Windows Home Server

[scottleslie]

Please comment on the following proposed configuration:

1) Windows Home Server (Is the bundled SageTV Media Center with the $249 SageTV HD Theater the right version for WHS?)
2) SageTV HD Theater
3) SiliconDust HDHomeRun
4) No other PCs

If I've done my homework, this should be a killer combination.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by scottleslie

Please comment on the following proposed configuration:

1) Windows Home Server (Is the bundled SageTV Media Center with the $249 SageTV HD Theater the right version for WHS?)
2) SageTV HD Theater
3) SiliconDust HDHomeRun
4) No other PCs

If I've done my homework, this should be a killer combination.

Assuming that you are ok with only recording over-the-air ATSC and unencrypted QAM from the cable company, then

The $249 bundle is indeed the one that you'll want. Something else to keep in mind, SageTV installed on WHS comes with one "free" placeshifter/extender license. And since the SageTV HD Theater (HD200) doesn't require a license registered on the server (as of SageTV 6.5.3 release), you could use Placeshifter on a laptop, for example, without interfering with the HD200.

[Underdog]

Glad to here the confirmation...
This is the same setup that I am exploring and the HD HomeRun will provide Digital OTA signals to older HD Ready televisions via HD-100 or HD-200 from Sage.
Just received and e-mail today from Sage support about the same comment on the the Placeshifter, that's good news.

[ifdefmoose]

I tried to set up a similar configuration a month or two ago.

You will need at least one other PC running the SageTV Placeshifter client to configure Sage TV on WHS (according to SageTV tech support, they do not support running SageTV on WHS in anything except server mode -- no GUI, which you need to do the setup).

You'll also need to have Java installed on the WHS box, or else Sage TV will just quietly exit.

I had some issues setting up the QAM channel mapping. I'm waiting for the Sage TV Media Extender box to be available before I try again.

[kurt711]

This is the same setup I have running right now. Windows home server with latest beta of sagetv for whs and sagemc 6.3.8a. I am only using it to record clear-qam hd channels from cable using HDhomerun. Disabled all other channels in hdhomerun setup and sage found the ones I had not disabled, setup guide and was recording shows same evening. I have My movies for WHS setup for ripping and cataloging movies. Sage creates its own database with cover art and such, wish it could use My movies so don't have to have 2 different sets of movie info though sage is very good at finding cover art. You could skip my movies but for me its easy ripper and cataloging solution.

I also installed placeshifter on my laptop(since its a free license included with sage for whs) and now I can access my WHS and sagetv from work I just wish sage would fix upnp(playon is way too slow on HD200) and HD audio PCM or otherwise, that would make this setup super sweet.

[houseofreynolds]

I have this setup and it's been working well.
1) Windows Home Server (Is the bundled SageTV Media Center with the $249 SageTV HD Theater the right version for WHS?)
2) SageTV HD Theater (and a HD Extender)
3) SiliconDust HDHomeRun
4) No other PCs (I do have a Mac that I use for Remote Desktop/Placeshifting)

Notes:
- I don't watch from my server, it's only a server.
- Do not add your drives to the WHS drive pool. Format them 64K and leave them unmanaged. If you don'tyou will have performance issues.

[scottleslie]

Originally Posted by houseofreynolds

I have this setup and it's been working well.
1) Windows Home Server (Is the bundled SageTV Media Center with the $249 SageTV HD Theater the right version for WHS?)
2) SageTV HD Theater (and a HD Extender)
3) SiliconDust HDHomeRun
4) No other PCs (I do have a Mac that I use for Remote Desktop/Placeshifting)

Notes:
- I don't watch from my server, it's only a server.
- Do not add your drives to the WHS drive pool. Format them 64K and leave them unmanaged. If you don'tyou will have performance issues.

I agree - this is only as a server to stream to client devices, no direct video output.
Could this WHS drive pool problem be based on needing more CPU or memory in the WHS PC? Is this something that Sage is looking into?

[lotusvball]

Originally Posted by ifdefmoose

You will need at least one other PC running the SageTV Placeshifter client to configure Sage TV on WHS (according to SageTV tech support, they do not support running SageTV on WHS in anything except server mode -- no GUI, which you need to do the setup).

.

I just remoted into my WHS server and launch the GUI there to do some setup items. I had the GUI no problems. I guess I missed where they said that you can't do it that way. Worked for me.

[gplasky]

They probably don't support it as a client to view video. I always run the Sage client GUI on my WHS for quick configuration changes.

Gerry

[houseofreynolds]

Originally Posted by scottleslie

Could this WHS drive pool problem be based on needing more CPU or memory in the WHS PC? Is this something that Sage is looking into?

Sage always works better with drives formatted this way, but WHS formats your drives in it's own way. WHS also obsessively manages the pooled drives.

With these things said I don't think it's something that's a problem with the way Sage does things, but a limitation in working with WHS. You will probably want multiple drives anyway. I now have 7 500GB drives, 3 in the pool and 4 in a RAID 5 array.

I use a Core2Duo w/4MB RAM so my hardware specs are fairly solid. My past performance problems seem to have been in HD access times. I'm currently defragging (with a WHS compatible defragger) and that makes a big difference too... as they were really fragmented.

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by houseofreynolds

Sage always works better with drives formatted this way, but WHS formats your drives in it's own way. WHS also obsessively manages the pooled drives.

With these things said I don't think it's something that's a problem with the way Sage does things, but a limitation in working with WHS. You will probably want multiple drives anyway. I now have 7 500GB drives, 3 in the pool and 4 in a RAID 5 array.

I use a Core2Duo w/4MB RAM so my hardware specs are fairly solid. My past performance problems seem to have been in HD access times. I'm currently defragging (with a WHS compatible defragger) and that makes a big difference too... as they were really fragmented.

The main problem with the pool was 4k clusters. You can format the drives in the pool to 64K cluster, I even wrote a tutorial:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37483
Other issues with WHS/Sage have been fixed in PP1 which fixed a bug and changed the Disk Migrator and the November update which changed the way the landing zone works.

RAID is unsupported by WHS too.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ifdefmoose

You will need at least one other PC running the SageTV Placeshifter client to configure Sage TV on WHS (according to SageTV tech support, they do not support running SageTV on WHS in anything except server mode -- no GUI, which you need to do the setup).

You should be able to do it from the extender (it's not really any different from Placeshifter in that regard).