Absolute Minimum Spec for SageTVClient?

[plawlor]

As you can see from my config below, I just spent a lot of money upgrading a P3 to become a good SageTV box...actually, an awesome SageTV box. I'm more than happy with it. Now, wanting to play some more, I'm experimenting with SageTVClient. However, I'm outta cash for upgrades...

I don't want to add any inputs at the client, just connect and view from my main box. My client PC is only a P2 400 with 256 MB RAM. Is the client even a possibility with this processor? If I had a good video card, would it be possible? Again, no video capture on this PC at all, just display. Thanks in advance.

[Opus4]

You can use a p2-400, which is what I use as my server, but there are a couple things to note:

1) For playing back high bit-rate recordings, you will need a hardware decoder like the Hauppauge 350 or the Sigma Xcard, or else the cpu will not be able to keep up with it. I'm not sure if a hardware-assist video card would do the job well enough; perhaps someone uses one on a slow machine & can comment.

2) If you don't want to get a hardware decoder, then you can play lower quality recordings. I think recordings under 2GB/hour played OK on my system, but the cpu was still heavily used & you might get a skip sometimes.

- Andy

[plawlor]

Thanks Andy. I may have to do some swapping to make things work well. I do have two 350's in my main box. I may steal one and replace with a lower-end capture card. My main box is an Athlon 2600 so it shoudl be okay.

[Opus4]

... and unless you are connecting your server to 2 TVs, there doesn't seem to be much need for two 350s in one machine...

If you put it in the client, you don't really need another tuner for the server; I belieev you would use SageRecorder & record over the network using the tuner on the client.

- Andy

[plawlor]

I agree. Two 350's is a waste. However, I do not use SageRecorder. My server is also a client, so I just use SageTV. I will need to replace the 350 because I capture from two separate sources on the main box -- DirecTV and ExpressVu.

Question: With SageTV Beta 14 on the main box and SageTVClient Beta 14 on the client, can I capture a third source on the client? Or do you need SageRecorder to mix and match inputs like that?

[Opus4]

As far as I know, you need SageRecorder to record over the network. Client can't do that.

- Andy

[Crowdx42]

Recorder or SageTV full will record for him. I have a client often setting and recording shows on my main box over a network, everything works great.
Patrick