noob HD question, want to move to SAGE

[ericscottf]

Hi

I'm sure this is answered thoroughly elsewhere, but I'm at a loss to find it (i searched this forum and the faq), so please be gentle.

I'm currently a replaytv owner looking to move on to bigger and better.

I'm interested in being able to record HDTV content from any channel (basic cable, medium tier stuff (like discovery, science channel) and premium stuff (like showtime)).

For the time being, i'm just going to be recording SDTV, as i've only got old tvs, but when they die, i'd like to be able to record HDTV.

I currently have cable boxes (Verizon FIOS), and would obviously get the HDTV cable boxes when i switch over. I don't know what the output from those boxes will look like, if it will be component, HDMI or something else.

Is there a capture card out there that will interface to an HDTV cable box in a way that will convince the cable box to output basic/medium/premium shows in HDTV? My first instinct would be to find one that has HDMI in or a cable card slot, but no luck there.
Bonus points if it can also easily record SDTV, so i can buy it now and not have to upgrade in the future.

Throughout my post, when you see HDTV, I mean 1080P or if unavailable, 1080I. If i'm going to bother to upgrade, I feel it might as well be all the way up.

Cablevision and fios are the two major players in my area, i have fios now, but could switch to CV if it made a difference (tho i hope it wouldn't)

What do people around here do for this type of stuff? Am I looking for something that doesn't/won't ever exist?

thanks!

[Dave62]

Check out the many many posts on the Hauppauge HD PVR

[pjpjpjpj]

Expanding on Dave's post, the HD-PVR is a USB device that takes the component-out from your HD cable box and sends it to your computer as a "tuner", which SageTV can control. It comes with a channel changing device to change the channel on your cable box when needed.

There are lots of threads about it around here....

[ericscottf]

Thanks, that looks like a great start.

I'm surprised there's only one like it.

Here's hoping for a cable card capture device within my lifetime...

For the record, i've emailed both sage customer support and hauppauge and neither have responded (you'd think they'd be happy to make a sale..). I hesitated to post to a forum where i knew i'd be chided for not finding the answer on my own, but at least i have somewhere to go from here.

thanks again!

[pjpjpjpj]

Occasionally you will get someone feeling grumpy who will tell you to research it yourself, but most of the time you will find people here are very helpful.

Goodness knows I have asked a bunch of noob questions myself, and generally I not only get an answer, but get some education.

The only problem is sometimes people are too helpful - you will get so many long and complex answers that you might find your head spinning!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by formerreplayguy

Here's hoping for a cable card capture device within my lifetime...

There is, but it only works with Windows Media Center (Vista or 7) and until later this year or early next year, they only work with prebuilt OEM machines. The licensing and development costs to create a secure system (read DRM/restriction laden) are so astronomical that only a company the size of Microsoft has been able to do it so far.

For the record, i've emailed both sage customer support and hauppauge and neither have responded (you'd think they'd be happy to make a sale..).

I don't know about Hauppauge, but if it's been more than 72 hours, either Sage didn't get your email, or their response got lost, probably in your provider's spam filter.

[davephan]

There are many things to consider when moving to SageTV. With SageTV, you can start off small and scale up. You need to decide how many channels you want to be able to record and what 'live' at the same time - that will determine how many tuners you will need. You also need to determine how many extenders you need too. You can start with one tuner and one extender, then build up over time.

The HD-PVR is one method of recording HD. It has one tuner. The upside, is the HD-PVR records HD. The downside and upside is that it records in H.264, instead of Mpeg2. The files are smaller, but the choices to edit the video files is more limited. You may have problems with the HD-PVR if you try to use the built-in IR blaster. If you have stability problems using the built-in IR blaster, that problem can be fixed by using the USB-UIRT IR blaster instead.

The HDHomeRun is another choice and has two tuners. It will record over the air HD, or cable HD if the cable system has clear QAM.

The HVR-2250 is another option, and has two tuners. I also have an older PVR-350.

I have have my channels partitioned into four types. Over the air, analog cable, digital cable, and HD digital cable. One HDHomeRun can record two over HD programs. One HD-PVR can record one digital HD cable channel using a set top cable box. One PVR-350 can record one digital non-HD channel using a set top box. One HVR-2250 can record two analog cable TV channels without a set top cable box.

To playback the video, you should use extenders. The HD-200 extender is the best choice, even if you do not have HD TVs yet. The cheaper MVP extenders can only playback Mpeg2 format directly. If you want to playback compressed video, the computer will need to transcode the file on the fly as you watch the program. If you computer is too weak, the video will stutter. The HD-200 can playback compressed video directly. The HD-200 also has much better audio quality than the MVP.

The best way to setup your SageTV computer is in a 'headless' configuration, using a HD-200 extender on each TV. The HD-200 will work on a SD or HD TV. You can playback HD recorded programs on a SD TV, although the top and bottom of the screen will be black, so the 16x9 image will fit on the 4x3 TV screen. If you scale up your system to multiple tuners, you will need to scale up your video storage. I have 5 TB, and it isn't enough. You can get by with less storage if you delete more programs that you did not have time to watch.

SageTV does require some tinkering to get it to work perfectly. The support on the forum will help you overcome problems that might occur. SageTV is a much better solution for 'centralizing' your videos, so you can watch them on any TVs in your home.

So, start small, and stay small. Or you can start small and scale up over time.


Dave