Full server transition to Macintosh...

[sandor]

Anyone done this yet? i have 3 years of use in my Windoze wiz.bin file. is it just as easy as pointing to my NAS for the recordings and copying the wiz.bin over?

thanks in advance...

[flavius]

Who's running a Mac server? What tuners are you using?

[sandor]

Originally Posted by flavius

Who's running a Mac server? What tuners are you using?

I've been testing a Mac-based server for a while now - with 2xHDHR's. It works really well, and i am pleased with it.

So now i am ready to ditch my XP box and go completely over to the Mac....


For shits and giggles i threw the wiz.bin from the XP box onto the Mac - it loaded with no problem, so that seems like it is going to work fine. I just need to figure out why the Mac is only picking up 1/2 of the channels through the HDHR now...

[sandor]

...slowly going through the process...

i had one 500 GB recording drive on my XP box which i am transferring over the the multi-TB recording drives on my NAS, this should make it easy to point the Mac server to the NAS and find all the recordings in the wiz.bin file.

i've got all the lineups set, the last thing i will need to look at is the favorites, etc to make sure the Mac server is reading everything correctly...




***EDIT
as an aside, i'll have to take a couple snapshots of the projector running on the roof via a macbook/802.11 n connection. it is pretty damn sweet, though we need to wait for night fall to use it =)

we use the brick wall to the left, and just put a large white sheet on it (so far) the pic is from early may? before the veggies started to come in...

[karljayne]

Of our 2 servers, one is nearly completely switched over to Mac (from Wintel). For tuners, we use a couple Comcast boxes and record via FireWire, though I've been considering the merrits of adding a RCA style tuner.

Eventually (or the next time the other Wintel box flakes out), I'll do a similar setup for the second server and include our HDHR.

Just to confirm, the Wiz.bin and Wiz.bak work seamless from Wintel to Mac. It's as easy as copying the files over. Note that on the Mac, those files live here: "/Library/Application Support/SageTV/Data"

When I mentioned nearly completely, the only thing I'm missing from the Wintel box is ComSkip, fortunately there is hope. Bcjenkins has been working on a solution.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by karljayne

When I mentioned nearly completely, the only thing I'm missing from the Wintel box is ComSkip, fortunately there is hope. Bcjenkins has been working on a solution.

yeah, i have never had good luck with ComSkip (or ShowAnalyzer) and ATSC, perhaps i dont have the patience to deal with tuning them or what not, but i have just found using a 30 second FFW button easier...

hopefully this afternoon, after work, i'll put the Mac server into full use, and let it record its first scheduled favorites.... we'll see how it goes.

[morikaweb]

When you guys say your running on a mac "server" what exactly do you mean hardware wise?

I'm seriously thinking of switching but the incredible costs of a Mac Pro is putting me off, and I'm not shure a iMac could handle it.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by morikaweb

When you guys say your running on a mac "server" what exactly do you mean hardware wise?

I'm seriously thinking of switching but the incredible costs of a Mac Pro is putting me off, and I'm not shure a iMac could handle it.

right now? a Core2Duo MacBook.


lid closed, sit on a shelf taking up very little room, all the storage is on a NASLite box connected via 1000bT enet. Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

i've got time machine running, Sage and FrontRow, that is it. the fans never kick into high gear, and it takes up so little space. I may eventually switch to a mini, but the hardware is the same, so there is little reason to do it.



***EDIT

I am also still debating a 20" imac for bedroom viewing, price is right about what i want to spend, but if i just when with a tv/HD100 i could get a *bigger* screen for the same price....

My biggest complaint so far is the remote situation. i have no good solution yet - i want to keep my harmony but it is difficult to use the built-in IR receiver with the harmony (still limited to 6 buttons, just like the mac remote)

[morikaweb]

Originally Posted by sandor

right now? a Core2Duo MacBook.


lid closed, sit on a shelf taking up very little room, all the storage is on a NASLite box connected via 1000bT enet. Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

i've got time machine running, Sage and FrontRow, that is it. the fans never kick into high gear, and it takes up so little space. I may eventually switch to a mini, but the hardware is the same, so there is little reason to do it.



***EDIT

I am also still debating a 20" imac for bedroom viewing, price is right about what i want to spend, but if i just when with a tv/HD100 i could get a *bigger* screen for the same price....

