Setup help: WHS + HD-PVR + 2x OTA + blu ray + 3 clients

[jebo_4jc]

Hey all-

Considering SageTV because it might be exactly what I need, but I wanted to get some advice on how I should set it up to fit my desires.

I have two ATI OTA HD tuners and one Hauppauge HD-PVR for recording from Dish Network HD.

I have one Windows Home Server and three PCs that I want to be able to watch live TV on.

Now, currently I'm using MCE for OTA recording and watching, and manually recording movies/shows on the HD-PVR. However, due to moving the location of one of my TVs, suddenly a client/server setup would be extremely useful.

One of my PCs has the two OTA tuners. It records shows, cuts out the commercials, then dumps the clean recording on the WHS for later.

Basically, what I want to do is this:

1. Put the two OTA tuners and HD-PVR in one PC (could be one of the clients, or could be the WHS)
2. Stream Live TV over the network to the other PCs.
3. Cut commercials out of recorded shows and store them on the WHS
4. (in the future) Store blu ray rips (iso or m2ts) on the home server to watch on the PCs

Questions:
Would the setup outlined above...with recording done on one "client" which then dumps recordings on the server across the network work for Sage?

If that won't work, and I move the tuners to the WHS, will its unique file storage system get bogged down by 3 or 4 simultaneous recordings?

To do all this, do I need to buy multiple copies of Sage? One for each client/server?

Or, would the placeshifter application work for me?

Will 802.11g be able to stream HDTV?

Thanks for helping a potential Sage newbie

[Clift]

Originally Posted by jebo_4jc

Would the setup outlined above...with recording done on one "client" which then dumps recordings on the server across the network work for Sage?

This probably wiould not work as the wiz.bin (the sageTV recordings database) would not know where to find the recordings). But SageTV has the option of using UNC paths for recordedTV folders. So you would be able to access the recordings directly from the client hard drive. However, I think the best option is to use the drives on the WHS PC. You mentioned you may want to use wireless G? Well then this is absolutely nto possible as you would overload network in a hurry with more than 1 stream; and it's questionable if you would even be able to do 1 HD stream.

If that won't work, and I move the tuners to the WHS, will its unique file storage system get bogged down by 3 or 4 simultaneous recordings?

There are a bunch of people using SageTV on their WHS with tuners installed on the machine. They have not had any problems. If anything, they love it.

To do all this, do I need to buy multiple copies of Sage? One for each client/server?

You would need to buy one compy of SageTV Media Center and one copy of SageTV client for each one of your PC clients.

Or, would the placeshifter application work for me?

If you read the posts about Placeshifter, there are a few things to consider.
Is network bandwith an issue such that you would need the video transcoded on the fly? Are your PC clients too weak to play H.264 files from the HD PVR such that you would need them transcoded on the fly? Note that transcoding of HD PVR files is currently spotty, at best. Besides that it eats a lot of processing power, which might cause issues with the other clients trying to access the server due to the CPU being maxed out. Read the posts. IMHO, Placeshifter is not a viable option. I had the trial and never got it working properly.

Will 802.11g be able to stream HDTV?

The short answer is nope. The long answer is that 802.11g can not (reliably) stream HD from QAM, which has a lower bitrate than OTA ATSC. I have gotten it to work with HD PVR recordings but only if I am close tot he base station or the stars are aligned. In general, everybody (myself included) will tell you not to try it.

Thanks for helping a potential Sage newbie

You're always welcome

[jebo_4jc]

Great, thanks for the info.

To clarify, only one client will be on wifi.

The rest of the network is gigabit.

The whole reason I'm asking my questions is to see if I can avoid pulling coax, cat5, and probably more to my TV in it's new home in the living room.

How about if I upgrade to 802.11n? Seems like if 802.11g is spotty, 802.11n would be able to handle one HD stream comfortably....

