WHS Owner Looking into SageTV, HTPC, and OTA

[nekon]

My goal is OTA/Comcast Clear QAM and DirecTV on either of our displays. What I'm not clear on is the best way to go about doing this..

Long story short I'm looking to make use of a spare HDTV and PC. I'm familiar with MCE and if my 360 had HDMI and actually worked (RLOD) I would have probably gone that route already. Now I played with Myth and Sage years ago but had a bad tuner card and it just wasn't smooth enough for me at the time. I've now got Sage installed on my HTPC and WHS server and I like what I'm seeing.. I just don't exactly know what that is. I'd like to save all OTA/Comcast Clear QAM recordings to my WHS box which I'll dedicate a 1TB off pool drive to (64k clusters). I'm planning on installing a 32GB SSD (boot) and my old 20GB PS3 HDD in my HTPC among other changes.

I'm thinking I need a SageTV HD Theater box for the plasma, a Sage license for the WHS box, and a full install + license of SageTV for the HTPC/DLP. As for DirecTV on the HTPC I could either go SlingCatcher (hardware), SlingPlayer Desktop (software), or DIRECTV2PC (software) recordings only.

Bedroom: Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-111FD + DirecTV HR21 + Slingbox SOLO
Computer Room: WHS Server + HDHomeRun (OTA & Comcast Clear QAM)
Living Room: Samsung HL-S5087W + HTPC

Misc: PS3, Xbox 360 (Dead RLOD + No HDMI), diNovo Edge, and a Harmony One.



WHS Server
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e Brisbane 2.6GHz
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 740G Micro ATX
RAM: mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800
GPU: Onboard ATI Radeon HD 2100
SND: Onboard Realtek ALC888
HDD: 7x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS
OS: Windows Home Server PP2

HTPC
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ @ 2.7GHz
MOBO: DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert
RAM: 2x1GB Mushkin Redline XP4000
GPU: TBD
SND: TBD
HDD: TBD
PSU: Silverstone Decathlon DA750 750W
OS: Windows XP Pro x64 | Windows 7 RC1

How would you guys go about doing all this? TIA for any time or replies invested!

[Djc208]

I'll take a shot.

First, you only need a full version of Sage on any computer that will be doing recording. So idealy you would install the tuner(s) and Sage on your WHS. Then you would just use either placeshifter (for a Laptop that could be used outside your network) or SageTV Client (for your HTPC on the DLP) for playback.

It's a common reply around here but where possible using the HD-200 extender will be easier, more reliable, and produce a better output than a Client HTPC. Get one for the plasma and expand as needed. You do not need a license for extenders, the HD-200 comes with it's own built in.

The advantage of Sage is that the media is available wherever you have Sage. By using Sling or DirectTV2PC you'll have to deal with two programs to get all your media. I would suggest using an HD-PVR or possibly the R-5000 mod (if possible) to allow you to get DirectTV content into Sage directly. That way all your TV channels will be available at either of your Sage clients/placeshifters, and you can schedule and record all your shows from one interface.

Wireless doesn't usually provide a real reliable connection for streaming HD media, and with other devices also sharing the connection I'm not sure you'll have a positive experience trying to use Sage from the Plasma. Removing that wireless link would go a long way toward improving your experience from that location.

[gplasky]

Recommendation:

Use the WHS as your central SageTV server and continue to pack as much hard disk storage as possible into the box. Use the HD Homerun (recommend 2) for your OTA and Comcast Clear QAM. You can start with 1 HD Homerun and use it as ASTC and QAM at the same time. For your DirectTV use a Hauppauge HD-PVR connected to the WHS via USB and to the DirectTV via component. If you want to record more than one DirecTV channle at the same time you'll need another DirecTV STB and a HD-PVR. I would also recommend getting a USB-UIRT IR receiver/blaster. This will allow this one device to control both your Comcast box and the DirecTV box for channel changes. (USB-UIRT can controll up to 3 devices.) Locate the WHS server and the Comcast box and DirecTV box in the same area away from your TV watching. Now either get the HD200 extender for every TV you want to watch or use a PC with the SageTV PC client software at any TV or monitor.

Gerry