FINALLY - New / first SageTV build

[macsupergeek]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

Ah, cool macsupergeek! Thanks for the info!

What do you think in terms of pulling up fanart? SSD helpful?

I switched to an SSD for my boot volume and used the UNRAID for fanart at first, but then I got tired of waiting for the unraid drives to spin up and then the fanart to load so I moved the fanart to the root of the SSD and haven't looked back -- fanart is almost instant in my gemstone windows, so that is very nice, the only hang ups are zipping around in the menus and I think that is more in part to the system is 2 core xeon that is doing plex, subsonic, playon as well as the built-in transcoding for the squishing the files and since the .ts that the ceton makes are not transcodeable in mediashrink or sage itself I have to run them through videoredo first. So maybe its time for an i5 or i7 at this point, but SSD is definitely the way to go.

[sumrtym]

Originally Posted by macsupergeek

I switched to an SSD for my boot volume and used the UNRAID for fanart at first, but then I got tired of waiting for the unraid drives to spin up and then the fanart to load so I moved the fanart to the root of the SSD and haven't looked back -- fanart is almost instant in my gemstone windows, so that is very nice, the only hang ups are zipping around in the menus and I think that is more in part to the system is 2 core xeon that is doing plex, subsonic, playon as well as the built-in transcoding for the squishing the files and since the .ts that the ceton makes are not transcodeable in mediashrink or sage itself I have to run them through videoredo first. So maybe its time for an i5 or i7 at this point, but SSD is definitely the way to go.

Awesome, ty again!

I was right about my Rosewill USB network adapter getting cancelled. Got the e-mail today.

Is anyone running a Colossus card in a PCIe 2.0 x4 or or PCIe 3.0 x8 or x16 slot? I wondered if that caused any issues.

[Fuzzy]

I can't imagine it would. And if it did, it would be because of an incompatibility in the motherboard, not the colossus. PCIe devices are supposed to function in larger sockets by spec, in fact, the pin arrangement is such that the colossus itself wouldn't be able to tell what flavor slot it was in.

[sumrtym]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I can't imagine it would. And if it did, it would be because of an incompatibility in the motherboard, not the colossus. PCIe devices are supposed to function in larger sockets by spec, in fact, the pin arrangement is such that the colossus itself wouldn't be able to tell what flavor slot it was in.

That's what I thought, but what threw me to begin with was the fact on the mATX board I only have one pcie x1 slot and I was looking at this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320074

The overview on the Asus site states that, "The PCE-N15 Wireless-N PCI Express Adapter provides wide compatibility, fitting with any standard PCI Express slot, x1, x2, x8, or x16." However, a review on Newegg stated the following:

Their FAQ on the support site ( http://support.asus.com/FAQ/detail.a...3-F46BF18DBE2E ) contradicts this with "Due to hardware limition of the Realtek chip on PCE-N15 wireless card, PCE-N15 wireless card will function in PCIe x1 slot only. Therefore, if you would like to use PCE-N15 wireless card in your system, please plug the card into PCIe 1x slot."

Apparently, he called Asus and after a long discussion they supported that FAQ statement and told him he needed a different card.

That's the sort of thing that is challenging my preconceptions about x1 cards working in other slots....which is why even though I wasn't really wanting to I started to change to a USB 2.0 wifi adaptor.

EDIT: Still curious about this issue, but it may be KIND of moot with regards to the network card anyway. I just checked Newegg and somehow they got in more of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833166056 which was listed as discontinued by them (and is...can't hardly find it anywhere). This is the one I ordered from 3rd party Amazon and got cancelled because they didn't have any left either. I grabbed one while I could to use as my wifi solution for guideplus, fanart & weather download, etc since it mysteriously went from listed as discontinued to in stock at Newegg.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

That's what I thought, but what threw me to begin with was the fact on the mATX board I only have one pcie x1 slot and I was looking at this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320074

The overview on the Asus site states that, "The PCE-N15 Wireless-N PCI Express Adapter provides wide compatibility, fitting with any standard PCI Express slot, x1, x2, x8, or x16." However, a review on Newegg stated the following:

Their FAQ on the support site ( http://support.asus.com/FAQ/detail.a...3-F46BF18DBE2E ) contradicts this with "Due to hardware limition of the Realtek chip on PCE-N15 wireless card, PCE-N15 wireless card will function in PCIe x1 slot only. Therefore, if you would like to use PCE-N15 wireless card in your system, please plug the card into PCIe 1x slot."

