Hardware Help

[pvr599]

Hi everyone,
It's been a long time since I've posted, but I am thinking about doing some upgrading.
I want to start with the hardware I have already. It is listed in my signature. I have never been able to get my HDHR working. I have a Scientific Atlantic HDDVR and a standard cable box.

Here is what I'd like to do.

1) I'd like to be able to get rid of the cable co. HDPVR and get just an HDbox (save money maybe), then be able to record off the HD box to my SageTV server. I can have all my recordings in one place. I know I need to get more HDD space.
2) I'd like to be able to record from the standard box for a second tuner of all my channels except HD
3) I'd like to use the HDHR for 2 more tuners for local HD channels. (my terminology is really bad when it comes to HD stuff, but I'm sure you guys know what I mean).

Do I have enough power in my current setup to run all this?
Will the internal tuners I have be enough to do what I want or will I need an HD tuner?
Would an HD200 or HDPVR be recommended?
Is it recommended to upgrade any of my hardware?

Thanks to everyone who helps me out with this.
Dana

[Fuzzy]

For starters, most likely the only way to get HD from your cable company box would be with the Hauppauge HD-PVR. It will connect from the Component outputs on your cable box and encode the video to HD H.264 video. It will control the cable box with an IR emitter, or you may be able to set up channel changing over the cable box's firewire port (if it has one). The HDHomeRun will work great for locals, assuming you have decent signal from your antenna. (You may also be able to get your locals from your Cable signal with the HDHomeRun via QAM, though if you've got good antenna signal, I would recommend that path instead). Your current hardware will be fine recording and serving up these all at the same time.

Playback is going to be your problem here. the MVP will not be able to play back the H.264 recordings, OR the HDHR OTA HD recordings. Those recordings will need to be transcoded on your server to SD MPEG2, which it really doens't have the processing power to handle. Also, I'm not sure that your PC would be able to play back the H.264 recordings either. It might depends on what CODECs you end up with.

The best solution would be an HD200 for playback. The HD200 takes care of all the decoding, leaving the server to handle JUST the recording and storing of files. I would honestly recommend replacing both viewing positions with HD200's, as you will get hands down the most trouble-free setup. (You existing HD100 should also handle the video just fine)

[pvr599]

Wow thanks Fuzzy,
It looks like I don't have to change much other then getting a couple HD200's and one HDPVR if I read you right.

The one problem is I could never get the HDHR working. All I get is a pixally picture and a lot of lag. I spend a week trying all the things everyone mentioned and even got an amp, but no luck. I pretty much gave up. I also thought it might be the power in my server not being able to handle it.

The other reason I'm thinking about upgrades is that the server shuts down on it's own about once a day. This has been another thing I've been trying to figure out for the past week. My next thought is to format and re-install. I just remember going through SOOO much setting this up to where it is now a couple of years ago, I dread doing that.

Thanks again for you're help!!!!!

[Fuzzy]

If you are in teh situation where you may be reinstalling anyways, you might want to look into using Windows Home Server. It is very stable, and slimmed down to just file serving type roles. (There is a special version of Sage designed stricthy for WHS). It is designed to run headless (no monitor/keyboard/etc), so it's perfect for being tucked away in a closet somewhere, with the cable boxes.