HD Extender and System Requirements

[EdwardATeller]

Sorry if this is a stupid question. If I get a HD Extender after they are available, will it take the processing load off my system for HD playback?

Right now, I am doing a lot of work trying to figure out a configuration that will play HD smoothly. An upgraded video card didn't do the trick. Next step is to upgrade the processor. If I can wait a couple of months and then buy a dedicated hardware box that plays HD smoothly, that will save me lots of headaches, and the video card goes back to Circuit City.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by EdwardATeller

Sorry if this is a stupid question. If I get a HD Extender after they are available, will it take the processing load off my system for HD playback?

Yes, when playing through the extender, there will be no decoding load on your server at all (as long as it's a supported format, like MPEG-2).

[autoboy]

Your problems are most likely not your hardware configuration. I was able to play HD on a AthlonXP at 1.2ghz and a 9600XT with no problems. It is likely your software configuration that you are having trouble with. But, like everyone else here, we are all looking to the HD extender to save us from the software and hardware problems.

[garyellis]

I am certainly anxious to get an HD extender to take the load off my CPU...

questions.....1 post said "Upscaling to 1080P"...what does that mean? sounds to much like transcoding to me which as we know uses a lot of CPU....will upscaling use CPU?

And as I look at buying a new TV, given this will be upscaled, does 1080P get me anything?


Thanks,

Gary Ellis

[evilpenguin]

Nope, upscaling a post processing thing that will get applied in the HDextender and won't tax your server's CPU at all.

[stanger89]

To expand, what "upscaling" means is the Extender will play all video (whatever resolution) and will output it it at (up to) 1080p.

[EdwardATeller]

Originally Posted by autoboy

Your problems are most likely not your hardware configuration. I was able to play HD on a AthlonXP at 1.2ghz and a 9600XT with no problems. It is likely your software configuration that you are having trouble with. But, like everyone else here, we are all looking to the HD extender to save us from the software and hardware problems.

Do you get smooth playback with that rig? I have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz and borrowed a Radeon 2400 HD card, and I didn't want to watch what it produced, plus the interface was very sluggish.

Maybe I didn't have something tweaked right, but I lost interest after a bit. After reading you post, I might give it another try.

EDIT:
I could get a Silicon Dust HDHR and a HD extender, then that would take most of the load off my system. I would just have to receive network traffic from the HDHR and record it to hard drive, and then send network traffic to the HD extender. I like this better than putting money into a PVR whose value declines every day.

[autoboy]

Originally Posted by EdwardATeller

Do you get smooth playback with that rig? I have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz and borrowed a Radeon 2400 HD card, and I didn't want to watch what it produced, plus the interface was very sluggish.

Maybe I didn't have something tweaked right, but I lost interest after a bit. After reading you post, I might give it another try.

EDIT:
I could get a Silicon Dust HDHR and a HD extender, then that would take most of the load off my system. I would just have to receive network traffic from the HDHR and record it to hard drive, and then send network traffic to the HD extender. I like this better than putting money into a PVR whose value declines every day.

Yes, I got very smooth playback with that system. Your problems are with the 2400pro not working very well. I have the same card now and I could not get it to work. The drivers are not working properly. Your CPU is likely fast enough for HD playback. You could try disabling hardware acceleration.

What I found is that these new Avivo and purevideo video cards add a bunch of post processing to the system that adds to the CPU and video card requirements. The 2400pro, and even the 2600pro was not able to handle these and I got stutter. Disabling them fixed the problems but the picture quality ended up to be pretty bad because I had set everthing to BOB deinterlace. Some people have success, I did not. Your best bet is to get the 7600GT. It has been shown to be the most stable and capable card for decoding mpeg2 HD. Make sure you enable Inverse Telecine in the drivers and you will get great processing too. I use the 7300LE right now with a Athlon 3200+ and it works great for HD but won't handle Inverse telecine. These older cards don't try to do as advanced deinterlacing and scaling so you can get away with a slower system.

[daruking]

I'd like to build a system that will stay in a closet and stream to various wired extenders (including the new HD extender) and PCs in my house. If I build a system from scratch, what specs would help me have a smooth and responsive SageTV setup?

[evilpenguin]

Check out this proccesor guide from missingremote

http://www.missingremote.com/index.p...=2288&Itemid=1

For the other components...

RAM - You don't need the fastest RAM available, just lots of it. You should be able to find a really good deal on 2x1GB dual channel.

MB - Look for a good trade off in price vs. expandability. Plenty of SATA (6+) and enough PCI/PCIe to fit your current tuners as well as have the ability to add some more in the future.

Video Card - For a closet server it really doesn't matter what you get as you won't really be using the video card much. Getting a MB w/ onboard video can be good enough, but in my opinion that limits your MB selection too much. I tend to go with the lowest end, fanless, last gen gfx card from nVidia (7300). Oh, and NO TURBO CACHE (video card sharing RAM with the computer)!

Just for reference, here's the Sage server I built over the summer and i've been *very* pleased with it.

http://zadigian.backpackit.com/pub/155224

[autoboy]

Considering that my CPU in my server never gets above 10%, you could do a SageTV server with a 500mhz cpu, or even a Via mITX system. As long as all the fvideo formats are supported by the HD media extender, then any CPU will do. If you are using regular extenders that are expected to play HD content, then the server must transcode the HD to SD for the regular extender. This requires a fast single core or preferably a dual core cpu. If you do any transcoding, the faster the better.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by autoboy

Considering that my CPU in my server never gets above 10%, you could do a SageTV server with a 500mhz cpu, or even a Via mITX system.

In theory, Yes. But in practice, the more load on the CPU the more problems one may have in recording. I notice that when I do something CPU intensive on my server, I occasionaly get glitches in the recordings.
Also, USB attached peripherals utilise the CPU to an extent and if your CPU is busy, they may become problematic.