Boost Performance in SageTV 2.1

[LegolasX21E]

Im using SageTV 2.1 and a older computer as a PRV system. I have a few options to improve performance but don't know witch one will work best.
My options are as follows:

*go from 192mb to 256mb SDRAM
*go from 20GB Harddrive to 80GB harddrive
*go from 733MHz Celeron to 800MHz P3

Im running XP Media Center Edition 2005, and Using a WinTV PVR-150

Which Upgrade would boost SageTV's overall performance the most?

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by LegolasX21E

Im using SageTV 2.1 and a older computer as a PRV system. I have a few options to improve performance but don't know witch one will work best.
My options are as follows:

*go from 192mb to 256mb SDRAM
*go from 20GB Harddrive to 80GB harddrive
*go from 733MHz Celeron to 800MHz P3

Im running XP Media Center Edition 2005, and Using a WinTV PVR-150

Which Upgrade would boost SageTV's overall performance the most?

Likely none of the above. If by performance you mean video quality it's likey your video card output. Memory and processor plenty to power SageTV for recording since endoding done on PVR. Now, if using for playback too CPU could also be rather weak but 733 to 800Mhz wouldn't make much difference. HD storage wise, uh, you won't be recording much either way but 80GBer less say 5GB for OS etc would leave 75GB @ Std DVD Quality 3.25Gb/hr for 20+ hours!

[Opus4]

It might help to specify what performance you want to improve, since that can mean differnt things to different people. I had an old p2-400 that I used w/o a problem for recording and playback, but I boosted its memory to 384MB, added an ATA/100 controller card for better HD throughput, and added hardware decoding via an Xcard. The only thing slow was starting SageTV in the first place & some menu transitions where it had to load data (such as for recording lists). Recording & playback (both done in hardware) were perfect.

- Andy

[kny3twalker]

I can say that you do not have enough ram
windows XP uses almost 200 MB with SageTV at startup
you have MCE which will use a great deal as well
you at least want to run XP with 512 and could probably get by as Opus4 saud with 384

[LegolasX21E]

The max this system takes is 256mb SDRAM, and the fastest CPU is a 800MHz Celeron (it's a eMachines eTower 733i) By performance, I mean the transistion time beteen switching operations. Like starting and stoping live tv, mp3's, DVD's, ect.

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by LegolasX21E

Im using SageTV 2.1 and a older computer as a PRV system. I have a few options to improve performance but don't know witch one will work best.
My options are as follows:

*go from 192mb to 256mb SDRAM
*go from 20GB Harddrive to 80GB harddrive
*go from 733MHz Celeron to 800MHz P3

Im running XP Media Center Edition 2005, and Using a WinTV PVR-150

Which Upgrade would boost SageTV's overall performance the most?

How about doing this another way.
Do you connect to TV or is TV viewed on the computer screen?
What's your present video card?
What's your objective?
Is this on a LAN or does this computer have a video card?
What's your budget?

[LegolasX21E]

Im using a TV, and a 17"inch Dell CRT
eVGA Geforce 4000 MX 64mb (TV out Via video card)
speed up SageTV (start things faster in sage)
not using a LAN
buget is under $100

[Bathman]

I run GBPVR on a fanless low spec system and ran the sage trial on a via C3 1 gig, 256 meg, 7200rpm segate harddrive, Radeon 7000, PVR250, and it worked fine.

My advise would be to update you memory. I would also suggest you use Win2000 rather than MCE2005 as your OS. Win2000 uses alot less system resources and thus leaves more for sage.

[kny3twalker]

or even run XP Pro
the MCE app uses a alot of resources
of course you could just set MCE not to start with computer

[LegolasX21E]

Im kinda an OS freak, I have nearly every MS OS there is: Windows98SE,WindowsME,Windows2000Pro,WindowsXP Pro,Windows XP MCE 2004 and 2005. Which should I use on this system (granted I can find all my product keys)?

