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[opy01]

I've been running SageTV for years without fail.  I have the Hauppauge PVR-500 and the HVR-2250.  I have two Dish Network STBs, one box is connected to the HVR and the other connected to the PVR both using s-video.  I can currently record two OTA HD shows and one Dish show at one time or two Dish shows and one OTA HD show at one time.  The whole google thing kinda made me sick and I'm going to go ahead and make the switch.  I just have a few questions I didn't really see clear answers to.

Can MC record multiple shows at one time?  In Sage I could record up to 3 shows at one time.

Can MC control 2 seperate IR blaster if two shows needing to be recorded are both on the STBs?

Also, I can double click on the s-video inputs to see what is on then stop it then double click on the second and stop it but after that if I double click on any other analog channel channel it locks up. I did an end task to MC and it shows the digital channels fine but unless I reboot thet analog channel is locked up.
Thanks for the help

[JimH]

Welcome.  For Set Top Box, please see this link:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Set_Top_Box

MC can support two IR blasters.  See the Media Center Remote topic on our wiki.

MC can support as many tuners as you have and can record multiple shows at once.

Yaobing is our TV developer.  He can probably help further.

[opy01]

Thanks!  I've edited my first post as I figured out stuff lol.  The link to the wiki tells about the IR receiver and learning channels but it does not tell how to set up the STB itself in the program guide.

I've figured out how to add channels and define the capture card manually but do I have to do that for each channel on the STB?  If so, do i have to do that for each STB?  For example would I need to set up 2 channel 105 for USA, one using the PVR and the other using the HVR?

In this area Sage was alot more user friendly.  Once you add the card it loads the EPG then you can remove channels. 

Of course so far thats the only thing that Sage has that I like more lol.  I am loving the other features of MC so far .

As far as the locking up, I've just noticed it and have not had a chance to search the forums.  The main thing is setting up the STB right now.

[eapool]

The process has changed (improved) since I set my set top box up, but it should be similar.  Select 'Scan for Channels...' from the TV Options button at the bottom of the Television screen.  Then follow the prompts and it should load all of your channels automatically.  You will probably have to do this for each capture card, but you shouldn't have to do it for each channel.  For set top boxes, MC used to just load a complete list and then it was up to you to remove the unused ones.  I am pretty sure that is still the case.  A true 'scan' wouldn't make much since with a set top box.

I currently have 4 OTA and one Set Top Box and MC handles all of them fine.  I have not set up my second set top box, yet, so I am of no help there.

[Yaobing]

Can MC record multiple shows at one time?  In Sage I could record up to 3 shows at one time.

Yes, MC can handle multiple tuners.  However, I am not sure whether MC handles two STBs.  It is untested.  One thing you do need to do, is to set up your STB channels twice, because the STB channels are tied with a tuner device.  We have set it up and made sure it works with one STB.  Two STB case is not tested.  We will make it work if it does not.

Can MC control 2 seperate IR blaster if two shows needing to be recorded are both on the STBs?

Again we may need to make some tweaks in our code to make this work as it is untested.

Also, I can double click on the s-video inputs to see what is on then stop it then double click on the second and stop it but after that if I double click on any other analog channel channel it locks up. I did an end task to MC and it shows the digital channels fine but unless I reboot thet analog channel is locked up.
Thanks for the help

Locking up is not good.
You can email me a log.  I am yaobing at jriver dot com

[opy01]

Thank you both for your responces.  I will have to see what happens when I get the IR working and learn the channel codes.  I can't do anything yet since Sage is supposed to record a couple of shows today and tomorrow but I am off Friday so I will be getting it all up and running. 

In sage you would add an S-video input then link it to the D/FW Dish EPG and when you added the second one and linked it to the D/FW EPG it would know if one show is being recoerded to use the other.  I guess we'll find out what happens when I get it set up lol.

Yaobing, I will get the logs to you.  I will also see if it is just the one S-video causing it.  Last time I opened the first s-video input then the second then when I tried the first again it locked up.  I will try the second s-video first then the other and see if it locks up before playing.

Just a bit of why I am wanting to make the switch now.  I've had 3 hard drives (out of 5) die on me over the past year or so and my video card seems to be acting up some.  It's time for a complete upgrade so I am getting a system with HDMI output so my Sony receiver can just do everything using one cable.  I am also getting all new hard drives and dread having to get sage working again lol.  I had to use EXEMultiTuner with Sage along with custom IR drivers and software so get everything working the way I want and I barely remember how it worked so I'd rather figure out a new, better software than relearn old, discontinued software.  My buddy that introduced me to Sage is now interested in MC .  My wife even like it better than Sage and as long as she's happy I can live

[opy01]

Ok, I think it is a specific input on my HVR causing the lockup.  I did not realize all the inputs were from one card.  I realized they were both playing the same show then I noticed they were both the HVR.  Once I deleted the input that was locking up I got the PVR loaded and it no longer locks up.  That was an ID-10-T error.  

