what is the path?

[rnewman]

I am trying to understand the path signals take in order to optimize my installation.
I have one hdhomerun (HDHR1)
I have one sagetv server (SS1) with two quad analog tuners
I might add another sagetv server (SS2) in order to add another two analog tuners.
I might add another hdhomerun (HDHR2)
I have two sage tv clients (in leu of hd media extender) (STVC1 & STVC2)
I have two mediamvp extenders (MVP1 & MVP2)
I have one placeshifter pc (PS1)

If:
HDHR1 is configured with SS1
&
HDHR2 is configured with SS2

What is the digital signal path through my gigabit switch
when STVC1 wants to watch HDHR1 ?
when STVC1 wants to watch HDHR2?

If everything has to run through servers, is it possible to run two
ethernet ports on each server, one for the lan and one for direct connection to HDhomerun ??

Thanks,
Ray

[gplasky]

First thing.
I don't think setting up 2 seperate servers is going to be an advanatge unless you're doing something unique. They will be treated as 2 seperate, independant installations and you will need to restart the client and choose which one you want to connect to. (There may be different ways to do it but IMHO more trouble than it is worth.)

I would recommend keeping it on one server and look at adding analog tuners via USB if you're out of PCI slots.

For the last part, unless the client has a direct path to the recording (where it will play it directly from there) it will stream from the server that has the recording. You may be overthinking the infrastructure. You're talking 5 clients. I have 6 clients, 1 GB switch and one server. 1 HDHR on the net and 2 x Dual nVidia tuners in the server. I have no issues with them all going with various HD, SD, music and DVD movies going.


Gerry

[rnewman]

Thanks!
I was just trying to see what traffic I will have with several HDhomerun
and several TV clients all running through single gigabit pc port on server.
Ray

[paulbeers]

I did the math awhile back and 2 HDHomeruns recording 4 shows total would only use about 80mb/s. That would leave over 900mb/s available on your 1 gigabit connection. Your biggest bottleneck would end up being the hard drives if you start trying to record 4 HD shows and serve those to 4 clients, but I wouldn't worry about the hard drives until you see a problem.

[rnewman]

Thanks,
That is why the multiple servers.
Two analog and two HDhomerun each?
I remember reading that there could be one master server for EPG
but actually two servers for source?
Thanks,
Ray

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by rnewman

I remember reading that there could be one master server for EPG but actually two servers for source?

There's such a thing as a network encoder, which runs the full SageTV software (not the client software) in a special mode that provides network access to the capture devices on that machine. But that's not the same as having a second server. It's more like a do-it-yourself HDHR using PC hardware and PCI capture cards. All recording and playback is still orchestrated by the single SageTV server.

You can also set up recording directories on network file servers, including machines running as network encoders. But again, the single SageTV server is still in charge. In some cases it may be possible for SageTVClient to stream content directly from the file server on which it resides, instead of funneling it through the SageTV server. But that applies to any file server or NAS device, and has nothing to do with network encoders or where the capture cards live.

My advice, if you're in doubt, would be to try playing back something on a network share, and use Task Manager or some other tool to monitor the network utilization of the various machines involved (Sage server, Sage client, and file server). That seems like the best way to get a definitive answer on how the playback stream is being routed.