possible to do split screen PIP with Studio?

[john f]

If you have two tuners??????

I think this would be the greatest, especially with 16:9 Tvs



John

[SHS]

1: You need video card that support VMR9.
2: Jeff need add codes to support VMR9 Multi-Input.
3: Your SOL for now in tell the above get done.

[7up]

Is Jeff working on adding picture in picture capability? If you have 2 tuners or more, it sure would be nice to be able to use them. Football season is approaching and it would be nice to be able to watch 2 or games simultaneously

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by 7up
Is Jeff working on adding picture in picture capability? If you have 2 tuners or more, it sure would be nice to be able to use them. Football season is approaching and it would be nice to be able to watch 2 or games simultaneously

I asked about that a while back after seeing the MythTV pictures on a Linux site..... That was before DirectX 9 and VMR, so maybe it's possible now.. Imagine having 4 shows going on at the same time! Just like Marty jr. in Back to the Future II.....

"Art off --- 116, 89, 42...... and the Weather Channel"...... there's just something about the Weather Channel.....

Lauren

[dlevey]

I am very interested in doing this. In fact, it is the sole reason for me pursuing an HTPC. I need the ability to have 2 pictures side by side to feed an XGA projector. The inputs will be from a satellite reciever box and likely Svideo. I like the idea of having the capture devices being component/HD capable as well. I don't need tuner cards, and feel that tuner cards are not needed at all these days, as digital cable boxes, satellite boxes are usually required to tune in signals, and provide better output options than any analog tuner will be able to.

I may also want to hook up a digital HD cable box, prog Scan DVD (or use DVD on PC), VCR, etc.

Please advise if the Side by Side (PnP - Picture Next to Picture) is possible, and if so what equiptment I would need to accomplish it effectively.

Also, for HTPC, can I use a dual monitor card, and send Projector output to one monitor, and use a local monitor for all local PC stuff?

Thanks

[JasonJoel]

As mentioned earlier in this thread, it is currently NOT possible in the product.

And currently, no one from Frey Technologies is giving information on future versions of the product (or if there will even be one). Nor does anyone in these forums have information whether the feature will be possible in the future at all.

So, if it is very important to you, I would suggest submitting a bug/request to the support email and see if you get a response.

Jason Bottjen

Originally posted by dlevey
I am very interested in doing this. In fact, it is the sole reason for me pursuing an HTPC. I need the ability to have 2 pictures side by side to feed an XGA projector. The inputs will be from a satellite reciever box and likely Svideo. I like the idea of having the capture devices being component/HD capable as well. I don't need tuner cards, and feel that tuner cards are not needed at all these days, as digital cable boxes, satellite boxes are usually required to tune in signals, and provide better output options than any analog tuner will be able to.

I may also want to hook up a digital HD cable box, prog Scan DVD (or use DVD on PC), VCR, etc.

Please advise if the Side by Side (PnP - Picture Next to Picture) is possible, and if so what equiptment I would need to accomplish it effectively.

Also, for HTPC, can I use a dual monitor card, and send Projector output to one monitor, and use a local monitor for all local PC stuff?

Thanks

[stanger89]

Originally posted by dlevey
I like the idea of having the capture devices being component/HD capable as well.

So do I, but that's not possible with consumer equipment.

[dlevey]

I have seen in other threads getting PIP by using client and server on the same box.

Does this accomplish the net effect of PIP?

If so, can someone provide detail as to what is needed to do it?

Thanks

[mls]

Yes, you can run SageTV and Client on the same machine. I've done it several times now. Run SageTV full screen on my TV out (secondary of vid card) and then drag the Client window over on top of the SageTV screen.

Only klinker is that you need to use a different decoder for the Client than SageTV itself is using.

Also requires a pretty hefty computer to handle decoding to video streams at once.

I haven't bothered trying to figure out how to control both with a remote, but I'm sure it could be done somehow (with Girder maybe?)

Also the volume control effects both, but you can mute either one seperately.

[dlevey]

I would want it on the main monitor, as it will be connected to an XGA projector. I would also not want one picture over the other, but to have 2 separate pictures side by side.

Can this be done using this method?

If I understand this product correctly, the 2 tv tuner cards are using hardware encoding for the input signals; the software and the output video card do the screen rendering.

So when you say that the computer would need to be powerful to handle 2 video streams, is this for the output rendering process, the software which runs the tuner cards, or both?

