Does placeshifter do the same thing as client on laptop

[jkellynewyork]

I am setting up Sagetv on my living room HTPC. I also purchased the HD theatre for my bedroom. I also have a laptop that I want to use to access SAGE TV. I definitely want the Placeshifter program to put on my laptop. Is there any benifit of getting thr SAGE tv client program for my laptop also so I could watch Sage on my laptop? Placeshifter allows me to easily access my HTPC sage locally, so I dont know what benefit the Sage client would provide me.

[GKusnick]

SageTV Client and Placeshifter both allow you to watch TV (live or recorded) on your laptop and to set up recordings and administer server functions. The main differences are that SageTV Client offers greater configurability and better playback performance on a local LAN, while Placeshifter allows you to connect remotely over the Internet (at reduced playback quality). This FAQ has more details.

Should you install both? If you plan to watch a lot of TV on your laptop, and if being able to fine-tune codecs and such is important to you, then you'll want SageTV Client for use at home, and Placeshifter for use on the road. If those things aren't important, I'd say start with Placeshifter and see if it meets your needs. You can always add a Client license later.

And of course both programs have free trials so you can try before you buy.

[wayner]

Be aware that Placeshifting HD content, particularly 1080i H.264 content can be tricky, even with a very fast server.

[Spectrum]

Sound advice has been offered so far and I'll chime in to add that Placeshifter works great on a local lan for just about everything except HDPVR content. To get HDPVR recordings to function correctly you are forced to enable transcoding even when watching locally on a LAN. My advice would be to try out the trials of Placeshifter and Client to get a fell for it yourself. Oh and welcome to Sage!

[jkellynewyork]

thanks so much guys -- i did notice slightly better quality with the sage tv client trial than placeshifter trial locally and also felt smoother maneuvering around. At only $30 I probably will wind up going with sage client in addition to placeshifter.

[GKusnick]

I might add that if you ever want to try your hand at creating plugins, a SageTV Client license is a worthwhile investment since it lets you do plugin development (and make mistakes) on your client without disturbing your server's stability.

[dlevey]

can't play ripped dvd's on placeshifter - so I found out the hard way, even though I was told by Sage Support years ago that "Placeshifter is just like client"

I think it stinks that placeshifter isn't just client with another "mode" available for it's "placeshifter" needs, since most users that have a laptop have it for portability reasons, but to also use it inside the LAN they give up ability which costs another $30 to get.