hauppauge 1600 w/ remote upgrade

[pagelmcb]

Hi,

I have had my current setup for over 2 years and it has been running like a champ, recording my standard cable programs. With the possibility of finally getting digital cable with HD channels in the near future, I figured an upgrade would be good.

Current HTPC: Basic Cable Channels, SageTV 6 on XP Pro, with a Hauppauge 250MCE, ATI remote wonder plus (using keyboard shortcuts via X10 commander), 2x160GB HDs (2nd HD being the primary video storage), AMD 3000+, with 1GB of DDR1 ram, GeForce 7100 (using S-video out), & PCI wireless network card.

Purchased: 500GB HD and Hauppauge 1600 (w/remote and IIRC a IR transmitter), new mobo with 2gb DDR2, and C2D proc.

1) Do you think I will be ok running 250 and 1600 in the mean time?
2) Do you think I will have any conflicts with remotes (since the current ati remote wonder plus is not integrated into sage, but the new remote will be)?

[pagelmcb]

3) Do you have any other suggestions before I dive into this upgrade?

[JmpnJimBob]

This is exactly what I am in the process of doing right now. I had been using a Hauppauge PVR-150 card with extended basic cable on an AMD 2800+ with 2GB of memory and 2 - 400GB hard drives for video storage. This system too has been running smoothly for a few years. I just upgraded my cable to a digital cable package (non HD) from Comcast which pushed me to upgrade my system.

I purchased a Hauppauge 1600 card but instead of using the previously mentioned system I decided to upgrade the entire HTPC. So I've rebuilt an existing AMD 4000+ system of mine for use as the new HTPC. I added more memory for a total of 3GB and will use the same 2 – 400GB hard drives (for now) for video storage

With the Hauppauge 1600 card I have been able to tune in the free QAM stations that are offered over my digital cable connection. But there aren’t all that many channels to choose from and those that I am able to pickup are disappointing to say the least. The digital cable channels that I want to record don’t seem to be able to be tuned in by the 1600, I’m assuming that they are scrambled from Comcast. It appears that the only solution is to change the cable box to the channel you want to record and then have Sage record the program via the video and audio outputs of cable box to the auxiliary inputs of the capture card.

Capturing the signal this way in itself doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that I have to change the channels of the cable box manually to accomplish this task. I have grown accustom to the simplicity of Sage doing this automatically with my older basic cable setup. After reading through the forums it appears that the cable changing issue can be automated in Sage using the USB-UIRT. From my understanding the USB-UIRT simply put is a cable box remote control that Sage can use to change cable box channels. I have ordered the USB-UIRT and am waiting patiently for its arrival.

I have also had a few other issues setting up my new system. First off is how to setup the dual tuners of the 1600 capture card in Sage. The Hauppauge 1600 has an analog NTSC tuner and also has a digital ATSC tuner. I’m not completely sure on how to setup a multiple tuners and/or multiple input situation with Sage. I’m assuming that the analog and digital tuners will be setup separately and I’m also assuming that the auxiliary inputs to the capture card will be treated in the same way. But I’m not too sure on how to get there.

I know that I didn’t answer or address your specific concerns but it appears that you looking at the same issues that I am and I thought that I’d add my experiences to the post.

[pagelmcb]

Yeah, my guess is there are not many 1600 fans around here or something...

[Humanzee]

I have a 1600, I use it for clear QAM digital capture and composite capture from my cable box. no real problems.

For cable box capture It comes with an adapter for composite capture or S-VHS and an IR blaster and software to control it. You just stick the little IR emitter over the sensor of your cable box and tell the hauppauge software what sort of cable box you have.

You also have to plug in audio cable from your cable box to the 1600 if you are using it with a cable box. Then in sage you set up a new capture source and tell it to use the composite connection the hauppauge IR emitter as the tuning device.

I previously used the USBUIRT for tuning, its pretty easy too, In fact I think sage came with the remote control profile for my cable box so in sage I just selected usbuirt as the tuning device and then selected the motorola cable box that I had. Both configurations took less than 10 minutes to set up.

To answer the other questions, I've run a HVR1600, PVR250 PVR350, firewire record device and Fusion 5 ATSC tuner all at the same time before.

Both the tuners in the 1600 should show up on the add new capture device section. I think they show up as
418 TS Analog Capture Device
418 TS Digital Capture Device

As for remotes, you can configure support for the Hauppauge remote during the sage install process. You'll probably want to modify your hauppauge irremote.ini file to get the buttons doing the things you want. Check out the threads about that from Opus4's signature for threads on how to do that.
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/member.php?u=601