The Beginner's Guide to SageTV

[tchapin]

Hey there,

I wrote a blog post putting together my thoughts on The Beginner's Guide to SageTV. I'm sure it's not complete. I'd love to get your feedback, either here or on my blog.

Thanks.

Todd

[sic0048]

You might want to explain the differences between QAM, ATSC, and satellite TV and how you need a specific tuner for each situation.

Also, the USB-UIRT can blast out to 3 unique zones, so in your complex scenerio, you only need 1 device to control 3 identical STBs.

Other than that I think it is a great start.

[Brent]

Great job! Definitely something I'll be linking to from GeekTonic.

[tchapin]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback. I was also thinking of making a glossary page, as there's tons of terms and acronyms that get thrown around.

Todd

[freedml]

I like it. Made a long post of comments and my experiences with SageTV

[JerryB]

Good work. However, you should add in ShowAnalyzer as a Comskip alternative for commercial skipping.

[hucker]

For me the most important thing that is missing from the descriptions of SageTV are block diagrams.

[tchapin]

Hey Hucker,

I'm going to add a link to this diagram. Do you think that would sufficient?

Thanks.

Todd

[pjpjpjpj]

The one thing I would be sure to point out - because this is a selling point to many people (it was to me) - is that, if you watch TV on HD Extenders only, you really don't need a fast computer for HD, or one purchased within the last two years or so (as are both mentioned near the top of your page). You can record HD on a device like an HDHR, and watch it on an extender, with an old, slow computer (see my sig!).

Which brings up another item... you have no mention of the (extremely popular with SageTV) HDHomerun (HDHR). It's a dual-tuner, ATSC/QAM network device, so it does not require a card slot. It works well for QAM from cable, but is a great option for OTA reception, as you can place it close to your antenna (thus shortening the length of signal-attenuating coax cable from the antenna to the tuner). OTA via HDHR may be the easiest and least glitchy setup of all of the SageTV tuner options.

I also think it's safe to say - and "to each their own", so no offense - that a high majority of users would not be happy with one tuner. Many of your examples indicate having only one tuner (which you indicate that you have)... but most people want at least two (so they can record one show while watching another). From informal polls taken on this site that I have seen over the years, it seems like most SageTV users have, on average, around 4 to 6 tuners. Several have 10+. Depending on what devices you use, this does not really make the setup "advanced". For example, I have two HDHRs - 4 tuners - and the setup basically required plugging them in, attaching the cables, and adding them in SageTV. SageTV found them, scanned and found my available channels, and that was it. Easy.

I made this a while ago - feel free to borrow, paraphrase, and just plain plagiarize it you want (see the attachment to the first post):
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...hlight=dummies

[tchapin]

Hey pj,

Thanks for pointing me to that doc you wrote. I'll be sure to incorporate some of the points.

I think your estimation of the number of tuners that "most" SageTV owners have is perhaps skewed by the more vocal, more technical people on this forum. You're right thought that I wrote my doc coming from my biases. I think I was pretty up-front about them in the doc.

SageTV can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. One thing that I want to try to get across to readers is that it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.

I don't know much about the HDHR, which is probably why I skipped it, but I'll include some basic information.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by tchapin

I think your estimation of the number of tuners that "most" SageTV owners have is perhaps skewed by the more vocal, more technical people on this forum.

I don't know if that's necessarily true. A few years back, someone set up a poll thread on this "general discussion" portion of the forum, just asking out of curiosity, how many tuners people were using. A lot of people responded, and there was no slant or bias or reason for them to lie... so I would expect that the only thing that would skew the "true" numbers would be the unknown percentage of SageTV users who never even come on this forum. But I've been surfing here almost daily for over two years and it seemed like most of the active posters at the time all chimed in on that poll.

Also note that Brent (of geektonic) has a thread going right now on the forum asking what people have in their setups, as far as tuners and OS. Keep an eye on it, and you'll get an idea of what a lot of people are doing these days.

Originally Posted by tchapin

SageTV can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. One thing that I want to try to get across to readers is that it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.

Very true, but I guess my point is that you can have a pretty nice PVR solution - in that you can have multiple tuners - and still have it be completely uncomplicated, depending on what tuners you use. Heck, if you buy one HDHR and build a DIY antenna, that's cheap as can be, and still gives you two tuners so you can watch one thing while recording another.

Originally Posted by tchapin

I don't know much about the HDHR, which is probably why I skipped it, but I'll include some basic information.

Other than the HD-PVR, which is currently the only non-hack way to get HD from cable/sat, I would venture a guess that it's probably the most widely-used tuner amongst Sage users. Seems like even those with HD cable/sat and several HD-PVRs will also throw on one HDHR to get two more tuners from either cable QAM or an antenna.

Originally Posted by tchapin

Thanks again for the feedback.

And thank you for writing this. It's always good to have a recently-updated "how to" hanging around on the front page for new users (or curious, thinking-about-buying people) to read... and mine's not getting updated any time soon.