Configuring a 4-tuner hp workstation with eHome cards

[IConver]

Greetings all!

Let me give you the short version- I work for the communication department of a public school district. When news (good or bad) relating to our district breaks, we try and tape the coverage. There are a number of reasons for this that I won't get into unless someone expresses a lot more interest that I would expect.

Because we don't have the budget for me to play around with numerous configurations, I was hoping some of you might a sense of civic duty that leads you to offer me some advice in advance.:smile:

I've got the authorization for a SageTV system, but here are my issues and questions:

1)It must be thrifty, after all--this is supposed to save taxpayer dollars.

2)I'm currently planning on purchasing 4 of the ATI eHome Wonder cards-they appear to be the cheapest, high-quality option. Neither machine offers S-Video or Composite out, so I'll either need to replace the video card or get a different configuration of tuner cards. Any thoughts?

3)District policy requires that Sage run either on my Compaq minitower P4 1.6ghz or a new HP-brand workstation.[list=a] Is the Compaq minitower sufficient? I'm told that pretty much any hardware encoder runs hot, so I'm concerned that placing 4 in an OEM case that features one power supply fan and a single case fan that is ducted to the CPU will create a serious heat problem--particularly after adding a second hard drive, a new graphics card to get video out, and a DVD burner. I'm also concerned that these stupid OEM systems usually come with underpowered power supplies.

Can I make a new HP workstation work? The machine available for ordering is an HP xw4100. It's a P4 minitower with a 280 watt power supply and more expensive components, from what I can tell. It doesn't appear to have substantially better cooling, but the case is larger for more internal volume. There are also more drive bays.[/list=a]
I was thinking that either of these machines might be improved by the use of a card cooler and/or an exhaust fan in the top 5.25" drive bay. Thoughts?

Please don't suggest dremeling out a spot for fans over the PCI slots--I'd love to, but I am certain my boss wouldn't understand if she walked in and saw me chiseling the fancy paint off the side of my district-owned machine.

Any thoughts or advice?

[SHS]

I take your after lower profiles cards just so you know Hauppauge dose make them but you call sale and ask for model 30xxx
Is there any reson why you need Video out

[IConver]

I don't know of any reason lower profile cards would be vital except maybe to aid in cooling. My primary reason for picking the eHome was that it was cheaper.

I need video out on the wild chance that burning a DVD or viewing the program over the network isn't an option--we would output the footage to VHS.

I think I could ditch this "failsafe feature" if I had some assurances that there are DVD writing options that I will be able to train almost anyone to figure out on their own. I hear that VideoReDo, for example, might be sufficiently easy for someone to crop a recording down to just the relevant segment. Then they could burn a disc.

[SHS]

Bear in mind the just becuase the ATI is cheaper there also no drivers support there with thoses card from ATI and I'm not to sure on how well Multi-eHome will do it best really read thur this forum some folk have mix card.
In that case you may want take look at REALmagic Xcard or (Uesd off eBay) NetStream 2000 or 4000.
I say try both Womble MPEG-VCR and VideoReoDo for me MPEG-VCR is much fast to work with then VideoReoDo which lack a Speed Switch and other little thing.
Ulead DVD MovieFactory it eazy and best DVD Authoring/Writing options there is.

[IConver]

I thought the Xcard had little or no support in SageTV?

[Opus4]

The Xcard can be used for playback in SageTV; what it doesn't currently do is allow you to see the UI on the TV throug the Xcard's output.

- Andy

[SHS]

Only with Retail DVD they are a problem and lack of no OSD on the TVset and no Windows Mode but it depend on how you go with it you can get Windows Mode with it you should read thur this past http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...&threadid=3514

NetStream 2000 or 4000 do have Windows Mode but no Retail DVD or OSD.

Home made DVD can be play back thur SageTV and there is a way to get Retail DVD to work also it just matter run though DVD Shrink and making a new DVD hehehe but thing is 97% of the time you need jump rigth to Main DVD Menu by passing the copy message.

[IConver]

I've spent a little more time reading through the forums. As nice as it would be to have "support" (presumably this would mean for me "ongoing driver development") for the Hauppauge 250 or 350 cards, would you really call them a corporate-friendly card?

I read numerous reports of individuals having to juggle the installation order of the cards, swap slots, blow out windows and reinstall, etc. These are all the kinds of things I do at home. Heck, I've watercooled, overclocked, and voltage modded motherboards- so sitting around waiting for the umpteenth XP reinstall isn't foreign to me. However, this would be totally unacceptable for the work environment.

Other than quality control issues (cards that fail), I haven't seen much evidence that users of multiple ATI eHome cards struggle seriously with similar sorts of card juggling. If I'm wrong about the the Hauppauge 250 or 350 cards, please tell me.

[spike5884]

I have a box with 2 of the eHome cards in it. They work fine together. I had no problems installing them.

Only issue I have with them is the pixaling during action scenes. I would have to think that in your case this would not be an issue.

I would go with the new HP. If it doesn't work, you could always swap it with yours. Then you got yourself a new box.
The other reason to go this route is that if it does not work, you have a fall back to your machine.

Good Luck.

[IConver]

Well, I received the 4 eHome cards yesterday from Newegg. I plugged them into the Compaq minitower and got them to work with relatively little trouble. The only catch was that I didn't yet have a software codec for MPEG viewing. I downloaded Elecard's freebie codec, and that me test the functionality of recording 4 simultaneous feeds. Of course, the picture looks terrible, but I'm holding out hope that this is primarily due to the codec.

In addition to installing SageTV and the capture cards, I also installed a card cooler in the one free PCI slot, and installed a second 80mm case fan over the case-front air inlet spot. Of course, there were no designed spot for the fan in the front, so I had to make 4 "standoffs" out of twist-ties. That probably wouldn't impress the IT bosses, but it seemed to work great.

[nethawk]

I run 3 Roslyn cards inside a Dell GX270 (p4 2.8ghz 2gb ram) inside a Emergency Operations Center. Standard case and cooling has been sufficient, it runs 24/7 and has for about 3 months without a problem. I may be responding to ya a little late but figured you'd want to know. The cards dont really run too hot, and it's been pretty reliable for me although some people have had trouble with the Roslyn cards. Usually a R&R on java and sage fixes most problems, you dont need to do the whole format thing. I haven't had much experience on the recording side of things but if you need help getting things stable send me a pm.

[Ghost]

Were there any special things you had to do to get the multi-tuner setup to work? My single eHome tuner worked great, but I started having problems when I added a second. The video freezes at certain spots when I am playing back recorded shows.