How to integrate old living room HTPC with new server

[Genxnurse]

Many thanks for any responses.

I recently built a SageTV server out of old parts and purchased a second full SageTV software license. I did this to maximize my WAF while I tinkered with the server and Media MVP to get them ready for prime time. So now what do I need to do to integrate the living room HTPC into my server system?

1. If I make the living room HTPC a client will I be able to have access to the shows I have recorded on the living room HTPC? Or will I need to copy all these to a portable hard drive and transfer them to the server?

2. I have 3 tuners in the living room HTPC and will I be able to use these if I make it a client or do I need to pull them out and put them into the server?

3. Will a socket A xp3000 with 3 gig of ram be powerful enough to feed 2 client PCs (one doing HD), a MVP with future additions of HD200s or MVPs?

4. I also have a problem with the MVP shutting down SageTV on my server while my wife is watching and recording several things at once. Could this be due to a lack of ram on my server? (Server stats tonight xp2000 with 512 of ram updating to hand me down xp3000 with 3gig of ram tomorrow). Or did I get a bad MVP off ebay?

Thanks again for any help.

GenXNurse

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by Genxnurse

1. If I make the living room HTPC a client will I be able to have access to the shows I have recorded on the living room HTPC? Or will I need to copy all these to a portable hard drive and transfer them to the server?

No, you can leave the shows on the living room machine and set up the recording directories as shared drives that the Sage server can see. Basically the living room HTPC would be like a NAS device.

2. I have 3 tuners in the living room HTPC and will I be able to use these if I make it a client or do I need to pull them out and put them into the server?

I think it's easier to move them to the server but you can leave them in place. You'll also have to leave the full version of Sage installed but essentially it would work as a network encoder. Search on the topic (check the manual as well) for more info.

3. Will a socket A xp3000 with 3 gig of ram be powerful enough to feed 2 client PCs (one doing HD), a MVP with future additions of HD200s or MVPs?

The CPU will probably be OK except for maybe the MVP. If you try and watch HD over it the server has to transcode the video to the limited formats suported by the MVP, that's where you could have problems. Otherwise the server just has to send the data to the clients/HD200's and they do all the heavy lifting, in which case the limiting factors would be HDD access and network capability of the server.

4. I also have a problem with the MVP shutting down SageTV on my server while my wife is watching and recording several things at once. Could this be due to a lack of ram on my server? (Server stats tonight xp2000 with 512 of ram updating to hand me down xp3000 with 3gig of ram tomorrow). Or did I get a bad MVP off ebay?

Have you checked the CPU and/or memory useage? Are you getting an error on the server when this happens? What kind of content is she playing when this happens? I have a feeling it could be a transcoding issue but I have no experience with MVPs.