Moving a Sage install to a Windows 7 box

[tonysathre]

I just formatted the computer that runs the SageTV server to Windows 7. Before I upgraded, I backed up the entire SageTV installation folder. Will it work without reinstalling, as long as all the paths are the same? The reason I'm skeptical about starting from scratch is that I have all the metadata as it should be. If I reinstall fresh, I would have to go back and make sure that all the metadata/fanart that gets auto-downloaded is correct, and doing that for 1500 movies would take forever. I did that once, and it took almost 2 weeks working on it on and off. Is there a way to have it not download it if it already exists?

My other option is to put the SageTV server on another computer running Windows XP, but I'm not sure the specs are high enough for HD playback. The other downside of this is that I would have to use mapped network drives, or UNC paths because most of my storage is on the Windows 7 box. Will Sage work with UNC paths over a 100mb network connection for HD playback? The setup would be as follows:

Samsung 52" TV -> HD100 Extender -> 100Mb Switch -> Wall plate -> Router

The Windows 7 box is connected directly to the router, and the Windows XP machine is connected to the switch.

What is my easiest/safest way to get SageTV up and running again, because I was reading that Windows 7 isn't fully supported yet.

Here are the specs for the Windows XP machine:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
2 GB RAM
Nvidia 7900 GT
WD 250 GB system volume (IDE)
WD 250 GBx2 in RAID0

I have about 1.88 TB of total content. So it won't all fit on the Windows XP system unless I do some drive swapping.

Thanks,

Tony

[SWKerr]

You will need to install all tuner drivers and codecs again and reinstall sage. Setup the guide, tuners and libraries and make sure it all works. Shut down sage and then drop the wiz.bin into the new setup from the old backup. Finally add all the plugins and reference the folders that held the fanart etc that were on the old system.

[tonysathre]

Thanks, sounds straight forward. Is there a way to stop BMI from automagically grabbing fanart and metadata for videos that already have it? That is my main concern.

Tony

[SWKerr]

I believe you just need to import BMI as a STVi and you are good. There is a setting under the BMI options for automatic import that you can set to disable. If I recall you have quite a few steps in addition to installing the STVi that would be required to make the automatic piece work.

I don't use the auto anymore as I prefer to have more control over what gets chosen. I don't seem to have enough new additions to the library to make this tedious.

[tonysathre]

Thanks, I got it all setup now. Took me over an hour to figure out how to browser UNC paths without getting the 'Invalid Directory' error. What a pain. Thanks for the info.

Tony

[timg11]

SWKerr, Is it always safe to move WIZ.BIN? I have been making the transition from XP to Win 7 by dual-booting. I leave the computer running XP normally, so it can continue to record shows. When nothing is scheduled, I boot to Windows 7 and perform debugging.

I think I finally have SageTV working in Windows 7 (the Native Recording patches were the key for me). I can record from the HDHomeRun and HD-PVR, and play back video, so I think I'm ready to "go live". I solved issues with the protected folders by just setting the C:\Program Files\SageTV folders to be writable by Users. (rather than installing in a non-default location as other have proposed)

Can I just copy the WIZ.BIN from the XP partition into the same folder in my Windows 7 partition and be "up to date" in terms of my favorites and recording schedules? I know I don't want to copy Sage.properties, since the configurations are quite different.

[Polypro]

Your "working" Sage folder is the holy grail...as long as you have that, you can always go back. When I went from Vista to 7, I just copied the folder over with 99% success. The only thing I had to do was remove my HDHR tuners, add them back, and scan. I scanned in both the HDHR app, and Sage...don't know if I needed to, but it doesn't hurt (I believe my PVR500's were fine with serial changing and DirecTV, but YMMV). Everything else just worked.

P

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by timg11

SWKerr, Is it always safe to move WIZ.BIN? I have been making the transition from XP to Win 7 by dual-booting. I leave the computer running XP normally, so it can continue to record shows. When nothing is scheduled, I boot to Windows 7 and perform debugging.

I think I finally have SageTV working in Windows 7 (the Native Recording patches were the key for me). I can record from the HDHomeRun and HD-PVR, and play back video, so I think I'm ready to "go live". I solved issues with the protected folders by just setting the C:\Program Files\SageTV folders to be writable by Users. (rather than installing in a non-default location as other have proposed)

Can I just copy the WIZ.BIN from the XP partition into the same folder in my Windows 7 partition and be "up to date" in terms of my favorites and recording schedules? I know I don't want to copy Sage.properties, since the configurations are quite different.

