Using SAGE!!!

[DCIDan]

Im new to the DVR stage but want to build one ASAP. I would like to know what is the best for the money hardware out there is!!

Capture card?
Case?
HD?
Video Card HDMI?
Motherboard?
and so forth.

I want to know the best quality parts that will work with SAGE.

Please everyone's & anyone's opinions are welcome.

[mistergq]

Are you going to be watching video with this computer or is it just a server?

I just built two computers with this case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068
It has an 80 mm fan in the front of the case, and 120 mm fan in the back of the case. I love this case. It very cool (temperature) case. It is also to add and remove hard drives, cd drives, etc.

I am not sure how this motherboard would be for watching HD video, but the power of this motherboard is very good at low cost.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128072
The board comes with Nvidia 7100 built on motherboard. It includes an HDMI port on the back. It also has an DVI and VGA port.

CPU I used was a 3.16 GHZ Core 2 duo cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036

This system would make a very powerful server. This board does support a quad core. I did not buy a quad core because I could not justify the price increase.

[mayamaniac]

You need to tell people what are your needs, and then they can more accurately help you find the right hardware, something that is perfect for what you want and won't cost you you a lot of money. For example, how many tuners do you want? Will you record both and SD and HD? How many TVs or computers do you want access to SageTV? What sources do you have, satellite or cable? Etc...

[DCIDan]

You are correct.

I have Cable TV

I want to be able to record 2 to 3 channels/shows at once. HD and SD

Our living room TV (Hitachi HDtv) is our main TV we watch TV and Movies most of the time. We also have a Panasonic HD Plazma in our bedroom and will also have one soon in our Greatroom/playroom. I want to be able to watch tv from any of those TV's or record from any of them and so forth.

I want to be able to also surf the web off of the TV's.

I hope this helps all you guys help me. Thank you very much for all your help thus far.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by DCIDan

You are correct.

I have Cable TV

I want to be able to record 2 to 3 channels/shows at once. HD and SD

Our living room TV (Hitachi HDtv) is our main TV we watch TV and Movies most of the time. We also have a Panasonic HD Plazma in our bedroom and will also have one soon in our Greatroom/playroom. I want to be able to watch tv from any of those TV's or record from any of them and so forth.

I want to be able to also surf the web off of the TV's.

I hope this helps all you guys help me. Thank you very much for all your help thus far.

If you just want clear QAM recordings (non encrypted), then get a HDHomerun. That will give you two HD recordings at once. If you need to record encrypted channels from your cable box, then a Hauppauge HD-PVR will give you an additional HD tuner. I own many Huappauge analog SD tuners, and they are always great. A PVR-500 PCI card (if you can find it) will give you two SD tuners.

For your HDTVs, I strongly recommend the HD Extenders. It will give you nearly trouble-free playback of all your recordings. That will save you headaches from dealing with PC clients and their codecs and picture quality. The only problem is there is no web browser with the HD extenders. So you will have to have a separate PC client for that. Or just do what I do, and use a laptop.

For computer hardware, the safe bet is to go with intel processors and intel chipset. Recent AMD chipset has improved so it might be as good, but intel is a safe bet. So for the most stable system, get intel motherboard with intel chipset. If you want to add lots of internal drives, make sure the board has enough SATA ports. For case, again, if you want to add lots of internal drives, then get a case that supports lots of drives.

Your needs are close to mine, so look at my signature for the brands and models I own. It is a rock solid system.

[wado1971]

This link is a very good guide for building an HD client pc - a must read for your hardware choices. Pay close attention to the graphics card selection for HD playback. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972

[bjterry62]

DCIDan,

From what youhave told us, you will probably need your main HTPC (or server) to have quite a bit of storage. OTA and QAM HD recordings take up a lot of space. On a weekly basis, I record approx 5 shows in HD and my 750gb hard drive just barely gets it done. I would recommend at least a 1tb storage drive for your recordings if you're not considering setting up a home media server. The suggestion above about using your laptop to surf the web wherever you want is your best option. I originally thought I'd use my HTPCs for web surfing, but it just doesn't work out that way.

My suggestion is to make a main HTPC for recording and probably look into a small media server for storage needs. Use the Sage HD Extenders to stream to your other HD TVs and you will be more than happy.

Mayamaniac is not really accurate in his recommendation of Intel only platforms. I have used both Intel and AMD and have had zero problems with either. Both platforms can playback HD recordings very well. If you're planning to add Blu-Ray, then things will get very complicated very quickly. If BR is anywhere on your mind, build the system to support it from the beginning. Upgrading to it can be a real nightmare.

BT

[ThePaladinTech]

Originally Posted by mistergq

I just built two computers with this case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068
It has an 80 mm fan in the front of the case, and 120 mm fan in the back of the case. I love this case. It very cool (temperature) case. It is also to add and remove hard drives, cd drives, etc.

I've built 6 computers using that case - FANTASTIC case for little money! However for my home HTPC I am using this case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112081
I was stuck on finding a case without doors and with front to back cooling - this was it. Pain in the rear to assemble but once done I've been quite pleased with it.

I am not sure how this motherboard would be for watching HD video, but the power of this motherboard is very good at low cost.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128072
The board comes with Nvidia 7100 built on motherboard. It includes an HDMI port on the back. It also has an DVI and VGA port.

Personally I am more of an ATI guy
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130166 I haven't pulled the trigger on this yet - still running an old AMD 64 3000 Board.

So As many have said - depends some on what you're doing. and like many I have: Hauppauge MCE-500, Happauge HD-PVR, and SiliconDust HD HomeRun in my home system.

At work I have three sage servers -
1. running a Hauppauge PVR-250(?)
2. is running a HAVA Platinum external SD encoder
3. currently sharing the HAVA Platinum encoder, MCE-500, and an HVR-1800. That last PC will be getting upgraded to two HVR-2250 (they are here, just waiting to be installed)

at work and at home I am using Hauppauge MediaMVPs to view content. at home I also have the media PC hooked directly to one TV. and at work we employ the placeshifter client on PCs quite a bit.

[sic0048]

Well I would agree that using the HD extenders is a virtually bullet proof solution for playback. Then you can build 1 machine to act as a server which records all the shows. Then you can have as many extenders as you need (one for each TV) and they can pull any Sage media from the server - even at the same time.

The tuners listed above are your best options. If you have HD, then you'll want the HDHR (for unencrypted QAM) or the HD-PVR which records the output of the cable box, so you are limited to the number of cable boxes you have. In addition, you'll really need to turn control of those cable boxes over to Sage so you don't change channels when Sage is recording something. This simply means that you will need to watch "live" TV through Sage via the HD extender all the time. You'll basically make a switch to Sage and use it 100% of the time and not use your cable boxes anymore if you use the HD-PVR.

The only draw back to using the HD extenders as the output vehicle is the fact that they are sold out right now. Hopefully they will be back in stock soon.