Placeshifter or Client for LAN?

[peternm22]

Hi Everyone,

I'm planning on setting up either a Sage Client or Placeshifter on one of the computers on our LAN. I already own a Placeshifter license, so hopefully I can get by without buying a client license.

Would there be any benefit getting a client license? Or should Placeshifter suffice for my purposes?

Thanks.

[gplasky]

Client can play ripped DVDs. Placeshifter cannot.

Gerry

[peternm22]

Thanks Gerry. I don't have any DVD rips, so that won't be a problem

Are there any differences in regards to rendering/cpu usage/picture quality?

[GKusnick]

Have you read this FAQ? That explains most of the differences.

If you're looking for a subjective impression of which gives a better user experience, my advice would be to install both and see which you prefer. They're both available as free trials.

One point worth noting is that Client offloads more processing from the server, and so scales better to large installations with many (stationary) clients.

[SWKerr]

I would go with the client for use locally. Just download the Client. There is a trail period. If you don't think it is work $30 for you purposes uninstall and go with Placeshifter.

[wayner]

One potential downside to using client is that you have to do a bit more configuration on the client for stuff like add-ins, fanart, new STVs, etc. as most of this stuff is configured on the client PC rather than the server.

For example if you are using SageMC and you download a new STV or XML file you also have to install this file on the c:\Program Files of your client PC to use it. With Placeshifter you just have to install it on the server and then select the new XML file from Placeshifters configurations screens.

[Narflex]

I would 100% recommend SageTVClient for LAN usage. That is the purpose of it; the placeshifter is designed for use over the Internet. So while even though you can use the Placeshifter on a LAN; it is not optimized for that kind of usage. SageTVCilent is optimized for that kind of usage. The main difference between the two is that they have completely different media player architectures (the placeshifter has no hardware acceleration for video playback; while SageTVClient does).