New/Upgraded Setup Questions (Current BeyondTV User)

[rdb4133]

So as the title says I'm a current BeyondTV user and looking into switching over the Sage mainly due to the lack of HD extenders (yes I know you can use a full fledged HTPC as a client but I do not want to go down that road, been there done that). So the HD200 looks spectacular. First let me start off with my current setup:

- Two HVR-2250's
- One ATI Theater 550 Pro

With BeyondTV it views this setup as 5 analog tuners and 4 QAM digital tuners (I know that I can't use all 4 analogs and 4 qam's at the same time) and I wanted to see how see SageTV handles this setup. So here we go with my questions:

1. In the BeyondTV setup you are able to have two seperate lineups, one for analog and one for digital qam. Which my provider does have (You can view my lineup here: http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun...#lineup_455823) On my QAM lineups I do include all of the SD channels too because Comcast in my area has already moved all of the "Expanded Basic" channels to "In the clear" QAM. So I end up having duplicates of pretty much all my analog channels, I know some will say why not just jump straight into QAM and don't bother with analog well mainly because Comcast in my area (and I'm sure all over the country) is notorious for changing up the QAM channels and also because I like to keep around the analog tuner just for ease of use.

Sorry for all the explanation, but here comes the actual question. Is there a way in Sage to have it seperate the analog version and the QAM version of the channel? I played around with the trial of Sage and it didn't seem as easy as BeyondTV was to setup. In BeyondTV when you are setting up your QAM channels and mapping them to existing channels within your lineup in the end you end up with say 1034 for ESPN on QAM and 34 for ESPN on analog. Will Sage do something similar? If so what is the best way to go about this?

2. I've read several different accounts here saying that the Netgear WNHDEB111 HD Wireless-N Kit has worked great for streaming HD over Wireless. I'm not interested in streaming Blu-Ray, I will be streaming QAM, HD-PVR content (eventually), analog and some x264 encoded MKV files (at 720p resolution) to the HD200. Can anyone else chime in to using this setup to streaming the above content over wireless? Currently I have Panasonic HD-PLC Powerline Ethernet Adapter but I'm not too sure if that can handle HD content? Anyone have experience with the Panasonic and HD content?

3. I had used the HD-PVR in the past but had HUGE headaches getting the IR blaster that it comes with to work. I have an MCE Remote + 2 IR blasters, can I use that instead to work with Sage using LM Remote KeyMap? It seems to have a Sage Channel Change Plugin.

I think that's all for now. But I would really like to get into Sage and see if I can get this all setup! Thanks in advance to everyone!

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by rdb4133

(yes I know you can use a full fledged HTPC as a client but I do not want to go down that road, been there done that)

Pretty much everyone here is a big fan of the extenders, so I doubt you'd get anyone suggesting a PC-based client.

Is there a way in Sage to have it seperate the analog version and the QAM version of the channel? I played around with the trial of Sage and it didn't seem as easy as BeyondTV was to setup. In BeyondTV when you are setting up your QAM channels and mapping them to existing channels within your lineup in the end you end up with say 1034 for ESPN on QAM and 34 for ESPN on analog. Will Sage do something similar? If so what is the best way to go about this?

I'm not sure, but maybe. I think it depends on what kind of EPG data is available in your area. You can certainly have different lineups for different tuners. However, it appears once you map a physical channel to a station (e.g., map a QAM channel to the TNT guide data), Sage will combine that channel with other channels that are already set to the TNT guide data (thus combining your QAM TNT channel with your analog TNT channel). You might be able to get around that if there are separate entries for digital channels. For example, maybe they have a TNT-DT station. Then the analog channels will just be mapped to things like TNT, but you can map the digital ones to TNT-DT.

The problem is, I suspect there won't be a TNT-DT, and if it is there, I suspect it would be the HD channel (it might show up as TNTHD then, instead of TNT-DT). That would still work, but recordings would be marked as HD recordings when they'd really just be SD. And, Sage would default to the QAM tuner all the time, since Sage will default to record HD versions of shows whenever possible. Maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

I've read several different accounts here saying that the Netgear WNHDEB111 HD Wireless-N Kit has worked great for streaming HD over Wireless. I'm not interested in streaming Blu-Ray, I will be streaming QAM, HD-PVR content (eventually), analog and some x264 encoded MKV files (at 720p resolution) to the HD200. Can anyone else chime in to using this setup to streaming the above content over wireless? Currently I have Panasonic HD-PLC Powerline Ethernet Adapter but I'm not too sure if that can handle HD content? Anyone have experience with the Panasonic and HD content?