Thanks

[Opus4]

You have to have 2 licenses: 1 for SageTV, 1 for SageTVClient. They would both be run on the same PC & each one runs in its own window, so it is up to you where they are placed & what the size of each one is. You can actually run multiple instances of SageTVClient (but not SageTV itself), so you could actually have more than 2 windows open.

All encoding is done via the hardware encoders, but decoding in your case would be done via software -- so the processor needs to be powerful enough to handle decoding 2 streams. I've done this on my dual-cpu Athlon MP 1.2Ghz, but I have not tried it on a single processor system, so I don't really know how fast it would need to be.

It looks like you don't yet have SageTV set up, correct? You could always trial both of the products on the same system to see if it is going to work for you.

If you are running SageTV + SageTVClient, it would be fairly easy to control the 2 of them. Multiple instance of the client gets more tricky, but I believe I have a way to do that too. (Only do that as a last resort, though.) Volume control, as mentioned above, is shared, so muting one is probabaly the best way to go. Girder could probably even be set up to auto-mute one when the other is unmuted.

- Andy

[dlevey]

Yes, you are correct I don't have sage yet, I am trying to figure out what is the best way to go.

Of course to try it I would need the tuner cards, so I guess some investment is required.

I don't think I actually need TV tuners, because all my sources have their own (satellite, cable box, etc).

Can you recomend a hardware encoding video capture card, ideally capable of Composite, Component, and SVideo?

Thanks

[stanger89]

Originally posted by dlevey
Can you recomend a hardware encoding video capture card, ideally capable of Composite, Component, and SVideo?

There are no consumer-level cards that are capable of capturing component video, at least not component at better than 480i.

Your best bet for card is probably the Hauppauge PVR 250 or 250 MCE.

[Iver]

Originally Posted by Opus4

You have to have 2 licenses: 1 for SageTV, 1 for SageTVClient. They would both be run on the same PC & each one runs in its own window, so it is up to you where they are placed & what the size of each one is. You can actually run multiple instances of SageTVClient (but not SageTV itself), so you could actually have more than 2 windows open.

- Andy

How can I enable multiple instances of SageTVClient? I'm working on a multizone solution and multiple instances of the SageTvClient is crucial for obtaining synced sound across different zones.

I've read most of the FAQ and read the entire SageClient.properties file but without any luck

/Iver

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Iver

How can I enable multiple instances of SageTVClient?

You can't. This is a very old topic & the client no longer works that way.

- Andy

[Iver]

Originally Posted by Opus4

You can't. This is a very old topic & the client no longer works that way.

- Andy

Wrong answer And I guess there's no nifty shifty sneaky work a round? Well thats sure punches a hole in my plans.

Can you in any way take controle of other PlaceShifter/SageTVClients/Extenders from another PlaceShifter/SageTVClients/Extenders?

/Iver

Btw. Thanks a bunch for the very fast answer

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Iver

How can I enable multiple instances of SageTVClient? I'm working on a multizone solution and multiple instances of the SageTvClient is crucial for obtaining synced sound across different zones.

I've read most of the FAQ and read the entire SageClient.properties file but without any luck

/Iver

You can run Client and Placeshifter on the same machine at the same time. This will not help with your sync issues though.

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by Iver

How can I enable multiple instances of SageTVClient? I'm working on a multizone solution and multiple instances of the SageTvClient is crucial for obtaining synced sound across different zones.

I've read most of the FAQ and read the entire SageClient.properties file but without any luck

/Iver

You have it backwards in your head, this is what extenders are for. I have everything in my home routed through the SageTV GUI now. The processes not in the GUI are all backend stuff I don't care to interact with anyway.

Yes you can connect an MVP to an input and have all clients display that MVP's content at the same time.

Using the web interface you can control any connected client however you may have issues with it if you cannot see the display.

Those who just want PiP back, if your TV supports it add an MVP for the secondary input. You'll need either a decent universal remote or an IR network and something like EventGhost or Girder to control it properly. Best of both worlds would be rs232 control of the TV and HTTP control of the extenders I would think.

[loomdog32]

http://www.directv.com/see/landing/mixchannels.html

This is what Sage needs to support...




Ill keep dreaming..

[stanger89]

I'm about 99.9% sure that's done by broadcasting a single video feed that contains the background and forground video, and probably multiple audio tracks. You just can't tune 6-7 channels simultaneously on a satellite box.