PVR 150

[JUC]

Does the PVR 150 that SageTV sells come with an IR blaster and remote?

This is what the page says:
"Infra-red remote control transmitter and receiver to control a local cable or satellite set-top box"

-So, it not only comes with a remote but the remotes receiver also is a blaster than will change the satelite box? So i would not need to go out an buy another Actisys right?
thanks
JUC

[korben_dallas]

Everyone swears that the retail 150 does indeed come with the IR Blaster, though no one has been able to provide me a pic (even on SHS' forum)

[Opus4]

The 150 comes with a remote + IR receiver/transmitter. The 150MCE and 500MCE do not.

JUC: From your other recent posts, it sounds like you are looking to add a networked encoder and use SageTVRecorder to control it. If this is your plan for 150, be aware that SageTVRecorder does not support the 150 or 500 -- see its System Requirements for a list of tuners it supports.

- Andy

[JUC]

Andy, thanks for the heads up. I was indeed planning on adding a networked tuner to my client with sagerecorder as well. I am moving into a new house in a few weeks and wanted to have everything planned out before i moved in. I was looking for the cheapest options but i now guess that the 150 won't work. So would the ehome wonder be the next choice? Also, why wouldn't sagerecorder support tuners that sagetv does?
thanks
JUC

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by JUC

why wouldn't sagerecorder support tuners that sagetv does?

The SageTVRecorder program has not been updated, so it just doesn't have the code needed to support the newer tuners.

- Andy

[JUC]

Since sagerecorder has not been updated should i even consider still purchasing it--especially is something will be wrapped into a client or sagetv with version 3? I just don't want to waste money on something that may not be around much longer(complete speculation here).

On a completely different note--the only reason i am going with the client/recorder route is because the house i am moving into has coaxial already wired to the bedrooms and I will need to use dish receivers. Can you splice coaxial cables prior to them going into the dish receiver's---you can't splice them going out of the boxes. If you can, then i can just splice the coaxial from the walljack and input them into two seperate dish recievers then just get a usb pvr device to add onto my shuttle. If that is the case, would i then be able to connect 2 IR transmitters to the shuttle to control the boxes independantly? This would eliminate my need for sagerecorder completely correct? sorry for all the questions.
later
juc

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by JUC

Since sagerecorder has not been updated should i even consider still purchasing it--especially is something will be wrapped into a client or sagetv with version 3? I just don't want to waste money on something that may not be around much longer(complete speculation here).

I don't know exactly what is up with SageTVRecorder, since nothing has been announced. Maybe the CES announcement will say something? Who knows. If they don't say anything about it for CES I would consider asking them before buying.

If that is the case, would i then be able to connect 2 IR transmitters to the shuttle to control the boxes independantly? This would eliminate my need for sagerecorder completely correct?

I can't talk about the satellite stuff, but you only need one USB-UIRT to control multiple converters. If they use the same IR codes, use its 3-zone output capability; if they use different codes, just let it blast away.

And, right: if all tuners are on the server, then you don't need SageTVRecorder at all.

- Andy

[spanky]

Korben,

What sort of pic would you like? I have attached one of the IR cable that comes with the 150 (sorry about the quality, took the pic with my phone). You can see the receiver and the blaster portion. Let me know if you wanted something else.

[JUC]

thanks all, I just received an email from the frey guys...interesting

" I would wait on the purchase of the recorder. Currently you can use SageTV
as a network encoder, but it's unsupported. This way you can use all the
newest capture devices. I don't have the information in front of me since we
are at CES, but I will get the information to you next week on the process
of trying this out.

Thanks,

George Oms
Frey Technologies, LLC


-So, the sagerecorder is becoming obsolute and hopefully we will soon be able to network seperate installations of sagetv.
JUC

[Boolah]

Originally Posted by JUC

thanks all, I just received an email from the frey guys...interesting

" I would wait on the purchase of the recorder. Currently you can use SageTV
as a network encoder, but it's unsupported. This way you can use all the
newest capture devices. I don't have the information in front of me since we
are at CES, but I will get the information to you next week on the process
of trying this out.

Thanks,

George Oms
Frey Technologies, LLC


-So, the sagerecorder is becoming obsolute and hopefully we will soon be able to network seperate installations of sagetv.
JUC

Would you mind posting Frey's instructions for setting up SageTV as a network encoder when you get them? This is pretty interesting. I wonder if you could "link" several SageTV servers together in this manner?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Boolah

Would you mind posting Frey's instructions for setting up SageTV as a network encoder when you get them? This is pretty interesting. I wonder if you could "link" several SageTV servers together in this manner?

