If you want to use a computer you own as a DVR, there are a few things that you’ll need and a few things that you have to decide or think about. While setting up a SageTV system is complicated, it’s mostly due to the complexities of computer hardware and networking. SageTV itself is fairly easy. I describe what SageTV is and how it works, some questions to consider when planning your installation, required software and hardware, and detail out various configuration options. If you’re not very familiar with DVRs and the current crop of options, take a look at my previous article.

Description of SageTV

SageTV is a DVR / Media Center software that you install on your computer. It allows you to create a list of favorite shows that it will record each time they are on. You can configure it to record all episodes or only new episodes. You can also have it automatically record all programs (shows, movies, etc.) with your favorite actor or keyword (like “muppets”). You can save as many or as few episodes as you want. Additionally, like Tivo, SageTV learns what types of programs you like and can record programs that it thinks you’ll like. This feature can be disabled. If you install a free ad-on program, SageTV will automatically skip commercials.

In addition to it’s TV / DVR functions, you can also use SageTV to play music, display photos, or watch videos that you already have on your computer. With the purchase of a cheap, add on program, you can watch online video such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Youtube.

Questions to answer

• Are you willing to leave a computer on in your house all the time? It can’t record your programs if it’s turned off.
• Do you have any favorite shows that are both on at the same time on the same days of the week? If so, how many? Do you like to watch live TV? If so, how many people watch different live shows at the same time? This will influence how many tuner devices you’ll need.
• Do you have HD? If you want to record HD, you’ll need more hard drive space and perhaps a more powerful computer.
• Is it possible to run ethernet cables to various locations in your house? A wired network will provide better performance than a wireless one.
• Do you have a wireless network? If so, do you know what kind (G / N)? If you have HD, you’ll need an N wireless network.
• How many TVs do you have? Do you want to access your DVR content on each of them?
• Do you have cable boxes, or does the cable connect directly to your TV?
• Do you have a place to put your computer where your cable box (or cable boxes if you have more than one) and other associated equipment can be stacked nearby?

It can be helpful to visit the SageTV forums and read some threads and ask some questions. The forum is friendly to new people and it’s easy to get answers to your questions. Depending on the computer you own, how many TVs you have, how many shows you want to record at the same time, and if you have HD, the price will vary from probably around $250 on the ultra-low end to as high as you’d like on the high end. I have described my configuration and priced out several configurations at the end of this post. The information here is based on my experience and may not cover every conceivable detail. It’s probably also biased.

At this time, I’ve had SageTV installed and running for 3.5 years. It’s been a really awesome, stable system. While the up front cost may be higher than the various standalone options, you gain a lot of control (configuration, price, and features) and expandability.

SageTV currently has a 21 day free trial so that you can install the software on your computer and see if you like it and if it meets your needs.

Things you’ll need

Computer

A working, relatively recent computer. While you can use a laptop, a desktop computer is better. Probably any computer purchased in the last 3 years would be sufficient. It’s also best if the computer isn’t used for games or other heavy usage. This will help keep your system stable. Things like checking email or writing documents is usually fine.

Here’s a link to SageTV’s system requirements, which are really the absolute minimum. You will get better performance with better hardware.

If you’re a nerd that likes to build your own computers, the Ars Technica system guide is great. Even if you aren’t nerd, you can use this guide to help pick a new computer. In Nov 2009, they recommend:

• a quad core CPU, either an Athlon II X64 or Intel Core 2 Duo.
• DDR3 RAM: 2GB would be sufficient, while if you have tons of software installed, perhaps 4GB.
• If you are not going to be using SageTV directly on the computer, a powerful video card isn’t necessary.

You may also need:

• DVD drive or blueray drive

If you wanted to purchase a pre-built computer, the Dell Inspiron 560 would be a reasonable bet w/ the default configuration for just under $500. Other manufacturers will have similar hardware at similar prices.

Storage

A bunch of hard drive space. It’s best to have your recordings go on a separate hard drive from the one that your OS (such as Windows) is installed on. In order to determine how much hard drive space you’ll need, here are some guidelines:

• If you are not recording HDTV, one non-HD tuner will take 1.5GB to record a 1 hour show at the normal recording quality level. So 500GB of space, will hold roughly 333 hours of recordings.
• HD recordings will be in the 6 to 10GB range, so you’d only be able to store about 50 hours of recordings if recording all of them in HD.
• If you have a lot of movies, photos, or music, you’ll need to add that amount to your needed storage and plan for acquisition of more media.
• Depending on how much you value your movies, photos, music, and TV recordings, you may want to invest in a USB hard drive enclosure that can hold a few disks. Using one like this, which can be set up with a RAID system, provides extra security against one of the hard drives dying. This will typically be easier than setting up and installing more hard drives inside your computer. I’ll discuss external hard drives in other post.
• Additionally, you may want some sort of backup solution. There are a variety, from backing to another USB drive, to backing up to a server on the internet somewhere, to backing up to a computer at a friend’s house. I’ll discuss backup solutions in another post.

