Media Extender Replacements

[gilded07]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I ordered that same one yesterday. Along with 4GB RAM and a 90GB SSD. I'll let you know how it goes also.

Gerry

I am very interested to read your opinion of this hardware as a SageTV client when you get it up and running

[MattHelm]

All,
I am working up one of these:
http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/living/ent...10.html?c=2296
up as a client.

So far it looks like a VERY good machine. With an SSD it boots VERY quick (much faster then my new super game PC!), and the features seem good.

I'm still trying to get the codecs working, but that's not the box's fault.

It also looks much nicer (and I'm not picky about looks) than most small boxes, about the only problem I have on this front, is it's silver only, and all my other stuff is black. Oh, and only 1 dim LED (power) that you can normally see, which I like!!!

It is a little on the high price, and gets warmer than I like. (I can't get my super game PC over 35C)

[gilded07]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

All,
I am working up one of these:
http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/living/ent...10.html?c=2296
up as a client.

So far it looks like a VERY good machine. With an SSD it boots VERY quick (much faster then my new super game PC!), and the features seem good.

I'm still trying to get the codecs working, but that's not the box's fault.

It also looks much nicer (and I'm not picky about looks) than most small boxes, about the only problem I have on this front, is it's silver only, and all my other stuff is black. Oh, and only 1 dim LED (power) that you can normally see, which I like!!!

It is a little on the high price, and gets warmer than I like. (I can't get my super game PC over 35C)

Very nice looking.

You're right, it's a little pricey and it doesn't come w/ an OS? Interesting that it has a built in tuner too...although as a front end for SageTV, you won't need it.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I ordered that same one yesterday. Along with 4GB RAM and a 90GB SSD. I'll let you know how it goes also.

Gerry

Looks like if the Foxconn nt-A3700-0H0WBANA has problems with playback you can add something like this to it and get better playback. First reviewer mentions the Foxconn nt-A3700-0H0WBANA specifically.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by gilded07

Very nice looking.

... it doesn't come w/ an OS? Interesting that it has a built in tuner too...although as a front end for SageTV, you won't need it.

There is a version with an OS, and also a bare bone version with the new A8 instead of the A10. BTW, the CPU in these are MUCH faster than the E-450, so you are getting a more powerful machine. (con or plus, depending on what you are looking for) I don't think the next gen of the E-450 will be out for 6+ months.

If you get a spare Server license instead of a spare client, maybe use it as a network tuner? (I ask if you could drop the tuner, but they just have the 3 models)

[heffneil]

Came today and man it is small. I put the drive and memory. I have my external USB CD drive at my office so I need to go get it tomorrow to install windows.

That was the correct link that the next posted posted.

Very good size in my opinion. Only moving part is a very small fan and I would imagine NO sound...

Updates to come.

Thanks,

Neil

[heffneil]

I got my machine running. It seems to work now I just need to get everghost and the IR remote to work with it. How is everyone else doing with this box?

[parkimar]

Something I've been playing with (Figured it would be a good fallback - which given my current extender issues I may need to expedite !) - Is Xbian on the Raspberry Pi. (Rpi optimized version of XBMC)

Im in the process of using Handbrake to convert all my movies to h.264 (243 done - about 500 to go ... ugh)
I use the XBMC remote app with my iphone to control it.

Its still got all the same issues of XBMC with regards watching tv, but I dont really watch live tv anyway and most of the recording schedule is done via the sage web server now.

I also use the plex channel on a Roku in a spare room which works surprisingly well (in fact was the original driver for me to convert the movie library over).

Cheers

Mark

[heffneil]

Hey guys I am new to the PC based extender - always been using my hd300's but I am looking for something more robust or different. Actually I want to reduce memory usage on the server side. Anyway I played a mt2s file today and it was choppy. Really really bad. I checked my decoder and it said default for h264 and mpeg was microsoft. What is the "best" to use?

Thanks,

Neil

[heffneil]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

I've included my EventGhost config file and my changed SageTV plugin for EventGhost. Below is what I have replaced my HD200 with in my bedroom.

