SageTV for Linux

[Peggysis]

pzasso,

I have been using the Linux version of SageTV since it first came out and absolutely love it! Started out with Gentoo, and now use Ubuntu. I get a lot more use out of the Ubuntu box, and installation with the debian package SageTV has now is super easy.

I mostly use the box as a back end server. It's on an old noisy 2.8 GHz P4 system, with a Hauppauge 500 dual NTSC tuner. It works beautifully and will be plenty powerful enough when I adopt a Digital QAM feed (not convinced I can do OTA in the Hill Country of Austin, TX).

In the living room, have a Win XP SageTV Client HTPC (with an IMON to allow power on by IR signal) on an old AMD Athalon (4800) micro ATX box, using integrated graphics, dual video output (composite to old CRT TV and DVI out to a 720p LCD projector), and SPDIF audio. I stream video files (even mkvs) over wireless g from the Linux server. DVDs are played locally. It's powered off when not in use.

In my bedroom, I have an even older 800 MHz P3 system with a Windows SageTV server (running Win2k no less!), a Hauppauge 350, (with IR input), composite video out and analog sound. Since this box is a server, it is on 24x7, as is the Linux box. I built it to replace a 7 year old Tivo and an old DVD player about a year ago. I would have used a second SageTV Client, but I don't get a strong enough wireless signal in that location. This box is silent due to the low heat output of the P3 CPU. (It has 2 120mm fans, one on the case and one in the PSU.)

I never have to reboot the Linux box for SageTV issues, but occasionally, I do have to reboot the Windows box and defrag the disk, so I don't count on it for a "can't miss" show.

All these systems were built using old gaming rigs I've had in the past 6 years.

You sure you don't have a better use for that Q6600? Linux OS CPU requirements are really low, and if you're doing digital shows, I don't believe SageTV is going to tax it much, even streaming to several extenders...

I would keep the quad for a nice gaming system and get a cheap dual core for it instead. But then, that's me.

Don't forget to invest in a UPS that is powerful enough to get the server through a temporary power outage. A surge protector is not enough. You don't want it to stop recording in the middle of a show, do you?

Hope that helps!


-Judy

[bcjenkins]

quad core good for comskip and transcode..

B

[pzasso]

Thanks for you response Judy.

Before I decided to go with SageTV, I was looking at going with another solution, and media extenders were not an option. So my plan was to use the quadcore to play movies as well, and my understanding was that to decode h.264, you need a pretty fast system if you want it to be smooth.

Now that Linux is an option, and media extenders seem to work well, I might have a little more power than I need, but since the wife is big on skipping fwd and rewinding it sounds like this might not be overkill according to bcjenkins last post.

As far as a UPS, I like the way you think. I actually pulled a 30amp dedicated circuit into my little home office (spare bedroom) and built a rack, which has an APC 3000 UPS that everything computer related runs off of. When I make the cutover to Linux, the quadcore will be in that office as well.