I have 500GB and one non-HD tuner, and typically we have ~150GB free.

Tuners: a way to get TV into your computer

To get TV into the computer, you need a tuner card. There are several kinds, which I discuss below. The more tuner cards, the more shows you can record simultaneously. For example, if I had only one tuner installed in my computer, and I liked both Chuck and Grey’s Anatomy, which are both on Monday’s at 8pm, I could only record one of them. If I had 2 tuners, I could record both of them. For shows which are only on once a week with no repeats, if I had only one tuner, I would always end of missing one of the shows if I wanted to record them immediately when they were on. There are a number of different ways that TV is transmitted: QAM, ATSC, cable, satellite, etc. Here’s a good explanation of the differences and what they all mean. You can also find much more detailed descriptions on Wikipedia.

• Each of these three tuners can be used with a cable box:
  • If you do not have HD, the HVR 2250 is a good choice. It has two built in tuners, so it can record two programs at the same time. It is installed inside a desktop computer.
  • If you have HD, the HVR 1600 is a good choice. It has only 1 tuner and it can record HD or regular shows or channels. It is installed inside a desktop computer.
  • If you don’t have any open expansion slots in your computer, the HD PVR connects to your computer with a USB cable. It attaches to a cable box and if you want to record more than one program at a time, you’ll need one of these to connect to each of your cable boxes.
• The HDHomeRun, which does not need to be used with a cable box. It can be connected to an antenna, to capture “over the air” broadcasts. This can be either HD or SD. The HDHomerun has two tuners in it, so it can record two shows at the same time. Or it can allow you to record one show and watch another live at the same time. It gets connected to your wireless router to talk to your SageTV server.
• If you have to use cable boxes, you will need this USB emitter, the USB UIRT, so that your computer can tell the cable box what to do. You can use 1 USB UIRT to control up to 3 different cable boxes.
• There are many other tuner options available.

It’s possible to mix and match these. So, for example, if you did not pay for HD cable, but did want to record the HD channels being broadcast by (for example) ABC, NBC, etc, you could buy an HD antenna and connect it to a HDHomeRun and record those channels that way while also using a HVR2250 to record the SD channels from your cable box.

Extenders: a way to get the TV / music / videos / photos onto your TV

If you don’t have a separate TV, you can use SageTV directly on the computer using your keyboard and mouse. However, that’s not really the easiest way to use it, although it is the simplest.

If you have one or more separate TVs, you’ll get better performance and easier configuration by using a hardware extender. A hardware extender is a small, low power, quiet device which communicates with the SageTV server and allows you to control it and transmits your content to the TV. The computer and the extender need to be networked together using either a wired or wireless network. You’ll need to attach an extender to each of the TVs that you want to access your content on. Extenders are controlled by a regular remote control.

SageTV also offers a software extender called SageTV Placeshifter. This is a program that you install on your computer that allows you to access your SageTV server from your home network as well as outside if you are travelling. The software is free and you can install it on as many computers as you want. However, you have to buy licenses to connect to the server for $30. So, for example, if I lived alone and had three computers, I would only need 1 Placeshifter license because I would / could only watch TV from one computer at a time. If there were 2 people in the house, I might want to consider 2 Placeshifter licenses. Sometimes you can get a Placeshifter license bundled with SageTV for an extra $10.

You can watch a pre-recorded program on each of your extenders. However, you can only watch live TV on as many of your TVs / extenders as you have tuners. For example, if you have 1 tuner and 3 extenders (like I do), you can only watch live TV on one of the extenders or record one show at the same time. However, you can watch a different pre-recorded program on each of the extenders if you wanted. To watch live TV on each of your extenders at the same time, you would need an equal number of extenders and tuners.

Types of extenders:

• A SageTV HD Theater ($200) to attach to each of the TVs you want to access your media on. You can connect them to a regular TV or an HD TV and it will work nicely with both. If you only, have a wireless network, you’ll also need to purchase a wireless network adapter for each HD Theater ($30).
• SageTV Placeshifter. This is a software extender. It runs on Windows, Linix, and Mac. Placeshifter has a few limitations, like not being able to play a DVD or a ripped DVD. When using the Placeshifter, the server does all the processing. This means that you can use it on an older computer. The Placeshifter license works similar to the way that # the number of tuners effects how many TVs live TV can be watched on. If you have one Placeshifter license, you can only use it from 1 computer at a time. But it can be any computer that you install the software on. When using Placeshifter away from your home, it has the ability to adjust the video quality for the speed of your connection. So if you are in a place with slow internet, the video quality will likely be crappier, but it should still be smooth.
• SageTV Client. Technically, this is not an extender, but I am lumping it into this category because it is a guide for beginners. For people that want to access their SageTV from a computer but have a more powerful computer and want to do things like watch DVDs directly, you can install SageTV as a client installation. It’s roughly $50 cheaper than SageTV when used as a server. However, it cannot do any of the recording itself; it relies on a server installation for that. The Client is purchased for each computer that you want to install it on. There is also a lot of evidence that when using SageTV Client it is a lot more difficult to get reliable and smooth playback of video.

