Complete new media center setup

[brutalchris]

Hi everyone

This is my first post here, so be gentle... I'm not the most versed when it comes to media center setups.

I'm currently constructing my very first media center that I want to be able to use all over my house. So far, I've got 2 desktops and a laptop all running windows vista. Additionally, I have 2 TVs that I want to connect by (hopefully Sage Media extenders).

I'm storing all my content on a Windows Home Server such as music, pictures, and my dvd collection. That part I have no problem with.

What I want to do is store my Time Warner Digital Cable recordings there too. I currently have no idea how to set this up. I've read some about the Hauppauge HD-PVR and was wondering if I can use this to record to my home server... which can then be played though sage's media extenders to the other TV.

Another problem in my head comes with this. My Time Warner STB is a Scientific Atlantic Explorer 8300 HD and is connected in my main TV in my living room and isn't near my home server for direct recording. Can you do this over a media extender?

I'm sorry for probably what is such novice questions... there are bound to be plenty more if I get some replies... lol.

What I guess I'm asking is what would be an ideal setup for my situation?

Thanks guys,
Chris

[killervette]

well, here is my setup which is working pretty good. I have a quad core machine running windows home server. I have 4TB in it. I use one 1TB drive for sage recordings. it is not added to the WHS pool. I formatted it NTFS 64k clusters since it will be handling large video files. I use a extender to watch all tv in the house.

I have 3 cable boxes with 3 hd pvrs in the server room. The only thing that is at the tv is the extender with a cat6 line run to it. extenders only play tv, they dont record. you will need to either get another cable box for the server, or an extender to watch live tv from the server.

[brutalchris]

Interesting... so I should move the cable box to the room with the WHS. I can then connect an HD PVR to that and it will record to the server thus allowing me to watch that recorded content on any tv that is connected with an extender. Do I have that correct?

Second... why do you have 3 cable boxes in the server room? Wouldn't 1 do the trick? How do dual tuner boxes work with the PVRs?

Third... how do you watch live digital TV from your TV's that are connected via the extenders? Does the cable get fed from the wall, to the cable box, to the PVR, to the server, to the extender, to the TV? Just trying to clear up the setup of this.

Thanks for your reply and any more guidance!

Chris

[killervette]

Correct for the first one.

2. No, the cable box has component out connections. whatever channel is tuned on the cable box is the channel that comes out the components. (at least thats how it is on my cable box). For every HD PVR, you need a cable box. I have 3 so two shows can tape at once and still be able to watch live tv.

3. Whs -> hdpvr -> cable box -> cable from the wall
My extender is on the network that the WHS is on. the extender just pulls the livetv from the WHS.

does that clarify things alittle?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by brutalchris

Interesting... so I should move the cable box to the room with the WHS. I can then connect an HD PVR to that and it will record to the server thus allowing me to watch that recorded content on any tv that is connected with an extender. Do I have that correct?

yup, easiest is to hook the cable boxes (STB, set top box) directly up to the WHS via the HD-PVR.

Second... why do you have 3 cable boxes in the server room? Wouldn't 1 do the trick? How do dual tuner boxes work with the PVRs?

Because he wants to record 3 different channels at the same time.

I'm currently recording 7 incoming streams, one from an STB, 2 from a digital cable QAM tuner, and 4 analong tuners. Dual tuner DVR STBs from the cable company only output one channel at a time. The second tuner only records to the DVR's HD.

Third... how do you watch live digital TV from your TV's that are connected via the extenders? Does the cable get fed from the wall, to the cable box, to the PVR, to the server, to the extender, to the TV? Just trying to clear up the setup of this.

looks like you have the sequence down. YOur server will control the STB, tell it to change to a specific channel using the PVR's IR blaster. Then the STB's signal will go to the PVR and be converted to digital and saved on the server's HD. The extender then reads the file saved on the HD and displays it on the TV.

[brutalchris]

I'm sorry for such a late reply. Thank you for all your replies and information.

I guess the hard thing to wrap my mind around is that currently I have a Time Warner DVR that can record 2 shows at once (dual tuner). OK great, but if I want to do the same thing in this setup, I'd need to pay for 2 different cable boxes AND 2 different HDPVRs.

This isn't all that cost effective by any means as I could just get another DVR box and put it in another room. This doesn't record to the home server, but it is cheaper. Does this make sense? Why do people do this setup if it's more expensive? Just for the centralization of everything?

Thanks for helping clear up things,
Chris

[bastian74]

I can't imagine 3 shows I want to watch being on at the same time.

