Configuration question

[beedlebum]

Here's my setup:

PC in office
Notebook
Home Theater audio and Plasma TV in living room
TV in kitchen
TV with Xbox 360 in kids room
TV in bedroom
My cable company is Comcast and I have some premium channels

Here's what I would like to do:

1. Add a large (1 Tb) hard drive to my office PC to store all my media (photos, home videos, CD library, DVD and Blu Ray library)
2. Watch live TV on all TVs (a different channel on each one)
3. Watch anything from my media library on any TV (blu ray discs on my hard drive should play with full video quality and surround sound through my plasma TV and my A/V controller)
4. Pause live TV on any TV
5. Record TV (standard and premium channels)
6. Watch any recorded show on any TV whether it was recorded on this TV or another one.
7. Watch any recorded TV or play anything from the media library on my PC or notebook

Here's what I think I need (but I'm not sure):

1. Buy a SageTV HD Theater box for the family room, kitchen, kids room and bedroom.
2. Buy the "SageTV Media Center for Windows with Placeshifter License Combo" to give me "SageTV Media Center V6.5 for Windows" on my PC and the Placeshifter functionality for my notebook.

A few questions:

1. I'm assuming that the HD Theater boxes only have 1 TV tuner in each so you can't watch live TV and record a different channel at the same time. That's OK if all the boxes work well together and can save recorded shows in the same place on my media hard drive. I'm also assuming that all the boxes talk to the Sage software on the PC to make sure that each box uses a central scheduler to record programs so that 2 different boxes don't record the same show for example.

2. Does each Sage box need an IR blaster connected to its own Comacast cable box so that I can watch and record premium channels?

3. I've read that 802.11g and 802.11n really aren't up to streaming blu ray video and audio over a wireless LAN and I can't easily run CAT5 throughout my house. I do have coax going to each location of TV and my PC and I have been reading about this solution:

http://netgear.com/Products/Powerlin.../MCAB1001.aspx

Does anyone have any experience with it, as it reads like it would be a good solution.

Any help on all this would be greatly appreciated.

[tahoetim]

I think you have the architecture wrong in your mind.

The server pc running Sage has all your tv signal inputs running to it. Your cable boxes stack up at the server pc and you stick tuner cards in that pc too. The HD200's are placed at each tv and connect back to the pc via router/switch through cat5.

You need a tuner for each simultaneous channel watched or recorded.

You need a method to change channels on your premium channel boxes. Most use the usb-uirt.

To avoid headaches, I recommend using a dedicated server to run sage and hold all the tuner cards. I went for WHS software and love the stability of my system.


As far as that coax device, it seems way too pricey to buy for each location. I happen to be an electrical contractor and dun cat5 all the time for customers. No matter how the house is laid out, you should be able to wire it for less than the cost of 5 of those that you would need in your house. One trick we use is to pull off the baseboards and tuck the cat5 in or cut the drywall behind the baseboard to drill thru the studs to run cat5. The baseboards cover your work nicely.

[PiX64]

I think you alluded to this, but its important to point out that the HD200 cannot in any way (at least at this point in time) have a tuner card in or connected to its USB port.

[tahoetim]

beedle,
You might want to try it the way I did, slowly. Buy one HD200 and one sage server license (bundle offered I think) and get that running. It will open your eyes to what you need. Take your time and buy parts as you need them. Here is my build path:

1. Built a new server in a silent pc case (not necessary for most)
1. Bought WHS for $99 and installed it with 3 500G drives per the guide
1. Bought 1 HD200 and one tuner card (I had a PVR500)

I took one cable box away from one room and left the rest of the family on cable. I got it all running on "my test tv". Then I bought a second HD200 for the bedroom and left the cable connection on the tv. I showed the wife how to switch the tv input if the Sage box crashed.

Then I started buying the other necessary parts like a USB-uirt to change channels, loop back cables to get Netflix working, etc. I ripped all my movies using DVDfab and moved all the kids' music and photos to the share drive on the server. I have three teenagers with ipods and we all snowboard so we have a lot of music.

I am at the last step which is to pop for a surround sound system in my theater room and add the third HD200 there. It has taken a few weeks to get it all running but I dont have any wasted parts and I now can switch three premium cable boxes independently.

You'll know when you are successful when you finally disconnect the safety cable feeds and you catch the family using Sage instead of tv.