How fast is HD Extender's interface?

[Grasshopper]

Hi folks,

Been a loyal user of Sage since v2. Right now my setup is a WHS server in the basement, a client PC pushing sd in the family room, and an MVP in the bedroom also pushing sd. I'm looking at my upgrade path to HD and am trying to figure out whether I need to upgrade the video card in my client, get a whole new client box, or simply get an HD extender. But one of the things my wife likes best about the client box is that the interface is really fast, faster than the MVP's interface. I'm controlling the client with a Firefly remote (RF) and a USB-UIRT emitter to interact with the monitor and Dolby receiver. Is the HD extender interface as fast as my client's, or is there more of a lag? Does this depend on the hardware in the server?

[nebulink]

I came from MCE and I can tell you that the HD100 interface is very snappy in IMHO.

Now the real question is "is it as fast as the client?" I run the client on my notebook and I feel the HD100 performs just as well. Maybe some of the other veteran users will have a different opinion.

[malbec]

I have never had a client PC, so I am probably not the best person to ask, but...

I find the HD100 interface to "very snappy" as another poster put it. Relative to my MVPs I would say it is "that noticable second or two faster."

Now that said, my server PC went caput earlier in 2006. I built a brand new one with an E6600 processor and WOW what a difference. All of my MVPs were at least three times faster overnight.

[dagar]

It's comparable to my x2/5200+8500GT+2gb client.
It's slower than my x2/6000+8800GTX+4gb client.

Purely subjective, naturally.

[mikesm]

It depends on what you are doing.

Coming out of standby and displaying the home page, the extender is far faster than the client, like 2 secs vs 10-15. Once running, the gui is as fast as my e6400 based optiplex client running vista. Startup of the video seems faster too. Displaying picture thumbnails feels slower than a dedicated client though. Still very good.

[rdefino]

IMO the HD100 is slow than my HTPC clients. Also my HTPC's don't have the problems that the HD100 has.

[salsbst]

I note that some folks have decent clients that they report as being slower than HD100. I wonder what the server specs are in those setups.

I have a relatively weak server (1.8GHz, 1GB RAM), and the HD100 is slower than my true Windows client.

My tentative conclusion here is that server horsepower plays a significant role in HD100 UI speed...

[sam99]

I have never thought badly about my MVP response time as it seems to be instantaneous. The HD100 has been giving me issues ever since I loaded folder cover art for my dvds, but i am using sagemc for it and have not spent any time trying to figure out why it is giving me trouble scrolling the videos with the "working circle". Of course I have not taken off the front cover which gives my ir signal troubles, so hopefully some of that slower perception will disappear when I do that after receiving my new faceplate tomorrow. So it does sound like maybe the server is a rather large factor when determining response time. My router and switch are both gigabit speed as well, so the network speed in the house has much more potential than is being used.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by sam99

The HD100 has been giving me issues ever since I loaded folder cover art for my dvds

How large are the images you're using? The ones I have are scaled down to 300xwhatever (I think they're generally 300x425). I tried using the images straight from DVD Profiler and it caused my HD Extender to go really slow. I had to scale them down for it to work as it should.

[sam99]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

How large are the images you're using? The ones I have are scaled down to 300xwhatever (I think they're generally 300x425). I tried using the images straight from DVD Profiler and it caused my HD Extender to go really slow. I had to scale them down for it to work as it should.

THanks for the lead, I will look in to doing that. I am also copying the images straight out of the DVD profiler images folder, so hopefully that will work for me. What did you use to scale them down?

[autoboy]

The HD extender is slower than my Athlon 3200+ client. It is served by a AthlonX2 4600+. I have all preview images turned off for both.

[sam99]

just a quick addition after replacing the faceplate to fix the ir issue. As long as I avoid the video library (because I did not try to scale down my cover art last night) the menus and response time are instantaneous. I push a button, the command executes. My wife agreed that she noticed no delay at all. She was downright ecstatic with the new front panel fixing the ir. My mx-700 with new batteries would go right through the old panel, but after a couple months of use and no longer brand new batteries, it was starting to miss signals if you were not lined up directly to it. Now I can point the remote at a 90 degree angle to the tv and it still caught 90% of the signals. Pointing it within a 45 degree angle and it did not miss any at all.