Considering moving to Sagetv extender

[bigbill]

Please let me know if I'm nuts..
Currently I have an HP mediasmart WHS server with two HVR-950's recording OTA HDTV. I would like to shut off the PC next to my TV that has an HDPVR connected to a DTV HD sat receiver, and move the Receiver & HDPVR onto the WHS server too. There by shutting down the 24 hour a day running machine next to the TV and replace it with whatever the newest Sage Extender when available. The WHS only has 512M ram and a 2GHz processor, will it be able to record three shows and still be able to send video to the extender or should I leave a PC next to the TV (mostly off) and watch it via a sagetv client or placeshifter on the bigscreen? Or something else?

[stanger89]

Should work fine. The HD Extender doesn't use any transcoding on the server.

[bigbill]

Oh, I thought that was required..Thanks for that info. I guess its a moot point as there are none to be bought anyway, I was fooled by their webpage..

[DOS64K]

Originally Posted by bigbill

Oh, I thought that was required..Thanks for that info. I guess its a moot point as there are none to be bought anyway, I was fooled by their webpage..

Once the HD100's (or their replacement) are available, you won't regret the change. I've been running a WHS based Sage server for awhile now and love it. The extenders do all of the heavy lifting for ya!

[bigbill]

Since the extenders are not available, does the sage client also perform all the "heavy lifting" on the client machine? I am thinking that might still give me the option to combine the HDPVR on the WHS server (with its limited ram and cpu) and not bog down the WHS server when watching tv.

[mistergq]

yes, the client does the heavy lifting.

[flavius]

Originally Posted by DOS64K

Once the HD100's (or their replacement) are available, you won't regret the change. I've been running a WHS based Sage server for awhile now and love it. The extenders do all of the heavy lifting for ya!

Bigbill, did you check the store today?

[bigbill]

I purchased one last night!!

[chrishallowell]

I'm thinking about the new HD200 extender but I have a question regarding the remote.

Right now I use a Harmony remote to control (and a USB-UIRT) Sage running standalone on my PC.

Remote-->USB-UIRT-->PC EventGhost--->SageTV

So this allows me to basically do anything I want with the PC with my remote.
(IE: I can kill the SageTV service if it freezes and I can start SageTV backup)

So my question is.... Can I control the extender with this remote or do I have to use the remote that comes with it?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by chrishallowell

So my question is.... Can I control the extender with this remote or do I have to use the remote that comes with it?

You can use the Harmony remote with the HD100 or HD200 extenders. I use a Harmony 880 on my HD100 extender and it controls the extender, TV and receiver.

[QueOnda]

I have a harmony 890 and control my HD100 with it.

[chrishallowell]

Excellent news!

So if you have 2 extenders and you use 2 Harmony remotes, how does SageServer know which extender is requesting the IR?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by chrishallowell

Excellent news!

So if you have 2 extenders and you use 2 Harmony remotes, how does SageServer know which extender is requesting the IR?

The remote controls the extender itself, not the server.

[chrishallowell]

Ok, I'm confused

When I press a button on the remote, the extender sees it and does what?

Is there a client SageTV setting in the extender that communicates to the SageServer? (IE: The client does all of the GUI menu display work and only communicates to the server if it needs to display video?)

Is that how it works?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by chrishallowell

Ok, I'm confused

When I press a button on the remote, the extender sees it and does what?

Is there a client SageTV setting in the extender that communicates to the SageServer? (IE: The client does all of the GUI menu display work and only communicates to the server if it needs to display video?)

Is that how it works?

Yes.

[bigbill]

I merged two Sage Servers into the one HP MediaSmart this morning and it seems to work fine. The HD Theater box works great! And as its connecting to the WHS server I don't need to upgrade to the beta for Theater licensing without a key. Very cool!
The whole setup is drawing about 130 watts with three 500GB drives and one 1.5TB drive including the HDPVR, Directv Sat box. Thats about 60% of just one of the old servers drew. Should save about $30 a month on the ole electric bill.

[viper72]

BigBill,
How are things going with your set up? Sounds like you were able to connect 2 USB tuners as well as the HDPVR to your MSS.
A couple of questions:
-having 2 tuners and the HDPVR connected to the cable box, does this allow you to view 3 shows at once (2 unencrypted channels and 1 encrypted channel(i.e. StarZ)?
-Looks like you could record 3 shows at once as well?


I am thinking about doing the same and didn't know if my MSS with 2gb Ram and LE-1640 processor could handle 2 tuners and an HDPVR

Thanks!

[bigbill]

The setup is doing great now that I disabled the WHS "demigrator" service that was whacking the CPU at the most inoppertune times. Yes, I have three USB tuners, but only the HDPVR is recording off the Satellite, the other two are recording OTA. I can record three shows at once, two OTA and one from the Satellite. The HD200 extender is unbelievable, I wish I had realized these things worked a long time ago.

[stanger89]

Yeah, it seems like the HD PVR is rather sensitive to CPU usage.