I've been using a WNHDEB111 kit for the last year without any problems. But, I'm in an apartment, so the two units are only a few walls and about 30 feet apart. Plus, I have the only 5Ghz band wifi AP in the apartment complex. I can't tell you if the kit will work for you. It might, it might not. I can tell you it appears to be a solid product, as far as wireless bridges are concerned. The HD200 is getting support for a wireless-n USB dongle at some point in the near future, but I wouldn't recommend using it until we hear some reports from the field. If you're going to go with wireless, I think the WNHDEB111 kit is a good choice.

In general, wireless should be a last resort. Obviously, ethernet is best. If that's not practical, MoCA seems to be a pretty good option if you have coaxial cable going into the rooms. After that, I think it's a tossup between powerline networking or wireless-n. I haven't used powerline networking, but when I was trying to decide between the two I found lots of people complaining about powerline networking performance. Personally, I think wireless-n is probably a better choice, but only if you're pretty sure you don't have a lot of sources of interference, and you're confident that you won't have problems with range.

I had used the HD-PVR in the past but had HUGE headaches getting the IR blaster that it comes with to work. I have an MCE Remote + 2 IR blasters, can I use that instead to work with Sage using LM Remote KeyMap? It seems to have a Sage Channel Change Plugin.

I use the Hauppauge blaster with the analog side of my HVR-1600, and firewire channel changing (and recording) with a DCT6200 STB. So, I don't have any experience with the MCE blasters, but I think people use them without any problems. Hopefully someone else can confirm or deny that.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by rdb4133

So as the title says I'm a current BeyondTV user and looking into switching over the Sage mainly due to the lack of HD extenders (yes I know you can use a full fledged HTPC as a client but I do not want to go down that road, been there done that). So the HD200 looks spectacular. First let me start off with my current setup:

- Two HVR-2250's
- One ATI Theater 550 Pro

With BeyondTV it views this setup as 5 analog tuners and 4 QAM digital tuners (I know that I can't use all 4 analogs and 4 qam's at the same time) and I wanted to see how see SageTV handles this setup. So here we go with my questions:

1. In the BeyondTV setup you are able to have two seperate lineups, one for analog and one for digital qam. Which my provider does have (You can view my lineup here: http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun...#lineup_455823) On my QAM lineups I do include all of the SD channels too because Comcast in my area has already moved all of the "Expanded Basic" channels to "In the clear" QAM. So I end up having duplicates of pretty much all my analog channels, I know some will say why not just jump straight into QAM and don't bother with analog well mainly because Comcast in my area (and I'm sure all over the country) is notorious for changing up the QAM channels and also because I like to keep around the analog tuner just for ease of use.

Sorry for all the explanation, but here comes the actual question. Is there a way in Sage to have it seperate the analog version and the QAM version of the channel? I played around with the trial of Sage and it didn't seem as easy as BeyondTV was to setup. In BeyondTV when you are setting up your QAM channels and mapping them to existing channels within your lineup in the end you end up with say 1034 for ESPN on QAM and 34 for ESPN on analog. Will Sage do something similar? If so what is the best way to go about this?

Each time you go through the source setup, Sage gives you the option to either "share" a configured lineup, meaning if you enable/disable a channel it applies to all sources that share that lineup, or you can copy an existing lineup, in which case it will the same source data, and the same channels will be enabled, but anything you change won't affect the lineup you copied from, or you can pick an entirely different one.

That might sound complicated, but basically each tuner can have it's own lineup configuration, regardless of which source lineup you pick. So you can have two tuners using the "analog" lineup, with different channels enabled.

Also you can configure different inputs on a particular card and Sage will know if it can use them simultaneously or not.

2. I've read several different accounts here saying that the Netgear WNHDEB111 HD Wireless-N Kit has worked great for streaming HD over Wireless. I'm not interested in streaming Blu-Ray, I will be streaming QAM, HD-PVR content (eventually), analog and some x264 encoded MKV files (at 720p resolution) to the HD200. Can anyone else chime in to using this setup to streaming the above content over wireless? Currently I have Panasonic HD-PLC Powerline Ethernet Adapter but I'm not too sure if that can handle HD content? Anyone have experience with the Panasonic and HD content?