If you’re going to be watching TV on your computer, here’s further detail on the difference between Placeshifter and Client.

Tweaks

• I highly recommend the SageMC plugin, which gives the SageTV interface a facelift and makes it much easier and logical to use.
• If you want to watch Netflix / Amazon, Hulu, that’s a bit more complicated, and you’ll need to purchase and install Playon and download and install this user-developed plugin.
• If you want to skip commercials, you’ll need to install the comskip software.

Configuration examples

My configuration

I bought a new computer to act as a server when I decided to get SageTV. It’s not a super fancy one, although I do have a lot of storage.

• Windows XP SP3
• AMD Athlon 64 3500+
• 4GB RAM
• 500GB HD recording space for use by the DVR function
• A 3 disk, 2 TB RAID for music, photos, and videos
• 1 cable box, connected to 1 PVR 150 (an older, non-HD tuner) and 1 USB-UIRT
• 1 HD Theater (in my basement movie theater) and 2 MVPs (in my living room attached to a 33″ tube TV and in my bedroom attached to a 13″ tube TV. These are the older extenders that are no longer manufactured).
• SageMC interface
• Plugins for a webserver and Netflix / Hulu / Amazon video / Youtube access

I’ve listed some various configuration examples and rounded the prices slightly, due to pricing differences on components around the internet.

Most common situation

This is most likely similar to what most people will want and need.

• SageTV software: $90 ($80 + Placeshifter bundle)
• One recording source needed, so only 1 tuner is needed: $140 (I chose the HVR2250, which allows easy expansion)
• Using a cable box, so the USB UIRT is needed: $50
• Two TVs, so two HD Theaters are needed: $400 ($200 each)
• Wired network, so no wireless adapter for the HD Theater is needed.
• External USB 1GB hard drive: $100

Total cost: $780

If you only have a wireless network and cannot run cables between your server and your HD Theaters, add $60 to this price to purchase two HD Theater wireless adapters. Add $230 for each additional TV you want to connect to your SageTV system (for the HD Theater and wireless adapter). If you need to purchase a computer to act as your SageTV server, that would be an additional cost. If you don’t have enough free hard drive space, that cost would be factored in separately.

Bare bones situation

This would be similar to someone in a college dorm or very small apartment who wants to use their computer monitor as their TV.

• Existing laptop computer with a large hard drive.
• SageTV software: $80 ($w/o Placeshifter bundle)
• One recording source needed, so only 1 tuner is needed: $125 (Hauppauge HVR 1950; I’m not positive this would work with SageTV, but I have no reason to think it wouldn’t.)
• Using a cable box, so the USB UIRT is needed: $50

Total: $255

Basic situation

This is one of the most basic configurations with a separate TV that you can have.

• SageTV software: $90 ($80 + Placeshifter bundle)
• One recording source needed, so only 1 tuner is needed: $140 (I chose the HVR2250, which allows easy expansion to dual tuners)
• Using a cable box, so the USB UIRT is needed: $50
• One TVs, so one HD Theater is needed: $200
• Wired network, so no wireless adapter for the HD Theater is needed.
• Current computer is sufficient, has at least 300GB of free hard drive space: free

Total cost: $480

Moderate situation

• SageTV software: $90 ($80 + Placeshifter bundle)
• Two recording sources needed: $140 (I chose the HVR2250, it has 2 tuners)
• Using two cable boxes, so two USB UIRT is needed: $100 ($50 each)
• Two TVs, so 2 HD Theaters are needed: $400 ($200 each)
• Wireless network, so 2 wireless adapters needed for HD Theaters: $60 ($30 each)
• External USB 1GB hard drive: $100

Total cost: $890

Complex situation

This is for people who have many TVs and love to watch lots of TV. It’s capable of recording up to three shows at once.

• SageTV software: $90 ($80 + Placeshifter bundle)
• Three recording sources needed, no expansion slots available, 3 HD PVRs: $675 ($225 each)
• Using three cable boxes, so 1 USB UIRT is needed: $50 ($50 each)
• Four TVs, so 4 HD Theaters are needed: $800 ($200 each)
• Wireless network, so 4 wireless adapters needed for HD Theaters: $120 ($30 each)
• External USB hard drives (4GB storage): $800

Total cost: $2635

Conclusion

If you’re interested in learning more about SageTV, there’s a great article on GeekTonic which has a nice set of links on specific topics. Also, drop by the forum. Feel free to ask me any questions here as well.

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