Need help designing a solution

[Brian]

Requesting help from the SageTV experts out there to design an optimal solution for my home...

I have three locations that require full SageTV functionality:

1. Den PC
2. Living Room TV (50")
3. Bedroom TV (27")

All three locations have Ethernet and Cable TV access. I do not want to use MediaMVP at any of these locations. I tried MVP with Matt's plugin but just don't feel it's ready for prime time (yet).

In the Den, which is my primary viewing location, I currently have a dedicated PC running SageTV with one PVR250 and a 250GB HDD. I'd like to use this PC to run SageTV as a service/server for the other two locations without losing my "local" viewing capabilities. If necessary, I could install an additional PVR250 to support watching and/or recording multiple shows at once. I could also, if necessary, run SageTV Client on another PC (4 available) in the den for local viewing.

In the bedroom, which is my wife's primary viewing location, I'm hoping SageTV Client running on a networked bare bones PC with (svideo) TV Out will do the trick. This PC would use the server in the den for encoding/decoding as well as for storage on the 250GB HDD.

In the living room, the same as above.

Assuming this is a sound configuration, I would build the two client machines from scratch, so obviously I'd like to keep the cost as low as possible on those (wife will want TiVo if this gets too expensive).

Outstanding questions:

1. Given the configuration above, does SageTV decode recordings on the server, or do the client machines require decoding software? If the latter is true, any decoder recommendations?

2. With two SageTV Client instances using the server, will my Athlon 1.33GHz with 1GB of RAM provide enough horsepower to run a local client (for the Den) directly on the server, or will I need to run my local client on another machine?

2. Should I expect any performance issues with client viewing/recording/playback over the LAN versus using local storage on each client?

3. What video cards have good TV Outs? Or, are there any motherboards that have good integrated TV Out capabilities? PVR350s would seem to be overkill since I would not be recording directly on the clients, and I'm weary of all the 350-related issues I have read about in other posts.

4. Ideally, I'd like the client machines to fit horizontally in a standard A/V cabinet and look like they belong there. Without spending a ton of cash on fancy stainless steel cases, is there anything available that would suit the budget-minded?

5. Related to above, what should be my target form factor? ATX? Mini ATX?

6. Will the clients require sound cards? Or, will audio make it to the TV via svideo without a client sound card?

If I'm totally off base here, or if another configuration would be better and/or cheaper, by all means please say so. Thanks in advance for the help and advice!

Brian

[salsbst]

This PC would use the server in the den for encoding/decoding as well as for storage on the 250GB HDD.

Not in SageTVs architecture.... the server sends encoded media streams to the client, the client does the decoding.

1. Given the configuration above, does SageTV decode recordings on the server, or do the client machines require decoding software? If the latter is true, any decoder recommendations?

No matter the configuration, decoding is on the client. Some people swear by the Hauppauge 350 or Xcard....CPUs make pretty good decoders IMHO, and for s-video I think PowerDVD is a good choice but I also don't think it matters all that much which decoder you use, and even those who find this a critical decision don't seem to all agree with each other as to which is the best.

2. With two SageTV Client instances using the server, will my Athlon 1.33GHz with 1GB of RAM provide enough horsepower to run a local client (for the Den) directly on the server, or will I need to run my local client on another machine?

You need to run the client app on each PC.

2. Should I expect any performance issues with client viewing/recording/playback over the LAN versus using local storage on each client?

On a 100Mbit network, you don't have to worry about it.

3. What video cards have good TV Outs? Or, are there any motherboards that have good integrated TV Out capabilities? PVR350s would seem to be overkill since I would not be recording directly on the clients, and I'm weary of all the 350-related issues I have read about in other posts.

I'd be wary of the 350, too. The Nvidea 5200 line is good enough and cheap.

6. Will the clients require sound cards? Or, will audio make it to the TV via svideo without a client sound card?

Svideo doesn't carry audio. You need an audio card. It's difficult to find motherboards the DON'T have audio on-board.

[Gog]

Originally Posted by Brian

4. Ideally, I'd like the client machines to fit horizontally in a standard A/V cabinet and look like they belong there. Without spending a ton of cash on fancy stainless steel cases, is there anything available that would suit the budget-minded?

take a look at this thread:

Best of Breed HTPC Case

There is some choice available but the "budget-minded" part is tricky...

Gog

[kny3twalker]

MVP and SageTV Client for the 27"
unless it is an HDTV of course

[SHS]

There alway Mini-ITX (VIA EPIA) and MiniATX and MicroATX or MiniPC
Like
EPoX EX5-330N
IWILL ZMAX / ZPC SYSTEMS
SHUTTLE XPC SYSTEMS
There so much out it your head spain for days on end hehe
Most like best beat for ALL IN ONE setup
NVIDIA nForce3/4 base motherboard for AMD
ATI 9100IGP PRO Motherboard for Intel
or could alway wait for ATI Radeon Xpress 200