Windows 2008 R2 Server

[sflamm]

Is it possible to run SageTV 7 on a Windows 2008 R2 Server?

I currently am running 6.6.x on a Windows 2003 R2 Server and would like to move up...

Thanks in advance.

[bryanzim]

I run SageTV on Windows Server 2008 R2 without a problem. If you have BDA tuners then you will need a BDA patch since this capability is not installed by default.

I prefer the Server OS's since they are usually more stable and more configurable. You can check out http://www.win2008r2workstation.com/.

[sflamm]

Thanks for the input.

Do you have any instructions for installing the BDA drivers? (I do use 2 HDHRs (need BDA), in addition to the 2 HD-PVRs (do not need BDA).

I also use Firewire to tune the Mot 6200 boxes that the HD-PVRs are connected to... is it possible to install the 32-bit drivers on 64-bit 2008? Or Is there a backward compatibility mode for this?

[Spectrum]

Originally Posted by sflamm

Thanks for the input.

Do you have any instructions for installing the BDA drivers? (I do use 2 HDHRs (need BDA), in addition to the 2 HD-PVRs (do not need BDA).

I also use Firewire to tune the Mot 6200 boxes that the HD-PVRs are connected to... is it possible to install the 32-bit drivers on 64-bit 2008? Or Is there a backward compatibility mode for this?

I can't help with the BDA drivers, but there are no 64 bit set top box drivers for firewire and 32 bit drivers won't work in a 64 bit environment. If you want to keep firewire for channel changes you'll have to stick with a 32 bit version of Windows. You can use a USB-UIRT or similar for changing channels in a 64 bit environment though.

[bryanzim]

BDA

Here is a link for BDA drivers for Win2K8 R2 http://rapidshare.com/files/42095455...er_2008_R2.zip. I took the the BDA files from Windows 7 x64.

Firewire

You will need 64 bit drivers for Win2K8 R2. You can look for a FireWire device that has Windows 7 x64 support as these drivers will work on Win2K8 R2 as long as they are signed.

Since I started using Win2K8 R2, I've never thought about going back to Windows 7. You do give up the games and bluetooth, but everything else is there.

[sandyj]

Firewire works fine for me on Windows server 2008 R2 64 bit I have 4 firewire fireDTV tuners and they all work fine. I have been running this combo since R2 was released very stable currently using sage 6.
1. I did the bda hack
2. Use firewire legacy drivers which come with server 2008 R2. In device manager the 1394 driver states legacy in brackets.

As long as your tuners are windows 7 64 bit supported they should work fine. Vista 64 bit drivers may also work.

Hope this helps.

[sflamm]

bryanzim:

Thanks for the BDA zip. Do you need to install both the x86 and x64 files?
I assume you also have to run the registry script to put in those entries.

Can you confirm the directions?

Of course I prefer not to use IR to tune, as firewire is 100% reliable.

sandyj:

Not sure how FireDTV helps me. I currently used an HD-PVR in conjunction with a motorola DCT6200 (comcast). The DCT6200 is tuned by a firewire driver called "firestb" that appears to only be 32-bit.

How can I use FireDTV in this situation?

Not to mention that it appears they are out of business:

Dear digital everywhere customers,
after several months struggling with difficult market conditions, digital everywhere decided to stop its activities.

Manufacturing of products has been stopped and support has been reduced to the minimum.

digital everywhere wants to thanks all its customers and all the users which with their efforts and feedback greatly help in continuosly improving the FireDTV / FloppyDTV.

[ytulpan]

I also have Sage server running on 2008 r2 with (almost) no issues.

The following is a site for adding missing functionality in 2008 server r2:

http://www.win2008r2workstation.com/

Go to the forums; there is a detailed thread about adding BDA. You will have to add other features as well. It's very simple, though.

Regarding BDA I personally had to use both the methods detailed for 2008 R2 and also for 2008 regular; seemingly some information was missing in the R2 only. The forums are divided into 2008 r2 and 2008. Peruse both, it's not a big deal.

The one thing I couldn't operate was the ExemultiTuner invocation; I still investigate this and will send a bug report if I can't find a solution.

BTW, I can also run the client on the same machine, which is convenient for debugging and configuration; however be aware that 2008 comes without any h.264 codecs and no one managed yet to transplant the Win 7 64 bit ones; so if you want to watch h.264 on the server you need a codec pack. I use Cyberlink, but if you have an old version of TMT it will be OK too.

[sandyj]

Originally Posted by sflamm

bryanzim:

Thanks for the BDA zip. Do you need to install both the x86 and x64 files?
I assume you also have to run the registry script to put in those entries.

Can you confirm the directions?

Of course I prefer not to use IR to tune, as firewire is 100% reliable.

sandyj:

Not sure how FireDTV helps me. I currently used an HD-PVR in conjunction with a motorola DCT6200 (comcast). The DCT6200 is tuned by a firewire driver called "firestb" that appears to only be 32-bit.

How can I use FireDTV in this situation?


Not to mention that it appears they are out of business:

Only mentioned that I use FireDTV tuners which are connected via firewire not that you should use them I bought mine when they were closing down as they were too good to let go. It helps you to know that Server 2008r2 is stable when using firewire. If you cannot locate drivers that are 64 bit then you either have to use server 2008 32bit version (not r2) or win 7 32 bit. If you go with 2008 32 bit then vista drivers should work fine.

Some of the BDA scripts contain the BDA files and some versions you need to capture the files from a working system. You only use either the 32 bit version (x86) or the 64 bit version (for 64 bit versions of server 2008). I did this some time ago so can't remember the exact instructions.

[nethead]

My blog post about setting up Windows 2008/SageTV

Maybe it can help I did this back in 9/09, been running 24/7 since.

I use a Win7 pc to update my hdhomerun channel files as needed and then copy over to the W2k8 box and rebuild the hdhomerun devices/channels in SageTV.

[bryanzim]

BDA files

You only need to run Setup BDA.bat from the Setup For x64 folder. The registry file does not need to be run unless you have older analogue tuners.

The setup for x86 is legacy from Windows Server 2008 when it used to come in a 32 bit variant.

I've been SageTV on servers since back on Windows Server 2003.