SageTV, what am I in for?

[lolachampcar]

I just read alllll the way throuh the SageTV FAQs. Is SageTV really that complicated to setup and maintain? I've got the HD Homerun and am planing on picking up a HD PVR today along with considering a R5000 HD. How long is it going to take from getting my SageTV license to sitting on the couch watching through my 200 HD? Can it ever be treated as an apliance and left alone?

I am not looking for exact answers just a feel for the process. I went Vista to hold down the time consumption and just want to know what I am getting myself into (on top of pulling all that CAT6e through the house)

[tmiranda]

The initial setup really does not take long. (No longer than BTV.) Once you start "tinkering" it will take mor time mostly because of your initial learning curve.

IMHO here is how I'd suggest proceeding:
- Install Sage and get you analog tuner(s) working.
- Install the HDHR and get that working.
- Setup your Favorites.

After you get these basics working look into the following:
- Commercial skipping using either ShowAnalyzer or Comskip.
- Install the web interface.

Next decide which interface (STV) you prefer. The most popular are the default, the default with the "hidden extras", SageMC.

After that there are tons of extras to enhance various things or add completely new functionality. Browse through the download section to see what's available.

Some common terminology that usually confuses people:

- STV = Interface. Sage has a "core" and an "STV" the STV defines the user interface.

- STVi = STV Import. Changes the STV functionality or adds new functionality.

- SageMC = A custom STV that replaces the default STV.

- .properties file = Config file that contains various options that can be "tweaked". It's a text file.

There are lots of helpful people here on the forums so search and then ask if you do not find (or do not understand) an answer.

Tom

[src666]

The SageTV FAQ answers a lot of questions that a lot of people have come up with over the years. It does not outline the typical effort needed to run SageTV. It captures the edge cases (like the section on transferring to a new server).

I've been running SageTV as an appliance. For the past year, I have done almost nothing to the system. It just works. Some people have different experiences, but if you are willing to push through the initial installation and customization, you can have it up and running in a day or two, and then just ignore it. If you skip the customization part, you can be running in hours.

[lolachampcar]

I was hoping that was the answer.

I am up to two tuners (HomeRun and HD PVR) and getting ready to get a license and have a go at it.

Anyone recently been through this and would like to share what they learned?

[mayamaniac]

Getting the tuners to setup is a piece of cake. The HDHR works quite well with SageTV, very easy to setup now compare to when it was released years ago. Just follow the instruction from the SiliconDust site. The HD-PVR is pretty straight forward also, just install the driver and ArcSoft codec. The only tricky part is how to change channels on your STB, this task can be a bit challenging depending on the method you choose (IR Blaster, Serial, or Firewire).

Use the SageTV as it is without any customizations for a while. Once you get a good feel of the SageTV experience and are used to its interface, then you can start tinkering with the plugins, themes, and other customizations.

[sic0048]

Following these directions to get the HD-PVR running can help cut down on the time it takes you to get up and running.

[davephan]

You might consider starting small, and building up your system over time. You can start with SageTV computer, a HD-200 extender, and your HDHomerun with for the air digital TV, or clear QAM , if your cable system has it.

Later, you can expand to more video sources, such as set top cable or satellite boxes. You can then expand your storage to multiple terrabytes, multiple tuners, and a USB-UIRT or another method to switch channels.

I suggest that you use HD-200 extenders, one for each SD or HD TV. Install SageTV on your C drive with your operating system. Use secondary drives for video storage, formatted with 64K blocks.

Run the SageTV computer 'headless'. The 'headless' mode has SageTV running as a service, not as an application. The SageTV computer can then be located in an out of the way room.

Periodically image the SageTV computer's C drive. Store the images on a USB hard drive. After you take a C drive image, recover the image onto the C drive. Modern imaging programs are very reliable to recover the computer, but without testing the recovery, you won't have confidence that the recovery will work when it is needed. When people get used to SageTV running, they will not want much downtime. The image can save you a lot of hassle recovering the computer, if you run into trouble. You never want to have to rebuild your system from scratch, since it just too much hassle and time.

You can also add automatic commercial skipping, the web server, and many other accessory programs, most are free or sold at a very low cost.


Dave

[cjalphonso]

Be careful with Vista. If your setting yours up under the regular Sagetv.exe and you decide to switch to the Sageservice you will be in for a big surprise. Take a look at this thread I just started as I'm using Windows 7 and ran into this issue. Once I resolved this issue as indicated in the thread, all is well.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45142