SageTV on the Windows Home Server

[ohpleaseno]

Hi everyone,

Dave over at www.homeservershow.com asked me to do a writeup of why a WHS user would pick Sage as their PVR. It went up last night. Check it out of you get a chance.

http://homeservershow.com/sage-tv-on...me-server.html

Most of the viewpoints are just with my personal experience with Sage, so I'm sure there are some pros and cons I left out.

Let me know what you think.

[davephan]

I checked out the article and I found two things missing.

Nothing is mentioned what happens if the WHS system drive fails. This is a very serious problem with using WHS. This requires a painful and time consuming manual rebuild. If another OS, such as Windows XP or Windows 7 was used, the system drive recovery would be quick and simple using disk imaging.

There is a serious flaw with the SageMC GUI. There isn't a back arrow button on every screen. If used on the computer monitor, it is very easy to get stuck on screens. The GUI has to be closed down and restarted to get unstuck. This problem should be fixed so that when navigating with SageMC, a person ever can get stuck on any screen if using the computer or a media extender to control the GUI. The default SageTV GUI never gets stuck on any screens using the computer or a media extender.

Dave

[ohpleaseno]

I've never had a screen where I couldn't hit the back button on my 5 button mouse to get back to a screen in SageMC. Also, there is a keyboard shortcut (Alt-Left Arrow) that you can use.

The system drive issue is definitely a big deal. I'm looking forward to that supposedly being fixed in WHSv2.

[ohpleaseno]

Also, the more I think about it, the article is on a WHS site, so the audience already knows the inherent "danger" of WHS, so any function it serves be it Sage or otherwise is completely hosed by a system drive failure.

It's like saying some hard drives fail, so make sure any article about computers includes the caveat that your drive could fail.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by davephan

I checked out the article and I found two things missing.

Nothing is mentioned what happens if the WHS system drive fails. This is a very serious problem with using WHS. This requires a painful and time consuming manual rebuild. If another OS, such as Windows XP or Windows 7 was used, the system drive recovery would be quick and simple using disk imaging.

There is a serious flaw with the SageMC GUI. There isn't a back arrow button on every screen. If used on the computer monitor, it is very easy to get stuck on screens. The GUI has to be closed down and restarted to get unstuck. This problem should be fixed so that when navigating with SageMC, a person ever can get stuck on any screen if using the computer or a media extender to control the GUI. The default SageTV GUI never gets stuck on any screens using the computer or a media extender.

Dave

Yeah those both have nothing to do with why he would chose sage on a whs machine.

As for the sagemc "bug" the back button on the mouse back button on the keyboard or just left on any menu.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by ohpleaseno

Dave over at www.homeservershow.com asked me to do a writeup of why a WHS user would pick Sage as their PVR......Let me know what you think.

Very nice writeup, ohpleaseno. Enjoyed the read.

[ohpleaseno]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

Very nice writeup, ohpleaseno. Enjoyed the read.

Thanks!

[wayner]

Originally Posted by ohpleaseno

The system drive issue is definitely a big deal. I'm looking forward to that supposedly being fixed in WHSv2.

So am I as I had to restore my Sage/WHS box a couple of months ago and it wasy FUGLY!

Any idea whether we will be able to upgrade from V1 to V2? I don't want to have to do another OS install. Then the next question would be whether we would have to reinstall hardware drivers for stuff like tuning devices, IR, firewire, etc that is in a typical Sage box.

[ohpleaseno]

I imagine you would because you're going from 32 to 64 bit. I've never heard of an upgrade path that will allow that.

[wayner]

That's not nice - hopefully at least server reinstalls will work better than they do with V1. Looking at traffic in some of the various WHS forums it looks like I am nto the only one who has had trouble getting the server reinstall option.

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by ohpleaseno

I imagine you would because you're going from 32 to 64 bit. I've never heard of an upgrade path that will allow that.

I think the best we can hope for is that the new OS will at least read the tombstones from the old system and recreate the storage array structure. But I agree that there is probably little hope that we can upgrade without wiping out the OS partition.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by ohpleaseno

on my 5 button mouse

[ohpleaseno]

http://www.pcloft.com/miusbinopwhm.html

[wayner]

Many (most?) mice nowadays have left, center (usually on the wheel) and right buttons plus forward and back buttons on the side. That adds up to 5 butons. The back button on the mouse sends you back in Sage, just like it sends you back in your web browser.

[AV_Novice]

There may be hope soon for the system drive failure concern. Tranquil PC has developed a Safe Server Module (SSM) that is being tried in other WHS models. Here is a link to a site with a little bit of info http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/20...-home-servers/