Considering new install - Suggestions?

[Dekard]

Ok, here's what I'm considering doing. Please let me know what you experts think about this.

SERVER:
Tyan s2466n
Amd Athlon MP 1800's x 2
Windows Xp Pro
512 DDR 400
100+ gig harddrive
100 meg ethernet connection
1 or 2 capture cards, thinking Haupage 150's?
NO WATCHING ON THIS UNIT, JUST RECORDING OR STREAMING

CLIENT:
Pc Chips 789
Via c3 800 mgz
Windows Xp Pro
512 DDR 400
40 gig hardrive
100 meg ethernet connection
No capture cards
IR remote (Suggestions for this please)

I'm looking for something that I can use without stability problems. I'd love to be able to buy the SageTv Media Extender as a client and skip setting up a pc in the livining room. I like the size of the little box plus the idea of no noise. Could I play back Divx or Xvid content if I did this?

I'm a relative noob to PVR stuff but know a ton about networks and the like. I've been a network admin for a few years now so I can handle the setup etc of this unit. What I'm VERY INTERESTED in is something my slighty tech savvy wife can handle easily. I'm all about having the most uber PVR but if she can't use it theres no value to me.

Now, please hit me with your thoughts and ideas. Thanks!
Edit/Delete Message

[PGPfan]

Your hardware looks just fine so far (though once you get hooked, you'll want to up the storage capacity ).

Capture cards if it were me, is to go with a PVR-500 (dual tuner, one card) so you maximize future expandability.

As for remote, you could consider a Streamzap for a cheap solution. Some of that will depend on what you are using for a source. Are you satellite, or cable, or OTA?

As for the Hauppauge MVP 'extender', it is a great way to go, and we currently have experimental trascoding that allows for viewing Divx content. All Divx material has to be transcoded if using the MVP since the hardware only supports Mpeg-2 decoding. If using your Epia client, there is no transcoding necessary.

-PGPfan

[Dekard]

Ok, I've made the leap. I've ordered a haupage 150, sage tv, steamzap and Nvidia Dvd decoder. My plan is to install the decoder and sage tv server on my backend server and the remote and sagetv client app on the epia client. It sounds like I'll enjoy a bit more features if i do that. I've downloaded the trial version of the app to play with while I wait for the decoder to arrive.

How many hours of recording would a 200 gig drive allow? I see a lot of guys here with terabyte arrays but I don't watch that much tv, lol.

[blade]

Originally Posted by Dekard

How many hours of recording would a 200 gig drive allow? I see a lot of guys here with terabyte arrays but I don't watch that much tv, lol.

Personally I don't go any lower than 3.2gigs/hr so around 60 hrs or a little less at that rate.

[Menehune]

Or you could use MPEG2 Max which records at 12Mb/s. A 1 hour show at 12mbs takes up 6GB on my server. A DVD-Standard recording takes 3.5G per hour.

You will need to play around with the quality settings to see what you prefer -maximum recordiing time or maximum quality or somewhere in-between.

I recommend you make a small OS partition (5-8GB) and a second partition which will use the rest of the drive. Format the second partition using 64k blocks.

[Dekard]

Does the 150 have hardware encoding? I'm seeing some reports that it doesn't which is confusing me. i can cancel the order if I need to now, I just need to ensure I get the hardware encoding.

[Menehune]

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html
Yes. The 150 is a hardware capture card. I don't believe it records CC data into the mpeg video which is why a 250 or 350 are recommended if CC data is required.

[Dekard]

Are you talking about closed captioning data? who cares?! lol..
s

[Dekard]

Mene, I couldn't help but look at your sig. Do you have a page where I can get more information about your system specs? I'm especially curious about your thoughts on the Epia's performance as a Sage client. I'm hearing mixed reviews about the 800 mhz's ability to handle divx\dvd's...

[Dekard]

Originally Posted by Dekard

Ok, here's what I'm considering doing. Please let me know what you experts think about this.

SERVER:
Tyan s2466n
Amd Athlon MP 1800's x 2
Windows Xp Pro
512 DDR 400
100+ gig harddrive
100 meg ethernet connection
1 or 2 capture cards, thinking Haupage 150's?
NO WATCHING ON THIS UNIT, JUST RECORDING OR STREAMING

CLIENT:
Pc Chips 789
Via c3 800 mgz
Windows Xp Pro
512 DDR 400
40 gig hardrive
100 meg ethernet connection
No capture cards
IR remote (Suggestions for this please)

I'm looking for something that I can use without stability problems. I'd love to be able to buy the SageTv Media Extender as a client and skip setting up a pc in the livining room. I like the size of the little box plus the idea of no noise. Could I play back Divx or Xvid content if I did this?

I'm a relative noob to PVR stuff but know a ton about networks and the like. I've been a network admin for a few years now so I can handle the setup etc of this unit. What I'm VERY INTERESTED in is something my slighty tech savvy wife can handle easily. I'm all about having the most uber PVR but if she can't use it theres no value to me.

Now, please hit me with your thoughts and ideas. Thanks!
Edit/Delete Message

Well Crap.... I just found out that the Epia board I planned to use doesn't have an agp slot. Soo.. forget that idea.

NEW PLAN:
Antec Minuet II
MicroAtx board with Athlon XP Mobile 2800+
512 DDR
Nvidia 5200 fanless
I'll mod the psu fan and all the case fans for low speed.

[PGPfan]

Dekard,

Any reason why you aren't considering the MVP extender? Much cheaper than having to build up a new client system.

-PGPfan

[Dekard]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

Dekard,

Any reason why you aren't considering the MVP extender? Much cheaper than having to build up a new client system.

-PGPfan

Yes, i looked at the MVP's and they are attractive. I believe thats a killer piece of hardware. The only reason I'm not going to use one is the dvd issue. I need a new dvd player anyway and love the idea of being able to rip the dvd to my server's harddrive and access it via the network. Awesome piece of technology.