Use of SageTV with media server

[sunray]

I have a HTPC running SageTv with 3 PVR-250s and 4 HDs and it runs too hot. So I'm going to remove 2 or 3 of the HDs and put them into another PC which will act as a media server. I want Sage to record onto the HDs in the media server. How would I go about setting this up? Do I need to buy a Sage client license in order to do this? Thanks.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by sunray

I have a HTPC running SageTv with 3 PVR-250s and 4 HDs and it runs too hot. So I'm going to remove 2 or 3 of the HDs and put them into another PC which will act as a media server. I want Sage to record onto the HDs in the media server. How would I go about setting this up? Do I need to buy a Sage client license in order to do this? Thanks.

This should work fine. Just specify the server volume in question (I am assuming you are using a windows server or linux server running SAMBA) as the storage repository for Sage. You will need a system disk in in the HTPC, and I would recommend keeping the storage for the live TV buffer local too, but you should be able to do this with one drive.

Thanks,
Mike

[stanger89]

Basically there are two ways you can do it:

1) SageTV + encoders recording to a remote network share
2) SageTV + encoders recording to a local drive + SageClient for viewing

1) Would be cheaper as you don't need anything new.
2) Would be more robust as the recording would be self-contained

Personally, I think 2 is the ideal solution, it avoids network problems while recording, isolates the "backed" recording function from the "frontend" playback function (which 99% of the time is what crashes if something does). IMO it's well worth the price of a client license.

FWIW Mike, there is no LiveTV buffer, and you can't specify where LiveTV is recorded to.

[blade]

I second suggestion #2. I'd definetly try to keep all the recording limited to 1 machine.

If everything is in the server it doesn't matter if your network goes down, your HTPC crashes, or you just need to reboot the HTPC. Your shows are still being recorded on the server. Playback is a lot more complicated and demanding than the recording. So it's much more likely that the client is going to go down or need a reboot.

Trust me it sucks when you're recording across the network and need to reboot a computer with a networked drive or capture card that's in use especially if you have recordings scheduled for the next few hours.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by sunray

I have a HTPC running SageTv with 3 PVR-250s and 4 HDs and it runs too hot. So I'm going to remove 2 or 3 of the HDs and put them into another PC which will act as a media server. I want Sage to record onto the HDs in the media server. How would I go about setting this up? Do I need to buy a Sage client license in order to do this? Thanks.

Use USB2 enclosures. My HTPC has 3 tuners(1 USB2, 2 PCI 250s) and 7 200gig drives using USB2 enclosures. 4 are dedicated to Sage and 3 to Divxed movies. I only have a single 80gig WD drive in the machine. Also, I've made the 3 movies drives available to the network so all TV is available via Sage client and movies throught drive sharing.

It all works great!

[dvd_maniac]

I have 8 hard drives and I just made sure they stay cool. Look into cooling/noise dampeners 5.25 hard drive enclosures...

[src666]

I'm going to be getting one of these soon: http://www.pc-pitstop.com/ide_raid/ms324i.asp

It will replace the individual hot-swap bays that I am currently using. The nice thing is that it provides superior cooling, but only takes up 3 drive bays. Also, even though it is intended to be used for Raid, each drive still has a seperate IDE connection, so you can use it however you like. They also make a SATA version, for more up-to-date configurations.

[silkshadow]

Humm, I have 11 hard drives and two optical drives in my Sage server. They are a mix of pata and sata. I put them in a Coolermaster stacker and I live in a very hot country. This box runs 24/7 in this heat. I've never had a heat problem (using SMART to check the drives' temperatures). While I strongly recommend moving to a server/client setup, all you might need is a new computer case.

[sunray]

My thanks to everyone who replied. I'd like to move the Sage recording stuff to a separate box but I dont have a cable tv outlet where I'm going to place the server. The heat problem I'm having is with my HTPC (Silverstone LC10 case) which heats up enough with 4 hds, 3 PVR-250s capture cards and a 3.2 ghz Northwood to cause my Seasonic 400 watt Super Tornado power supply to spin up its fan to a very audible level. So I'm removing 2 of the four drives and putting them in the server. I tested this by unplugging two of the four drives and the case cooled down and the PUS fan didnt spin up. I also tried a USB/Firewire external drive but it got too hot.

[Lucas]

As already mentioned above, you need a good 'server' class case like the Coolermaster stacker, that has fans for all the drives. This way everything runs cool and you end up with less heat related failures.

I am in the same boat as you. I managed to tweak the airflow in my LC03 case to have borderline acceptable temps.

The CPU fan exhaust was going directly into the PSU intake and triggering its fans. So I built a funnel from the CPU fan to the case exhaust fan and that cured it.

I still worry about the temps the 4 drives have to endure, so I am moving the whole setup to a coolermaster stacker case and repopulating the LC03 with new hardware just to run SageTV client.

[salsbst]

I'm of the opinion that a file server should be a file server and no more. Thus, I'd recommend what stanger89 called option 1.