HD300 Can I import/mirror UI settings from server?

[FlyingShawn]

I just bought extenders for the first time, two HD300s (Thanks Opus4!), and I'm trying to get them set up. I'm sure this has already been asked a million times, but I've done a bunch of searching and can't seem to find anything about it:

Is there any way to automatically duplicate/mirror all of the UI settings from my Server so both of my extenders look/feel exactly the same as the main server? Yes, I know I can use the same STV file, but when I load Gemstone on an extender I only get the blank-canvas default Gemstone UI instead of the weather-picture-backgrounds/fanart populated/sidebar-tweaked version I so painstakingly put together on my Server. Gemstone has a LOT of settings, so I'd really like to avoid having to re-set them all manually on each extender and having to remember to change each extender every time I decide to tweak a setting.

Here's what I mean:

SageTV homescreen on Server:


Homescreen on HD300:


Browsing recordings on Server:


Browsing recordings on HD300:


Thanks!

[BobPhoenix]

Setup one extender the hard way first. Then copy that extender's properties from it's property file to the other extender's property file. This is the only sure way. Some properties would carry though from the server if you setup without using SERVICE mode when you setup the server instance but I don't think ALL the properties would. And those that do carry through would be default SageTV properties and not a plugin or replacement UI's properties anyway.

Correct me if I'm wrong somebody!

[pjpjpjpj]

I think BobPhoenix is right. Don't quote me on that, though.

I did learn somewhere that if you set up the color scheme for various genres (which shows up in the EPG grid, recordings list, and upcoming recordings list) on the server and don't ever touch them on your extenders, the extenders will pick up the same color scheme. But if you change/add/remove even one color assignment on the extender, it creates its own color properties and loses all the other colors set on the server instance.

[Fuzzy]

If you are talking primarily about gemstone settings, under the main options menu -> utility functions -> import/export will do most of what you are looking for.

[FlyingShawn]

Thanks Fuzzy!! I'll still need to dive into a lot of the menus to duplicate all of my settings, but that trick probably cut my workload by around 75%.

The main one I haven't figured out yet is that the HD300 seems to have a "smaller" picture than the server: not that it isn't filing the screen edge-to-edge, but that it has wider top/bottom margins so that it's only utilizing a smaller portion in the middle for menus/text/etc. As an example, instead of having the vertical room for nine shows in the recordings view on my earlier screenshot of the server, I have to cut the HD300 back to only around 6 shows if I want the (unwatched/total) show counters to not be truncated. I'll have to keep poking around to see if there's a setting for that or if it's just a limitation of the extender.

[Fuzzy]

you'll have to set the overscan region for each client/tv combo individually, no real other way around that. It's done in Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Multimedia -> Overscan Settings.

[FlyingShawn]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

you'll have to set the overscan region for each client/tv combo individually, no real other way around that. It's done in Setup -> Detailed Setup -> Multimedia -> Overscan Settings.

Thanks! That helped a lot, but it still doesn't seem to want to render everything quite as nicely. Here is how it looks on the same TV as the server with all of the "other options" (Number of Rows, Airing List Font Size, etc) set the same.

[trk2]

You need to update the HD300 firmware for HD menu resolutions. See this thread for a discussion on the best firmware version.

[FlyingShawn]

Originally Posted by trk2

You need to update the HD300 firmware for HD menu resolutions. See this thread for a discussion on the best firmware version.

I flashed 20110124-2 and the menus do seem to look better, but the text still isn't quite as good. After some further reading on the forum, I've gotten the impression that the the HD300 (even with the new firmware) is rendering the menu at 720 and upscaling it to 1080 instead of rendering a native 1080 menu, so my font issues may be a result of that. I've found that the menu looks good with the same font size if I reduce the number of onscreen show banners to 7, so I think I'll just use that setting and call it a day unless someone else knows of something else I should try.

Thanks again!