Choosing a PVR

[slides]

hi all, im new to this and i want to start a project where i can have commercials edited out preferably in real time. I am having trouble finding answers when it comes to choosing a pvr. I see that sage seems to be the choice but i only see one unit on their website. is the HDTheatre the best model to go with to go with for the outcome of editing live?

sorry if this is in another thread, but i couldn't find anything.

[slides]

is that even necessary, can it be done easier another way?

[Jere_Jones]

Sage can do just about anything. They have a very active developer community.

Do you want the recordings to be saved without commercials? That can't really be done. What you can do is detect the commercials as they are being recorded and then have the commercials automatically edited out as soon as the recording is done. If you're not concerned about the disk space, then you can just leave them there and the commercials will be automatically skipped as you watch the show, even if you are watching the show as it is being recorded.

When you say that Sage only has one unit, what do you mean?

Jere

[slides]

i want to choose the right hardware for the project. i assume that i need to connect my digital cable unit to my computer through sage hardware, and use the sagetv software to save the files so that showanalyzer can recognize the commercials?

am i on the right track so far?

[Serra]

Yes, you are. I'm currently running Sage, but there are a few other alternatives. It really depends on what you are looking for. For me the choice went down to how I watch. With the HD100 and now HD200, Sage wins hands down if you want a PC in one room and the TV in another. Also the HD100/200 will greatly reduce your PC system requirements. I'm running Sage for 2 computers and 2 TVs on an older single core PC using two HD100s for the TVs.

I can offer two forums...

SageTV Community - Powered by vBulletin

and

Home Theater Computers - AVS Forum

Between those, if you can't find what you are looking for.... you need to go with AT&T Uverse and be done with it...

[slides]

thanks for the help.

so i want to be able to watch television and have the commercials skipped as it is playing. Ideally i would like to be able to input my own video material into the commercial breaks and have my input stop when the scheduled programing comes back in. i have some friends that know jitter, and pure data fairly well. i thought this may be something to add in the future but to recognize as an end goal. is this realistic?

i have a an acer aspire 5110 laptop running XP. it has an AMD turion 64x2 and an ATI X1600 128mb.

it really doesn't matter where the unit is in regards to the television for me. i wouldn't mind reducing the clutter of cables and such. if this means separating units that's is fine but its not an issue.

do you see any problems coming up? i hope this is a reasonable thing to try.

[Serra]

Originally Posted by slides

so i want to be able to watch television and have the commercials skipped as it is playing.

That is possible, you will need a video source that isn't H.264 or a much better computer. H.264 is a little hard to skip on live/delayed, as the CPU power required is much higher.

If you don't plan to watch live/live with a few minute delay, it isn't as much as an issue.

Sage will do what you are asking. It sounds like skipping commercials is your primary goal and that you want the commercial skip to be automatic.

Any DVR will allow you to skip commercials in some for or another without automated skipping.

[slides]

my primary goal is most defiantly to skip commercials automatically. i really would like to do it live(delayed). What would would i need to make my computer up to the task (next to just buying a new one).

would you still suggest one of the HD units from sage as my dvr?

[Serra]

Yes, you should take a close look at the HD200 before you make any decisions. The reason I say that is that the HD200 eliminates most of the setup/configuration worries that can plague a PVR.

You will need to get a capture card/box as well.

If automatic commercial skip is your goal, then a system like Sage or one of the other PC based systems is really your only choice. I don't know of any box solutions that will auto-skip. Most box based solutions will not even jump, they will only the the really fast play mode, which sucks.

[toricred]

One thing to keep in mind is that the Sage HD Extender is not the PVR itself. There is software that needs to run on a "server" and the Extender is used at the TV to watch the recordiings from the server.