Anybody build a low cost snapstream-like-server from sagetv?

[john139]

snapstream server costs $12,000
* Cable, digital cable, satellite
* 4 to 10 Tuners
* 20+ included
* 3 TB to 30 TB
* Unlimited
* RAID-5 hard drives,
redundant power supplies
* - TV search & e-mail alerts
- Clipping & DVD burning
- ShowSqueeze & SmartSkip
- Place-shifting

has anybody used sagetv, mythtv or other to build a low cost similar system?

[Lucas]

I guess "low-cost" seems to be a subjective word but $12k is a lot of money for what you described.

I think many SageTV users have similar servers.

Mine has 9 tuners, I use RAID 5 and can be grown to more than 20TB. Dual power supplies are not really necessary but can be had if one wishes.
Don't think it cost more that $3K for the hardware but maybe if someone was selling this, they could ask their price.

As for the rest, SageTV can be configured with plugins to do them.

[PGPfan]

What exactly are you asking? Lot's of Sage users have built very powerful systems - it's not that hard to do. I think mkanet on the forums here has a 12-tuner system if memory serves me correctly.

What does "20= included" even mean? Or "unlimited"?

Many have raid-5 systems, I use a modified raid-4 (UnRaid) myself.

The only real 'gotcha' in your list is digital cable, which argueably may be coming to Sage since they relax the CableLabs requirements somewhat - but frankly I could care less about digital cable and all it's DRM.

Otherwise, most of the list is easily in the realm of SageTV.

-PGPfan

[mayamaniac]

He's copying and pasting from here: http://www.snapstream.com/enterprise...w/default.aspx

He just left out the left column so it makes no sense.

The unique features of Snapstream Enterprise server is the ability to archive closed caption data and make it searchable and exportable to a text file. I'm not sure how they are able to do gather closed caption data from encrypted sources, it is not clear if its possible base on info from their web site. The other unigue feature is the ability to export a clip of the video.

Software-wise, those two unique features are not possible with SageTV. Hardware wise, you can definitely build a server as powerful as you want and for a lot less.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

The unique features of Snapstream Enterprise server is the ability to archive closed caption data and make it searchable and exportable to a text file.

SageTV dose closed caption but it must be enbeded into media it just not searchable with in closed caption data

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Software-wise, those two unique features are not possible with SageTV. Hardware wise, you can definitely build a server as powerful as you want and for a lot less.

They can not do any ATSC/QAM encrypted channel just like ever one else but they there software is just no good when come it to QAM any way.

This in there own FAQ
Q: Can I scan for QAM channels on my cable feed? Can I use the SnapStream Server QAM/ ATSC to capture encrypted HD content from my digital cable or satellite feed?
A: No, unfortunately the SnapStream Server QAM/ ATSC capabilities requires you to know the frequencies of your QAM channels. The SnapStream Server QAM/ ATSC cannot scan for clear QAM channels on a cable feed. The server cannot decrypt HD channels on a digital cable or satellite feed, nor can it capture HD content from a digital cable or satellite set-top box. For capturing HD channels from digital cable or satellite, we recommend using a set-top box with an S-video output with the Best MPEG-2 quality on our standard SnapStream Server, which will provide very high SD image quality.

[john139]

is it possible to save the closed captioning? must i build plugin?

[paulbeers]

Not to derail this discussion, but does anyone wonder why there is a 5 tuner limit on QAM tuning? I can't imagine it's a hard drive throughput issue, and there are many dual tuners out there so it can't be a motherboard limitation (especially with the HDHomerun)....

[SHS]

Originally Posted by john139

is it possible to save the closed captioning? must i build plugin?

Start by searching on this forum for CCExtractor or SRT but SageTV it self has no build in searchable way with in closed caption data far I know of so for a Plugin would have to be made.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Not to derail this discussion, but does anyone wonder why there is a 5 tuner limit on QAM tuning? I can't imagine it's a hard drive throughput issue, and there are many dual tuners out there so it can't be a motherboard limitation (especially with the HDHomerun)....

With PCI it is pettey much the limitation and having some head room but keep in mind you need fig in max output data which can be up to 20mb/sec for each card and 2nd problem was there was only handful 6 slot PCI which are outdate, but not with 1x PCIe but only one motherboard that has 4 1x PCIe slot that is gigabyte with out going to high cost $2000+ PCI Express Expansion Chassis

[bcjenkins]

You can get some system boards with up to 7 PCIe slots now.