Run Cat5 if you can. Wireless/Powerline are last resort options. You might be able to get it to work, but you won't know until you've bought the hardware and tried it.

[mayamaniac]

1. Each tuner can be configured to use its own lineup, so no problems there.
2. As stanger89 says, you won't know until you try the wireless device. Also worth noting is that SageTV is working on a firmware upgrade that allows you to plug a wireless USB dongle to the HD200 to give it wireless capability, so you might want to wait for it if you have the patient. But cat5 is definitely best.
3. MCE IR Blaster should work, but I would advice you to try serial or firewire method to change channels if those options are possible for your setup.

[reggie14]

Are you guys sure on the channel lineup issue? It sounds like he wants to have two different logical channels that both map to the same station (albeit on different tuners). I don't think you can do that.

[rdb4133]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Are you guys sure on the channel lineup issue? It sounds like he wants to have two different logical channels that both map to the same station (albeit on different tuners). I don't think you can do that.

Thanks for all of the responses everyone! I greatly appreciate it! What reggie14 is referring to is what I want to do and what BeyondTV allows me to do. So here's an example:

Analog Tuners:
NBC SD - Channel 6

QAM/Digital Tuners:
NBC QAM SD - Physical Channel 110-437 but mapped to guide channel 6
NBC QAM HD - Physical Channel 120-456 but mapped to guide channel 401

If I'm copying say from my analog tuners when setting up my QAM tuners will that method work?

Also regarding MoCA I have heard great things about it too. Unforatunately when Comcast rewired my living room they ran a whole new coax cable from the box outside to my living room. So in my living room I can't get the connection with a MoCA device (I tried to NIM-100's). In regards to distance and size my townhouse is fairly small with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and streaming data would only have to go through two walls for the longest distance at most and maybe 30 feet?). I will probably go ahead and purchase the WNHDEB111 HD Wireless-N Kit and give it a shot.

[PiX64]

The mapping your talking about i have currently working...

NBC SD channel 5
QAM NBC Channel SD re-mapped to channel 5 SD
QAM NBC Channel HD re-mapped to channel 181 (i think) which is guide data for HD, then remapped to channel 5-1 so that it shows up next to the other NBC

I have the above working with all my local channels

CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, WPWR, UPN....

Does that answer your question?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by rdb4133

Thanks for all of the responses everyone! I greatly appreciate it! What reggie14 is referring to is what I want to do and what BeyondTV allows me to do. So here's an example:

Analog Tuners:
NBC SD - Channel 6

QAM/Digital Tuners:
NBC QAM SD - Physical Channel 110-437 but mapped to guide channel 6
NBC QAM HD - Physical Channel 120-456 but mapped to guide channel 401

If I'm copying say from my analog tuners when setting up my QAM tuners will that method work?

Sage combines channels from all tuners that have the same callsign. So in the above example you'd see the SD "NBC" only once. NBC HD would likely be listed separately since you'd want to pick the HD station from the guide.

As far as QAM what happens there is you do a scan, and Sage presents a list of the clear QAM channels it finds and then you go through and pick which station from the guide data you map it to. So in the above you'd pick the same NBC SD for the QAM SD NBC, and you'd probably pick the HD guide channel (401) for the HD one.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by rdb4133

Thanks for all of the responses everyone! I greatly appreciate it! What reggie14 is referring to is what I want to do and what BeyondTV allows me to do.

Actually, I misinterpreted what you want to do. I thought you wanted to map analog NBC to channel 6, QAM NBC SD to 106, and QAM NBC HD to 401. That's problematic, but what you want to do is no problem at all.

Basically, Sage will make your analog NBC and QAM-SD NBC channel indistinguishable. I thought you were trying to keep them separate, since you were complaining about the reliability of your QAM channels.

I will probably go ahead and purchase the WNHDEB111 HD Wireless-N Kit and give it a shot.

I think the prices on the kit are pretty good, although Netgear has apparently stopped making that model. It's getting harder to find, but hopefully to can find a good deal on it (~$100 for the pair).

I disagree with mayamaniac's recommendation that you wait for the HD200 wireless-n USB dongle. I think bridges like the Netgear product are safer bets. Based on reviews, standalone bridges offer much better performance than USB dongles on computers, and I wouldn't think it would be any different on the HD200.