Another New User Setup Recommendations

[hackzaw]

I've searched around here trying to educate myself on the use of a SageTV setup, so I'd like to post what I want to achieve, the equipment I have, and hopefully the kind people here will suggest what I need to do.

Current situation:
1. Subscriber to cable tv (Southern Ontario, Canada) and find it $$$$$$ considering what we watch. Ultimately, I'd like to cancel cable tv altogether.
2. I have become an HD "snob" and find SD content unwatchable (for my tastes anyways)
3. I rent ($$$) a dual HD tuner PVR (160GB) from my cable company. My future solution HAS to be dual (or more) tuner, with full PVR capabilities.
4. My wife likes Video on Demand (VOD) for our 2 year son for watching kid's programming like Thomas, Barney, etc, so future solution must be able to watch "on demand" kid's programming content.
5. I've experimented with Over the Air (OTA) and can pull in 20-25 digital HD channels. I'm REALLY, REALLY impressed with the quality of OTA channels, and will cancel cable once we're satisfied that the OTA solution is satisfactory.
6. I have a Dell 435mt desktop i7 920 quad core, 8GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, dual DVI out vid card (can't remember specifics), SPDIF Optical out. I have this networked currently through a Belkin wireless router (not sure of the throughput), but would upgrade to Gigabit if necessary.
7. Currently we watch 100% of our TV on 1 TV. Eventually, we will require the service to 2 or maybe 3 TV's total.
8. I do watch stored content on my PC currently streamed to my PS3 using PS3 Media Server. It's okay, but I'm not overly impressed. I get stuttering, and out of sync audio/video sometimes. But I do like the simplicity of the interface at the PS3.
9. One day I may want to watch streaming content from the web to the TV.

I'm sure there's more I could add, but that's the basics.

So, I guess I'll put it out there what I THINK I need based on what I've learned thus far:

A. I need a ASTC dual tuner card (like an HVR 2250) for my OTA feed
B. I need a SageTV Media Server installed on my Dell i7 920.
C. Not sure if I NEED an extender (HD300) for my main TV. But from what I've read, it makes things far more convenient i.e. remote, interface with TV, decoding, etc.
D. For future TV's I'll need more extenders, either connected via an ethernet connection to my network, or wireless with the adaptor.

I'm not sure what to do about Video on Demand for Kid's programming (Thomas, Barney, etc). I know some of this can be viewed on Youtube, but I don't even like how that works. (Take Thomas and Friends for instance - there's piles of 1 min videos, but a two year isn't content with 1 minute of video)

Do I have it about right?

One aspect I'm unsure about is streaming media content from the web. It seems devices just emerging on the market right now are trying to be a one-stop-shop. Like Google TV on the Logitech Revue. Or the Boxee Box.

Is SageTV's product still "future proof" if more and more content starts streaming from internet. Can SageTV do that now?

Can you please comment on how you would do a setup for me given how I described my situation. Thanks in acvance!!

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by hackzaw

So, I guess I'll put it out there what I THINK I need based on what I've learned thus far:

A. I need a ASTC dual tuner card (like an HVR 2250) for my OTA feed
B. I need a SageTV Media Server installed on my Dell i7 920.
C. Not sure if I NEED an extender (HD300) for my main TV. But from what I've read, it makes things far more convenient i.e. remote, interface with TV, decoding, etc.
D. For future TV's I'll need more extenders, either connected via an ethernet connection to my network, or wireless with the adaptor.

Yep, that's pretty much right. On the tuner side, I'd recommend a SiliconDust HD HomeRun. I find it a lot easier to set up and manage than my Hauppauge HVR-1600. And I'd also highly recommend going with an extender, rather than using TV-out with your desktop/sage server.

Originally Posted by hackzaw

One aspect I'm unsure about is streaming media content from the web. It seems devices just emerging on the market right now are trying to be a one-stop-shop. Like Google TV on the Logitech Revue. Or the Boxee Box.

Is SageTV's product still "future proof" if more and more content starts streaming from internet. Can SageTV do that now?

Well, the options for streaming content over the Internet aren't great, but there are some options. One way would be to simply ignore the advice about going with an extender and use a computer instead. Basically that would let you break out of Sage when you want to stream from a website, or using a different application, like Hulu Desktop.