Apparently, he called Asus and after a long discussion they supported that FAQ statement and told him he needed a different card.

That's the sort of thing that is challenging my preconceptions about x1 cards working in other slots....which is why even though I wasn't really wanting to I started to change to a USB 2.0 wifi adaptor.

EDIT: Still curious about this issue, but it may be KIND of moot with regards to the network card anyway. I just checked Newegg and somehow they got in more of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833166056 which was listed as discontinued by them (and is...can't hardly find it anywhere). This is the one I ordered from 3rd party Amazon and got cancelled because they didn't have any left either. I grabbed one while I could to use as my wifi solution for guideplus, fanart & weather download, etc since it mysteriously went from listed as discontinued to in stock at Newegg.

The card is probably PCIe 1.0 and the MB doesn't handle it properly. My Intel DH77EB won't work with my AVer Media Duet card in ANY slot (IVY Bridge board with 3.0 PCIe) but does work in other MBs. But only when those other MBs are on a NON IVY bridge compatible bios. Intel fixed the problem on a different version of my H77 board and in the release notes for that bios states it was a timing issue with a 1.0 PCIe tuner card. Now just waiting until Intel fixes the bios for my DH77EB.

[sumrtym]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

The card is probably PCIe 1.0 and the MB doesn't handle it properly. My Intel DH77EB won't work with my AVer Media Duet card in ANY slot (IVY Bridge board with 3.0 PCIe) but does work in other MBs. But only when those other MBs are on a NON IVY bridge compatible bios. Intel fixed the problem on a different version of my H77 board and in the release notes for that bios states it was a timing issue with a 1.0 PCIe tuner card. Now just waiting until Intel fixes the bios for my DH77EB.

The DH77EB has some other issues as well. It has a 24p/60p bug: selecting "23" or "24" in the graphics panel still gives you 24.0, and selecting "59" or "60" gives you 60.0; it can't do 23.97x or 59.94 last I knew. It also had a 42s PAL bug that they "almost" fixed in that there still is a glitch after the first 40-42s, then sometimes another 'smaller' glitch after the next 40s. Of their current boards, for HTPC use, that one of Intel's has the most bugs. Additionally, there's apparently a bug in the Intel Nic where if you are running an HDHomeRun and have it set at 1Gbps it causes pixelization of the video, but if you set it to 100 Mbps it works fine.

The reasons I am going with that Gigabyte board, besides the fact my last 4 pc builds have used Gigabyte, is that with the i3-3225 Ivy Bridge, and no futzing at all, a guy was getting a stable 23.972 output in less than 3 seconds. For current Intel chips, that's just about as good as you're going to get without using a discrete card. And even then, a discrete card doesn't necessarily ensure you're going to get to 23.976 stable either.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

The DH77EB has some other issues as well. It has a 24p/60p bug: selecting "23" or "24" in the graphics panel still gives you 24.0, and selecting "59" or "60" gives you 60.0; it can't do 23.97x or 59.94 last I knew. It also had a 42s PAL bug that they "almost" fixed in that there still is a glitch after the first 40-42s, then sometimes another 'smaller' glitch after the next 40s. Of their current boards, for HTPC use, that one of Intel's has the most bugs. Additionally, there's apparently a bug in the Intel Nic where if you are running an HDHomeRun and have it set at 1Gbps it causes pixelization of the video, but if you set it to 100 Mbps it works fine.

Can't say i've encountered these but not sure I would be able to pin it down to MB bugs anyway. My playback is quite good. Better than the Asus P5Q-EM it replaced and almost as good as the HD200 I retired when I went to PC display with Windows 7.

[sumrtym]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Can't say i've encountered these but not sure I would be able to pin it down to MB bugs anyway. My playback is quite good. Better than the Asus P5Q-EM it replaced and almost as good as the HD200 I retired when I went to PC display with Windows 7.

Ya, I figure the 24p thing is mostly overblown. I doubt seriously I'd notice the dropped frames every few minutes. Some people get crazy about it, though, and I figure if I'm starting from scratch on my first htpc build I might as well try to minimize as many "problems" as I can.

Asus support seems pretty bad to me anymore. I tried to ask them with online live chat about that card issue...80 minute estimated wait time! Calling on phone was no better, I gave up. On top of that, they seem slow on driver releases.

