Portable SageTV setup for my camp

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by wayner

Up here it is pop and the sandwich is a submarine sandwich. Isn't that where Subway got its name? There is a great web page for http://www.popvssoda.com/

It's the same over here in Oregon, pop and sub.

A little building you own by a lake is called a cabin.

I've never heard of an individual owning a camp but there are camps which are composed of bunkhouses and a mess hall that organizations like Boy Scouts and churches own. (e.g. Outdoor School was at a camp.)

[Fuzzy]

I will point out that just about every definition of Camp describes temporary residence. That doesn't mean the structure of the location needs to be temporary, but the residence in it is.

Now, if you were to describe the permanent building at your temporary vacation residence, I'd call it a cabin. Essentially implying a structure used for temporary housing, as opposed to a house, which could be an identical building used for permanent housing.

Cottage, as a term, describes the relative size of the structure, usually implying a minimal one-story residence. This could be used as a house (permanent residence) or a cabin (temporary residence).

So... You are camping (to reside or lodge somewhere temporarily or irregularly, especially in an apartment, room, etc.) at your cabin (an enclosed space for more or less temporary occupancy), which happens to be a cottage (a small house, usually of only one story) in Maine.

This concludes the language lesson for today class. :-)

[waynedunham]

Dredging up this thread again.

This summer when I went up to camp I built a system for camp. HD100 extender, old router (no internet), portable HD with SageTV recordings, SageTV V9 running on my laptop.

This was basically done as a test. First I tried hooking the network cable of the HD100 directly to the laptop, but that didn't work. I'm sure if I set up the laptop as a DNS server it would have worked, but I didn't want to risk messing up the laptops regular internet connections for when I got home.
So I hooked up an old router between the laptop and the HD100 and everything worked fine.

I feel pretty stupid because all the recordings that I copied to the portable drive from my home SageTV server weren't showing up. I knew they should have since they all had .properties files and all the other files, comskip, etc.

After a couple days of trying to figure out why, doing searches online etc. I finally thought to look at archived recordings, and there they all were brought into SageTV V9 as archived recordings. I swear in the past (probably pre-9) that they showed up in the imported listings, but maybe I'm mis-remembering.
I felt so stupid that it took me several days to look at archived recordings.

So now that I know it will work I'll probably dig up one of my old SFF PCs and put SageTV V9 on it to leave up there.

Oh, and just to put a period on the argument if I hadn't already. My entire childhood we called it "Camp", so no matter the type of accommodations, access, etc. it *IS* Camp.

[waynedunham]

Last summer I proved that I could get SageTV running at camp as posted previously in this thread.

When I head up this summer I have an OTA antenna upgrade so I can hopefully get back the one channel/subs that I lost last year somehow. I checked all the obvious things, bad connection at the antenna, water getting into the connections from rain, etc. If I can get a decent signal I'll also be looking into something that works with SageTV to record OTA. Most likely something in the SiliconDust family which I use at home for CC and OTA.

Last summer I ran SageTV on my laptop to serve up SageTV to an HD100 and the TV at camp. What I'd like to do this year is put a dedicated server up there so I A) don't have to cart it back and forth, and B) give me back full use of my laptop.

What I want is something small to run SageTV server on. I was thinking of re purposing an old PC, but size and having a bulky monitor make that unappetizing. I have a Lenovo TinyPC as my desktop at home and it is tiny (footprint about the size of a 5-1/4" Half Height drive) and see they have ones with AMD chips in them for relatively cheap, but that still leaves the bulky monitor issue.
I'm also seeing what I perceive that would be easily powerful enough laptops for under $300.

Are there any other options I'm missing that would be compact and not coast an arm and a leg?

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Last summer I proved that I could get SageTV running at camp as posted previously in this thread.

When I head up this summer I have an OTA antenna upgrade so I can hopefully get back the one channel/subs that I lost last year somehow. I checked all the obvious things, bad connection at the antenna, water getting into the connections from rain, etc. If I can get a decent signal I'll also be looking into something that works with SageTV to record OTA. Most likely something in the SiliconDust family which I use at home for CC and OTA.

Last summer I ran SageTV on my laptop to serve up SageTV to an HD100 and the TV at camp. What I'd like to do this year is put a dedicated server up there so I A) don't have to cart it back and forth, and B) give me back full use of my laptop.

What I want is something small to run SageTV server on. I was thinking of re purposing an old PC, but size and having a bulky monitor make that unappetizing. I have a Lenovo TinyPC as my desktop at home and it is tiny (footprint about the size of a 5-1/4" Half Height drive) and see they have ones with AMD chips in them for relatively cheap, but that still leaves the bulky monitor issue.
I'm also seeing what I perceive that would be easily powerful enough laptops for under $300.

