I am in the process of designing my homes AV distribution.

Part of the problem is I am unsure on how to handle the TV aspect.

Right now I have STB's at all the the TVs.
I am trying to eliminate this cost a little bit.
I like having a STB becuase well I like OnDemand, and I like the encrypted channels.
Problem is I can only watch one TV at a time, and dont like paying for 4 STB's when I can only watch 1.

I WANT HD when possible.

I am considering:
1) What I am thinking is maybe making my WHS a TV Recording server, just put some TV tuners in it(prolly cablecard). Sage Server will be used if I go this route.
Also build new mini-itx HTPCs for all the rooms, using Win7. I dont like the Sage Front End.
Keep 1 STB for OnDemand in the living room.

Questions:
If I go this route how can I keep my recorded shows organized for viewing on Win7MC?
Can I watch Live TV from the SageServer using Win7?
What If I put Tuners on the win7 Boxes? Can I have it save all recorded media to the WHS?
Im not really sure what Win7 MC has to offer in TV recording as I dont use that feature...yet.

There currently isn't any way to use VOD from a STB with Media Center. There is probably a way, but nothing easy.

You can't record directly to a WHS, but you can move your recordings there with something like Recorded TV Manager and play them back on all the Media Center as long as none of the content is DRM'd.

Right now the best multi-room solution for HD TV is extenders in every room and Digital Cable Tuner with CableCARDs in the main media center.

If I were you I really wouldn't bother with getting set on Sage (back-end or otherwise) until at least trying Win7 MC. It's nice.

That said, at least in XPMC and VMC, MC isn't very good at treating externally-recorded videos as recorded TV. You have encode them as normal videos and then throw them into your media library and browse the videos like photos. You won't get the nice metadata fluff that comes with recorded TV, for example, such as the series info, cast, rating, etc.

I'm not familiar with WHS as far as MC is concerned; however, AFAIK, MC is pretty much the same on any flavor of Windows 7 that has MC. If you put tuners on Win7 boxes you'll have no problem recording TV from MC at least for playback from the machine it is recorded on. You can playback from an MC extender.

I'm sure you know this but to be sure:

Are your STBs HD? Be aware of tuner limitations with Windows as a DVR. Instead of one kind of tuner (as with analog cable and analog antenna) there are three common ones for digital: ATSC (digital antenna), ClearQAM (unencrypted digital cable), and CableCARD (encrypted digital cable, licenced technology from CableLabs). Each has its own caveats, and you'll need to evaluate your cable provider's level of support.

nitrobass24:

1) What I am thinking is maybe making my WHS a TV Recording server, just put some TV tuners in it(prolly cablecard). Sage Server will be used if I go this route.

I don't believe that Sage will use Cablecards. Thanks to the evil that is DRM Cablecard recordings can only be played back on the PC that made them.

nitrobass24:

Also build new mini-itx HTPCs for all the rooms, using Win7. I dont like the Sage Front End.

How do you propose to schedule recordings and the like when you're using 7MC as the front end to a Sage backend?

nitrobass24:

If I go this route how can I keep my recorded shows organized for viewing on Win7MC?

7MC can handle video files from any networked source. To show up as Recorded TV the files have to be either .dvr-ms or .wtv. Can Sage record in these formats?

nitrobass24:

Can I watch Live TV from the SageServer using Win7?

No.

Basically mixing Sage & 7MC is going to be a bad idea. Pick one and stick with it.

 

mark1234:

nitrobass24:

1) What I am thinking is maybe making my WHS a TV Recording server, just put some TV tuners in it(prolly cablecard). Sage Server will be used if I go this route.

I don't believe that Sage will use Cablecards. Thanks to the evil that is DRM Cablecard recordings can only be played back on the PC that made them.

Yea thats not a big deal, I have a plan for that, but I dont want to get into it as it will just complicate and distract from this thread.

nitrobass24:

Also build new mini-itx HTPCs for all the rooms, using Win7. I dont like the Sage Front End.

mark1234:

How do you propose to schedule recordings and the like when you're using 7MC as the front end to a Sage backend?

I dunno if I can or not.....thats kinda what I was asking :)

nitrobass24:

If I go this route how can I keep my recorded shows organized for viewing on Win7MC?

mark1234:

7MC can handle video files from any networked source. To show up as Recorded TV the files have to be either .dvr-ms or .wtv. Can Sage record in these formats?

Well again not sure. I would prefer not to use Sage at all and just stick with Win7

nitrobass24:

Can I watch Live TV from the SageServer using Win7?

mark1234:

No.

Basically mixing Sage & 7MC is going to be a bad idea. Pick one and stick with it.

 

Ideally I would like to have a HTPC with Win7, and have the recordings saved to the WHS on a network share.

Im not sure though how I can have it do that?

Im thinking of getting one HD STB /w a HDPVR, and one Cablcard to start out with.

If you want premium HD content w/ cable, your only choice will be an OEM PC with cablecards... or build your own and follow in the steps of some of these folks using OFS loader, etc...  It sounds like money isn't a huge concern for you (other than saving on the STB fees) so I'd go with an OEM cablecard PC and extenders on all  the TV's..  Basically what Ben's saying.

You could build you own WHS for customization and versatility... or to save $$...  Just be sure you use a motherboard and other parts that have Win Server 2003 drivers...  otherwise, they prob won't work.

Yes, I think you can record directly to WHS and playback from it as well...  all of that has supposedly greatly improved with the power pack.