You're free to do anything you want with the recordings, including stream them to the internet, write them to dvd. WIth your PC connected to the TV you also can have a pretty sweet gaming rig. I only have one HD PVR and one tuner. There aren't a lot of shows I like to watch and they rarely conflict. If I miss one I'll just watch it on the network's website. I like the ability to map drives to it from my other computers and watch tv anywhere including a wireless laptop. It's also seamless access to home pictures, movies, downloaded movies and your mp3 archive.

The stumbling block for me is HD recordings from the HD PVR requrie a grip load of CPU power to play back. 3 out of 5 of my computers can play back a 1080i stream. Fortunately my laptop is one of them (barely)

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by brutalchris

I'm sorry for such a late reply. Thank you for all your replies and information.

I guess the hard thing to wrap my mind around is that currently I have a Time Warner DVR that can record 2 shows at once (dual tuner). OK great, but if I want to do the same thing in this setup, I'd need to pay for 2 different cable boxes AND 2 different HDPVRs.

This isn't all that cost effective by any means as I could just get another DVR box and put it in another room. This doesn't record to the home server, but it is cheaper. Does this make sense? Why do people do this setup if it's more expensive? Just for the centralization of everything?

Thanks for helping clear up things,
Chris

The quick answer is because it is an all in one solution.

Sage is not just a DVR it is a media center. Sage will allow you distribute all of the media you have on the WHS ie, music, pictures, dvd collection, DVR recordings as well as many other features via plugins to any tv by simply adding an extender.

You are also not limited to what is on one DVR box or space constraints of a standard DVR box. The recordings do become centralized and you will be able to keep them for as long as you want and distribute them to any TV or PC in the house.

If you just want DVR functionality then yes, another DVR set top box is a much more cost effective approach.

However, if you want a media center with DVR functionality then sage is what you want.

[brutalchris]

Thanks bastian and Peter.

I guess I was right in that it's basically to centralize everything and the ability to access recordings from multiple locations.

I've definitely been going for the media center approach as that's why I'm on sage forums lol, but I'm trying to find a good balance between price and performance and thus my questions. Thanks for indulging me. Seems like a good setup might be to start with 1 and grow with time.

I guess also that going from 1 STB DVR to 2 STBs (non DVR) wouldn't be too big a difference in monthly service fees to the cable company. I am correct in that the STB connected to the HD DVR doesn't need to be a DVR in itself, it just needs to output the channel I want, then the HD DVR records it to the media server.

Well I think I've got a lot of great information from here, thanks a lot guys!

Chris

[Skirge01]

I just wanted to chime in here with my perspective, since I had the same discussion with myself over the past 2 years and while having everything centralized is nice, that wasn't one of my reasons for heading towards the HD PVR. To give you a little background, I had the original Tivo unit with cable, then moved to the DirecTV Tivo (standard def) when I got tired of the channel changing misses due to the IR blaster, as well as the ever increasing costs from my cable co. Then, I got DirecTV's HD DVR when I got my big screen TV. IR blaster issue solved, BUT...

Throughout this process, I found several issues that always made me wish I had more control:

1. Hardware failures: I was always at the mercy of Tivo or DirecTV when something failed and they didn't guarantee I'd be able to keep my recordings after a failure.
2. Reliability: Related to #1, I had no choice in the hardware going into the setup and had to hope that I was getting quality parts, which really wasn't the case.
3. Costs: Long term costs were high for Tivo, as well as for DirecTV, with the monthly fees. Repair fees were ridiculous if I wanted to maintain my recordings.
4. Flexibility: Nevermind the customization piece. I can only have 2 tuners per DirecTV DVR! I routinely use both tuners between just my wife and I, which means no live TV and sometimes means we can't record a show. I could pay more money for another DVR, but is that the right answer? It still leaves all the other issues.
5. Control: If something went wrong with the software or the hardware, I had no recourse since everything was proprietary and I was locked out. Additionally, the broadcast flag is beginning to be used and is causing recording ability to be (incorrectly) blocked. Regardless of what they say, that's going to become more commonplace. DirecTV now limits live PPV's to a watching window of 24 hours from the time recording starts. After that, while it will still be listed, you cannot watch it.

That last one was the final straw and pushed me over the edge to find a way around being at the mercy of the broadcasters. I needed to think long term about this. The HD PVR is the answer to that and, after careful consideration, I decided that the price of admission was worth it to regain control of the content I'm paying for.