Are there any other options I'm missing that would be compact and not coast an arm and a leg?

You could run "headless" and remote desktop (some VNC flavor as a free alternative) if you want to access the server. You'd miss having BIOS or "safe mode" type access, but hopefully that wouldn't be needed. For just the server and no transcoding you could probably pick up a pretty small device for not too much or something smaller with an external USB drive.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

You could run "headless" and remote desktop (some VNC flavor as a free alternative) if you want to access the server. You'd miss having BIOS or "safe mode" type access, but hopefully that wouldn't be needed. For just the server and no transcoding you could probably pick up a pretty small device for not too much or something smaller with an external USB drive.

Yes, a possibility. I routinely access my existing servers here in CT via remote desktop (RDP from my phone/table) when I'm up in Maine. The only question there is do I need internet access? My only internet at Camp is using my phone as a WiFi hotspot.
Probably not, I know I can RDP into those boxes at home when I'm connected to the whole house wired/wireless LAN, so that should work also at Camp.

[graywolf]

Couldn’t you just use your TV as the “monitor “by connecting the PC to the TV and just switch TV input when needed?

[SHS]

I have idea all in one box
ASRock J5005-ITX as it one PCIe slot
Hauppauge Quad-HD ATSC Tuner or you can with HDHR
G.SKILL DDR4 2400 Ripjaws Series 8GB Ram
ARK WT02 Black Mini ITX Server Case with 250W Power Supply
SSD Boot drive any fav
As for harddrive option there always one 3.5 to 5.25 bay adapter so any size 3.5 you want but finding space for SDD is going be a problem I remove the module from the drive case then fine a good place for it.
ToughArmor has lot good option, I like the MB607SP-B Rugged Full Metal 4 Bay 2.5" SATA HDD & SSD Backplane Cage for External 5.25" Bay, because it can except 15mm thick drive in one 5.25 bay and you can easy add all way to 5TB drive.

You don't need internet access for SageTV to work with quadHD it should pull the EPG off the TV station the only downside with that is only get about 12 up to 24 hours worth of EPG data unlike online.
Being I never own a HDHR I have no idea on werther not if it can pull EPG off the TV station.
You do know that upcoming Tablo Quad USB/SATA now come with option to add you own 2.5 Sata hard drive it should work as stand along device as well.
There HDHomeRun Scribe Duo with build-in DVR and 1TB of space but I don't if it can be run as standalone device and with option to add 2TB more with the Servio and you even add Connect Quatro to mix giving more tuner but I do believe it must have internet access in to order to work you need ask them on the SiliconDust forum.

[Fuzzy]

I would use any old PC hardware, and run unRAID on it. Completely headless from the get go, accessible via web pages. Ridiculously stable.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by SHS

I have idea all in one box
ASRock J5005-ITX as it one PCIe slot
Hauppauge Quad-HD ATSC Tuner or you can with HDHR
G.SKILL DDR4 2400 Ripjaws Series 8GB Ram
ARK WT02 Black Mini ITX Server Case with 250W Power Supply
SSD Boot drive any fav
As for harddrive option there always one 3.5 to 5.25 bay adapter so any size 3.5 you want but finding space for SDD is going be a problem I remove the module from the drive case then fine a good place for it.
ToughArmor has lot good option, I like the MB607SP-B Rugged Full Metal 4 Bay 2.5" SATA HDD & SSD Backplane Cage for External 5.25" Bay, because it can except 15mm thick drive in one 5.25 bay and you can easy add all way to 5TB drive.

You don't need internet access for SageTV to work with quadHD it should pull the EPG off the TV station the only downside with that is only get about 12 up to 24 hours worth of EPG data unlike online.
Being I never own a HDHR I have no idea on werther not if it can pull EPG off the TV station.
You do know that upcoming Tablo Quad USB/SATA now come with option to add you own 2.5 Sata hard drive it should work as stand along device as well.
There HDHomeRun Scribe Duo with build-in DVR and 1TB of space but I don't if it can be run as standalone device and with option to add 2TB more with the Servio and you even add Connect Quatro to mix giving more tuner but I do believe it must have internet access in to order to work you need ask them on the SiliconDust forum.

More than I'd like to spend by the time it's all said and done and massive overkill for something that is only going to be used a few weeks at a time to record 2-3 OTA stations maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

I have an old full tower and an old Shuttle XPC that I could use. The tower is way more footprint than I want. The Shuttle would probably be OK, not too big.
I'm almost leaning towards a laptop. I've seen some for sale online that appear to be more than powerful enough for under $300.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I would use any old PC hardware, and run unRAID on it. Completely headless from the get go, accessible via web pages. Ridiculously stable.

