote access and file sharing between two other clients, but nothing major.

Sorry for my rambling post, as I read and search the forums I think I understand what I need to do, just a little unsure and looking for some confirmation before I start spending dollars on cards and drives for the cage. Thanks in advance for everyones time and expertise.

Regards,
Scott

[SJL]

Any ideas?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by SJL

Here's what I'd like to do: Lose both my cable boxes (currently using TWC) to save the monthly fees and just use the channels available when I plug my tv straight in (I'm told channels 1-99 would be available, a little confused on the standards listed on the capture cards).

most likely you'll get 1-99. Depends on the CC and how many analog channles they still have.

1) What capture cards are recommended for this? Do you just connect the coax directly to the card?

Hauppuage PVR-500 and yes, you hook the coax straight up to the card. PVR-500 because it supports multiple cards (nvidia dualTV is discontinued and required a beta driver for multiple cards) and supports Closed captioning in Sage.

2) Does this eliminate my need to trust the USBUIRT to tune the right channel to record? I would think so as the recordings would be taking place on the server.

Yes, no need for the USB-UIRT on the server if there are no STBs. Use the UIRT on the client box.

3) If I had 4 tuners on two cards, it would be rare that I would ever use more than two at once. When recording shows, if all the tuners are the same, how does Sage determine which tuner to use to record? When watching live tv with a client or extender and pausing/rewinding/etc, how does Sage determine which tuner to use?

Don't worry about it. If you have 4 tuners properly set up, Sage will be able to control them as needed.

4) What about HD from cable? if that's available and unencrypted, can I set up a tuner for that as well?

Yes, you want a QAM tuner. You can get an internal tuner like the HVR-1600, but the HDHomerun tuner is popular. It'll record two QAM channels at the same time.

5) If I decided to keep one cable box (for PPV and the like, keep going back and forth on this one) and use the htpc not just as a client but also as an additional tuner, would I use the recorder software for that instead of a client?

If you are gonna have a tuner in the "client" box, you have to use either SageRecoder (old, obsolete, doesn't support new tuners) or a second copy of the full SageTV program set up as a network encoder. Normally I'd say to hook the STB up to the server, but if you need to manually control it for PPV and on-demand, then with the client may be the best way.

6) Lastly, server choice. I have a Athlon 64 3500+ that while a little outdated, has XP installed and no purpose. I could add a hot swap drive cage to take it up to 2 terrabytes to archive some other media. It sounds like the HD extender places less load on the server than the old extenders, would this be enough CPU power for this? I might also use this server for remote access and file sharing between two other clients, but nothing major.

I'm running on an Sempron 3200+ with XP and it works fine. If you can load it up with HD space, go for it. As long as you don't tax the CPU too much you should be fine. I do my commercial scanning overnight to lessen the load when I have it recording 5 SD and 3 HD shows at the same time. I can also placeshift with it if I need to.

If you are gonna run an HD extender or a PC client, then the CPU load will be minor. Its just if you ahve to transcode for the SD extender or placeshift that your CPU load goes up.

[SJL]

Hi Jack,
Thanks for the excellent reply! One other question, though... When you say, regarding available cable channels, which ones are still analog.. My Tv allows me to set an input for cable, then digital or analog, and if I set it for digital that's when I've seen the available channels. will the PVR-500 be working like the tv, and are these channels really digital or analog? I know with the upcoming mandated digital tv, I don't know if this includes cable or broadcast, I just wouldn't want to invest the money to set something up that the cable company will suddenly take away. Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it.

Regards,
Scott

[ke6guj]

Your pvr-500 has an analog tuner, which should record channels around 2-100. If you can set your tv to scan for only analog channels, you should see what you will get. The 500 won't get the digital channels that your tv is able to show, only the analog chanels Now, those digital channels could probably be tuned in with a digital QAM tuner such as the HDHR or a combo tuner like the HVR-1600, which has an analog tuner and a digital tuner. It can record on both tuners at the same time, so one analog and one digital channel can be recorded at the same time.

As for what will happen after 2009, who knows. The CC wants to get everyone on digital and drop the analog channels. That way they can use the analog bandwidth for more digital programming. Also by going all-digital, they could attempt to rent more STBs for more $$$. But there are agreements that they will keep some analog programming for a couple years. And if they go full digital with no open QAM channels that we can tune with a digital tuner and force STBs for every TV in the house, then some of the advantage that they have over satellite goes bye-bye.

Basically, the next five years are gonna be crazy in regards to technology and digital availability.

[SJL]

Hey Jack,
I noticed that in your signature you have a RAID5 array for recordings, but also an import drive. Do you do all your recordings to the RAID array, or to the import drive and then archive them there? I'm just slightly concerned as I read through some of the posts in the hardware forum with folks running quad-core and stating they need individual or mirrored disks to avoid stuttering. I'm tempted to run the entire server off of a single RAID5 array of 4 750gig drives, but if I'm going to have performance issues I'll add two drives mirrored for recordings and the OS and just archive to the array after shows are recorded and watch them from there. Thanks again for your expertise!

Regards,
Scott

[ke6guj]

actually the sig is a little out of date. I was recording directly to the RAID5 for recordings. And had a couple sata drives as imported video folders.

But, I started having some lockup issues recently and completely rebuilt my system. I dunno, but I think that my RAID was causing me some problems.

Right now I'm recording 4 analog/3 digital streams to a USB drive right now. No stuttering that I can see.