Am I thinking through my pending configuration correctly?

[stixx]

So as I wait for the HD extenders to be available once again, I am thinking through how I want to set everything up. Its pretty basic I think, but here's the game plan:

1) My HTPC sits in the "home office" and it wasily has enough horsepower to act effectively as a HTPC/Gaming system.

2) When available, I will be using a Hauppauge HD-PVR to record DirecTV onto my server (HP MediaSmart)

3) I am currently in the process of ripping various DVD's (SD, HD, and BR) to the aforementioned server. I am currently using WinDVD 9 for playback

4) The Sage HD extender will be in the family room with the rest of the entertainment system. The Sage will be connect to my HTPC via the home network, and connect to my entertainment system via HDMI.

5) We'll have three MVP's connected to the network feeding three SD TV's upstairs

Thats all the easy part What I am still having difficulty in understanding is how this configuration would be controlled. How would SageTV fit into this equation? Can I truly watch ripped DVD files from any TV that has a extender connected to it?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[bialio]

Anything that you can do IN SAGETV on the Server you can do at the HD Extender / MVP locations. So watching TV (Live or recorded) from DirectTV will be available everywhere.

What you won't be able to do is use WinDVD9 to playback ripped movies on the HD Extender or MVPs. For that you will have to find a way to get Sage to play them. There are some containers (Sage support suggests mkv) that work well for this, but YMMV.

[stixx]

Can you explain what a "container" is? Also, is WinDVD the issue, or do ALL software players not play well with SageTV?

[bialio]

Most any software player works ok on full Sage Clients or Server. None work when you are using the MVP or HD Extender.

Container is a file type that holds audio and video.

When you Rip DVD's etc to hard drive - are you just copying the entire disc? If that's the case normal DVD will play on the HD Extender and MVP - you just have to point it at the right directory. For Bluray and HDDVD, you will need to convert the Ripped disk into a single file that Sage understands how to play. There are threads scattered all over this forum talking about how to do this.

[stixx]

Yes - for any disc (DVD, HD or BR), I am simply ripping the entire disk into a VIDEO_TS folder which WinDVD plays just fine.

I will search for the threads that you mention for HD and BR. - thx!

[Slipshod]

BTW, it works brilliantly with the extenders. I have a WHS server in the garage running Sage, and 2 HD extenders by the TVs. The wife is thrilled with the DVD jukebox/PVR/mp3 jukebox/photos/home-movies interface through the extenders.

I do get minorly frustrated sometimes that a plugin will not work, or will have limited functionality without running on a full-blown HTPC... But I'm certain that frustration pails in comparison to the ammount of time and frustration it would have taken to build and maintain an HTPC. The only ones I really miss are Netflix "Watch-it-Now" functionality and WebRadio.

[dibs]

I have a question for you guys.

I was thinking of going the MediaSmart direction with the built in WHS as well. But how do you rip dvds to it? It doesn't really have any display ports, right? Do you remotely log in and rip the DVD from the computer you are logging in with?

[othy]

Originally Posted by dibs

I have a question for you guys.

I was thinking of going the MediaSmart direction with the built in WHS as well. But how do you rip dvds to it? It doesn't really have any display ports, right? Do you remotely log in and rip the DVD from the computer you are logging in with?

I think you could also rip with another computer on the network (such as your desktop) and save the resulting file(s) to the server.

Tim

[dibs]

Originally Posted by othy

I think you could also rip with another computer on the network (such as your desktop) and save the resulting file(s) to the server.

Tim

I see. Is that how you would get the Sage Software installed on it as well? Also, does anyone see a reason why this thing wouldn't work with the new HD-PVR coming out? I have a chance to pick the MediaSmart up cheap from where I work.

Thanks

[Grasshopper]

Your WHS server comes preconfigured with several shared folders that are accessible from other PC's on your LAN. One of these is "Software/Add-ins". Step 1 is to save the Sage install software to that folder, using any PC on your LAN.

Also packaged with your WHS is a small bit of software called WHS Connector. You install this on each of the other PC's on your LAN, and it lives in the system tray. This is the "Console", through which you manage your server. Install this software on any PC on your LAN and log in to your server. Then go to Settings/Add-ins, and Sage should appear as "Available". Click Install, and you should be good to go, as far as Sage is concerned. This will install Sage and give you a SageTV tab in the WHS Console, through which you can stop and start the Sage service and add licenses. At this point, you've installed Sage and should be able to access it from an MVP extender, the HD extender, or any other PC that has SageClient installed on it.