[ghostlobster]

It sounds like you're looking to have a setup very similar to the one I'm using. I have an HD-PVR, a dual tuner HDHR QAM tuner, and 2 happauge 150 analog tuners all sitting in my WHS box driving 3 SageTV clients (not placeshifters) The WHS box has no problems at all with keeping up with everything. I've had it recording a HD-PVR show, an HD show on the HDHR while watching a HDHR HD show with no issues at all.
One of my clients is running on 802.11n and is OK. I get the occasional micro-stutter, but for the most part, it's solid.
For daily use on a TV, I do NOT recommend placeshifter. The quality and performance is abyssmal when compared to the full client.

[jebo_4jc]

Great info again, thanks Ghost.

I did try to pull a few DVR-MS recordings through my 802.11g connection last night, and the results were not pretty. Even with near line of sight connection.

So, now I'm considering 802.11n, vs powerline, vs pulling my cables. With the (nearly) line of sight connection, I bet I could get a nice speed from 802.11n.

Also, I searched through the forums in an attempt to determine how well Sage handles blu ray. Can somebody answer that concisely for me?

Is there a difference between Sage client and Sage Media Center?

[ghostlobster]

Sage Media Center is the "server" component. It's the component you'd install on the server, whether WHS, XP, Vista, whatever. The client is the client. It's what you'd install on your playback endpoints. The server component can also act as a playback endpoint, but I personally don't recommend it. Some people have had success with it, but my install stabilized a thousand times over when I went to a WHS solution, utilizing a 100% client/server architecture.

As far as BluRay is concerned, someone else will have to answer that. I have no clue.

[Clift]

Using blu-ray on a client works well if you use neilm's dynamic menus (standard in SageMC) and using TotalMedia Theatre, it has an MCE plugin that can be launched by SageTV. TMT handles the blu-ray and return to SageTV when you hit the back button or the green button. Using the HD200, it plays the core m2ts stream without any menus. But they are working on it. Seems to work well with all the Blu-rays I have tried. But there are no guarentees.

Also i think the problem with wireless is just the latency and potential for packet losses. There are some people on this forum using the Motorola cable line (coax) networking adapters with success. I would do a search to see. They seem to have more success with those than with powerline networking. Do a search for NIM100

[jebo_4jc]

Thanks again Clift.

I gave a Netgear 200Mbps powerline kit a test drive tonight. Even with the adaptors in the same room, or even on the same outlet, my transfer speeds maxed out under 2.5MB/s, and the HD DVR-MS files on my WHS would not stream with 100% stability. This is despite Netgear's own diagnostic app telling me I was connected at 196Mbps, and my connection status was "HD Video".

So, back to Best Buy it goes, to be replaced by a 802.11n combo (which I will pay dearly for, since I can't get away with a simple router + PC Adaptor combo....I need to get a router and an ethernet bridge of some sort which will allow me to connect both the HTPC and my Blu Ray player).

I haven't even begun to play with Sage yet.....

[Clift]

I recommend you check out newegg.com for pretty good prices on most items. Then compare with amazon.com on the same item. I would not buy computer stuff from best buy... ever. They just can't compare price wise.

[jebo_4jc]

Haha thanks. I'm too familiar with Newegg's pricing

However, in cases like this, where I'm not sure the product I'm buying will satisfy my requirements, i stick with a B&M store so I can return I don't want.

[jebo_4jc]

It's been a lot of trial and a lot of error over the past few days, but I'm slowly/surely getting there.

However, an issue I'm having is, I can't get blastcfg.exe to recognize my IR blaster on the HD-PVR. I've installed the latest versions or ir32 and blastcfg from Hauppauge's site twice.

It seems like this is a fairly common problem, but the various fixes I've found are n/a to me (like multiple Hauppauge tuners, etc).

Does anybody know for sure how to get the IR blaster working in WHS?

[Peter_h]

Did you restart when you installed the blastcfg.exe?

What type of cable box?

Mine was pretty finicky. I had to turn off the HDPVR, power cycle it, restart the server and then it would start working.

After about 2 weeks of it intermittenly stopping, I moved onto firewire channel changing.

[jebo_4jc]

Yes, just restarted again. No luck.

Dish network 622

I've tried running as administrator, and stopping the SageTV service, still nothing. I'm wondering if WHS isn't officially supported?

[Peter_h]

I run WHS.

I don't think that is the issue.