Considering the switch - new server build questions.

[FunkadelicRelic]

Hi everyone.

Firstly, long time lurker, first time poster. Looking forward to getting involved in such a dedicated forum! Hope you don't mind me kicking off with a question?

I'm a long time user of Windows Media Center, but have always considered an integrated tuner server an essential piece of kit that MS have never seemed to have hinted at.

I've been aware of SageTV for some time, but have never thought of giving it a go. With the announcement of the new HD300 box, I think I'm going to go for it.

From what I've read (and I've read a lot!) is that Sage are bending over backwards to cater for user requests and feature sets. Something I can't imagine ever seeing with a monster the size of MS. This is definitely something that is pursauding me over to SageTV.

Before I kick off with some 21 day trials, I was hoping someone out there may be able to help me with some questions I have? I've searched the forums and Google but haven't found the answers I'm looking for just yet.

Firstly, I'm really interested in the server/client model. The way I see it, I would like to have a server/tunerfarm on, with HD300's hanging off.

I currently run a 2008 R2 64-bit server, which I'm pretty sure will not be compatible, as it has various BDA issues with DVB-T cards. Will the server software run on Windows Server 2003 R2 64-bit? I can reinstall if that's the case. I'm not planning on watching any media on the server, as it will be headless after the initial config.

Thanks!

Tom.

[stanger89]

I think there's at least one person here running Sage on 2008 (not sure which version). As far as if Sage will run, it will run on pretty much anything that runs Java. My server is running Server 2003 (not R2) x86. I'd say if you can get your tuners working, Sage should be fine on that system. The problem is generally getting the tuners and associated BDA (on Windows) stuff happy, not Sage itself.

[FunkadelicRelic]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Might be worth sticking with 2003 R2 x86 then I guess, just to be on the safe side. My server only has 4gb of RAM anyway, so I shouldn't lose too much in the move to 32-bit.

I did see mention of WHS support. Other than the OS features themselves, any other reason to use WHS? I had it prior to WinSrv2008 R2, but migrated away.

[FunkadelicRelic]

I'm hopefully going to get going with this in the morning, depending on what time I wake up. Just got back from holiday in the States and am massively jet lagged so can't sleep at the moment!

My hardware is as follows.

Server

• AMD Athlon X2 5050e
• 4gb RAM
• 1x 250gb OS drive
• 1x 500gb recording drive
• 1x 1tb download/backup drive
• 1x 2tb data drive
• 1x Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T 500 Dual DVB-T tuner (PCI)

As far as the drive layout is concerned, I'd read that keeping the recording drive seperate improves performence. CPU wise, I'm pretty sure it should be able to handle the load.

[Fuzzy]

Honestly, I see no reason to use a server OS for sage. It doesn't use any of the 'server' features. A sagetv server runs exactly the same on windows xp as it does on 2008 64-bit as it does on win7. The difference only being driver support for the capture cards. If the cards you use have drivers for the OS you are using, it'll work.

As for WHS, the only real reason to run sage on a WHS would be to use the WHS backup features as well on teh same machine. WHS itself also doesn't necessarily add anything to sage, but if you already had a WHS system, it would make sense to also use it for sage (no reason to have more than on 24/7 system).

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by FunkadelicRelic

As far as the drive layout is concerned, I'd read that keeping the recording drive seperate improves performence. CPU wise, I'm pretty sure it should be able to handle the load.

Yes you are correct. You should keep your OS drive separate from your Recording drive so that if your OS starts thrashing, it doesn't interfere with the recording. My very first Sage box used the OS drive for recording but that was SD only. I wouldn't trust a High def recording to an OS drive (it probably wouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't take the chance....)...

[mayamaniac]

I ran SageTV on Win2003 x86 for years without issues. When it was time to upgrade the hardware, initially, I wanted to go with Win7 x64 so I can use more than 4GB of memory. But in the end, I had to go with the 32bit version because there were no firewire STB drivers for 64bit, and I need it for channel changing. Looking back, I didn't actually need more than 4GB of memory in my server anyway, so it was pointless to go with 64bit.

[FunkadelicRelic]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I need to stick with a server OS as this won't only serve SageTV. I'm gonna go with Windows Server 2003 R2 32-bit as I only have 4gb of RAM and that isn't likely to change too soon.

I'll be cracking on with the build in about an hour. I'll keep you posted.

[FunkadelicRelic]

Well, I'm off to a bad start already. I rebuilt my server as mentioned above, and begain installing DX9 and SageTV 6.6 Media Center.

Going through the options on first launch, I chose Server, tvtv Service configuration etc. But when it gets to do the channel scan, It just seems to hang with the spinning circle. I've left it for over an hour now. Anyone have any ideas?

Do I actually need to scan for channels on the server or is it something that only needs to be done on each client?

[stanger89]

Should be able to scan from anywhere. Sounds like your drivers/BDA stuff aren't happy if I had to guess.

[FunkadelicRelic]

I figured as much. Looks like a similar problem I had with 2008 R2. Although I thought there were no BDA issues with Server 2003 R2. I'm using an XP driver if that helps?

[FunkadelicRelic]

Actually, looking a bit further into it, the same screen with spinny thing comes up when I close out of the SageTV window. Seems not to like something on my system.

[FunkadelicRelic]

Ahh progress. Updated Java to 6.21, and now I get the channel scan dialog, as well as being able to quit cleanly.

The next problem though... The channel scan only goes about one tenth of the way through, and seems to stop at channel 6 with the message 'No Channels Found'. I deffo have signal in here as I've just lugged my TV with integrated freeview into the study and tested the socket.

Sorry for 20 questions guys. You've all been really helpful so far, I kinda feel like I'm started to take the piss a little. It is honestly much appreciated.

[FunkadelicRelic]

OK, cooking with gas now. I have some updates. Maybe this might help someone else in my situation later. Here goes...

The issue with SageTV hanging on close, and when channel scanning seemed to occur when using the default included Java, 6.10. It may have been because I was running in Windowed mode, as fullscreen worked OK. Updating to 6.21 solved the issue for me.

With regard to SageTV not tuning any DVB-T channels, I used a tool called ScanChannelsBDA-UK to verify the card could pick up channels, which it could. That seemed to indicate the card was OK with the server OS. Trouble was, I think I may have selected the wrong antenna region. Changing to the correct one seemed to do the trick. I think I may have been trying to use one that no longer exists?

Anyway, thanks to all the responders in here. I'm going to continue my trial versions of SageTV. With a bit of luck, it'll be one more WMC convert.

[will]

I have been running SageTV on a Windows 2003 server for almost a year now.

Works great but I did have some serious driver issues with my HVR-2250 at first. In short, Windows 2003 allows you to use more than 4 gigs of RAM using PAE (most applications still can't access over 2 gigs but in theory you could have 20 gigs of ram and 10 applications each using 2 gigs). The HVR-2250 drivers couldn't handle PAE because they were poorly written and I had to disable it (I have 3.4 gigs of my 4 gigs available for use).

If you start having any random crashes try disabling PAE. It took a lot of trouble shooting to find that solution.

Good luck with your build and welcome to the forum.