Intel i3 embedded graphics for server

[glb1945]

Can a pc with an Intel i3 native graphics CPU be used as a server with a similar
remote client to watch live tv on the client?

[KeithAbbott]

I have been using an i3-550 with integrated graphics for my Sage server for about 8 years now. This is used as a server only, no client runs on that machine. I use separate extenders and/or clients for viewing video.

[glb1945]

Hi Keith,

That is good news about the i3 for a server. You say you use clients to view videos. Does that mean they are prerecorded and that you cannot watch live tv on a client?


Jerry

[KeithAbbott]

Live TV is recorded to a drive, and the client or extender plays it back from the drive. So everything is prerecorded, in a sense. Live TV just has an extremely short delay between when it is captured and when it is played back.

The fact that Live TV is recorded to a drive is what gives you the capability to playback a portion of a show you may have missed or want to view over again; great for sports. If it was not being recorded to a drive, you would not have that capability.

[Tiki]

The server portion of Sage takes very little processing power in most cases. My first Sage pc was built on an old Pentium III. Most capture devices handle the encoding work in hardware (if encoding is even needed).

Playback requires more horsepower, but probably any graphics card made in the last 10 years and any integrated graphics made in the last 5 years should be up to the task.

The only thing thing that needs a modern CPU is real-time transcoding. If you will be using software to convert video from one format to another (such as MPEG2 to h.264), it takes a fair amount of power. If you need to transcode multiple streams simultaneously it requires a very beefy processor. This could be the case if you were to connect several Placeshifters, miniclients, or extenders that were unable to playback the native recording formats and so the server had to transcode to a format that they understood.

Bottom line is that a core i3 with integrated graphics should be ok for a Sage server or client for most users. One caution for the Clients - this assumes you are using Windows. There is no Sage Client for Linux. There is a Placeshifter for Linux, but it has been reported that video playback does not work with Intel integrated graphics.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Playback requires more horsepower, but probably any graphics card made in the last 10 years and any integrated graphics made in the last 5 years should be up to the task.

The only case where that may not be the case is if you are trying to play back H.265 files, especially if they are 4K/2160p. But not too many folks are doing that - yet.