Never used Sage, thinking of switching, hardware questions (multiple mixed tuners)

[kemist1117]

So im currently using vista and am becoming increasingly frustrated with the limitations (no clients, multiple tuners =, etc.)

I have heard that sage is much better and am thinking about switching.

That said i have a few questions before i take the plunge.

First, my server would probably be fairly beefy, core 2 (e6600) @ 3.5ghz, 4gb ram, hd3870 I also have 2 nvidia dualtv tuners and one avertv combo (ntsc+qam) that i can put in the box. I'd also like to pick up a hauppage HD-PVR recorder or 2 in the future.

How many tuners would the above box be able to handle recording simultaneously, and how would it handle the mix of analog,qam,and full hd tuners? i.e. is sage aware of each tuner's capabilities and which channels it is able to record, is this user configurable etc.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by kemist1117

So im currently using vista and am becoming increasingly frustrated with the limitations (no clients, multiple tuners =, etc.)

Welcome to the club

First, my server would probably be fairly beefy, core 2 (e6600) @ 3.5ghz, 4gb ram, hd3870 I also have 2 nvidia dualtv tuners and one avertv combo (ntsc+qam) that i can put in the box. I'd also like to pick up a hauppage HD-PVR recorder or 2 in the future.

How many tuners would the above box be able to handle recording simultaneously,

Basically as many as you can hang off the PC. All those devices have hardware video encoders (or no video encoders necessary) so the recording load is quite low. The one thing you may want to consider is multiple recording disks (not just drive letters). This can ease any potential disk bottlenecks.

and how would it handle the mix of analog,qam,and full hd tuners?

Each tuner gets it's own lineup (which can be unique, or a copy of another tuner's), and you can have an arbitrary number of them. All lineups are combined into a single guide.

i.e. is sage aware of each tuner's capabilities and which channels it is able to record, is this user configurable etc.

So yes, you go through the setup and configure the lineup for each tuner, then Sage can figure out where to record everything from.

You might want to do a quick search on the DualTV though, I don't remember hearing much about that with Sage.

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by stanger89

The one thing you may want to consider is multiple recording disks (not just drive letters). This can ease any potential disk bottlenecks.

I'd think that would be the biggest issue you might have. All those tuners, plus playback to at least one location and comskip could quickly overload a single HDD. I'd do an OS/picture/DVD/music HD and then split the amount of TV storage you want over at least two additional drives.

Make sure you format your recording drives to 64K sectors.

[kemist1117]

thanks guys