Since tech support has now mentioned this... What this means is that you will be able to use SageTV as a client that can control encoders on the client PC -- you won't need to use SageTVClient + SageTVRecorder. SageTV.exe would act like a client in this case, just like it does on the server when you are using the service to handle all the recording duties. (It isn't a case of multiple servers talking to each other.) I don't believe this is fully complete, thus George's comment that it is not yet supported. Once it is officially done, this will be the means to control the newer encoders on networked PCs.

- Andy

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Since tech support has now mentioned this... What this means is that you will be able to use SageTV as a client that can control encoders on the client PC -- you won't need to use SageTVClient + SageTVRecorder. SageTV.exe would act like a client in this case, just like it does on the server when you are using the service to handle all the recording duties. (It isn't a case of multiple servers talking to each other.) I don't believe this is fully complete, thus George's comment that it is not yet supported. Once it is officially done, this will be the means to control the newer encoders on networked PCs.
- Andy

I wonder if that means the 2nd instance of SageTV being run on second PC for use as Client & network encoding purposes would require 2nd license of SageTV. (Like now with multiple SageClients) I'd suspect so but we'll find out. If it is the case you'd need to factor in the software cost difference too not just PVR. (SageTV @$80 vs SageClient + SageRecorder= @$50) Just musing...

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by mdmint

I wonder if that means the 2nd instance of SageTV being run on second PC for use as Client & network encoding purposes would require 2nd license of SageTV.

Licenses are per-computer, so yes you would have to have additional licenses, just like you do now. Like I said, I haven't heard the final plans for this, since it just isn't final, so I have no idea how it would affect costs. We'll have to wait for that.

- Andy

[lyberty]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

Everyone swears that the retail 150 does indeed come with the IR Blaster, though no one has been able to provide me a pic (even on SHS' forum)

Better late than never:
http://www.lyberty.com/tech/pvr/pvr150/
This page shows a retail version I picked up Jan. 2, 2005 from CircuitCity (California).

IR Blaster is the 5th photo.


[edit Jan. 16 05: removed qestion about IT blaster problems. Problem is more complicated than implied, and best described on new thread.]

[SHS]

Nice page lyberty

[lyberty]

Originally Posted by SHS

Nice page lyberty

Thanks SHS. I basically put it up cause _I_ wanted to find a page like that when I was trying to decide what card to buy... I hope to add more detail, and organize it better...

Glad you posted too, cause now I know what "SHS' forum" is!
(So many forums, so little time...)

[JUC]

just an update from the frey team on enabling networked encoders using a second instance of satetv versus sageclient + recorder:

"Try this. The directions are similar to setting up network encoders with
SageTV Recorder. Except most lines that refer to SageRecorder will actually
refer to SageTV that will act as the network encoder.

Install SageTV on that machine and look for this line in the properties
file, "enable_encoding_server=false" and set it to true. This is similar to
line 2 of the text file I attached. Now run SageTV and setup the card and
configure it to work properly. Close it down. Continue with the network
encoder directions as outlined.

For step 14 do this. Go back to the machine that will run the network
encoder and run Sage. Delete the source you added in the Setup Wizard. This
is how it will stay. Now just minimize and leave it there. When you run the
SageTV server it should be configured already, if not then just add the
source"

I will not be able to try this out until i move into my new house but am curious to see how this turns out.
JUC

[heffe2001]

Did Frey ever mention the license issue? If they are going to drop support for Recorder, then you should be able to run server in encoder only mode with the same license as your main system.

Doesn't make sense to me to drop their recorder product (what, around 20 bucks per recorder machine), and require your users to purchase a full SageTV server license to do the exact same thing. It would make more sense to have SageTV server accept 2 different styles of license, one for full-blown server, and another for network encoder only for a comparable price to the Recorder product now.

[korben_dallas]

I really appreciate the pix of the 150 and IR Blaster guys, they look great!

[Opus4]

heffe2001: Frey will probably make whatever necessary policy announcements once it is fully out of development stage and is official, but don't forget that using SageTV this way means that the client & network recorder are now in a single program. Previously, you had to use SageTVRecorder + SageTVClient; in the future you would just use SageTV for this. I think they are just mentioning it now to provide an option for using the newer encoders via a network connection, since SageTVRecorder can't be used with some newer tuners. (And, before you ask, no I don't know what policy changes there may be, if any.)

- Andy