How to SageTV w/250 watch tv with QWEST VDSL

[StylinLP]

Hello. Back again after over a year and thinking of giving SageTV another try. I've been considering building an HTPC with a Radeon 9600 or nVIdia 5700ultra connected to a RGB monitor with RGB connections and S-Video to a SDT with S-VIdeo input.

I want to watch tv with full pvr functions on the sdtv SOny 27".
At the same time be suring the net or and controlling the tv channels and menu's on the pc monitor.
Considering using Meedio and putting 100 dvd movies on 500gigs of harddrives.
The 3rd HD will be 250gig which will be dedicated to SageTV.
How much time does 250gig cover at high quality?

What I truly don't know how to do is change channels.
The VDSL box is in the living room and this system will be in the family room.
The way VDSL works is that the vdsl box has one coax cable running throu out the house to 2 other tv sets. The vdsl box uses s-video out to the main sdt set.
So I have a total of 3 streaming video channels.
TV #1 using channel 6
TV #2 uses channel 7 (this is the one Im planning on using)
TV #3 uses channnel 13

Each TV has a remote control provided by qwest. Each is programed to each tv set for that channel. 6, 7, or 13
I have 300 channels on each of the 3 streams to choose from.

I have no idea how these IR remotes work. I THINK they actually change the channel on the VDSL box for each channel no matter where you are in the house. Don't ask me how thats done since they are IR. Unless they are secretly ALSO RF. Not sure. But there is red windows on the front of the remotes for the IR.

What would work to get this to work?

[StylinLP]

UPdate on all this. I called QWEST last night and found out a few things.

The 3 remote controls that are supplied by QWEST are both IR and RF!
NEver knew that. The front of the vdsl box does have a IR receptor so that the 1st TV uses IR remotes. So its possible to use a IR changing device to change channels if I had my HTPC connected to the 1st tv.

But, unfortunately, my HTPC is going to be connected to TV#2. So the remote for that location is using RF, QWEST confirmed that this is a propiretory UHF signal and there is no way a learning remote can learn those commands.

Can anyone think of a way around this?

[stanger89]

Well the first thing I'd confirm is whether or not the is even EPG info for your provider. Go to Zap2It and make sure there's guide data for Quest. If there's no data, then Sage won't help much.

Assuming there's guide data you need to figure out how to control. Here's the only thing I can think of. I see no way around using IR and channel 6.

The easiest way would be to put the box by the HTPC and use IR and channel 6.

If you can't move the box, what I'd do is setup an IR repeater so the HTPC can control the box, then the HTPC will tune to Ch 6, then take the remote for TV 2/ch 7 and use it with TV 1 tuned to ch 7 instead of 6.

[StylinLP]

I checked out Zap2It website and QWEST is on it. I was able to view my tv schedule for Phoenix AZ.
It looks like this is not going to work out. I can't move the box and there is no way I'm going ot make iffy and slow channel changes worse using an IR repeater.

Maybe I will consider getting SageTV when I move to a new house someday and get Satellite service.
Thanks for the help anyway

[StylinLP]

What if I Decided to pick up a Hauppauge 350 on Ebay and decided to use it just like a VCR.
VCR's you set to channel 4 and then change the channels on the cable box.
So SageTV will record only what channel is on at the time. Will this work?
Can I schedule both the VDSL box and Sage seperately at the same time to record a show? Program the VDSL box to record a show at 7pm and also program SageTV to record on channel 4 at 7pm.

I was thinking of using the Hauppauge 350 S-Video out to my 27" Sony sdtv set. Will the Hauppauge 350 be able to display shows across the s-video port to the tv set live or recorded on the hard drives? In other words can the 350 play back recorded show content on the hd across the s-video port?
I know we can't play back DVD's across the s-video output port on the 350.
Im not sure what to do about that. I really want to play back dvd's too.