Troubles with timeshifting live programming

[DAMAC]

I just got the HD media extender this weekend. I had Sage setup on my HTPC in the basement already. I've only had Sage for a couple weeks, but I've had good luck so far. I currently only have one TV tuner (the HVR950), but I just ordered an Autumnwave Onair tuner. My HTPC has a Core2Duo 2.2GHZ, 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD, & NVIDIA 8500GT.

The media extender seems fine with AVI & other non-HD files, but it has a hard time when I skip back and forth quickly on recorded HD events and ESPECIALLY live TV. When I set it up I immediately updated the firmware, and I am also using the most recent version of SageTV (on VISTA, btw).

My network consists of my HTPC & media extender wired through the 10/100 wireless router/DSL modem that Verizon sent me (Westel Versalink, I believe) and a laptop connected wirelessly. The network cable connected to the media extender is a 50ft run, but I did connect my laptop to it the other day and tested copying files back and forth with my HTPC. The transfers got as high as 15MB/s.

I am assuming the reason the extender is lagging so badly is either that long cable run or a crappy router. I had planned on getting a gigabit router with wireless N anyway sometime. Would that help? Thanks in advance for the help from a Sage newbie!

[carlgar]

I think it is the 10/100 router. I assume you have a 1 Gbps NIC in your server. Skips use a lot of network bandwidth. Since you have Vista you should use the Resource Monitor and watch the stats to make sure the network is the bottleneck. The other day my server connected at 100Mbps and I noticed that my notebook computer seemed slow. I did not really notice anything with the skips. When I force my Server to connect at 1 Gbps, my notebook was much more responsive. I don't think the 50 ft cable is an issue but you should shorten it if possible. I have used 100 ft cables with my backup and the HDHR and have not noticed any problem.

[DAMAC]

Thanks for the tips. I should've mentioned if it wasn't already understood that my HTPC serves as a client and a server.