Anybody using min hardware requirements for SageTV?

[ben_95sl1]

I've been given a mostly working p3 600 machine, I'll put something like 256mb of ram in it, and use it solely as a sage client, no tuners in it, etc. Now I'm hoping it will actually run ok, since a p2 450 can theoretically play a dvd, and I can ALMOST get my via c3 800 to decode an mpeg2 smoothly (and the p3 blows the c3 out of the water for video stuff). I guess my question is, has anybody been using a system this speed and been successful? I figure I should be able to tweak it to get it to work, and the all in wonder rage pro video card I have actually can do good hardware accel with windvd4 (which is how the c3 almost worked).


PS. I know it's borderline, but I can't spend $$ right now to do better.

Thanks,
Ben

[Lucas]

I have a laptop, Toshiba Tecra 8100, with PIII700 and 320Mb RAM.

I tested SageTV on it and the only issue you may have is with the video decoder....
Most are OK to borderline. The one that cannot play smoothly is the nVidia decoder.

So, if you stick to an efficient decoder like Sonic or Intervideo and get a decent video card then you should be OK.

[ben_95sl1]

Thanks, that's good to hear. Since hardware accel on rage pro happens to be fully supported on the older windvd4 copy I have (and for some reason doesn't work well with other codecs I've tried, including windvd6), this may just work after all....it's just for my bedroom, so being a sage client is it's only raison d'etre! I was planning on a media mvp, but a pc can also do dvds and surround sound, which for some reason, I think I need in my bedroom

[eaug]

I use an old PIII 650 w/ a 350 tuner without any problems as my main system... besides the EOF issue caused by the 350 card.

[Opus4]

I used an old p2-400 as my main SageTV system for almost a year, but I added an Xcard so that the cpu didn't need to be used for decoding. For older systems, I would make sure the IDE controller is up to date -- perhaps ATE/100 instead os ATA/33 for better hard drive throughput. My old system was quite slow, but it worked. Oh, and it worked better when I added a little extra memory so that it had 384MB rather than 256. With the Xcard, a 250, & a PVR-USB2, I was able to record 2 shows at once, watch a show on that system, and watch a show on my client, all w/o overtaxing the PC. Edit: Oops. I missed the client-only configuration comment.

I think the biggest issue you would have is making sure you have a decent video card & decoder for playback; it wouldn't _have_ to be something like a 350 or Xcard, like Lucas said.

- Andy

[Grungy Remnant]

I used a Celeron 600 oc'd to 900 for over a year without probs. I was running SageTV and other apps like mame. I used a FX5200 as a vid card and had 384Meg RAM. Other than the UI being a bit slow everything worked great!

[ben_95sl1]

I've always preferred win2k over xp for slower computers since its not such a resource hog and doesn't have all that fluff I don't need. I assume sagetv works just fine under win2k?

As for hard drives...well, I will only have the OS + sagetv client installed on a tiny 2-3gb drive, and it will use my main 2ghz pc/server for all the file storage/playback over the network (100mbit). On that thought, assuming I don't set up the client to actually record anything ever (since the server is all setup now and it records everything I want), I assume the stuff recorded by the sagetv server will automagically show up in the client so I can watch it wherever is most convenient?

thanks again....I hope this works.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by ben_95sl1

As for hard drives...well, I will only have the OS + sagetv client installed on a tiny 2-3gb drive, and it will use my main 2ghz pc/server for all the file storage/playback over the network (100mbit). On that thought, assuming I don't set up the client to actually record anything ever (since the server is all setup now and it records everything I want), I assume the stuff recorded by the sagetv server will automagically show up in the client so I can watch it wherever is most convenient?

Oops. I missed the client-only comment. Yes, the client will see all shows on the server & essentially will work as if you are using the server in terms of UI features. Ignore my stuff about the tuners, hard drive, & so on and just pay attention to the others talking about video playback configuration. (More memry always helps, though.)

- Andy

[Menehune]

I'm using a 1ghz eden as a client (IIRC, it's considered a p2 500mhz machine?-pretty close to the minimum sage client requirements). Menu drawing can be a little slow and using the mouse is more of a hassle than the hauppuage remote on my main system, but as an occasionally used client, the system is fine and does everything I need it to do-just vieweing streams over the network, no fancy stuff.

[ben_95sl1]

thanks guys, sounds like it should be fine....unfortunately the mostly working machine I got was mostly not working (bad mb or somthing weird)....but assuming the cpu is fine, I nabbed another system which will do the job. ahh to be friends with the IT guy!

[bartley9]

My specs are below. The client wont play video by itself though, it needs the MPEG card.

[RedCoat999]

See my sig for specs. Its been running for several years now 24/7. I would recommend maxing out the memory. It basically works as long as you don't mind waiting here and there for things to happen. For example, when ffwd'ing through a program, I pause it first, then it works immediately, otherwise I would have to wait for it to catch up each time.

[bhageman]

I ran Sage on a PTII 400 for almost a year with no problems. I upgraded when I started using the Cayars STV because that was the first time I ran into any performance issues. If I switched back to Original V2, it would work fine.

[RedCoat999]

Cayars wouldn't work for me either, but since then i've been using SageMC16x9 beautifully

[ben_95sl1]

Bartley, are you using sagetv with the hollywood+??? I have the creative dxr3 (basically the same) and a weak via c3 system, but have no way to integrate the two wrt OSD, etc...even if I can get sage to make the H+ play the mpeg2 on a different monitor? Right now I have to open files manually, and have no ability to do everything sagetv does. Any help would be great!

I also may be able to build a minimal P2 400 system, I had no idea I might be able to get it to software decode....that would be great! Thanks guys.

[bartley9]

I just followed the instructions in the link below:

SageTv Hollywood Plus configuration

My Video card loops into the Hollywood+ card and the Monitor connects to the Hollywood plus.

The menu's dont come out on the TV screen if you use the S-Video out of the Hollywood+ but they come out fine on a vga monitor. Actually there is a bit of shimmer round the edges but it is quite acceptable. The menu response time is fast as well.

BTW I am using the SageTv Client on this PC not the full SageTv but I dont think that should be a problem. It is quite bizarre watching live tv in a room which has no "TV" hardware or arial.

[ben_95sl1]

thanks....I did some searching after you posted and found out that it will work; that will be sweet. I was actually planning on just using an extra 14-15" monitor as an output...how convenient

Update on my results:

I have my P3 600/192mb ram/Ati Rage pro 8mb system running now on winxp + windvd4 codec + sagetv client. Mpeg2 is perfectly smooth, cpu at about 60-70%. A little sluggish in the menus (in comparison to athlon xp 2000) when running video, but perfectly acceptable. I can imagine a P2 400 gets a little bogged down. I think I'll get away with the ram, even though sagetv/winxp are quite the little memory hogs. It didn't seem to be accessing the hd much at all while using sage, which is great cause my 7200rpm scsi drive sounds like a bag of rocks.

[ben_95sl1]

ok, wow...this whole client stuff is working out very well....I'm so excited that I did my signature!

DXR3 with h+ drivers installed without a hitch, and works great in sagetv using vga; Thanks so much! I've seen people selling them for $5, maybe I'l grab another!