Laptop as Sage Client?

[Humanzee]

Is anybody running a laptop as a sage client machine connected to a TV with success? (Dual Screen Clone or extended desktop) My friend is considering a Sage Client/Server setup and is looking at using a laptop as the client machine to hook up to the TV in his living room. I don't have any experience with using Sage in the Server Client roll, so I haven’t been able to tell him how well it might work.

I mentioned the inability to upgrade the video card in a laptop, and suggested a small form factor PC. But I think he is interested in being more flexible with his hardware. I.e. make use of the laptop for other tasks, when not watching TV.

Anybody have and recommendations.

Thanks,
H

[mayamaniac]

If it has decent video card, then it should be ok, but expect average performance and video quality on the TV, especially if the laptop has integrated graphics card such as intel extreme graphics or ATI rage. I recommend getting an MVP, its $99 and makes a better client.

[Humanzee]

Ya he was looking at the MVP, but he has a lot of video that is encoded with Divx and Wmv from other computers, family video's etc. So we thought it might be better to be able to fiddle with the codecs on something with a full OS.

[dagar]

I ran a Insipron 9100 (w/9700 128) as my Sage client for about a year ... DVI to component adapter to a 720p RPHDTV. Worked great and used the driver hack for Cat. I've also used craptacular older (p3 1ghz) IBM stinkpad as a client to a SDTV via SVid. Worked good but replaced it with a somewhat functioning MVP so I could use the laptop for other things.

[JonTom]

I use a Dell M600 with ATI video as a SDTV client over Svideo - it produces a much better picture than my 'htpc' with ti4200 over Svideo. Also allows me to play DVDs, unlike the MVP (currently the only reason I haven't bought an MVP), and use WinAmp w/ deria's plugin.

The only problem is that I am constantly removing it to take it elsewhere and then hooking it up again. This is a pain and I also worry about the durability of some of the connectors/ports.