[davephan]

You might want to start off your post with what you are trying to accomplish. It sounds like you want to set up a system for a commercial operation.

The "20+ included" clients parameter. Do you need your system to be able to deliver HD video/audio to 20 nodes at the same time? I don't know if SageTV can scale that high. SageTV should be able to meet all the other parameters. The "unlimited" was thrown in for an extra bullet point by Snapstream for searching, it doesn't mean much.

For a commercial operation, RAID 5 might not be enough. You might need RAID 6, so you can still function without data loss if two drives fail, instead of one drive. You also need a disaster recovery plan, which is how you recover the system quickly if there is a serious problem. I recommend disk imaging for your operating system drive, which rules out WHS as your operating system.

Redundant power supplies could be setup with a system. A large UPS should also be added to your system.

Depending on how many HD streams one system can deliver, you might need multiple systems. You might be able to use a product called "Doubletake" to create parallel running systems. This might be a good idea for redundancy too, but will really add to the cost. Doubletake is expensive.

I currently have 9 TB. With the unRAID system I'm adding, the total storage could go higher than 30 TB. However unRAID is slower than RAID, and is only used for playback of pre-recorded programming. UnRAID probably won't work if you need many HD streams at once.

I have 7 tuners. I'm guessing that SageTV could easily scale to 10 tuners.

The other items thrown in the bullet point list are easy to accomplish with SageTV or accessory software to SageTV. Commercial skipping could be done with Comskip or ShowAnalyzer. Video clipping/editing and DVD burning could be done with VideoReDo Suite V4. Placeshifting can be done by SageTV. The set top boxes can be controlled by a USB-UIRT. If the set top boxes can be set to different IR codes, you could probably control 10 set top boxes with one USB-UIRT. E-mail alerts could be done with SageAlert.

More information is needed about what you are trying to do. If you want to scale up to 20 simultaneous HD playback streams, then SageTV might not be able to scale that high without using multiple systems and shared storage. Another factor is if you can have 20 simultaneous HD playback streams from one shared storage device. If you can't, you would need redundant replicated shared storage devices to divide the load. If you need HD playback on 20 TVs, but the simultaneous HD playbacks is a much lower number, then your system would probably cost a lot less.


Dave

[bcjenkins]

I would do this on Linux. If you state your goals it would be easier to help.

B

[SHS]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

You can get some system boards with up to 7 PCIe slots now.

That maybe ture in tell look high price tag and where mainly build for SuperGameComputer "Ultimate Gamer System" 3/4-Way SLI Support.
2nd is way to min people that have gotting them have way problem with them.

[john139]

dont know linux. so i need to use sagetv.

i need to build a 4 tuner ntsc closed captioning system.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by john139

dont know linux. so i need to use sagetv.

i need to build a 4 tuner ntsc closed captioning system.

SageTV runs on Linux too.

B

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by john139

dont know linux. so i need to use sagetv.

i need to build a 4 tuner ntsc closed captioning system.

So you are looking for a system that can record 4 NTSC programs, and save the closed captioning?

[john139]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

So you are looking for a system that can record 4 NTSC programs, and save the closed captioning?

yep

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by SHS

With PCI it is pettey much the limitation and having some head room but keep in mind you need fig in max output data which can be up to 20mb/sec for each card and 2nd problem was there was only handful 6 slot PCI which are outdate, but not with 1x PCIe but only one motherboard that has 4 1x PCIe slot that is gigabyte with out going to high cost $2000+ PCI Express Expansion Chassis

Yeah, but you can use any PCIe slot (whether 1x or 16x) to house a 1x PCIE device. Heck my fairly cheap $80 motherboard has 4 slots of various speeds which means I could easily house 4 HVR2250's = 8 QAM tuners and has built in graphics so I don't even have to use one for a video card. There are motherboards with 6 PCIE slots (I know I considered them).

HDHomeruns use no slots so a single gigabit connection can handle (theoretically) 50 - 20mbps streams.

So again, what's with the 5 tuner limitation?

Just askin.....

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

So you are looking for a system that can record 4 NTSC programs, and save the closed captioning?

in that case, just get 2 Haupauge PVR-500 analog tuners and you could record 4 NTSC programs with built in CC. YOu could then ccextract out the captions into an .srt file if you wanted to be able to search the captions outside of Sage.

[john139]

does the output include a time stamp? b/c i will then need to play the file at the time of the found text