Can SageTV 6.6 coexist with Orb and Windows 7 Media Center. How does it compare?

[rdwolf]

I have been using both Windows Media Center (XP then Vista and now WIndows 7) for some time and I like it alot in Windows 7 for live TV viewing and DVR functionality.

I have also been using Orb (XP, Vista and now Windows 7) for some time and I have been also pretty happy with that. The Orb allows me to watch any of my live TV channels (DirectTV set top box s-video input and ATSC Outdoor antenna) are my video inputs now) or recorded shows (done via Windows Media Center or with Orb). I can watch the live or recorded shows on another PC in my home or on anywhere that has high speed internet just by bringing up the Orb Web page for my account. It also lets me watch my live or recorded TV on ipod Touch, Android G1 phone (3G or Wifi), Wii box (via Opera web browser) etc...

The problem I am having with Orb is there seems to be a lot if issues whenever I switch to a new TV Capture card etc.. Problems crop up in getting the Orb Recorded video (.dvr-ms format) to play both video (fine) and audio (does not play at all or in some cases the volume is very low and can not turn up volume). I am trying to get to the bottom of all these issues with Orb recorded video (it seems they use free GNU Dscaler5 by default for MPEG2 codec for Video record) and the support site for the free Dscaler5 says they have lots of issues with support for audio on many TV Tuner cards... Also, getting the IR Receiver/blasters to work also is problematic.. What a headache.... That is one reason I am looking into SageTV.


I also have the Slingbox PRO HD connected to my DirecTV component output and it works very well (great video/audio etc) but it is not cheap ($300) and it of course only lets you watch live or DirectTV/cable box/etc. DVR's recorded shows. It is not a DVR itself.

So I have downloaded the SageTV ver 6.6 and Placeshifter (to do some of the functionality I use Orb or my Slingbox for) and also SageTV Client (for home network).

I am working on building PC DVRs and I am considering SageTV to use instead of using Windows Media Center (free) and Orb (free).

I am going to mostly be doing Windows 7 based PCs (some Vista and XP also).


Question 1) Can anyone tell me if I can have both Orb Server and SageTV ver 6.6 coexist on my Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit PC (it is very powerfull PC with plenty of CPU, RAM, Hard Drive etc.). Allow me to test by viewing live TV or recording by each (I can add multiple tuners etc. as needed).

Question 2) Can I also use Windows 7 Home Prem 64 bit Media Center to view shows and record shows while the SageTV ver 6.6 is also installed. I can install a 2nd and even third TV tuner (see below) to help.

I have a Hauppauge 1800 PCIe card now (S-video from Set top box, and ATSC Outdoor Antenna) and will most likely get Hauppague 2250 PCIe card (can connect ATSC Outdoor antenna and Set top box s-video) as well and can allocate tuners on each card to either Orb or SageTV etc..

Also, for set top boxes, if I share a TV Tuner between Windows 7 Media Center and SageTV ver 6.6 for example, could that work? Not sure how SageTV ver 6.6 works when WIndows Media Center is also setup to use a Tuner or shared tuner, etc..


I want to be able to do this to be able to test/evalaute SageTV ver 6.6, Orb and Windows 7 Home Prem. and would like to not have to buy another PC, etc. to do that.
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Comparing SageTV ver 6.6, Orb, Windows Media Center (win 7) and Slingbox PRO HD:
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Question 3) How would people rate SageTV vs Orb vs Slingbox. I know each has it's pro's and con's. Also, each has certain functions it can do and not do (for example the Slingbox is not a DVR or can not do many things SageTV does).

>> I am most intrested in hearing how the Picture quality and audio compares on Local Network (home) or over internet between the SageTV (Client for home) Placeshifter for Internet and Orb (bring up Orb web browser at home (streams local) over internet (goes thru Orb stream servers) and Slingbox Pro HD (home network or over internet). I suspect Slingbox PRO HD has the best picture and audio quality but I have not yet seen SageTV in action at home or internet. I am interested in playing live TV content or recorded TV content.

>> Also, what other advantages would SageTV have over the others in funtions they all do (streaming live TV, playing recorded TV, etc.).

