Newbie confused about what software is needed.

[Rupp]

Guys,
I've download SageTV and have it setup and able to record videos. Now my next questions is what software is needed on a client PC to view the captured shows. I tried to simply map a network drive to the recordings directory but on my laptop the video is very choppy. I'm trying to understand exactly how "all" of the Sage software fits together. Thanks in advance.

[GKusnick]

If you just want to watch the files in Windows Media Player, you probably don't need any additional software.

On the other hand if you want to watch them using the SageTV UI, you'll need either SageTVClient or Placeshifter. There's a FAQ explaining the differences between these two products. Besides watching live or recorded shows, these programs let you schedule recordings and otherwise administer your Sage setup remotely over the LAN or the Internet.

Choppy playback could be due to various hardware or software issues. If you're using a wireless network, smooth playback may be hard to get even with wireless G equipment, and basically impossible with B. Underpowered laptop graphics could be another reason for playback issues.

If your hardware is up to snuff but you're still having issues, you might need to upgrade your MPEG decoders to something that supports hardware acceleration. Which decoder will work best for you may depend on what sort of graphics hardware you have. For Nvidia graphics, Nvidia PureVideo is the recommended decoder, but it's not free.

[sainswor99]

You should be able to just map a drive and watch the completed recordings; if they are choppy, that's an indication of network issues. Are you running wireless? What speed?

If you'd like the full blown Sage experience on your laptop, you need to look into either the SageTV Client or the SageTV Placeshifter. However, until you resolve the network issues, you may want to wait on purchasing client software.

Hope that starts the ball rolling.

Stu

[Rupp]

Thanks for the info guys. I "think" i eventually want to simply record OTA Hi-Def and watch it on my new Panasonic 1080P TV. My "concern" is - will I get true Hi-Def using the new Sage TV HD Media Extender with my current PC. To rephrase, I guess my question is does the Sage TV HD Media Extender "act" as the video card and does the PC have to do the streaming work or is it the extenders job?

[sainswor99]

The PC is responsible for streaming media, but with the HD extender, there is no need to transcode it. However, if your network is shaky, then you'll still have issues.

You may also want to be sure that your recording drives are formatted with 64K blocks, as suggested by the Setup Wizard.