My biggest complaint so far is the remote situation. i have no good solution yet - i want to keep my harmony but it is difficult to use the built-in IR receiver with the harmony (still limited to 6 buttons, just like the mac remote)

Interesting, do you use that for HD or just SD? If I can run with something as cheap as a macbook then I might go for it.

As for the remote, I take it a USB-UIRT does not work? I know my biggest problem with switching to apple is mac support for a HD-PVR but one it is supported the IR receiver on it should work I'd hope.

[hotwire]

I don't think you need a Mac Pro to run your SageTV server. I've been using my first gen 2GHz Core Duo MacBook with 2GB of ram and two HDHomeRun tuners for HDTV. Recordings are stored on an external firewire drive. Playback is done by the STX-HD100 HD media extender.

Hope this helps.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by morikaweb

Interesting, do you use that for HD or just SD? If I can run with something as cheap as a macbook then I might go for it.

As for the remote, I take it a USB-UIRT does not work? I know my biggest problem with switching to apple is mac support for a HD-PVR but one it is supported the IR receiver on it should work I'd hope.

All OTA/ATSC (this was the reason i first got into Sage)

I have yet to try the USB-UIRT, so it may work. With my windows box i simply used the streamzap USB ir receiver that came with my first AverMedia A180, and then adapted a harmony 680? to it...

speaking of which, if anyone has need of a pair of a180s, i have them =) worked perfectly in the windows box...

[morikaweb]

OK I'm all set to buy a MacBook and give this a try. What I need to know is what everyone is using for external storage. I currently have a NasLite box in the house for general file sharing/backup, but would prefer a USB/Firewire solution for the Mac Based HTPC.

If anyone can give me some suggestions I would be grateful.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by morikaweb

OK I'm all set to buy a MacBook and give this a try. What I need to know is what everyone is using for external storage. I currently have a NasLite box in the house for general file sharing/backup, but would prefer a USB/Firewire solution for the Mac Based HTPC.

If anyone can give me some suggestions I would be grateful.

I use a NASLite box - 2 TB RAID 5 for imported videos (DVDs, etc) and 2 TB for Sage recordings.

The NAS works perfectly, connected via 1000bT, and it actually made conversion from Windows server to Mac server very simple - just had to point to the existing server drives.

My personal thought is to have the server do nothing but processing, and having all the storage on RAID setups in a NAS is the best solution. My switch, server, tuners and NAS are all on UPSs, so power outage is not an issue.


If you go for direct attached storage, i would completely skip USB and use FW - it will be better. look at places like this: http://tinyurl.com/5a5wvv
i have actually purchased cases from fwdepot long ago (pre-NAS) and had no issues at all.

[morikaweb]

Originally Posted by sandor

I use a NASLite box - 2 TB RAID 5 for imported videos (DVDs, etc) and 2 TB for Sage recordings.

Have you been following NASLite-M2 development? I'm thinking of building another Naslite box with the M2 version for the mac box and streaming to my PS3. Just trying to figure out the most efficient (energy wise) hardware to use.

Edit:
This is the hardware I'm thinking of. 4 terabytes of storage and it comes to under 1K not shure if 350 is enough power though.

Case: Antec NSK4480 Inc. 350 Earth Watt
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H
Proc: AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350
Ram: Kingston HyperX PC3200 1GB 2X512MB
Optical: Samsung SH-S223F
HD1: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
HD2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
HD3: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
HD4: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
Input: Logitech Internet 350 Keyboard & Mouse

[sandor]

Originally Posted by morikaweb

Have you been following NASLite-M2 development? I'm thinking of building another Naslite box with the M2 version for the mac box and streaming to my PS3. Just trying to figure out the most efficient (energy wise) hardware to use.

Edit:
This is the hardware I'm thinking of. 4 terabytes of storage and it comes to under 1K not shure if 350 is enough power though.

Case: Antec NSK4480 Inc. 350 Earth Watt
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H
Proc: AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350
Ram: Kingston HyperX PC3200 1GB 2X512MB
Optical: Samsung SH-S223F
HD1: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
HD2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
HD3: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
HD4: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB
Input: Logitech Internet 350 Keyboard & Mouse

yeah i followed it a little, but havent been convinced.

i am still trying to fine-tune my FrontRow/SageTV integration... it is working 80% of the time right now....