Stream TV with HD Home Theater

[Aileron]

Does anyone know if I will I be able to stream live TV using Sage TV for Windows running on a server (Windows Home Server) with the Sage TV HD Home Theater? I am using a D-Link DIR-655 router and HD HomeRun.

[evilpenguin]

Yep, if you have a PC running the SageTV Server with your HDhomerun configured to record TV, you'll be able to stream recorded or live TV though any of Sage's extenders on the same network.

[Aileron]

Thanks.

I am deciding between the Sage TV HD Theater and the Popcorn Hour C-200. Anyone have any comparative information?

[matt91]

probably other threads if you search, but I noticed this one:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45146

[paulbeers]

No matter which way you go (popcorn hour or HD200), I would really recommend you add a separate switch to your setup. Have your WHS, HDHomerun and Playback device all hooked to the switch, and the switch hooked to your router. Routers generally have pitiful switches and you can pick up some decent switches for less than $50.

[Clift]

seconded. Not to mention you may/will run out of bandwidth if you're recording 2 HD shows and watching one of them at the same time. Because, 2 have to go into the server and one has to come out, all on a 100Mbit pipe. And as paulbeers stated, routers make terrible switches.

[Suntan]

Originally Posted by Clift

seconded. Not to mention you may/will run out of bandwidth if you're recording 2 HD shows and watching one of them at the same time. Because, 2 have to go into the server and one has to come out, all on a 100Mbit pipe. And as paulbeers stated, routers make terrible switches.

Recorded ATSC channels are approx 19Mbps, even full/doubled up QAM channels are somewhere around 38mbps I believe. Being that 100Mbit wired eithernet is full duplex, 2 coming and one going should pass easily even on a 100Mbps network. (I've never had problems serving 2 separate feeds, but I don't have an HDhomerun to judge incoming recordings.)

-Suntan

[paulbeers]

Suntan - It's not just about the amount of bandwidth, it's also about the quality of the switch. How can a 50 dollar router incorporate even a decent low end switch and have wifi and dhcp all rolled into one without cutting corners. They generally aren't good enough at handling large amounts of data. Further, we are talking about theoretical bandwidths. Yes, you should be able to handle 2 incoming streams of 20mbps and output another for a total of 60mbps, but I find in practice that tends to push the limits of 100mb connections (especially since it is 3 streams instead of one).

[pjpjpjpj]

You may also find out that the limit on this situation is your hard drive read/write. If you have a few shows coming in and being written on your hard drive, and another few shows being sent out to extenders (read), you need a "better" hard drive, not just any old drive. On my old server setup, I used to be unable to watch anything if I had three HD programs recording at once (stuttering and other bad behavior). I thought it was network bandwidth issues (and it might have been as well) but I suspect now that it was more an issue of the hard drive speed.

But even though I'm generally a penny-pincher, I recently decided that I'm in this thing for the long haul and I need to do it right, so I upgraded the server, hard drive, and network.

[Clift]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Suntan - It's not just about the amount of bandwidth, it's also about the quality of the switch. How can a 50 dollar router incorporate even a decent low end switch and have wifi and dhcp all rolled into one without cutting corners. They generally aren't good enough at handling large amounts of data. Further, we are talking about theoretical bandwidths. Yes, you should be able to handle 2 incoming streams of 20mbps and output another for a total of 60mbps, but I find in practice that tends to push the limits of 100mb connections (especially since it is 3 streams instead of one).

Exactly my point.
Suntan, I speak from actual experience. I had the very issue. I was recording 2 channels and watching one of those shows. Never gave it much thought till I started surfing the web over wifi and the show started skipping. But I guess I should have known because prior to that I had all sorts of issues where i could not run bittorrent if the HDHR was recording. I ended up just getting a d-link switch (nothing fancy) and it fixed all my issues. Oh, I went gigabit also, but I don;t think it's really necessary. For me it made sense since I have 3 clients. If you want send me a Pm and I will send you my system diagram how I have it set up.

[Suntan]

Originally Posted by Clift

Exactly my point.
Suntan, I speak from actual experience. I had the very issue. I was recording 2 channels and watching one of those shows. Never gave it much thought till I started surfing the web over wifi and the show started skipping. But I guess I should have known because prior to that I had all sorts of issues where i could not run bittorrent if the HDHR was recording. I ended up just getting a d-link switch (nothing fancy) and it fixed all my issues. Oh, I went gigabit also, but I don;t think it's really necessary. For me it made sense since I have 3 clients. If you want send me a Pm and I will send you my system diagram how I have it set up.

Well, my experience was that I ran for a couple of years with a wireless router that cost me $9 and it was able to support DVR functions for two extenders plus miscilaneous other network transfers just fine. Replaced it with a $20 router some years back (upgraded from 11b to 11g) and that one worked just fine too.

The only I was taking issue with was the inference of adding a separate switch before even trying whatever extender/streamer the op may end up getting. My opinion is that if a person already has a network setup, they might as well try it as is before buying more stuff.

Athough I do like the various comments from people about "speaking from experience," honestly, show of hands, who here thinks they are the only person to have ever setup a home network?

-Suntan

[Suntan]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

You may also find out that the limit on this situation is your hard drive read/write. If you have a few shows coming in and being written on your hard drive, and another few shows being sent out to extenders (read), you need a "better" hard drive, not just any old drive. On my old server setup, I used to be unable to watch anything if I had three HD programs recording at once (stuttering and other bad behavior). I thought it was network bandwidth issues (and it might have been as well) but I suspect now that it was more an issue of the hard drive speed.

But even though I'm generally a penny-pincher, I recently decided that I'm in this thing for the long haul and I need to do it right, so I upgraded the server, hard drive, and network.

What drive did you use and did you run with 64K custersizes? I ran for a number of years with a single dedicated dvr HDD (7200rpm) formatted w/ 64K clusters and it was fine recording 5 different channels at a time while serving 3 shows (one from the pc, another two over the network.)

-Suntan

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Suntan

What drive did you use and did you run with 64K custersizes? I ran for a number of years with a single dedicated dvr HDD (7200rpm) formatted w/ 64K clusters and it was fine recording 5 different channels at a time while serving 3 shows (one from the pc, another two over the network.)

-Suntan

Were those 5 shows all HD? There's a big difference in data stream size there...

I was recording all TV on the external USB drives that are now (listed in my sig) exclusively used for my DVD library. I don't even know what rpm they are; when I bought them, I hadn't even thought about the read/write speed being a potential bottleneck. They are in 64K clusters, though.

As I said, it might have actually been the network, too... or just some processing or bus speed or who-knows-what in my old server. It was a dinosaur (I never watched on it, I only watch on extenders). But now that I have a GB network and plenty of server, I haven't seen a problem.

[MCE-Refugee]

Originally Posted by Aileron

Thanks.

I am deciding between the Sage TV HD Theater and the Popcorn Hour C-200. Anyone have any comparative information?

The Popcorn Hour is available for purchase while the Sage TV HD Theater is not. Does that help your decision?

[Suntan]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Were those 5 shows all HD? There's a big difference in data stream size there...

Well, all the channels in my area run HD, although some of the PBS shows are just 480p.

Yes, stream size can be all over the map even for HD shows. That said, I've run for years with 5 tuners and 3 playback spots (server, Hd100 and client) and don't recall any issues of the single HDD not being able to keep up.

-Suntan