A slightly better option, at least for people in the US, is to buy PlayOn, and run it on your server. PlayOn will basically transcode video coming from sources like Netflix and Hulu, so you can play things back on extenders. The way it does this is a little goofy. It basically plays back the Internet video on your PlayOn server, and records the video. It does this transparently in the background, though, so you won't see a Netflix window appear on your PlayOn server if you starting watching Netflix on an extender.

It works, and I use it a little bit. But, there are certainly downsides. You need a pretty beefy server to run PlayOn on (which you already have). Video quality isn't as good as more official methods for playing back the video. For instance, you can't get Netflix videos in HD. And sometimes it just won't work. Netflix support has been pretty solid for a while now, but its my understanding that its been a bit buggy in the past. Even now I sometimes run into a situation where if I start watching a TV show or movie on Netflix that I've already seen, I end up getting the very end of the movie with no way to rewind.

I have a Netflix-capable blu-ray player connected to my main TV. I always use that when I'm in that room, but I'll occasionally use PlayOn with my extender on the smaller TV in my bedroom.

I don't know what sort of streaming options are available in Canada, and if PlayOn supports very many Canadian sites. So, I'm not sure if its a viable option for Canadian users.

I don't expect to see native support for streaming from major websites in Sage. Even Google is having a hard time getting support from the networks to do that with GoogleTV.

[KeithAbbott]

+1 for the extender, and the SiliconDust HD HomeRun. An added benefit to the HD HomeRun is that you can physically locate it closer to the antenna, minimizing signal loss.

I didn't see anything in your needs regarding playback of DVDs, either ripped or physical. Back when my kids were two, it would have been terrific to have a library of ripped kid's DVDs to replay over and over again ad nauseum...

[hackzaw]

Great points guys and thanks for the recommendations. I'll have to give the HD Homerun a serious look.

I don't know what I'm talking about, but I get the impression years down the road, our significant source for video entertainment might come through the internet. I'm only suggesting that based on these newer devices that are trying to amalgomate many sources (like what Google Tv appears to do). I wouldn't say currently I have a NEED to watch streamed content off the web, just that I anticipate one day it becoming more mainstream.

I hadn't thought about streamed content, like Netflix, and how to get it over to an extender. Currently not much of a concern, and it would be nice if Sage could do that, but nice to know PlayOn is an alternative.

KeithAbbott - good call on the DVD's. We have a few for kid's and you're right, I can see where having all DVD's ripped to a library would make for easy, (repeated), viewing. I haven't even considered how to do that. I'm sure it's pretty straight forward (with the exception of Blu-Rays and the fact I don't have a Blu-Ray player in my PC). I know the PS3 plays Blue-Ray's.

It would be fantastic to have a library of all kid's stuff on the media server for immediate viewing. Thomas would get a workout.

[pjpjpjpj]

The posts above just about cover it. I can't speak for Canada, but here in my (American) city, the public library has tons of kids DVDs for borrowing. There are entire kiosks with Thomas, Dora, VeggieTales, Blues Clues, and several others. There's always plenty for my young one to choose from (though she seems to prefer recorded-from-OTA-PBS "Sesame Street" more than anything).

I don't have a lot of DVDs (compared to some here), but all that I have are ripped onto hard drives (see my sig). In fact, I don't even use my DVD player anymore - if someone comes over with a DVD, I rip it and watch it through Sage, and delete it after. There are several freeware/shareware DVD rippers out there - I like DVDFab myself.

As for streaming (again, check local Canadian situations), you might want to look into a standalone gadget (like a newer Blu-Ray player) that natively streams online content like Netflix. You say that you are addicted to HD, so I suspect that the PlayOn plugin wouldn't satisfy you. There is a lot of content available through PlayOn - probably more than any BD player would ever provide you - but the quality is pretty clearly SD.

As for your current router... first, I would count on your server being hardwired to it (did you mention whether it is?). Wireless HD streaming is still not a perfected sceience. As for bandwidth, assume OTA HD will be in the 15-20 Mbps range, per stream. So if you were recording two HD programs at once, and watching another on an HD extender, that would be (worst case) 60 Mbps (20x3) through the router, on a (presumably) 100 Mbps router. You'd likely be fine with that. But if you add another extender, you'd start getting up in the danger zone with bandwidth, especially since you'd have a little bit coming in from your internet connection, and whatever else you might have going on with your network. So I wouldn't bother investing in a gigabit network right now (since you are watching on only one TV), but you might consider it in the future if you end up with two extenders.