As far as the channels for the STB, I was able to load the proper s-video inputs by scanning for channels and choosing analog.  Now I have both s-videos showing in the channel list and both play from its own STB.  I went back to scan for STB channels it tells me to choose the input device and channel but it shows no channels, just the input device.  I can choose the input device and hit next but it says I must choose the input device and the channel to which it is connected.  Are there screenshots of how a STB is set up?  Maybe I am just missing something.

Edit:  I am able to manually add channels but I dont think its using both devices.  I tried adding it twice using both cards but it looks like the second one entered overwrites the first.

I set up the IR blaster but it sends the channel to both blasters and changes the channel of both STBs.  can there be a way to set both capture devices to the same EPG as well as set the IR blaster to the proper capture device?

[eapool]

As far as the channels for the STB, I was able to load the proper s-video inputs by scanning for channels and choosing analog.  Now I have both s-videos showing in the channel list and both play from its own STB.  I went back to scan for STB channels it tells me to choose the input device and channel but it shows no channels, just the input device.  I can choose the input device and hit next but it says I must choose the input device and the channel to which it is connected.  Are there screenshots of how a STB is set up?  Maybe I am just missing something.

There should be two drop down boxes, one to set which card and the other to set which input channel in that card.  Once that is done, then you can select next and continue to the next step

I set up the IR blaster but it sends the channel to both blasters and changes the channel of both STBs.  can there be a way to set both capture devices to the same EPG as well as set the IR blaster to the proper capture device?

This is why I haven't setup my second box.  I am not sure how to do this, so I am interest in what you find out on this.

Alex

[Yaobing]

There is an awkward procedure you have to take first.  I kept telling myself I must fix it, but other things kept me busy.

You need to run analog channel scans using both of your analog tuners in order for MC to discover the input sources (S-Video, Composite, etc.) on each device.  These input sources are treated as channels in MC and they appear in one of the drop-down boxes during STB scan.

[opy01]

Ok after typing a long reply I decided to try one more thing.  I could only see one dropdown menu so I chose the card then hit tab, then the down arrow.  Sure enough the input source dropdown is hidden lol.  It is now loading the channels .  I'll post once both STBs are loaded and see what happens.

Any input on the IR blaster?

BTW, I'm going to go ahead and buy it once I get home .  I really like it and better than that, my wife likes it (isn't that the important thing?).

Edit:  I had it scan the HVR S-Video and it loaded all 9000 channels lol.  I then had it scan the PVR s-video and it loaded all 9000 channels again replacing the HVR ones.  All the channels now show it using the PVR s-video instead of the HVR or both.  

Update:  I set it to record a show on Dicovery then tried to watch a show on SyFy.  It would not let me watch it without canceling the recording.  I would try creating a seperate channel manually but without the IR blasters working properly it would do no good.

If this is something that will not be supported anytime soon let me know so i can cancel my second dish and save some money .  It's definately not a deal breaker for this but it would be great to do and obviously there is at least one other person wanting to do this .

[opy01]

Ok, I have channels set up for one STB, video is finally looking good after tweaking it and I can change channels fine.  So far so good .

Now I am having issues with learning IR commands.  I can go into the wizard and choose tv power or volume up or volume down and it learns any of my buttons from my Sony receiver remote but it will not learn anything in the commands area.  I've tried a couple of different remotes but the system will not learn them.  Should I be able to choose up, down, left or right and hit learn and just hit the button repeatedly until it is learned?

[opy01]

Ok so I was able to record 3 shows at once this morning and all three of them were perfect!  So far so good but the true test is this evening when 3 HD shows are supposed to record (2 on ch 4 and one on ch 5).

So the only things I miss right now are controlling two individual set top boxes, it will not learn my IR commands from my Sony remote and the ability to set an episode as watched so it will not be recorded.

Comskip would be nice but it was never reliable in Sage with all my shows and I haven't used it in a couple of years.

Once I figured out the small issue with the STB channel scanning I would say it was as easy or easier to set up than Sage originally was .

Thanks for all the help everyone!  Now to go put a few more feature requests in the appropriate places .