HD300 from a remote location

[NetworkGuy]

I remember reading a long time ago about someone who would take a HD300 with them when they traveled and used it remotely.

What are they doing to make this happen?

Thanks,
John

[will]

I believe it is just opening up the ports on your router and telling the HD300 the IP of your server.

However, the HD300 will not use any compression when trying to play video (unlike place shifter). So unless you have an amazing internet connection at home and the location you are going to, you might have major issues streaming.

In the past, I've used the HD300 as a player for videos on a USB drive (though now I just use my phone and a HDMI cable). I also access my SageTV system on the go through a SlingBox (handles all the compression).

[wayner]

You don't necessarily need to know the IP of your home system if you use Locator. You may also want to think about using Plex as well and have your Sage folder be visible to Plex also. If you use iOS devices then AirVideo is another option.

Rather than opening up ports you can also use VPN software like OpenVPN on your home network and then clients on your laptop and mobile devices. This is more secure.

[will]

Originally Posted by wayner

You don't necessarily need to know the IP of your home system if you use Locator.

I forgot about locator. Do you know if that works off the same server as the forums/plugins? With the EPG server shutting down I'm just curious if any other services may come to an end soon.

Originally Posted by wayner

You may also want to think about using Plex as well and have your Sage folder be visible to Plex also.

Though I haven't used it personally, I totally agree that Plex would be a good software solution. It really depends if your server is powerful enough to transcode in real-time.

Originally Posted by wayner

Rather than opening up ports you can also use VPN software like OpenVPN on your home network and then clients on your laptop and mobile devices. This is more secure.

While it would be more secure it would also reduce your connection speed and add more overhead to a (probably) already strained connection.

I use a L2TP Over IPSec VPN to connect to my home network. However, for some services, I actually authenticate with a login screen through an HTTPS web portal and then allow that authenticated device to temporarily create a "hole" through my firewall for certain services. That way I don't get the VPN penalty and my very aging server is not Internet facing. However, I recognize that I run a non-typical home network.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by wayner

You don't necessarily need to know the IP of your home system if you use Locator.

Is there a way to access the Locator to get my current server IP address?

Originally Posted by wayner

You may also want to think about using Plex as well and have your Sage folder be visible to Plex also. If you use iOS devices then AirVideo is another option.

I have Plex installed and the SageTV folders are visible. Does Plex do a better job than Placeshifter?

[Fuzzy]

Locator service is staying up (for now at least).

The HD300, in placeshifter mode, WILL transcode on the server I think, as long as it is known that it is connecting remotely (which it tells by comparing subnet i think).

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Is there a way to access the Locator to get my current server IP address?

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48158

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I have Plex installed and the SageTV folders are visible. Does Plex do a better job than Placeshifter?

Yes, plex would be FAR preferred over Placeshifter for remote use if all you are looking for is playback. Plex's transcoding engine is a decade newer than the one currently in use by Sage.

[will]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Plex's transcoding engine is a decade newer than the one currently in use by Sage.

Why is Sage's transcoding engine so outdated? I believe Sage uses FFmpeg and the project has received recent updates.

I'm just curious what is the technical reason for staying on an old version of FFmpeg (I assume it must be more complex than just "dropping in" the most recent version).

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by will

Why is Sage's transcoding engine so outdated? I believe Sage uses FFmpeg and the project has received recent updates.

I'm just curious what is the technical reason for staying on an old version of FFmpeg (I assume it must be more complex than just "dropping in" the most recent version).

Because sage doesn't use ffmpeg directly, it uses a modified version, and those modifications are not compatible with current ffmpeg code. There are a few different things that it needs to do to interact with sage that is not possible in the basic ffmpeg codebase. Now, some of those capabilities have likely been added in the meantime, but not in the same way sage uses them, so they'd still require some work no the sage end to utilize the new methods.

[wayner]

You don't necessarily pay a VPN penalty. Perhaps you are using a VPN service provider?

What I meant was to run VPN server on your own. I run OpenVPN server on my router - you can also run it on PCs or on unRAID. That way there shouldn't be a huge overhead penalty, especially if you have a decent upload speed. My upload speed is 20 Mbps.

[will]

Originally Posted by wayner

My upload speed is 20 Mbps.

I am in Buffalo, so not too far from Toronto, and it costs about $80/month to get a 5 Mbps upload speed. Affordable, truly high-speed internet is very hit or miss in the US.

To get a 20 Mbps I'd have to upgrade to a business service and hope they could run fiber to my street. One of these days consumer-grade fiber will be available for me.

[wayner]

We like to bitch and moan about our telecom companies in Canada but we aren't too bad compared to most parts of the US. I have had 250/20 service for about three years now from Rogers Cable for about C$100 which is about US$75. I could also get 1000/30 service for C$145. And in pretty much all areas of Toronto you can also get 1000/100 from Bell Canada, also for $145.

[Taddeusz]

The state of broadband in the United States is sad. Here in Oklahoma City we pay about $80 per month for 50Mb down 5Mb up service. With their speed boost I usually get around 60/7. Seems weird to be saying this but it feels like a pittance compared to what other developed countries get for similar cost.

[wayner]

To be honest there are diminishing returns going past about 250, at least in my experience. The 250/20 plan that I have has been replaced by a 500/20 plan that I could get for a few more bucks but I don't know that it is worth is since I doubt that my connection to the ISP is normally the bottleneck. I have a VPS based in the Netherlands and when I FTP files from there the best that I get is below 10MBps or 80Mbps, even when using multi-segment FTPs. In most other instances when I download files it is WAY slower than the 30MBps or 240Mbps that is my speed to the cable company.

IMHO the sweet spot in download speeds is about 100-150Mbps, but I know many folks can't even get that.

[Taddeusz]

I just wish the service wasn't so unbalanced as far as upload speed goes. When both my daughter and I are both watching Plex we can easily saturate the 7Mb upstream we get. We could switch to a faster service but then we'd be paying significantly more.

[Fuzzy]

I've had 60/4 for a number of years in California... and honestly have not found a real need for anything faster.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I just wish the service wasn't so unbalanced as far as upload speed goes. When both my daughter and I are both watching Plex we can easily saturate the 7Mb upstream we get. We could switch to a faster service but then we'd be paying significantly more.

The imbalance is due to the way cable modems work. The cable network is designed for broadcasting television, not collecting return feeds, so there is simply not as much reverse bandwidth available on the system.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The imbalance is due to the way cable modems work. The cable network is designed for broadcasting television, not collecting return feeds, so there is simply not as much reverse bandwidth available on the system.

But at least cable internet is better than DSL. DSL is just pathetic working off aging two wire phone lines (not even twisted pair). If you're lucky enough to live in an area where AT&T's U-Verse is available via fiber they still keep speeds at anemic low speeds that are slower than cable.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48158

Yes, plex would be FAR preferred over Placeshifter for remote use if all you are looking for is playback. Plex's transcoding engine is a decade newer than the one currently in use by Sage.

Am I correct in assuming that Plex would still be better then the mini-client running on Android for playback?

[wayner]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Am I correct in assuming that Plex would still be better then the mini-client running on Android for playback?

Yes for the reason that Fuzzy gave earlier regarding transcoding. And you can run Plex perfectly well on an Android device like a MiBox.