I have downloaded eval. of SageTV 6.6 and Client and Placeshifter and will be testing this week once I can get my set top box IR Receiver/Blaster to work (have another topic on that in hardware part of forum) but I would really like to hear how others compare these options.

Thanks in advance for any help on any or all of my questions in this thread.

[MitchSchaft]

Yeah, it'll do that no problem.

[rdwolf]

Ok, Do you need to have 1 TV Tuner card or input for Windows Media Center, Orb Sage 6.6?

How about if you have a Hauppauge 2250 with Built in IR blaster. Can you easily toggle between Windows Media Center using and SageTV 6.6 using, etc..

[MitchSchaft]

Not sure why you would want to switch between the 2. Sage will do all of it by itself.

[toricred]

For one thing, your tuner can only be used by Sage or MC not both at the same time. Also you have to shut down one and start the other to change which application is using it.

[rdwolf]

When you say the tuner can only be used by SageTV or Windows Media Center but not both that makes sense. But what I am unclear about is if this a Tuner input on a card or seperate cards that need to be setup with either SageTV 6.6 or Windows Media Center in Win 7.

For example, I have a Hauppague 2250 PCIe TV Tuner installed in my Win 7 Home Prem 64 bit. I have a comcast cable antenna connected to the coax input and an S-Video from Comcast set top box connected to the S-video input.

The 2250 is a Dual Tuner that can handle up to 4 video sources (2 digital and 2 analog) and can choose from any of the 4 but only record 2 at a time... Windows 7 (unlike Vista and XP) Media Center can mix and match up to 4 video sources any way you want (e.g. 2 digital and 2 analog, 4 digital, 3 Digital and 1 analog etc.).

So in this setup, I describe above, the coax cable from Comcast I have selected Analog Cable as Tuner 1, Clear QAM as Tuner 2, S-video as analog cable source for Tuner 3. The Hauppauge supports this and so does Windows 7 Media Center. This is a total of 3TV Tuner inputs but all from the same PCIe 2250 card.

So, can I setup Windows 7 Media Center to use the TV Tuner inputs 1) Analog Cable, 2) Digital Cable (Clear QAM) and have SageTV 6.6 use the Analog cable (S-video) input from the set top box? Also, this 2250 card has built in IR Receiver/Blaster port to control the set top box. So would SageTV 6.6, in this example, be able to change the channels on set top box with 2250 IR Blaster? Or maybe I must use USB-UIRT for such a complicated setup.


As I said, in original post, I am trying to run a mixture of SageTV 6.6, Orb and Widows Media Center (Win 7) in this PC to do testing for building set top boxes and evaluate the three different PC DVR Programs. I am new to SageTV but it looks very good...

Thanks in advance for any help.

[MitchSchaft]

FYI, you can have as many tuners as you want and whatever config with Vista and XP with reg hacks.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by rdwolf

So in this setup, I describe above, the coax cable from Comcast I have selected Analog Cable as Tuner 1, Clear QAM as Tuner 2, S-video as analog cable source for Tuner 3. The Hauppauge supports this and so does Windows 7 Media Center. This is a total of 3TV Tuner inputs but all from the same PCIe 2250 card.

In SageTV, you will set this as 6 tuners. "2 analog tuners", "2 digital", and "2 tuners that require an external tuner". The analog tuners will have the same lineup, etc. The reason for this, are devices like the HDHomerun, that can have 2 tuners, but can function as but QAM (cable) or OTA (antenna) at the same time. It's a little hassle, but doesn't really take that long to add the second tuner with all the same data. You will be able to record from any 2 at the same time, I did for about a year. (2 analog, 2 digital, and 1 video from a cable box) You can look into the advance tuner control if you want to get fancy.

The hardest part is the QAM channels, but if WMC will give you the real channel numbers, you can record that, and get your guide setup faster. I used the data from my HDHomerun and had the 2250 setup in about 10 minutes.

The software will then merge all the channel lineups into a single guide. It will then try to record the all your shows buy recording ones that don't interfere with each other. So if you want to watch 3 shows that are only on the S-Video inputs at the same time, it will look to see if one repeats, and then get it at a later time. Or if there are on both the analog and digital, it grabs the one that isn't being used. Or if marked HD, I think it gets that first (I just disable the LD channel, so only have a HD channel)


Hope that helps.