[SHS]

I say add 256MB SDRAM that help and add 80GB harddrive and leave 20GB drive still install and go for Win2000 Pro being Windows XP MCE 2003, 2004 and 2005 all need high hosepower system at lease bear min of 2GHz and 512 system memory and really good Video card and Sound card.
As for transistion time beteen switching operations like what you said above starting and stopping Live TV, MP3's, DVD's, etc maybe due your very Low Video card which pettey run about the same as GF2MX I think, You would have been better off with ATI 9600 at lease it support DX9 or that or your CPU which can't rendered the page fast enough or your run bunch of stuff in background which can also cuase slow down.

[kny3twalker]

I would go with XP Pro
for XP has better driver support

many people have used apps to remove unneeded items in XP
this may be an option


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ll#post4869833

here is a discussion about this
Nlite is the program

[Cayars]

Your fine with MCE running but one of the best things you can do to save present memory is go into Control Panel's Services and disable all non-needed services. This will free up a bunch of memory for you.

If all you want to do is make SageTV start faster, why don't you just leave the computer always turned on? My systems are never turned off so if it took 10 minutes to load it would "bother" me once or twice a month at most when I install/re-install something and need to re-boot.

I see three options for you.

1) Don't upgrade the computer at all but pick up a MediaMVP player instead. This would give you great playback and picture quality which will be better then what you have now. Of course you would need a LAN card for the PC along with a cross-over LAN cable. The cable, LAN card and MediaMVP will come in right around $100 (maybe a tad less). Then with Matt's software installed ($0) you can have your SageTV interface on the TV thought the MediaMVP which has a dedicated MPG decoder on it. This is a great way to get by on a low spec PC. You could also have the PC moved away from the TV in case it's a little to load. Only the MVP unit needs to be with the TV.

2) Upgrade the memory to to 256MB. I'm not sure how much improvement you will see however but with disabling processes not needed and the extra memory it should help.

3) Upgrade the HDD to something bigger and faster. This will allow you to store quite a bit more recordings which in itself is a good reason to do the upgrade. I'd bet the drive will be faster too since most of the 20GB drives aren't as fast as the newer drives.

You may be able to do 2 & 3 for $100 if you shop around.

[LegolasX21E]

Thanks, Everyone for your advice. I used Cayars options 2&3, and disabled some services. Sage operates alot faster now. I also plan to install a GeForce 5200, since it is fully DX9 compadible ( Thanks for the Video Card upgrade recomendation SHS.)

[Cayars]

So what did you end up spending?

[LegolasX21E]

$70 for a Western Digital 60GB, and $40 for a Kingston 128mb stick

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by LegolasX21E

$70 for a Western Digital 60GB, and $40 for a Kingston 128mb stick

Better yet right now CompUSA has 160GB ATA133 7200rpm for $69.99 after rebate. "House brand" but what the heck for the price.http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...018&pfp=BROWSE

[mls]

Originally Posted by LegolasX21E

$70 for a Western Digital 60GB, and $40 for a Kingston 128mb stick

Too bad you missed the deal last week from BestBuy on a 120Gig Seagate Barracuda for $50 after rebate. That would have been double the drive space and yet stayed down at your $100 budget range (after the rebate that is).

[Ryokurin]

Originally Posted by mdmint

Better yet right now CompUSA has 160GB ATA133 7200rpm for $69.99 after rebate. "House brand" but what the heck for the price.http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...018&pfp=BROWSE

Unless they have changed as of late compusa branded hard drives are Maxtor drives if anyone is wary of biteing.

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by Ryokurin

Unless they have changed as of late compusa branded hard drives are Maxtor drives if anyone is wary of biteing.

If you are saying Maxtor drives bite I disagree. Sure they'll have failures, ALL HDs manufactured have failures. Personally I've had good luck with Maxtors, have two 5yr old Maxtor 30Gers that have never even hicupped. Just ran diags flawlessly and zero bite wiped them today getting ready to put 'em up on eBay with an equally reliable old Promise FastTrak66.