Not sure what to buy

[ebayjunky]

I am new at Sagetv, I currently have a Xeon processor Dell box 2.8 ghz. it has scsi, IDE and will have Sata Drives when I order it. I was thinking of getting a terrabit or so. I want to make a media station and watch movies from it over the network on the tv.
I am looking for some advise on what I should get. I want the ability to watch movies and down the road hook up tv to the PC and watch it all on the TV over the network wireless or maybe hard wired. I was curoius if the wireless one has both hookups
By the way it has XP pro on the machine.
If you have any suggestions or advise it would be greatly appreciated.

[traker1001]

Sounds like your off to a good start, xeon is a descent cpu, just as a comparison.

My setup is currently running Server is headless,
running a P4 EE 3.73 cpu, 2gb DDR2 1066 ram, crap video $10 video card, running sage in service mode, 2003 server OS, Connected via a GigBit to a WRT350N, I also run Comskip and all my DVD to MP4 encoding (Pretty much encoding constantly.) on this server, Any changes I make to the server I do via RDP, My OS and recording drive is 2 SATA 10K RPM Segate Raptor drives in a RAID 0 config, 20gb partioned and formatted normal for the OS and utilities, and 128gb Part. and Form. 64K blocks for recordings from any one of my 4 DirectTV receivers connected via serial to the server.

Then I have a system for Movie, Music, Data and Long Term show storage, Has 4 750GB SATA drives in a Hardware RAID 5 connfiguration, Connected via Gigabit port to same WRT350N, I am only currently using 400gb and growing.

I currently have 6 clients.
2 Hardwired MVP's (100mb),
2 Athlon Dell C521's, Each has Athlon 64 FX2, 1gb ddr2 533, sata 36gb 10K rpm hdd's, hardwired via 100mbit ethernet, XP Home OS, Each connected via HDMI using a Radeon X1600 GT 256mb HDMI video card.
and 2 placeshifter connections, one for my wife and one for me, My placeshifter connection is usally used on my laptop which is a little celeron 1ghz, 513mb ram, and I usually use it via 802.11n wireless connection in my detached workshop. My wife uses hers all over the place, infact she uses it at the office all the time to watch tv with her coworkers durring slow hours.

Hope that gives you an idea of what kind of setup can be done with sage.

***EDIT***
I realized my sig needs to be updated, will be doing that soon.

[ebayjunky]

Thanks for the info, so for the basic TV hook up to watch movies over the network on a TV, what SHould I buy? I know when I expand to cable I will have to get a good TV card to watch tv, but I will do that later on.
Any info is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Keith

[traker1001]

well, your gonna need, A basic TV card, A Copy of Sage media center, and a sage placeshifter license, access to computers to use placeshifter license on.

[sainswor99]

There are a variety of configurations to run through; it depends on what you want to do:

SageTV Media Center is the heart of a client server solution. If you only have one computer, or you want to dedicate a PC to being a Home Theater PC (computer next to a TV), this is what you need.

SageTV Client is an application that you can use on a different PC (inside your home network) to control your server. If you have more than one computer in your house (for example, a media pc next to your TV and a home workstation), you can use SageTV Client to stream media from your SageTV server. Some people put their SageTV server next to the TV; some people have their server in another room, and put the client connected to the PC.

SageTV Placeshifter is a software application that lets you control your SageTV Media Center from another PC, either inside your LAN or across the Internet. It has fewer features than SageTV Client, but it can be used with any broadband connection to access media from the road. The licensing structure is a bit more flexible than SageTV Client as well; Placeshifter licenses are a concurrent license model (any PC, any user, just 1 user at a time per license)

SageTV Media Extender is a software application that runs on Hauppauge's MediaMVP. It is a low-cost solution to getting media off your SageTV Media Center server to your TV (assuming that you do not want a PC in your living room). It uses a Placeshifter license to serve the media. Sage may be releasing a HD version of the extender in a few months.

Based on the thread so far, it sounds like you have a good start on your server; you just need to decide if you want to run a PC in the living room (your server?) or if you want to add a client or media extender to the mix. You do need to get Placeshifter for any sort of on the road viewing.

Does that help?

Stu

[pvr599]

sainswor99,
Awesome instructions. This should be a sticky.

I do have one question for ya. Would a placeshifter license work with a MediaMVP or would there be a better solution for what I want to do?

I have a room with that I just bought an MVP for, but I don't use it in that room very often (guest room), I would love to be able to use the MVP on an as-needed basis, but still be able to stream when I am on the road. all this without having to buy a placeshifter and an Extender license.

Just curious.
Thanks,
Dana

[sainswor99]

Originally Posted by pvr599

sainswor99,
Awesome instructions. This should be a sticky.

I do have one question for ya. Would a placeshifter license work with a MediaMVP or would there be a better solution for what I want to do?

I have a room with that I just bought an MVP for, but I don't use it in that room very often (guest room), I would love to be able to use the MVP on an as-needed basis, but still be able to stream when I am on the road. all this without having to buy a placeshifter and an Extender license.

Just curious.
Thanks,
Dana

That is absolutely correct; I use both Placeshifter and a MediaMVP, but never at the same time. I only have one Placeshifter license which can be used by either a PC (on my LAN or on the road) or the MediaMVP, but not both at the same time.

Stu

[pvr599]

Stu,
That's great news, but I do still have one more question. Do I need to buy Sage Client for use on my laptop on the road?
I might have more questions.....I'm just digesting this right now

Edit: right now I have SageTV Media Center & 1 Media Extender license.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by pvr599

Stu,
That's great news, but I do still have one more question. Do I need to buy Sage Client for use on my laptop on the road?
I might have more questions.....I'm just digesting this right now

Edit: right now I have SageTV Media Center & 1 Media Extender license.

If you are using your laptop on the road, you'll want to use the Placeshifter client, not the SageTVClient.

The placeshifter license is interchangable with the MVP, so your Media extender license can be used by either the MVP or the placeshifter. Just turn off the MVP before you leave, and the placeshifter can use the extender license. If that isn't feasable, then just buy another Media extender/placeshifter license.

[pvr599]

That is just VERY cool. I didn't know I could do that. I'll probably be getting one more placeshifter license to use between the guest room and the road.
Thanks a ton for the cool tip of the day!!

[pvr599]

ONE more question...I swear. Do Install the Placeshifter Client on my laptop or on the server?

[ke6guj]

the Placeshifter client is installed on the laptop.

The Extender/placeshifter license is installed on the server and the server keeps track of how many active extender/placeshifter sessions are running. It will only allow as many sessions as you have registered licenses.

[pvr599]

GREAT...thank you so much!!!