I want SageTV...but I have some hardware questions...

[mephiston5]

First, does anyone use a USB 2.0 external hard drive for their data storage? I am thinking about getting a 250 gig model to record my videos to, and I just wanted to make sure the data transfer rate was fast enough to be able to stream the videos to the SageTV Media Extender I am planning on buying.

Other then that, I was planning on buying this “package” to get me started. Other then a computer, which I have, do I need anything else? Any other recommendations or tips to help me get started? Thanks a lot. –mephiston5

[Para]

I store videos on my 250GB USB2.0 drive and watch them with no problems. I wouldn't expect any issues from recording to it from Sage. Just remember to format it in 64k clusters. I regularly stream movies from that drive to my media extender over the network (as long as they are mpeg2).

If you are also considering connecting this PC directly to a TV, you should also look into a remote (didn't notice if that package had one), and a video card with outputs compatible with your TV. Of course, if you are only going to use the PC as a server with the media extender as a client, you don't need the remote or video card with TV output.