Minimum System

[John Colburn]

I am currently trying to give the family some benefit from our network other than simply internet access.

We use an old PC as the server: HP 8670c, PIII, 600 MHz, max supported PIII is 800 MHz. USB 1.0.

Exploring the benefits of SageTV over prior experience with Ultimate TV coupled to Direct TV. Have robbed the drives from two units for USB drives to add to above server. (May have recorded old movies accessible, don't know yet).

Question comes down to --- Can I really expect to get reasonable service from the new wireless Media extender networked to this old server running Sage TV.

There are nothing but horror stories concerning the media center extender in the forum. PC setups are notoriously a pain in the tail, but -------. That added to my slow office server concerns makes me want to give up without trying at all, but I have been told that-------------

If I don't want to watch recorded programs on the old PIII, that I can get along with the wireless extender in the family room or bedrooms and pretend that my old Ultimate TV still works in this new incarnation!!

We run several Dell D505's on the office network at about 1.6 GHz, but I do not want to dedicate one of them as a server, nor to buy a new server for a while yet.

Advice, please including specifics of bus bottlenecks, network lag, etc., etc. so I know what I might have to put up with. Was happy with Ultimate TV except for $10/month per room.

[oddjob]

I'm curious too.

I have a faster windows pc but I could'nt escape occasional blackouts when the movie was filmed at night.

I began to think my operating system was to blame. I think with the virus checker and windows patches it slowed it down. I took a chance on linux version, and my problem went away.

bizaare..

[blade]

My Sage server is a Celeron 366 with 320 mb of ram. I can easily capture 4 shows at once while streaming to 2 clients without any problems. I have PC clients not media extenders, but I don't think the extenders require much of the server's power.

The biggest limitation is probably going to be the onboard IDE controller. I'm using an old BX board and it only supports ATA33 with a 40 or 80 gig max size (I forget which). I picked up an IDE controller card for $20 that does ATA100 and can support larger drives.

I believe USB 1.0 is going to be way too slow for external drives. You'll either need to add a card that supports the newer USB standard or go with internal drives.

[Opus4]

You could look for a combo IDE/USB card if slots are limited... I know some combos exist, but not sure about that specific one.

Anyway... my first SageTV system was a p2-400 w/2 tuners. It needed an IDE upgrade + a little extra memory to get it up to its max of 384MB. It had no problem recording 2 shows at once & streaming to a client while playing locally via an Xcard. Oh - one thiong I learned the hard way was that the older case that system used was not ventillated well enough to prevent hard drive failures.

Regarding the MVP: it shouldn't be a problem for playing mpeg2 recordings, such as those from a Hauppauge tuner. But, if you have other video formats that need to be transcoded for the MVP to be able to play them, you would run into issues with a slower cpu. (I don't have a wireless MVP, so I can speak from experience about it... but my wired version works quite well.)

- Andy

[John Colburn]

Watched a couple of shows the old fashioned way this evening, then checked up on my post. Certainly appreciate all of the advice so far.

Decided to remove my IEEE 1394 card and another I don't need to accommodate the Haupagge dual tuner and add a four port USB 2 card. I already have 384 MB of memory (the max possible for this particular motherboard, per HP).

The 8670c has the faster bus discussed above already -- I believe 133, so I will live with that for initial trials and wait on changing to an 800 MHz processor for awhile.

Biggest problem may still be the flak posted by others about the Media extender. It seems the extender offered by Sage is different from the Haupagge (per ads), but they sure look alike in geometry. Haupagge specs require a 733 MHz processor to handle the wireless extender, but that may not be a firm limit.

Also, Tech support post in response to an irate owner indicated that they are working hard to solve probs with the wireless version -- nevertheless, I will start with that and back down to an ethernet bridge (AC line), plus wired media extender if the wireless doesn't work right away.

It will likely boil down to more specifics about the whole system put together to see where the kinks are.

I am getting more comfortable with jumping in with both feet and getting the parts in and putting them in service next week.

Will let you guys know what I learn.

John

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by John Colburn

It seems the extender offered by Sage is different from the Haupagge (per ads), but they sure look alike in geometry.

It is an MVP from Hauppauge; there is no difference. And, the wireless model can be used wirelessly or wired.

- Andy

[hemicuda]

Just unpacked my new (wired) MVP this morning. My experiences so far have been positive. CPU hits 80-95% transcoding a divx file, but I haven't noticed any freezes in the videos yet. I noticed once in awhile that menu navigation hangs for a couple of seconds. Took me longer to get behind the TV to hook the thing up than to get familiar w/ its operation.