Using SageTV Client to view HD content

[msmith8228]

Is anyone out there using the SageTV client (v 2.x / 3.x) to view HDTV material recorded by SageTV ? Does anyone have any concerns about doing this (will the network stand up to the load) -- or any tips or techniques (hardware settings, filters, etc..) to get the Sage TV client to work the best in this type of a setup. What I am looking for is 'ultra smooth' HDTV playback.

It is assumed that the hardware for the client machine is already up to the task (very fast system P4 3.0+ GHz & AGP graphics) -- but any ideas in this area would also be helpful.

MJS

[lovingHDTV]

I'm running SageClient and viewing HDTV content quite succesfully. I have an AMD2800+ with a Nvidia 6200 128MB 8x AGP card hooked to the server with a wired 100mb network.

The 6200 card I have is not the cheaper TC or turbo cache card as it does have the actual memory on the card.

I'm using the Elecard decoder and AC3 audio decoder playing through my stereo via SPDIF passthru. I display it through a Sanyo PLV-70 projector on a 120" screen. It took Beta release 3.13 before it finally worked well.

I find the picture very good, I tend to get a few "staticy" pixelization on one station the I do not get with my STB. This I would assume is do the differences in the ATSC tuners. Other than that I am very happy with the results I finally have what I wanted a couple years ago when I started with Sage.

[Mike Young]

streaming the HD content hardly even makes a dent in a 100mbs network.
I typically get about 5% utilization max.
Using a P4 2.4Ghz Shuttle with 6800GT OC shoe-horned in and I get excellent HD PQ at 1766X 922 through DVI.

mike/

[dfitz43]

I'm running 3.0.14 over a 100 Mb/s wired network watching HD on client with no problems at all. Client in P4 3.0, Nvidia fx5200, dvi out to Samsung DLP at 1280x720p. Audio is s/pdif to receiver. As mentioned above, there is no problem whatsoever on wired network.

Quality is for the most part quite good (it is HD, after all). I have a MyHD card on the client machine, as well, which does decoding in hardware on the card, and I really can't tell the difference flipping b/t the two. I will say that they Nvidia mpeg decoders make a dramatic difference in PQ.

I do get the odd glitch (maybe once every 20 min or so for 1 sec, then recovers just fine), but this is roughly the same as I see for the MyHD card. Not perfect, but way more watchable IMO than glitch-free SD any day of the week.

I'm relatively new to Sage, and specifically using it b/c of HD support. In my hands, only since the 3.0.14 release have most of the kinks been worked out in terms of HD support. I'm very happy currently.

cheers,
Dave

[naln]

Watching recorded shows is fine. The only bottleneck in such a situation seems to be the I/O on the HD (video dir)....specially if there are recordings in progress (HD or non-HD). If you have faster SATA drives- that should not be a problem either. My server has IDE- so I do notice some playback issues on the client or bad recordings(3+1HD tuners )- leading me to believe that I/O bottlenecks may be an issue in this scenario.

Other than that- HDTV over the network is fine. Working well for me so far