For DVD's, just use the WHS console to create another shared folder on the server (call it DVDs?). Using any PC, save your rips to this folder. Then, in Sage, add this folder as a Media Center Import Directory. Sage should then find your DVD's and you're done.

Originally Posted by stixx

Thats all the easy part What I am still having difficulty in understanding is how this configuration would be controlled. How would SageTV fit into this equation? Can I truly watch ripped DVD files from any TV that has a extender connected to it?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I'm slightly confused, too. Do you currently use any video capture cards in your HTPC? Does the HP MediaSmart have any slots for such cards? (Anyone?) If so, you can move your capture card(s) to the server and install as above. If not, your configuration will be slightly more complex, but not too bad. Yes, you can watch ripped DVD's on any TV with an extender, this is exactly the functionality I have right now. Mind you, I don't have experience with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, just regular DVDs.

[dibs]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

Does the HP MediaSmart have any slots for such cards? (Anyone?)

It doesn't. However, it does have 4 USB ports. I plan on using the new HD-PVR with it to capture and watch live TV via HD Extenders. Do you foresee any problems with that setup?

Thanks again. That above post about the WHS was most helpful.

[Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by dibs

It doesn't. However, it does have 4 USB ports. I plan on using the new HD-PVR with it to capture and watch live TV via HD Extenders. Do you foresee any problems with that setup?

Thanks again. That above post about the WHS was most helpful.

Okay, that's clearer. (I've been running WHS since the beta on my own homebuilt PC, and that one has PCI slots for internal cards). Here's how to configure your system. Install Sage as above on the server, and plug in the USB tuner(s). That's the only box that needs to be on to serve your system. Attach HD extenders or MVP's as needed for each of your TV's. If you want, you can install Sage Client on your current HTPC, and access your media library using that machine as well.

You may need to RDP into the server to install the USB tuners, I've never used them.

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

You may need to RDP into the server to install the USB tuners, I've never used them.

You will almost certainly need to remote-desktop to the WHS to install USB tuners. I had to with my R5000s.

[stixx]

Hopefully Im not repeating myself, but I am still confused on a couple aspects:

1) Will SageTV play back ripped DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray without additional software or add-ins? I currently have all my files ripped in TS_Video folders.

2) If #1 isnt an issue, can these same files be played thru the HD Extender?

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by stixx

Hopefully Im not repeating myself, but I am still confused on a couple aspects:

1) Will SageTV play back ripped DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray without additional software or add-ins? I currently have all my files ripped in TS_Video folders.

2) If #1 isnt an issue, can these same files be played thru the HD Extender?

#1 works fine with DVD, and will do menus if you ripped the whole disk. You'll probably need to do a lot of fiddling with HD-DVD and BD, and you will only get the movie - Sage does not natively support either one like it does DVDs. I'm about to embark on that journey myself, but haven't really gone far.... I think you'll need to rip and remux at a minimum, but it may take a bugfix in the firmware before you can play reliably without transcoding. There's other threads you can read that talk about BD playback.

[SpiffyRex]

1) My HTPC sits in the "home office" and it wasily has enough horsepower to act effectively as a HTPC/Gaming system.

What kind of horsepower are we talking? Keep in mind that the MVPs require transcoding in the Sage server. Most HTPC can handle one but if you are planning to use all three MVPs concurrently you are going to need a fast system.

2) When available, I will be using a Hauppauge HD-PVR to record DirecTV onto my server (HP MediaSmart)

Cool. Are you going to have more than one? I mean one per DirecTV receiver? Also make sure that the USB chipset in your server motherboard is not made by VIA. I don't know what kind of USB throughput the HD-PVR will require but if it's anywhere near the r5000/Dish VIP mod you will need a PCI/USB card with a NEC chipset.

4) The Sage HD extender will be in the family room with the rest of the entertainment system. The Sage will be connect to my HTPC via the home network, and connect to my entertainment system via HDMI.

You mean 100Mb or gigabit ethernet right? Wireless is good for one HD extender at a time.

5) We'll have three MVP's connected to the network feeding three SD TV's upstairs

Careful here, the HD-PVR encodes to h.264 and the MVPs can't decode that. Specifically, the transcoder in the Sage server can't convert from h.264 to mpeg2 which the MVPs require. The HD extenders will not have any trouble with h.264.