Which would require me to delve into the world of Linux. I still have nightmares from over 15 years ago trying to make a functional Linux installation.
I have a friend who is trying to get me to try out Linux. But he deals with Linux every day for his work. He's trying to get a working Linux installation so he can switch his server over from WHS which he is having troubles with. Random lockups. I know that pain from my old WHS SageTV Server. Completely random lockups so quick and final that nothing would appear in any of the logs. Luckily at the time this happened to mine less than once a month, my fried is having it happen every few days.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Which would require me to delve into the world of Linux. I still have nightmares from over 15 years ago trying to make a functional Linux installation.
I have a friend who is trying to get me to try out Linux. But he deals with Linux every day for his work. He's trying to get a working Linux installation so he can switch his server over from WHS which he is having troubles with. Random lockups. I know that pain from my old WHS SageTV Server. Completely random lockups so quick and final that nothing would appear in any of the logs. Luckily at the time this happened to mine less than once a month, my fried is having it happen every few days.

Which is why the suggestion was unRAID. The whole thing about using unRAID is that while it runs linux, you don't really care. Do you care that your router runs linux? Or your Phone run unix? Applications on unRAID are run in Docker containers, and while you might know nothing about docker, again, unRAID manages that for you. So installing SaageTV is a matter of searching for it, and then clicking install. And you get SageTV installed. Now fromt here, yeah, configuring a tuner and setting up IR might require some linux knowledge.

Personally, I don't recommend that people move to "linux" unless they are open to learning something new. It rarely that something doesn't work, but more of, it works differently, and people really hate change

I also would urge that people use unRAID over a Linux distro if their primary goal is to simply run SageTV "on linux".

[SHS]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

More than I'd like to spend by the time it's all said and done and massive overkill for something that is only going to be used a few weeks at a time to record 2-3 OTA stations maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

I have an old full tower and an old Shuttle XPC that I could use. The tower is way more footprint than I want. The Shuttle would probably be OK, not too big.
I'm almost leaning towards a laptop. I've seen some for sale online that
appear to be more than powerful enough for under $300.

Then pick and old Dell or HP USFF/SFF and even an old Laptop like Dell Inspiron 15 3537 like mine with i3 for around $100 and add 2nd hard drive by remove the DVD Caddy and replace with Hard Drive Caddy up to 2TB max or you ahve go with USB drive and I highly recommend you put a small SSD as boot drive.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Which is why the suggestion was unRAID. The whole thing about using unRAID is that while it runs linux, you don't really care. Do you care that your router runs linux? Or your Phone run unix? Applications on unRAID are run in Docker containers, and while you might know nothing about docker, again, unRAID manages that for you. So installing SaageTV is a matter of searching for it, and then clicking install. And you get SageTV installed. Now fromt here, yeah, configuring a tuner and setting up IR might require some linux knowledge.

Personally, I don't recommend that people move to "linux" unless they are open to learning something new. It rarely that something doesn't work, but more of, it works differently, and people really hate change

I also would urge that people use unRAID over a Linux distro if their primary goal is to simply run SageTV "on linux".

So how unRAID work with Hauppauge Tuner ?, I tough it was only meant for IPTV device.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by SHS

So how unRAID work with Hauppauge Tuner ?, I tough it was only meant for IPTV device.

It is certainly easier with an HDHomeRun device - but some Hauppauge Tuners will work with the video-centric kernal (actually really simple to install) - but it's hit or miss, because Hauppauge. And older HDHR can be had for dirt cheap on eBay, and they aren't that expensive new, and would require no drivers at all.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I also would urge that people use unRAID over a Linux distro if their primary goal is to simply run SageTV "on linux".

I'd recommend it even if they have a LOT they intend to do in addition to SageTV. It is a very versatile and capable system.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by SHS

Then pick and old Dell or HP USFF/SFF and even an old Laptop like Dell Inspiron 15 3537 like mine with i3 for around $100 and add 2nd hard drive by remove the DVD Caddy and replace with Hard Drive Caddy up to 2TB max or you ahve go with USB drive and I highly recommend you put a small SSD as boot drive.

I have been leaning towards a laptop, mainly for the size and ability to "conceal" it in a relatively small space. Last summer I was running SageTV on my personal laptop and it worked out fine.
I have been seeing refurbed and even new laptops that look plenty powerful for $200 and even under.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'd recommend it even if they have a LOT they intend to do in addition to SageTV. It is a very versatile and capable system.

Thanks to you and Stuckless (and others I'm sure). I'll have to look into it more. Given its name I was under the impression its main purpose was to create a raid storage/backup system.

If it is as hands off as you guys say it is then it is a very viable option.