Yes. I have done it several times.
When I moved to WHS everything was in a different location but as long as the file name is the same Sage will find it and all will be as before.

wiz.bin is king. Keep a good copy backup as well.

[OneOfMany]

Good info here.. I am doing it a little different. I've restructured my WHS setup directories to better organize my videos after testing on a standalone Server/Client machine to test the fanart stuff. On my main client I am still seeing the darn old entries for my imported videos, so I shut down the WHS Sage service, copied out the wiz.bin, and restarted it, creating a new one. This was last night at around 1AM. I tried refreshing the imported directories a few times, nothing. Also of course, no guide data. Rescanned the channels on the tuners, all is well with them although the No Data caused super slow channel changes. No problem, as I figured a good nights sleep, and all would be well in the AM. This morning, same thing.. no guide data (is there an actual way to update it manually?), no imported directories

Also, re: the dreaded 'Invalid Directory' issue, I can't remember that one either (been a while), how to do it? Is it just editing the sage.properties file?

Thanks again
Grant

**EDIT** Of course after writing this post, I check the post after this one, and there is the link to solve all my problems lol. ***

However, if I create a new wiz.bin file (I don't care at this point about my TV recordings and favorites), can I simply repopulate it with new data as a new install would?

Grant

[tonysathre]

Polypro, when you say "you just copied the folder over", is that exactly how you got it setup on the new system? You just copied the entire SageTV folder to the new system and it just worked? That was basically my original question, but I was told I had to reinstall fresh. So my question, is it safe to just copy a SageTV folder to a new system with a different OS as long as the paths would be the exact same, without reinstalling.

Tony

[gplasky]

You have to install Sage for it to work with your new OS installation. THEN you can copy over your previous folder over the new installation.

Gerry

[Polypro]

^ Correct. Sorry, I sometimes forget not everybody has been using Sage for years Install Sage, set up the service if you use it (log on as a user acct, etc...) and then just copy over your working folder after deleting the just installed one.

P

[timg11]

I completed testing my SageTV installation in Windows 7 (I verified that it can play recorded shows, and can watch live TV from both the HDHomerun tuner and the HD-PVR).

Today, I wanted to see if I could "go live" and leave it to run on its own and record shows. I booted into Windows 7, copied WIZ.BIN from the XP partition into the Windows 7 SageTV folder, and started SageTV. Everything looked normal - the Scheduled Programs list showed the expected upcoming shows.

I left it running until after the start of the first show. When I checked it, it was not recording. The show that should have been recording had dropped off the scheduled recordings list.
I was able to use Watch Live TV and see the show that was supposed to be recording.

Why would scheduled recordings not work under Windows 7 when everything else seems to be fine?

[SWKerr]

Are you sure there was no conflict?
Set to only use a particular station?
repeat?

[timg11]

There was definitely no conflict. I booted back to XP, and everything started recording again.

I did a further test, where I shut down SageTV in XP, copied the latest WIZ.BIN from the XP partition to the Win7 partition, booted to Win7, ran SageTV, and then scheduled a show to record in the next few minutes. It recorded OK.

So something about previously scheduled recordings is a problem? All the other scheduled shows appear in the listing of Scheduled Shows, but they don't record...

I really don't want to have to re-create all my favorites and schedules just to move to Windows 7.

[Tiki]

I just went through this same process with no problems over the last week or so. Only difference was I didn't dual-boot. I built a new PC with Win 7 64bit, moved my capture cards over , copied my Wiz.bin and so far no problems with missed recordings.

Are you sure there were no errors in the log file? Has it happened more than once? If it is happening with shows that were already in the schedule, maybe it has something to do with how Windows is identifying the capture cards?

You didn't mention what type of capture device(s) you are are using. Another possibility is that it attempted the recording and for some reason there was "no signal", so Sage aborted and deleted the file. This is a possibility with digital tuning devices like the HDHR.

After you completed the setup, did you go to the "Setup Video Sources" screen, then go to channel setup for each tunner, and preview several channels to make sure they tune correctly?