Rogers Explorer 4250HD Cable Box w/ SageHD + ShowAnalyzer

[undersiege]

hi all, im looking to edit commercials out live/delayed with ShowAnalzer. I want to make sure i buy the right hardware for the job. I dont have a capture card/box or a SageHD unit yet but it has been recommended by people at DragonGlobal.

The problem so far is my digital cable box. I called Rogers and they told me that the USB ports on this unit come disabled.

any suggestions?

[Slugger]

Hauppauge HD-PVR is the capture device you'll want - a little pricey, but will accept component input from any STB and it's fully supported by SageTV (they even sell them in their online store).

[undersiege]

what capture card/box would you recommend with this unit?

[wayner]

As Slugger said above there are no options - you use the Hauppauge HD-PVR which costs $200-$250. You then connect the component outputs of your 4250 box to the inputs of the HD-PVR and then connect the HD-PVR to your PC via USB.

Don't bother asking Rogers about this - they will have absolutely no idea what you are talking about - their answer will be to get a 8300 if you want to record your TV.

[Armondole]

Originally Posted by wayner

Don't bother asking Rogers about this - they will have absolutely no idea what you are talking about - their answer will be to get a 8300 if you want to record your TV.

LOL! You got that right Wayner. Rogers is not the solution to any of your problems... even sometimes when it should be.

If you're looking for a good device to control your Rogers boxes (changing channels) you can try the USB UIRT. I use this with 2 Rogers boxes and it has been working great for years... Of course, some of these Hauppage devices have IR blasters built in, so you might not need anything else.

[undersiege]

thanks everyone. one more question.

i have laptop that i plan on running with SageTV and ShowAnalyzer to skip commercials while watching delayed television as previously mentioned. I have a laptop with a 1.6 processor runing xp with 2 gigs of ram. It has an AMD Turion 64x2 and an ATI x1600 128mb.

do you see any issues with this?

[wayner]

That processor would likely be underpowered for ShowAnalyzer if you are trying to use it on HD files. It should be okay for SD files. I personally have not used ShowAnalyzer - I use Comskip and I have only used it on SD files so far. But worse case scenario is that it would just take a long time to do the commercial skipping, although it would still work.

[undersiege]

could you reccomend a processor that would best fit this application?

[smdl]

undersiege, a few thoughts:

1. I am not familiar with ShowAnalyzer, but will share information on what I am familiar with. I am running multi-threaded ComSkip on my AMD Phenom 9500 quad core 2.21 machine. ComSkip is limited to a single core, so I have set the system to allow up to 4 concurrent sessions, which works just fine. It actually takes longer for ComSkip to process the HD-PVR .ts files than it does to record them. As I recall, a 30 minute recording will take almost 40 minutes to process. This really doesn't cause me any issues, however, as I rarely find myself wanting to watch something while, or immediately after, it has recorded.

2. Several forum members have firewire tuning working very reliably with the 4250HD. This makes for a very clean alternative to either the IR Blaster or USB-UIRT solutions, although it does take some work to set up (you'll have to decide if you want to pursue it). All the cables are kept at the back of the STBs, and you can daisy-chain the firewire cable to multiple STBs so you only need one firewire port on the server.

3. If you do choose to go with IR, the USB-UIRT is really nice, as it will support 3 STBs using a couple of external emitters. The IR Blaster that comes with the HD-PVR does work with SageTV, but I think that only one of these can be used at a time (I haven't checked for awhile, so this may be outdated info). This might not be a problem if you have only one STB, but could be a limiting factor if you want more.

4. I agree about Rogers. There are absolutely no help when it comes to this sort of thing. To be fair, thogh, this sort of stuff is pretty far out of their mainstream!

5. If, after reading this thread, you decide you want to try ComSkip, keep in mind that you have to donate in order to get the newest version that works with the files generated by the HD-PVR. Erik is doing great work, so it makes sense to support the initiative anyway, and a small donation will suffice.

6. You mention a "Sage HD unit", from which I assume you are referring to the HD Theater (also known as HD200). In my opinion, these extenders are the best way to extend SageTV functionality out to your TVs. Much simpler and more reliable than PC clients, in my experience. YMMV.

Good luck!

Shaun