Does this hardware make sense for my SageTV rebuild?

[CanadianEh]

Hey guys,

My old file share server / Active Directory server in the basesment finally bit the dust (PIII 600 w/256MB). In looking to scavenge parts from eBay, it looks like it might actually make more sense to rebuild my current SageTV deployment. My current setup is as follows:

Living Room: SageTV Server (6.0) - AthlonXP 2600+, 512MB DDR400, GeForce 6200 256MB, and a bunch of HDD's for video storage

Client #1: Basement (workout area) - P4 2Ghz, 512MB, on-board video (heheh) also running Win2k3, IIS 6.0, SQL 2000 for a personal website

Client #2: Upstairs bedroom - AthlonXP 2600+ 512MB DDR333, GeForce 6600 256MB - only wireless client (802.11g)

Placeshifter License (laptops): Hardware doesn't matter for this discussion

............

So, here's what I'm thinking of doing to better spread out my SageTV and general network services:

New AD/File Server / SageTV Server: Reuse the guts from the old living room server (XP 2600+, 512 MB, HDD's)

New Living Room Client: AMD Sempron 64 3000+, 1GB DDR400 RAM, GeForce 7300GS 256MB, some kind of mirrored client HDD's (wife hates downtime when it comes to TV.. lol)

Upstairs bedroom: No modifications

So here are my questions:

Does the above setup look like a solid solution, yet still keeps me within my budget?

Should I expect any performance issues running SageTV server (3 PVR250/150's) on the above listed reused hardware, along with it running AD, and comskip services? AD usage is very minimal

Would a GeForce 7300GS 256MB be capable of running an 1080i HDTV that I finally forsee in the future? lol.... in VMR9?


Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

[CanadianEh]

*bump*

Anyone?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Hey guys,

My old file share server / Active Directory server in the basesment finally bit the dust (PIII 600 w/256MB). In looking to scavenge parts from eBay, it looks like it might actually make more sense to rebuild my current SageTV deployment. My current setup is as follows:

Living Room: SageTV Server (6.0) - AthlonXP 2600+, 512MB DDR400, GeForce 6200 256MB, and a bunch of HDD's for video storage

Client #1: Basement (workout area) - P4 2Ghz, 512MB, on-board video (heheh) also running Win2k3, IIS 6.0, SQL 2000 for a personal website

Client #2: Upstairs bedroom - AthlonXP 2600+ 512MB DDR333, GeForce 6600 256MB - only wireless client (802.11g)

Placeshifter License (laptops): Hardware doesn't matter for this discussion

............

So, here's what I'm thinking of doing to better spread out my SageTV and general network services:

New AD/File Server / SageTV Server: Reuse the guts from the old living room server (XP 2600+, 512 MB, HDD's)

New Living Room Client: AMD Sempron 64 3000+, 1GB DDR400 RAM, GeForce 7300GS 256MB, some kind of mirrored client HDD's (wife hates downtime when it comes to TV.. lol)

Upstairs bedroom: No modifications

So here are my questions:

Does the above setup look like a solid solution, yet still keeps me within my budget?

Should I expect any performance issues running SageTV server (3 PVR250/150's) on the above listed reused hardware, along with it running AD, and comskip services? AD usage is very minimal

Would a GeForce 7300GS 256MB be capable of running an 1080i HDTV that I finally forsee in the future? lol.... in VMR9?


Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

Server can be low end. I have an Athlon 3000+ on my server but run comskip after hours. I don't see any issues with what you're proposing. I would recommend a client as high end as possible. If you start to move to HD you're going to need it. Client does all the video decoding. Mirroring the client drives doesn't buy you much if the server is down. Look at ways of making the server redundant.
7300GS should support HD but again it is also a combination of the workstation horsepower also. Higher end card may be a little better.

Gerry

[CanadianEh]

Thanks for your input, Gerry.

The server's OS drives will also be mirrored (as they are currently). With HDTV, does the processor really matter all that much? I would have figured the bulk of the processing would be performed on the graphics card.

Thanks!

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Thanks for your input, Gerry.

The server's OS drives will also be mirrored (as they are currently). With HDTV, does the processor really matter all that much? I would have figured the bulk of the processing would be performed on the graphics card.

Thanks!

If that was the case then everyone would be slapping new video cards in their Pentium 3 computers and calling it a day. The graphics card matters but that's why they say use a P4 3.2 GHz or greater for HD. Also I believe alot of your HD recordings can use AC3 for the audio, another reason for more powerful processor.

Gerry

[blade]

I've heard people saying how you need +3ghz for HD playback, but I have a hard time believing it if you have a good video card. I was running a 6600gt with an Athlon XP underclocked to 1300mhz and could playback 1080i HD video test clips with around 60-65% cpu usage. 1080 film content only required 40-45% cpu usage.

Unfortunately I don't have any "real" HD content. I can only speak for my experience with various HD test clips I downloaded. I hope to get a HDHomeRun in the near future so I can test out how much power is really needed for HD playback.

[CanadianEh]

Hey guys,

So I purchased an AverMedia A180, and am happy to report that I can output the 720p captured video streams to a Standard Def. TV with no frame drops on my existing hardware. However, 1080i is a different story. Using FRAPS to troubleshoot, 1080i is varying from 38-48fps output. CPU usage is only at about 40% using VMR9 on a Sempron 2600+ with 512MB RAM and a 256MB GeForce 6200 AGP. So, to me, this shows that system memory and processor are not my bottleneck. I've attempted to overclock the 6200 video card with no luck (it immediately freezes.. ah well). I have a 6600 AGP in a different PC, so I'll try swapping that into this case and see if I have better performance.

Anyway, I just wanted to update this thread to indicate what I experienced, for future reference.

Thanks!

[blade]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

However, 1080i is a different story. Using FRAPS to troubleshoot, 1080i is varying from 38-48fps output. CPU usage is only at about 40% using VMR9 on a Sempron 2600+ with 512MB RAM and a 256MB GeForce 6200 AGP. So, to me, this shows that system memory and processor are not my bottleneck.

Your video card is without a doubt the bottleneck. If you use smart mode at least some of those 1080i shows should playback smoothly because they'll only need 24 fps instead of 60 fps.

I've attempted to overclock the 6200 video card with no luck (it immediately freezes.. ah well). I have a 6600 AGP in a different PC, so I'll try swapping that into this case and see if I have better performance.

Nvidia has locked cards such as yours with the newer drivers so that you can't overclock them. The only way to overclock is to roll back to much older drivers or edit the bios of the card. The suggest method is to use the older drivers to determine a stable overclock speed then edit the bios so that the the overclocked speed becomes the new default. This way you can run at the overclocked speed and still benefit from the bug fixes and features of the newer drivers.

The newer drivers do Bad Edit Detection and IVTC on both SD and HD on your 6200 (at least it does on mine). With older drivers these features were disabled.

Something very strange is going on with Nvidia cards, drivers, decoders, or Sage. I have no clue which one is to blame, but something is wrong. I did a format and fresh install on a client with a 6200 AGP and I could easily get the full 60 fps on all 1080i content. After several channel changes the frame rate would fall to 44-48 fps. A reboot would get it back up to 60 fps.

I haven't installed anything or made any changes to my installation, but now even with a clean boot I can only get 44-48 fps on the same 1080i shows that previously played back at 60 fps.