1. I got this Zotac (expensive because it's an I3 rather than a AMD Hudson M1) but I wanted to go with more CPU power incase the AMD couldn't handle the playback reliably. Also I wanted the one without memory and HDD since I had those already (60GB SSD and 4GB memory) but NewEgg was out so I spent close to $100 more than I needed too. Especially since I'm having to RMA the drive to WesternDigital anyway - was DOA when I tried to use it for something else.
2. Installed Win7 pro x64 since it didn't have an OS installed (had extra licence).
3. A USB-UIRT to handle the HD200 remote (had one since I use HTTP tuning on DirecTV and didn't need it on my server anymore).
4. EventGhost to receive the remote commands from the USB-UIRT and direct them to the correct application.
5. No remote programmed into SageTV so that EventGhost handles all remote commands.
6. Several hours to program EventGhost to work and several days of tweaking to get it just the way I wanted it. This involved changing where some of the default HD200 buttons go: (online button opens the sage schedule, music button opens the video library, abc123 button opens setup, previous channel opens time scroll, video out button toggles full screen and aspect button toggles the aspect ratio)

Since you have a Harmony universal remote you could probably just use the receiver that comes with whatever booksize CPU you buy (if it comes with one). Just change the Harmony to emulate a MCE remote. You could use my setup file in the zip file as a base but I would suggest that you start from scratch and just use it as an example. It will only take a couple of hours to be useful - maybe less. You just have to learn the remote buttons in EventGhost and drag the events to the appropriate SageTV commands.

Can you give me an idea how to load your config? Never used eventghost and I just got my machine hooked up to the tv and now it is a bear to do stuff on it

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Can you give me an idea how to load your config? Never used eventghost and I just got my machine hooked up to the tv and now it is a bear to do stuff on it

Extract the files in the Zip file to your EventGhost directory with paths so that the updated SageTV plugin gets in the correct location. Then use the file menu in EventGhost and select open. You should see a file called SystemSetup.xml that was extracted from the zip file. Selected it and my configuration is now your configuration. If you don't have a USB-UIRT installed it will show as RED in EventGhost signifying that it was not initialized. You will also be able to look at and make changes in the macros I created. I have 4 servers so you will see macros to launch each as well as the menu plugin configured to select those macros. You will probably only want to use the SageTV application folder. It was programmed for a HD200 remote with a USB-UIRT. You may want to change some of the events so that you get different buttons doing different SageTV commands. But the basics should work for you unchanged.

Let me qualify the macros. I have 4 SageTV servers named "SageTVSrv", "MediaCenter", "HDServer" & "ATSCServer". SageTVSrv was my first server - SD recordings and Duplicate ATSC recordings SD and HD. MediaCenter was a MediaCenter (2002) vintage box and was a backup to my other servers originally setup to record TCM and any others I might have conflicts on other boxes - now it contains my Colossus and is used for HD mostly. HDServer is for HD and HD ATSC recordings it has 2 HDPVR's and only primary ATSC channels no subchannels. ATSCServer only records ATSC channels both primary and sub channels (use to be RTV mostly before it was dropped now is MeTV, Antenna TV, CoolTV now).

[heffneil]

I ended up programming the essential commands and it seems to work really well. Didn't take a long time but all I did was the basics like I said. A couple things you might be able to help with:

1. There is no option for Audio in the plugin. This is a useful feature for me since my rips have multiple audio tracks.

2. Is there an option I don't see to program full screen mode? I never had to worry about this but it is obviously important.

Thanks!

Neil

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by heffneil

1. There is no option for Audio in the plugin. This is a useful feature for me since my rips have multiple audio tracks.

The volume Up/Down buttons on the HD200 remote are defined to the SageTV commands "Volume Up" & "Volume Down"
The Audio button on the HD200 is defined to the SageTV command "DVD Audio Change"

Originally Posted by heffneil

2. Is there an option I don't see to program full screen mode? I never had to worry about this but it is obviously important.

The "Video Out" button on the HD200 remote is defined as the SageTV command "Full Screen:"


If using the SystemSetup.xml file in the zip file I uploaded. Hope that helps.

[SWKerr]

I have managed to get EventGhost to do just about everything I want.

The only gripe I have at this point is that it does not seem to reset the sleep timer. If I am in the middle of a show and pause it for too long it will let the PC go to sleep.

I would love to know of a fix for this. There is a function in EventGhost to reset the time but it does not seem to work for me. (Perhaps I am using it wrong.)

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

I have managed to get EventGhost to do just about everything I want.

The only gripe I have at this point is that it does not seem to reset the sleep timer. If I am in the middle of a show and pause it for too long it will let the PC go to sleep.

I would love to know of a fix for this. There is a function in EventGhost to reset the time but it does not seem to work for me. (Perhaps I am using it wrong.)

I don't use a sleep timer I have SageTV setup to never sleep just display the screen saver. Then I use the EventGhost menu plugin to manually sleep, reboot or shutdown the PC. In the sleep and shutdown macros I have it call the Turn Off TV macro to turn off the TV.

Now if I could just get time to research why Sleep causes the USB-UIRT to not wake up properly on a resume I would have one of two final problems solved. The other problem is I would like to turn the PC on with a remote from an OFF state. But that will probably take hardware and it may not exist for a book size PC with an external power brick.

[heffneil]

Quick question that you guys might be able to help me with but how do you hide the mouse cursor without using a mouse to tuck it away in the corner?

Thanks!

Neil