PlayOn/MyMedia/Roku/SageTV Question

[Savage1701]

Hope this is the right section for this sort of question.

My son has a TCL Roku TV. There are apps that he can install on our Sage server to allow him to watch recorded videos on his TV. Our Sage server is pretty old now. Socket 775 Dual Core. It seems these sorts of apps want to do all the transcoding on the server side, which bogs ours down to nothing. My questions, therefore, are several:

1. Has anyone experimented with a minimum configuration that will allow real-time transcoding? Could I just go up to a quad-core Socket 775? That would be the path of least technical and monetary resistance since the board is perfect for what I want and it will accept a fast 775 quad core.

2. Is there a better app to run on Roku than PlayOn for streaming stuff?

3. If a Socket 775 quad core won't hack it, are their Intel CPU minimums that people have found that will work?

4. This would be for watching both OTA HD recordings and H.264 Hauppauge recordings, especially the latter.

Or am I better off just waiting for a 200 or 300 box to show up? If he kept a laptop attached to the TCL I would just install a spare Sage client.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

2. Is there a better app to run on Roku than PlayOn for streaming stuff?

For streaming you just want to use whatever native streaming app. There's no point routing Netflix through Playon when there's a native Netflix Roku channel. Overall quality and performance will be a huge improvement with native apps/channels.

Or am I better off just waiting for a 200 or 300 box to show up? If he kept a laptop attached to the TCL I would just install a spare Sage client.

There are new HD300s for sale right now, check the announcements forum.

[Savage1701]

Stanger, I think you misunderstood part of my question.

I don't want to route Netflix or any streaming service through Sage and out again.

I wanted it because my son wants to be able to watch stuff Sage has captured like "Regular Show" on Cartoon Network, and other stuff like that. His Roku-equipped TCL TV has client options like PlayOn/MyMedia where you put a streamer server on the same CPU as the Sage server. It picks up all the shows, and transcodes them on the fly to the Roku/TCL client. I don't think there is an app where the Roku/TCL can transcode something "raw" off of the Sage server and do it in the Roku chipset.

Net result is that real-time transcoding on my Sage server just about stops it dead in its tracks.

That was my question about hardware upgrades - has anyone successfully put a streaming/real-time transcoding program on the Sage server side that lets Sage-recorded video files be watched on a Roku-powered box or TV, in real time, without rendering the Sage server CPU being bogged down in the digital mud.

[stanger89]

OK. You might want to try Plex, I think it's got a Roku channel and it's able to play some things without transcoding, depending on the capabilities of the player (TV in this case).

OTA will probably be a challenge because most devices don't support MPEG-2 decoding anymore.

[Savage1701]

Thank you ! Much appreciated.

[Monedeath]

Plex is your best bet, assuming the recordings are able to accessed over a network you can place the Plex server on another piece of hardware so when it does transcode content it isn't impacting sage. Also there is a plugin for SageTV to share metadata with Plex.

Also of note: Using two TCL sets + Plex in my setup @home after moving to HD format TV, although the main set has a HD200 hooked up to it for the live and most recent content(and sees the most use as it is the UI they're most accustomed to)