Gigabyte may have buggy / problem BIOS to start with (took till like 7th revision before they fixed sleep mode reliably on my desktop board), but they are good about BIOS releases and do get them worked out. One of the reasons I tend to stick with them.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

Ya, I figure the 24p thing is mostly overblown. I doubt seriously I'd notice the dropped frames every few minutes. Some people get crazy about it, though, and I figure if I'm starting from scratch on my first htpc build I might as well try to minimize as many "problems" as I can.

Asus support seems pretty bad to me anymore. I tried to ask them with online live chat about that card issue...80 minute estimated wait time! Calling on phone was no better, I gave up. On top of that, they seem slow on driver releases.

Gigabyte may have buggy / problem BIOS to start with (took till like 7th revision before they fixed sleep mode reliably on my desktop board), but they are good about BIOS releases and do get them worked out. One of the reasons I tend to stick with them.

I've always liked Gigabyte but most of my PC's are headless with IPMI on them so have been using SuperMicro or Tyan. When I wanted to replace my living room server I wanted Ivy Bridge, MicroATX and all PCIe slots so thought the DH77EB would be perfect. Never really knew there were problems with it until your post. I'm going to keep watching for a bios update to fix the tuner card issue I did notice and maybe get some of the others fixed as a bonus.

[sumrtym]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

I've always liked Gigabyte but most of my PC's are headless with IPMI on them so have been using SuperMicro or Tyan. When I wanted to replace my living room server I wanted Ivy Bridge, MicroATX and all PCIe slots so thought the DH77EB would be perfect. Never really knew there were problems with it until your post. I'm going to keep watching for a bios update to fix the tuner card issue I did notice and maybe get some of the others fixed as a bonus.

I got my info from a thread -- Official Ivy Bridge some such thread -- on avsforum in the HTPC section. I'm just rehashing / posting what's been said over there. There's several in that thread with the board, some in Europe with the PAL issue (which is mostly resolved), others over here. It's a good thread to keep track of developments too because I'm sure when it's fixed those guys will say so in that thread. Intel has a reputation for rock solid, if no frills, hardware with a bit of a premium price compared to third party. I was honestly surprised to see the issues on that board because I was considering it as well.

I'm only for now building a living room server. We'll see in the future -- fairly distant future -- about adding a bedroom client. Provided I can figure out all my firsts (first Windows 8, first SSD, & first SageTV build). I've only briefly played with SageTV once on my desktop with the HDHomeRun to make sure it was working fine, and screwed around with Pheonix + fanart. Enough to get a bit confused and wondering how long it took to update automatically for fanart to show for things. Hopefully I won't have a lot of problems setting this up how I want, but I'm usually not that lucky.

Here's the thread for you. You can read backward a few pages from the last for discussions on the Intel board too. http://www.avsforum.com/t/1407042/of...pcs-thread/210

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by sumrtym

I got my info from a thread -- Official Ivy Bridge some such thread -- on avsforum in the HTPC section. I'm just rehashing / posting what's been said over there. There's several in that thread with the board, some in Europe with the PAL issue (which is mostly resolved), others over here. It's a good thread to keep track of developments too because I'm sure when it's fixed those guys will say so in that thread. Intel has a reputation for rock solid, if no frills, hardware with a bit of a premium price compared to third party. I was honestly surprised to see the issues on that board because I was considering it as well.

I'm only for now building a living room server. We'll see in the future -- fairly distant future -- about adding a bedroom client. Provided I can figure out all my firsts (first Windows 8, first SSD, & first SageTV build). I've only briefly played with SageTV once on my desktop with the HDHomeRun to make sure it was working fine, and screwed around with Pheonix + fanart. Enough to get a bit confused and wondering how long it took to update automatically for fanart to show for things. Hopefully I won't have a lot of problems setting this up how I want, but I'm usually not that lucky.

Here's the thread for you. You can read backward a few pages from the last for discussions on the Intel board too. http://www.avsforum.com/t/1407042/of...pcs-thread/210

I think the biggest reason I don't see any problems (at least none of the 1080 problems) is that my display is natively 1366x768 so I run it at 720P - it just looked better than 1080i/p.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

I think the biggest reason I don't see any problems (at least none of the 1080 problems) is that my display is natively 1366x768 so I run it at 720P - it just looked better than 1080i/p.

As a side note, you may find it actually looks even better at 1366x768. In most cases, the PC will scale better than a lower end television.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

As a side note, you may find it actually looks even better at 1366x768. In most cases, the PC will scale better than a lower end television.

I was wondering that myself. That is how I HAD to use my P5Q-EM since it disabled the HDMI and DVI outputs when I put a card in the x16 PCIe slot. I'll switch back to that tonight - can't hurt.