Digital to Analog converter and sage

[rjmarthaller]

Right now my PC is not enough to play back HD content. It worked fine when I had standard cable tv going to my Hauppauge 1600. I am receiving over the air digital signals, some HD some not. WIll this plan work out?

Digital antenna into digital to analog converter. Output of this converter to my HVR1600 and playback through sage.

Will this make the signal easier for sage to handle? Can the 1600 even use this signal from the analog converter box output? I have a Hauppauge prv-350 that I could use instead to capture the out put of the converter box if that is my only option.

Thanks,
Ryan

[sic0048]

I think your idea will work. However, you will need a IR blaster to control the converter box. So either the IR blaster in the Hauppauge 1600 (if it even has one - I'm not sure) or something like the USB-UIRT to change the converter box to the correct channel when you want to record something.

Another option is to buy a HD extender when they come back in stock. Then you don't have to use the PC as a playback device and you'll be ready for HD should you want it. The extender will output SD signals, so you can hook it up that way for now.

Of course the first solution may be free (well the cost of the converter box) while the 2nd choice is $200. So that may be a deciding factor too.

[rjmarthaller]

As far as the IR blaster; I have my Harmony remote, so I could just set that up to control the converter box. That would take care of that issue, right? And would the sage program guide still show the right info and work to record?

I doing think I'm totally clear on how the channel changing would work. When I change the channel on sage I would also have to change to the correct channel on the converter box? Or would the channel never really change in Sage, only on the converter?

I'm just trying to get all my ducks in a row before I shut off my cable tv. I appreciate the help.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by rjmarthaller

I doing think I'm totally clear on how the channel changing would work. When I change the channel on sage I would also have to change to the correct channel on the converter box? Or would the channel never really change in Sage, only on the converter?

That's what the IR blaster is for. Sage needs to have a way to programmatically change channels on the STB for scheduled recordings. Live TV works the same way: you choose a program to watch in Sage, and it sends commands to the STB to tune that channel. You should not be manually changing channels on the STB at all.

But I agree with the previous poster that this is probably not the best way to solve your problem. Recording digital TV is easier than recording analog TV, and gives better picture quality. So you really want to stick with digital recording if you can. Any playback problems can be addressed by offloading playback onto another computer or an HD extender.