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Video Capture – A card can be had for $100-$150, the HD PVR is about $250. Single drives will likely be fine for most. You could build or buy a NAS for the purpose of storage (I built my own, but that’s a whole other story). You’ll want considerable hard-drive space, but that’s cheap now-a-days. Server – Old hardware or cheap hardware, deals can be had if you look around. Total Costs (UPDATE: pricing as of posting, many discounts can be had)
#Sagetv alternatives tv
All you need is to have a network cable nearby, and to plug this into your TV (it’s got component and HDMI outputs). One for each TV you want content on (I have two). Your STB outputs that channel and your capture card records the content. So…when you click channel 25 on your SageTV remote, the server sends an IR signal to your cable box to change the channel to 25.
This essentially copies the commands from your remote control for your STB and allows the computer to command your STB to change channels. This eliminates any encryption issues and just makes life a lot easier.Īn IR (infra-red) Blaster/Repeater. The other option is the HD-PVR mentioned above…it’s an external device that plugs into your server via USB. You will feed the output from your cable/satellite set-top-box (STB) into this capture card.
There are many flavors, and Hauppauge has a ton of options. As of today, that’s a card that plugs into your server. No high-end graphics card required, because all that’s done on the client side.Ī video capture device. Point being, you don’t need much for a server, it’s not doing much of the heavy lifting in the scenario I’m posing. ANCIENT HARDWARE WORKS! I’ve upgraded because my commercial skipping plug-in keeps the CPU pegged and it struggles to keep up…but it has worked great for a year. My server is currently a AMD Athlon 3200+ (2.0GHz) machine. But, it certainly does not have to be a high-end box. Ideal Environment (easiest and least hassle, biggest bang for buck/time)Ī server. It’s a no-brainer in my book and I’ll never go back to a PC-based client. Simply put, you plug it in to your network, it finds your server, and you’re playing immediately playing any SD or HD content you need. The other alternative, which I highly recommend, is a set-top-box manufactured by SageTV called an HD Extender (UPDATE: a New Extender has been released). This can be a PC, but you’ll have to get a good video card/processor and do some considerable tweaking to get it to work right, *especially* if you’re planning on playing HD.
#Sagetv alternatives Pc
It takes this analog output and converts it to digital on-the-fly so your PC can record and store it for later playback.Ĭlient: This is where you watch TV, Videos, Music, Photos, etc, from. Essentially, it will allow you to record from any HD source as it uses the Component (non-digital, non-encryptable) output.
#Sagetv alternatives how to
There is a HD PVR Product that resolves this issue, and it’s from a company called Hauppauge (no, I have no idea how to pronounce that). HD video capture is tricky, because there’s encryption involved and many providers (Cable TV and others) will encrypt HD channels so your server cannot record them.
#Sagetv alternatives windows 7
For me, this is a Windows XP Windows 7 PC (Mac and UNIX flavors are available) that has a video capture card in it as well as considerable hard drive storage. Server: This is what takes a TV feed and records it, it’s where the brains are. But, I’ll give you a little insight into what’s required, and what your options are… Now, you do have to be a little computer savvy to pick up this “hobby”…because it’s not a no-brainer.
There are plugin’s galore available, from Netflix (yes, I can manage my queue and find movies with my TV now) to Commercial Skipping (yes, it automatically skips commercials!) to any number of other features you never knew you wanted.
The support community is massive, and direct customer service is quite good (responsive and knowledgable). Everything through my TV, with one remote. Not only does it record all my TV shows, as well as make some great recommendations on shows I’d never have found on my own, but it also houses my photographs, my own videos, my DVDs and Blu-Rays that I’ve ripped to disk, my podcasts (including video podcasts), and my music (and playlists). It’s called SageTV and is quite likely one of the greatest things ever. But whatever…Īfter trying about 6 different flavors of PVR software, I landed on one and have not turned back.
#Sagetv alternatives software
Low and behold, I found an entire world of software companies out there making their own DVRs! In many cases, these are called PVRs (Personal Video Recorders). Upon making this realization, I began researching my options. Just not as flexible and feature-rich as I wanted it to be. So…I made the decision about a year ago that I was done with TiVo. I’ve spent considerable time on this “hobby” of mine, and I’d like to share with you some of the details…or at least cut-to-the-chase so you can avoid the hastles I ran into.
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