Question about whole house setup.

[kwaugh]

As my first post, forgive me if this is too basic, but I've been able to figure it out via the board before I jump in...

I'd like to have 1 HD cable box and a pc with SageTV installed in my basement. SageTV would control the cable box. I know that this is all simple stuff with SageTV.

I'd then like to repalce cable boxes throughout the house with PC's that would be able to watch both live and recorded TV.

I'm guessing that this is a basic SageTV implementation, but before I start down the path, I figure I'd better check with the pros.

I'm current a big Girder/NetRemote user and the ultimate goal will be to integrate SageTV with my automation systems...

Thanks in advance!

K

[wrems]

I would look at extenders in place of full blown client pc’s. Unless you absolutely need internet for browsing etc… Then possibly a mixture of HD200’s and clients connected to a dedicated server and possibly WHS… The HD200’s are a breeze to set up and maintain over multiple clients. Additionally, they suck only around 7 watts and can playback nearly anything you throw at it. They perform well and now you can get Hulu and Netflix content through them.

[kwaugh]

Thanks for the response, that's good to hear. I think the HD200's would be good most of my needs.

My main concern was that I'd lose the ability to watch live TV in multiple rooms at the same time, but it looks like I'm on the right path!

Thanks again!

K

[davephan]

You still can watch live cable TV around your house. There's several options. You can watch live TV with SageTV, but you would need enough tuners for each TV that is watching live TV at the same time. I don't know what happens if two HD-200 boxes watch the same live TV channel at the same time, if it only consumes one tuner on SageTV, or if it takes two tuners.

Another way you can still watch live TV is to watch only the analog cable channels on the TVs without cable boxes.

Still another way is to keep the cable boxes at each TV, and switch between the cable box and SageTV using the TV's input control.

I have a cable box for each of my two main TVs because my wife wants to watch live TV at times without SageTV. This gives her the option to watch live TV without the slow channel surfing that you would experience with SageTV's live TV. There is an extra monthly cost for a couple of cable boxes, but that is the price for a higher WAF.

My other seldomly used TV's are connected to analog cable directly, they then receive only some of the cable channels. I plan to setup my older MVP units on the seldomly used TVs as I replace the MVPs with HD-200s.

Don't waste your time with the MVP, even if you don't have HD TVs yet. The HD-200 is far superior to the MVP for picture and sound quality. The HD-200 is also much more reliable. The MVPs loose connectivity from time to time, requiring them to be powered down to reset them.

If you are going to start with one HD cable box, then you are probably going to start with one HD-200, one HD-PVR, and one USB-UIRT. I do not recommend using the built-in IR blaster on the HD-PVR, since it can cause the HD-PVR to be unstable. This seems to be a design flaw with the HD-PVR. Some people are able to use the built in HD-PVR IR blaster, but probably most need to use the USB-UIRT to control the HD cable box.

You joined the forum almost a year ago, so maybe its your time to jump in!

Dave

[kwaugh]

Ok, I jumped in and bought a HomeRunHD, hooked it up to cable, hooked it up to network, installed SageTV and viola, I'm watching TV on my pc.

BUT for some reason, I thought I'd be able to watch my basic cable channels via the HRHD, vs the 20 or so channels my local Cox provider gives me. (Yeah, I'm an idiot who had no idea what QAM really meant until about 15 minutes ago!).

So, my question is this - if I want to be able to watch basic cable channels, how would I go about that? Do I need some sort of additional capture card (assuming yes)?

Thanks for the continued help!

K

[tchapin]

Hi there,

Yes, you would need to get another tuner. I have an old Hauppauge PVR150 (That i think isn't even made any more.) and it's been great for the past 2 years.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods.html

Looks like there's the Hauppauge 1600 available in the SageTV store.
http://store.sagetv.com/mm5/merchant...tegory_Code=HD


Todd

[kwaugh]

Ok, off to the store to pick up a capture card.

I will say that the over the network HRHD is pretty awesome. Can't wait to add cable to the mix!

Thanks again!

K

[Fuzzy]

The other option you might look at, is pick up a used PVR-500 (dual NTSC analog tuner). This will get your analog cable channels in to sage (two at a time). They can be had on eBay for about $40. Another option, is to, as you add more Sage viewing locations, move those cable boxes down to the Sage Server, and use THEM connected to the S-Video input of the PVR-500. This will give you two more tuners to use.

There, are, of course, other options (such as the HD-PVR for capturing HD via component from an HD cable box). I'm just looking to start you off 'on the cheap'.