Why can't the "Stand-alone" HD Theater *also* run the SageTV Server function?

[edmc]

Having an HDHomeRun (and the option of USB Tuners as well) and an external HD hooked up to the SageTV HD200 Theater device seems like an obvious optimization.

Forgive me if this has been discussed in the past. And if this should be discussed in the Media Extender forum instead. Kind of non-obvious which forum this should be discussed in actually :-).

Sure, I could fire up a low power GbE-endowed quiet/small "PC" (an old MacMini is my preference actually) for the SageTV Server function, but it just seems like this device should have the nominal horsepower to run the Server function as well.

Thoughts?

[One concern I have is the lack of GbE suggesting that HDHomeRun might have difficulty getting two ATSC streams into the HD200.]

[mayamaniac]

It probably can act as a server if it was designed to do that, but the SageTV folks didn't design it that way. They made it just a playback device for numerous reasons, too many to list but I'm guessing cost and development time would be the top reasons.

[edmc]

The lack of a GbE port is probably gonna kill any hope of using the HD200 as the Server with Ethernet-based Tuners. Sure, it could use cheaper USB-based Tuners as it apparently does have Hi-Speed USB 2.0 ports. Me, I have the HDHomeRun Ethernet-based Tuner.

Another option for me is to use one of the really exciting ARM-based SheevaPlug's to host the Server if/when Sage ever supplies an ARM build for it (I'm assuming they only supply an x86 Linux download).