Is timeshifting hdd\cpu intensive on client?

[Forskarn]

I thought about buying a mini-itx of some kind and one of those 1.8" harddrives and use that as a client.
Those things can be really quiet but also slow.

So what I'm asking is will the client do the actual timeshifting and save the buffer on its harddrive or will the server do it all?
(Or can you save the buffer on a mounted network share?)

I have also read that the SageTV client software isn't crippled very much compared to SageTV but I have never read what actually NOT can do.

[thatdude90210]

You can do pretty much everything on the client that you can on Sagetv (server), like timeshift, schedule recording, watch previous recordings, search for shows to record, etc... and the server does all work of saving to hd. Sage client just need a cpu powerfull enough to play mpeg2 files, basically if it can play dvd, it'll work as a client.

[Opus4]

As mentioned above, all the client really has to be able to do is be powerful enough to play an mpeg recorded at the quality setting (data rate) you choose & have a network connection to the server capabale of carrying the stream.

What the client (SageTVClient) will not do is control any encoder cards on its own; the server (SageTV) controls all actual recording duties. If an encoder is on a networked PC, you would use SageTVRecorder to control it & then the server would tell that copy of SageTVRecorder what to record & where to save it.

You do not need to have any recordings saved on your client machine, though you could do that if you wish -- but, again, it will be the server that handles saving the recording to the drive over the network.

- Andy

[kny3twalker]

actually the client cannot have local media
I have asked for this before
but if you have recording on the client
they will not play in SageTVclient
nor music/additional video

seems stupid but they have not added this yet

maybe with studio but probably not

[Opus4]

Originally posted by kny3twalker
actually the client cannot have local media
I have asked for this before
but if you have recording on the client
they will not play in SageTVclient
nor music/additional video

You mean local media outside the server's knowledge/data base, right?

I'm talking about recordings saved on the client PC through the server -- the server can save to & play from network drives: several people do that already. The client will play the recordings, but everything has to go through the server, so it creates some extra network traffic. Also, you can set all directories to be used for saving/importing via the client's UI & then the server will use those dirs.

This is based on reading what others have done, so I'm not well-versed on the steps to do this. But, the doc "Setting up Network Encoders" mentions using either UNC pathnames or mapped drive letters.

- Andy

[kny3twalker]

yeah problem with that is
that I do not leave my laptop on all the time

[Opus4]

I know... which is one reason I don't use networked storage either. (And that's a good thing for you to point out!)

I simply wanted to clarify the difference between local client media outside the SageTV database vs. that which the server is aware of.

- Andy

[kny3twalker]

yeah I know but it is stupid for sage not to allow this come on
why Can I not use sageclient on notebook when I am not at home
just plain stupid

I do not get in their face about much but this is stupid

[Opus4]

Originally posted by kny3twalker
why Can I not use sageclient on notebook when I am not at home

Who knows... I don't set policy; I just discuss how it works. (OK, so sometimes I talk about how I would like it to work too...) I can certainly see that it would be useful for the client to know which files are local & keep access to them even when not connected to the server.

I know people have asked that the system work as peer to peer, instead of client-server, so each system could stand on its own & share with others on the network when they do happen to be connected.

Just make sure Frey knows about your requests... I'm sure the worst they would do is ignore anything they don't want to add. I still doubt they would add special code to wreak havoc on someone's system when they don't like a suggestion. Um, well, unless that suggestion isn't too nice.

- Andy

[kny3twalker]

Oh I asked as soon I installed the client and gave reasons why

I am done being mad about it
not even wanting peer to peer
just local stuff on a client that does not have to be networked constantly