MVP Client and system tray issues?

[Grasshopper]

Well, I took the plunge and bought an MVP for the upstairs tv, and right now my 4 year old is in her glory watching Arthur upstairs while the little one naps on the couch downstairs. Working exactly as I want it.

But of course, I have questions about my configuration and whether it's possible to do it better.

First of all, my Sage server is my main home PC. Usually, Sage sleeps and lives in the system tray on this PC, and I watch only when exiled from the family room for a ball game or something. I have the Cayars STV on it, and like it.

I also have a PC running Sage Client driving the main family room display. Both PC's run 24/7. So, my first question:

Right now, the MVP client is running on the server PC. Am I better off if I move the MVP client to the Client PC? Is this even possible? Does the MVP client take up a substantial amount of processing power on the host pc?

Assuming the answers to the above result in "Keep it on the server and don't mess with it, you moron", I have a second question. The MVP client running on the server PC results in another Sage icon in the system tray in the lower right. How do I rid myself of that extra icon? Remember that the UI's are different -- one is the vanilla Sage UI, the other is Cayars.

Thanks so much!

[amg]

run the server as a service (assuming you are running some form of XP or 2000). The server will run "in the background" and has the benefit of if/when the UI crashes it is seperate from the server.

Hope that makes some sense..

[henk99]

Originally Posted by amg

run the server as a service (assuming you are running some form of XP or 2000). The server will run "in the background" and has the benefit of if/when the UI crashes it is seperate from the server.

Hope that makes some sense..

Hi...sorry to break into this, but i have the exact same issue as Grasshopper. I also have two identical icons sitting in the tray. I have an office pc with two pvr-150s and run the server on that machine. On the same pc is the client that is used for a living room MVP. The thing is that i still want to watch tv on the office pc occasionallly. I always thought that i couldn't do that anymore when i run as a service.
Is this true? Is there still a UI when it is run as a service?

I would also be happy if i could have a slghtly different icon for the client one. But i don't know how to do that.

Henk99

[Opus4]

No, there is no UI when running just the service -- you have to run SageTV or SageTVClient to see the UI. If you have 2 instances of SageTV/SageTVClient running, there will be 2 icons in the system tray if both are sleeping. The only (easy) way around that is to not have one sleeping there, but if you want them off the monitor, sleeping in the system tray is the best way to go. I suppose you could also just minimize it on the task bar -- the MVP client should still work that way, especially since it works even when sleeping.

Now watch someone come along and remind me that there is a property to prevent the system tray icon from being shown...

- Andy

[nielm]

The thing is that i still want to watch tv on the office pc occasionallly. I always thought that i couldn't do that anymore when i run as a service. Is this true?

No... Running as a service splits the recording engine from the playback engine and they can be run in 2 separate processes -- the SageTVService.exe has no UI, but does all the recording, EPG updates and streaming to clients.
However, when you run SageTV.exe it does have a UI -- it pretends to be a client and connects to the service for playback.

If you run 2 instances of Sage on your system (SageTv.exe for the UI on the local system, and SageTVClient.exe for the MPV) then you will still get 2 systray icons, but the difference is that you can now exit SageTV.exe, without worrying about missing recordings because the service will carry on running!

[henk99]

Thanks Andy and Nielm!!

Nielm, your option is close enough for me! I only watch tv in my office occasionally, so there is no need for sagetv UI to be running all the time. This way i can just start and exit it whenever i need it. There is no need for it to sleep when a service is doing all the work.

Do i have to make a new install or set anything to make this possible? I heard that you can have it start automatically with a windows start, even without being logged in. Do i have to set anything special for that?

[nielm]

no new install, just shutdown Sage, run the SageTVService Control, Enable and Start..


Note: If you access disks on network drives, then you must be using UNC paths, and the service must be configured to start as a 'real' user (not LocalSystem) in the Windows Service Management App (Right Click My Computer-> Manage)

Running in service mode means Sage starts up with Windows, just like all other Windows background services...

[henk99]

Originally Posted by nielm

no new install, just shutdown Sage, run the SageTVService Control, Enable and Start..


Note: If you access disks on network drives, then you must be using UNC paths, and the service must be configured to start as a 'real' user (not LocalSystem) in the Windows Service Management App (Right Click My Computer-> Manage)

Running in service mode means Sage starts up with Windows, just like all other Windows background services...

Thanks Nielm, i will be trying this tonight.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

Right now, the MVP client is running on the server PC. Am I better off if I move the MVP client to the Client PC? Is this even possible? Does the MVP client take up a substantial amount of processing power on the host pc?

Since no one really answered this question for you, I'll take a stab at it.

I haven't done it myself, but I read that the MVPClient can be installed on a separate client PC. It requires a SageTV Client License. As I understand it, the only problem is you have to map letter drives on the client PC to match the ones in your host PC. For example, if shows are recorded to E:\ Drive on the Host PC, then you have to map that drive to the letter E:\ also on your Client PC. This is a problem if you have shows recorded to C:\ on the Host PC, then there is no way to map that on the Client PC because C: by deafult is taken by the boot partition. I'm not sure how one would fix that issue.

As for performance, the MVPClient takes the same amount of resources as it does on your Host PC, or the same amount that a regular SageTV Client. Check the system requirements for SageTV Client.