Using SageTV for PVR and VMC for everything else?

[mcalpine]

I am disabled and cannot use an infrared remote therefore my only access to a PVR is through my computer using voice. I am a Canadian resident and having trouble with VMC due to recording flags (recording prohibited by content provider). I am considering SageTV to avoid this problem and to give me the additional bonus of the ability to record HD which is not possible in Canada with VMC. My question is can I use SageTV as a PVR and also continue to use VMC for music, Mymovies, and MyTV? I have quite a bit of time invested in tagging my collections and it would take me another six months to completely switch those collections to another software package. I have no interest in continuing to use VMC for TV so discontinuing its PVR service and its access to the tuners is not a problem. Is this at all feasible?

System: HP m7780n Media Center PC, Intel Dual Core 2.16 MHz, 4 GB RAM, NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GT, Hauppage WinTV HVR-1600 NTSC/ATSC Combo, Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver, Vista Home Premium, NaturallySpeaking 9.5

[wayner]

You should be able to get the two apps to coexist as the main conflict generally comes from the remote control and you won't be using one. You will likely have to uninstall the TV tuner(s) that you have from VMC and then install it in Sage. There is no reason why you cannot dabble with your other media in Sage, such as music, as it may work ok. There may be issues with running both apps simultaneously but you will have to try it out and see.

[bcjenkins]

I think you'll run into issues on who controls the tuners. If you had a separate box for SageTV, you could make use of several imports to provide show information if a VMC plugin existed to make use of it. Webserver and XML show generator come to mind.

B

[matt91]

I'm not really qualified to comment as I've never used VMC. However, I would suggest that you could try your (other) media in Sage, and see how it works. Sage won't change anything on the media itself, so there really isn't a penalty to trying it.

If you don't like Sage for music, photos, etc, then you're no worse off, but you might find that you can ditch VMC.

[mcalpine]

Thanks for the Suggestions. I'll try getting them to coexist and if that doesn't work try Sage on its own. It's not that I love Vmc, it's just the thought of retagging and reorganizing all my media for a different media Center is intimidating.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by mcalpine

Thanks for the Suggestions. I'll try getting them to coexist and if that doesn't work try Sage on its own. It's not that I love Vmc, it's just the thought of retagging and reorganizing all my media for a different media Center is intimidating.

How is your media tagged and organized now? Doesn't' seem like you'd have to do any tagging and probably not any reorganizing either.

EDIT:
I'm thinking music would not be a problem, but movies might be. Still wouldn't hurt to see what would be involved.