Just a few questions

[CrossEyedJack]

Hi all, I just got a Video Blaster Digital VCR for $20. So I figured I would mess with sage a bit.


1. Does the ATI remote wonder work with sagetv.

2. If the ATI remote doesn't work, Does Sage have built in support for the Creative remote. The mapping program kinda sucks. I don't have enough buttons for up/down/left right, volume, and channel up/down, since they are the same buttons on the Creative remote.

3. Is there a FF & RW option, I hate skip ahead and back. .

4. Off Topic. Any idea why the Creative labs software vid quality is so crappy when watching live tv. It works perfect in SageTV.


Thanks,

[mlbdude]

I am just a user but started out with the Creative card so I will try and answer some of your questions...

1. The ATI remote is not natively supported. You can use it in keyboard emulation mode using the Remain Wonder plugin or by using Girder with the Girder plugin.

2. Sage does have native support for the Creative remote.

3. Not sure exactly what you mean here but I believe the answer is no, Sage does not have a true FF/REW. It jumps ahead or back a user specified number of seconds. Gets the job done quite nicely though.

4. Creative video quality is not that crappy compared to Sage. Make sure you have configured the Creative software to be using a higher bitrate and you should be fine. It does not deinterlace as well though in my opinion and creates a more aliased look but other than that video quality was always comparable to Sage at comparable bitrates. (NOTE: if I launched the creative software AFTER I have had Sage running it would look all messed up. If I ran the software before Sage was ever loaded it worked fine.)

One piece of advice though, is Sage is not perfect with the Creative card in respect to keeping the audio in sync with the video. There will be times when either your recordings or live TV will get out of sync. This has to do with how the Creative card does not mux the audio in hardware. I got tired of the sync issues myself and ended up buying a Hauppauge 250 (two in fact).

Good luck!

[CrossEyedJack]

Its not that the video quality is crappy, the motion looks funny. Almost like its a lower frame rate or something. It almost reminds of the first pc dvd players.

As for the sync problems, I downloaded the elecard mpeg decoder. That seemed to fix the problem.

I still have the choppy motion in sagetv, but not as bad.

I'm getting a Hollywood plus decoder card, so I hope that helps with both problems.

Of course that brings up a whole new set of questions.

I know it comes with a vga passthrough cable, (kind of like the voodoo II cards).

So will the S-Video out on the Decoder card show the menu's, and computer display.

[mlbdude]

The chopiness you are talking about is from the deinterlacing. That is something you will always see when using the video out.

The Elcard decoders will not solve the audio sync issues since that issue is realted to how Sage muxes the audio directly. But the audio sync may not bother you too much either.

If you can get output working through the Hollywood plus decoder card you should get excellent video quality and the chopiness should be gone since the video will be pure NTSC. However, you will only get video from that output. You will need a second video connection to see the OSD and anything else.

Good luck!