PC and Mac, will they play together nicely?

[Natilus13]

Hello all. This is my first post on these forums and I hope I am placing it in the right spot.

I've recently jumped into the world of HTPCs. I am currently using Windows 7 Media Center but I am finding that it is lacking some features that I am looking for. Having heard about SageTV from members of other forums, and reading about it on the Sage website, it sounds like it may be what I am looking for.

- to be able to watch TV and have the functionality of a PVR.
- to be able to view video files that I have stored on an external drive connected to another computer on my home network.
- to be able to access my computer at home from work so that I can watch content I have recorded, view my videos stored on my external drive, and ideally watch live TV.

One thing I should mention, and this is where the title of my post comes in, I am in a mixed environment. This means that the main machine that is connected to my cable box and TV is a PC running Windows 7. The computer that has the external drive connected to it, that stores all my current media, is an iMac running Leopard. The machine I use at work, that I would want to use to connect to my home machine(s), is a Macbook Pro also running Leopard.

Is what I want to do possible, or do I have my head in the clouds?

I look forward to reading your responses.

Thanks.

[sainswor99]

Originally Posted by Natilus13

Hello all. This is my first post on these forums and I hope I am placing it in the right spot.

Welcome to the forums.

Originally Posted by Natilus13

It sounds like it may be what I am looking for.

- to be able to watch TV and have the functionality of a PVR.
- to be able to view video files that I have stored on an external drive connected to another computer on my home network.
- to be able to access my computer at home from work so that I can watch content I have recorded, view my videos stored on my external drive, and ideally watch live TV.

Sage can do all of that and has some media center (photos and music) functionality (albeit limited when compared to it's PVR functions).

Originally Posted by Natilus13

One thing I should mention, and this is where the title of my post comes in, I am in a mixed environment. This means that the main machine that is connected to my cable box and TV is a PC running Windows 7. The computer that has the external drive connected to it, that stores all my current media, is an iMac running Leopard. The machine I use at work, that I would want to use to connect to my home machine(s), is a Macbook Pro also running Leopard.

It sounds like you need a SageTV server licence for Windows, and I'm assuming that you can read the videos from a shared folder on your iMac. For placeshifting, you'll need a placeshifter license and a copy of Placeshifter. The nice thing about the licensing for placeshifter is that you are paying for the connection, not the software; if you connect from a Mac most of the time, but occassionaly connect from a Windows machine, you simply need to be running the appropriate version.

Hope that helps,
Stu

[Natilus13]

Hello Sainswor99,

Thank you for the response. I will look into the software you suggested and probably download the trials this weekend.

I am really hoping SageTV will work better than Windows 7 because right now it is finicky at best. I am constantly having to restart my machine to have things work properly.

From what I have been reading about SageTV though, I am excited to try it.

Cheers

[soulprops77]

I also run a mixed environment. . . A PC server/client running Windows 7 and a mac client.

They work seamlessly together.

I would recommend keeping the stock UI on any mac clients though. I know some folks have gotten SageMC to work on their mac. . . I sort of did too, it was just a little quirky.

I can't speak for the placeshifting, but I can't imagine why that wouldn't work just fine as well.

Best,
Chris

[Natilus13]

Hey Soulprops77,

Nice to know there are some other Mac users out there trying to do this sort of thing too

Are you doing as Sainswor99 suggested and running a SageTV server on your windows box?

Cheers

[soulprops77]

Yes, I am. I am running SageTV on a Windows 7 box (I also use the server for viewing as it's hooked up to my projector).

I wouldn't personally run a mac server. I could be wrong, but it seems like the choice of capture cards is more limited. Although apparently the HD-PVR does work on the mac. . .

It sounds like you're set up is like mine already, though.

One thing I would recommend is moving the external drive with your media to the Windows server. It may not make a big difference, but I used to have it set up like you and it was annoying when I wanted to watch something on my extender and then realized that the mac drive wasn't mounted on the server, or it was shut down, etc. . .

Best,
Chris

[Fuzzy]

Pretty much any shared storage you'd be better off having on a 24/7 machine, so it's always available.. this is why all storage should be moved the the sageserver, as it'll be up all the time anyways.

[Natilus13]

I have my external storage drive connected to my mac because it is on constantly running bit torrent. The drive is also formatted for Mac as I also use it as my scratch drive when I am working with Final Cut. I am hoping to get a NAS drive in the not too distant future... but that is more money I don't want to spend right now :P

Thanks for all the feedback. I love to hear what other people are doing and what they have to say about my setup.

Cheers.