HD Requirements for Server only (not displaying locally)

[swift_gti]

Hi all,

I've recently been getting into Sage, its a really nice bit of software!
I have a question regarding HD content as I'm considering using a dedicated PC as a 'server' which will have my tuners attached to it.

I was wondering what the CPU/RAM/GFX requirements would be for using HD TV (Free to Air/Freesat) in terms of the server..

Does it need to have a decent gfx card with HD accelleration etc.. even though its not locally displaying the HD stream ?

What would be needed in terms of CPU for the server ?
My clients would be up to the job, but current hardware I have to spare for the server are either a Centrino 1.6ghz or a Core 2 Duo T2300 1.66ghz..

Any advice would be appreciated!

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by swift_gti

Hi all,

I've recently been getting into Sage, its a really nice bit of software!
I have a question regarding HD content as I'm considering using a dedicated PC as a 'server' which will have my tuners attached to it.

I was wondering what the CPU/RAM/GFX requirements would be for using HD TV (Free to Air/Freesat) in terms of the server..

Does it need to have a decent gfx card with HD accelleration etc.. even though its not locally displaying the HD stream ?

What would be needed in terms of CPU for the server ?
My clients would be up to the job, but current hardware I have to spare for the server are either a Centrino 1.6ghz or a Core 2 Duo T2300 1.66ghz..

Any advice would be appreciated!

If the server is not going to be used for playback, and all the HD decoding is going to be done on the client side, then it doesn't take much of a server. All your server has to do is just save the HD stream as is. The only reason you need a decently powerful server is if you use MediaMVp's as they can't play HD streams natively and your server has to convert the videos on the fly. Otherwise if you use full PC clients or STX-HD100's, then very little is required from your server.

[bartley9]

My server is a P4 2.4 Ghz running W2K3. I was running dual recordings off a PVR500 with 512MB RAM absolutely fine. I recently added a Nova-HD-S2 Card and upped the RAM to 1024MB as I had the case open but it might not have needed it.

Dynamic recordings go to a single disk and my library is on a software Raid 5 array(/ducks)

All you really need is bandwidth between the Cards and the disks

[BFisher]

In addition to Paulbeers post - you would want more computing power IF you are using commercial skipping (apparently especially if using the new HD-PVR) or Placeshifter (again, transcoding in real-time).

[swift_gti]

Thanks for the helpful info!

I wasn't too sure if any stream processing would be done at the server, but this puts my mind at rest a little more