To 64bit or not to 64bit

[teknubic]

I decided to drop the bomb on a pair of Vbox 151s and an aerial last week so that I could get more out of my projectors' capabilities. What I found out, however, was that the Sage client hooked up to the projector needs to have more than a P3 1Ghz processor with 512MB of memory. I get lots of stuttering and the CPU is pegged. It handles SD with ease. My Sage server is a P4 3Ghz with 1Gb of memory and it plays HD beautifully (but on a 21" monitor )
I'm wondering if anyone is using the AMD 64bit processor on their Sage machine and if so, the 32bit XP or the 64bit? Are there plans to release a 64bit version of Sage? Perhaps there's another alternative I'm not seeing....
I've started ordering parts for the new computer but am holding out on the rest for a confirmed kill on the processor. Let me know your experience.

[evilpenguin]

AMD64 processors work great in 32-bit XP, they are powerful as heck and very cool running. Definitely the way to go right now. You really shouldn't worry about upgrading stuff to 64-bit just yet. Currently the only thing you'll gain from going 64-bit XP is a headache.

[cummings66]

Considering the lack of device drivers for many cards you need I'd say it's a major headache that he'll be gaining.

[Crashless]

Sage should/will run on XP64 because there's a 64bit Java available, that's not the problem. Your problem will be drivers for your tuner cards. AFAIK, hauppauge hasn't released drivers for XP64 yet, and hasn't said they're going to.

Unless you're doing some serious work that requires XP64, the slight speed difference probably not worth the concessions you'd have to make.

My $.02, YMMV.

[stanger89]

Get an Athlon 64 and then run XP Pro until the drivers/software catch up.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Get an Athlon 64 and then run XP Pro until the drivers/software catch up.

That's the ticket!

Gerry

[Kanati]

ditto

[RedR]

Heya,

As I understand it, Hauppauge is working on the 64bit drivers just hold on they'll be out sood as I hear. I'd think the rest are in the works too as far as other hardware driver support.

[Kanati]

You won't see that significant an increase in speed by going WinXP64 though regardless of drivers. Not in an HTPC setting anyway. Just stick with WinXP and an AMD64. It'll be plenty fast enough.

[dvd_maniac]

I'm wondering if this topic should be revisited?

I am looking at this as a Client PC with NO tuners. I just want to run SageTVClient and some 64bit encoding applications.
I would definitely like the speed improvements of encoding in a 64bit OS

Would I just install SageClient and the 64bit Java?
Would I have a problem installing SageClient since it is bundled with the 32bit Java?

[SHS]

Considering the lack of device drivers

Not any more there are now drivers for the WinTV PVR 150/500 check out shspvr.com forum

[gplasky]

Be careful.
I would install dual boot and test for awhile. Boards that have SATA and/or RAID built in can be an issue. Some people just get blue screen. I would start with what works, 32 bit Sage and java and see how it works on 64 bit XP before moving to 64bit java.

[dvd_maniac]

This will be on a new PC so I'll just install WinXP 64 and test. If it doesn't work then I'll just wipe it and go 32bit.
Has anybody tried installing SageTV 4 on WinXP 64bit version yet?

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

This will be on a new PC so I'll just install WinXP 64 and test. If it doesn't work then I'll just wipe it and go 32bit.
Has anybody tried installing SageTV 4 on WinXP 64bit version yet?

I've run the 32-bit version on it, but not with 64-bit java. If you'll give me a bit of time I'll give it a go tho .

(Having trouble pulling down the 32-bit java, soon as I get that sorted I'll give it a shot).

[dvd_maniac]

If it works with the bundled Java then I'll be fine with that. I just want Sage to work and be able to encode video.

Thanks

[heffe2001]

Oh it definitely runs on XP64, have had no problems with that at all. I'm still going to try to and see if it'll run with the AMD64 version of Java tho (I'm going to guess that it won't, as the core software expects 32bit java, and it seems that if the program is 32 bit, it runs completely in emulation, without any hooks into the 64-bit parts of XP).

[heffe2001]

Just to let you guys know, I got my expected results, 32-bit SageTV can't use 64-bit Java (doesn't seem to find it there at all). I thought I had read that 32-bit apps can't talk to 64-bit apps, so until Sage has a 64-bit client, it's a no-go. Aside from that, client works just fine on a 64-bit computer with 32-bit Java...

As a side note, there are NO remote control drivers for XP64 currently (even the media center one), so you can't really use XP64 for a regular remote-controlled client (YET, may end up pulling the remote drivers out of Vista64 and see if they work on XP, if so, I'll report back later ).

[etrigan63]

I have SageTV 5 running on Windows 2003 server x64. 32-bit java loaded up fine and I have drivers for an ATI Theater 550 PCIe and the USB-UIRT to control my DirectTV D11. SageTV 5 Client runs smoothly on my XP x64 box.

I do not use a remote as the server is pretty much headless and I program it via the client using a mouse.

ISSUES: for some odd reason the server loses connectivity to the tuner card. I do not know if this is a driver issue or that I have a flaky card. I have a PCI Theater 550 to try with and a Hauppage PVR-150MCE (Hauppage's 64-bit drivers have been released). I'm contemplating upgrading to a PVR-500MCE if the Hauppauge drivers work. At this point I'm more interested in stability than picture quality (which is amazing with the Theater 550).

Also is there a file compression module (ala BeyondTV) that will re-encode my recordings as DivX automatically?

[oddjob]

Is there any chance Sagetv will provide a 64bit version of application?

[etrigan63]

The weirdness with my ATI 550 turned out to be a flaky card. I replaced it and it works flawlessly.