I've been asleep for a couple of years..

[Yombute]

I am SO disappointed in what has happened with my beloved Sage TV since I had to give up cable (and, thus, my PVR setup on my PC) a few years ago.
I've decided to go back to cable television again but as I was trying to determine what kind of BOX I should get (HD Box, Digital Box, Cable card?) I found all of this info about Sage being bought by Google. At this point, I'm not sure it's even worth the trouble. I've poked around for a couple of hours trying to piece together everything I would need and I'm completely confused. I guess you folks can help me determine what my next step will be.

I HAVE an old(er) Hauppauge 2250 dual tuner that used to work smashingly. Then everything went digital and I could no longer just plug the cable into my Tuner any longer. Now, of course, I have to figure this out all over again.
Since the 2250 won't record HD (to the best of my knowledge) I would need either a digital box or a cable card for the PC, correct?
Once I do that, do I HAVE to have a separate piece to change channels or can I still do that within the SAGE software?

If I have to purchase new hardware I'll probably just blow it off but I sure do miss the setup I used to have. I understand that I'll also be up against DRM now so I should not expect to be able to record as much or at least transfer the special ones to disk.

If someone could give me a rundown on "modern" technology - or point me to the best place to get a clear explanation I'd be most appreciative.

Thanks,
Sad Boy in North Carolina

[KeithAbbott]

First, it would probably help if you tell us who your cable provider is.

If you are looking for HD via cable, here's your main choices:

• Your 2250 will record HD over cable via QAM. With my cable provider, it's fantastic. However, some cable providers change the station frequencies periodically, and people get frustrated when they have to re-scan to receive the channels properly. Also, most cable providers are only sending broadcast channels (Fox, NBC, ABC, PBS, etc.) "in the clear". Any cable-specific channels will likely not be available to you with your 2250.
• For the cable-specific channels, an HD-PVR or Colossus will take the analog component outputs from your cable box and encode the signal to digital. Chances are, you will need a device like a USB-UIRT to send the channel change commands to your STB. Some people are very successful using a HD-PVR/Colossus, I do not happen to be one of those people.
• Another choice for cable-specific channels is a tuner device with a slot for a cable card. This will work for those lucky enough to have a cable provider that flags their channels as "copy freely". There are several of these devices available (HDHomerun Prime, Ceton, etc.) A USB-UIRT would not be required to change channels, but you would need to install SageDCT to run the cable tuner, since they are not natively supported within SageTV.

[Yombute]

Thanks Keith. That's a start I suppose. My Cable provider will most likely be Time Warner - Road Runner (although I am also looking at something called Plex TV.)

[KeithAbbott]

Well, for Time Warner you can probably rule out the third option (using a tuner device with a slot for a cable card). Time Warner typically does not flag their content as "copy freely".

If you do go with Time Warner, I would start by connecting up your 2250 directly to cable using the coax input, no set top box. You should be able to get the HD broadcast channels via QAM relatively easily, and you would have the ability to record two shows at once since it is a dual-tuner. In addition, your picture quality should be better than using an HD-PVR/Colossus since it is directly capturing the digital stream that the cable provider is sending with no analog translation.

Once you get that all working properly, you can add either an HD-PVR or Colossus to the mix connected to a HD STB via component connections. You can either exclude the broadcast channels from the channel lineup, or use the encoder merit property to force Sage to first use the 2250 tuners when something is recording on a broadcast channel.

If you think you will only need one HD-PVR or Colossus, you could use the Hauppauge-supplied IR emitter instead of the USB-UIRT. If you think you will need more than one HD-PVR/Colossus, you will need to use a USB-UIRT for the channel changing.

[sumrtym]

Actually, I don't think with Time Warner he'll be able to get any HD channels on his 2250. All of Time Warner's HD channels are set in triple or quadruple digits. You can't receive any without having a STB because of this.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

Actually, I don't think with Time Warner he'll be able to get any HD channels on his 2250. All of Time Warner's HD channels are set in triple or quadruple digits. You can't receive any without having a STB because of this.

QAM channel frequencies do not match the channel numbers that STBs display. I believe there is an excellent chance that he'll be able to get broadcast HD channels on his 2250, just as I do. In any case, he already has the software and the hardware, it's free for him to attempt. If it works, fantastic. If not, he can purchase some hardware and try the HD-PVR/Colossus route.

[Yombute]

Thank you most kindly fellows. I'll give that a shot. I've never used QAM before so I guess now is as good a time as any to experiment. Like you said, Keith, since I already have the hardware/software I really don't have anything to lose.
I'm sure I'll run into other snags but this gives me a clear direction to start back on.
(I still wish it was the way it used to be. grumble...grumble...)
Cheers! :-)

[KeithAbbott]

Make sure you are using the most recent version of Sage (7.1.9). Jeff/Narflex made a couple of special executables a while back that allow anyone with a version 5 or 6 license to upgrade free to version 7.1.9.

[Yombute]

Thanks for that last bit too, Keith!

[gdippel]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

Actually, I don't think with Time Warner he'll be able to get any HD channels on his 2250. All of Time Warner's HD channels are set in triple or quadruple digits. You can't receive any without having a STB because of this.

Not necessarily. I receive Time Warner's Basic HD OTA channels via Clear QAM, everything else is encrypted, at least in NYC. I do have to remap the QAM channels (which are 3 or four digits) to logical guide channels.