HD recording refresher

[myoung84]

I have a few questions I would like cleared up about recording in HD. My Sage server is a P4 2.8 GHz with 2.5 GB of RAM and on-board video card (I will soon have a 1.5TB drive for Sage recordings). I currently have a PVR-500 card with 2 DTV SD receivers connected via S-Video. I also have an HD-100 in the living room connected to my DLP. I will eventually replace that with an HD-200 and move the HD-100 into my bedroom.

What I am wanting to do is upgrade my DTV service to HD and order 2 HD receivers from DTV and connect to a pair of HD-PVRs with component video and optical audio.

1. Does my current PC have enough power to record in HD? I will not be playing back HD with this PC.

2. Does the original HD-100 extender work well with HD recordings? It will be awhile before I can upgrade to an HD-200.

3. Can I still use my existing USBUIRT to control the new HD receivers? Or does the included IR output on the HD-PVR work well and reliable?

4. Will this setup allow me to ultimately have 5.1 audio fed to my receiver/TV via HDMI?

5. How many GB/HR does a typical HD recoding use?

6. With a Cat5e network, will I have enough bandwidth capacity to have 2 HD feeds going at the same time to 2 separate media extenders?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by myoung84

1. Does my current PC have enough power to record in HD? I will not be playing back HD with this PC.

It's more powerful than mine and mine works fine

2. Does the original HD-100 extender work well with HD recordings? It will be awhile before I can upgrade to an HD-200.

I know it works fine for MPEG-2, I think it should work with the HD PVR, but I haven't tried that.

3. Can I still use my existing USBUIRT to control the new HD receivers? Or does the included IR output on the HD-PVR work well and reliable?

Stick with the UIRT, or better yet, maybe try and go with the patterson adapters.

4. Will this setup allow me to ultimately have 5.1 audio fed to my receiver/TV via HDMI?

If you hook the optical to the HD PVR, yes.

5. How many GB/HR does a typical HD recoding use?

Somewhere less than 6 for HD PVR recordings.

6. With a Cat5e network, will I have enough bandwidth capacity to have 2 HD feeds going at the same time to 2 separate media extenders?

If it's at least 100Mbps it should be OK. I'd make sure you've got a switch and not just a hub.

[gplasky]

1) Yes.
2) HD100 works well. HD200 works better from the speed of the SageTV GUI experience.
3) I would recommend using the USB-UIRT you have and just skip the IR on the HD-PVR all together. And if they are not in another room cover the IR receivers on the HD-PVR.
4) If you record on the HD-PVR with the SPDIF and receive HD programs in DD 5.1 then you should be able to pass 5.1 thru to your receiver thru optical or HDMI.
5) Approx. 6 GB per hour.
6) Plenty of bandwidth as long as the NIC on the SageTV is gigabit. It wiil still work with a 100Mb NIC in the server but you won't be able to have as many simultaneous feeds. 2 will work though either way.

Gerry

[darcilicious]

4) If you record on the HD-PVR with the SPDIF and receive HD programs in DD 5.1 then you should be able to pass 5.1 thru to your receiver thru optical or HDMI.

For what it's worth, I do this now and it works great. But you do notice quickly which channels are actually in 5.1 or not

[myoung84]

Thanks for the replies, this is good news. I went ahead and ordered 2 HD-PVRs and DirecTV will be here Thursday to install a new dish and swap out my 2 SD receivers to HD. I also ordered a new 1.5TB HD to replace the old 500GB.

New question:
I plan to put the 2 receivers and and HD-PVRs on top of my desk out of sight. This will require a 15' USB cable to go from each PVR and UIRT to my PC. Would a 15' USB cable from each PVR be too long of a run or do I have to stick to the standard 6'?