Using SageTV for Streaming Live video as MPEG4 ?

[himmi]

hi guys,

im currently thinking about buying the latest version of sage tv because it covers most of the functions i like to use.

Due to i want to use an Laptop as SageTVClient which is connected over 802.11G Wireless Network, i want to stream the livetv not as mpeg2 but as mpeg4 to save bandwidth.

I already testet the streaming with the Trialversion and it runs also smooth with mpeg2 over wireless. But i like to use mpeg4, divx or any other codec if possible.

So is it possible to configure the codec which SageTV uses to Stream the video?
(i know that it costs lots of cpu load to convert the video on the fly but my server is strong enough )

thanks in advance

Himmi

[CollinR]

Plextor encoder might make this possible but I think you will loose Commskip.


Why not placeshifter? It was designed to work across the internet as such will do very low bandwidth even dynamically adjust to bandwidth available. Much better product fit for you then client. Also it would allow you to either/or with an MVP.

[himmi]

ok i will give both methods a try. But i think configuring my own encoding settings with this Plextor Encoder you mentioned would result in better video quality.

Where can i get this Plextor encoder and is there an how to for configuring it ?

[jprine01]

Just to make sure you know how things are working internally:
The SageTvClient reads the files from the server though the network, and plays them on the client computer. This is for LiveTV that is being recorded while you watch, or pre-recoreded Tv. In this way the Client gets the same quality recording as if you played the file directly on the server. 90% of the TV Tuner cards with encoders, encode to mpeg2.. So thats what type of files you have to work with. The Server doesn't do any encoding on its own to files, unless you have a software capture card and I've never messed with that. The Plextor encoder encodes directly to mpeg4, and there are some other options that give you mpeg4 recordings as well.
You can also re-encode files into something better like divx, but this wont work for Live recordings, and might be too cpu intensive to use on everything.

The SageTv Placeshifter, works differently.. Since its intended for limited bandwidth applications (internet) it does playback different. When using placeshifter the SageTv Server is encoding the video to a smaller file and sending it to placeshifter on the fly. This requires some cpu power on the Server. Placeshifter can dynamically adjust the quality of the encoding depending on the bandwidth of the network. If you use placeshifter on your local network, it will encode at very high quality giving you a really nice picture. If you need to limit bandwidth for any reason there is a setting in placeshifter for this.