HDPVR from USB Server?

[Taddeusz]

Does anyone know if it's possible to use the HDPVR from a USB server? The reason I ask this is that I'm going to be upgrading my SageTV server with new hardware. I'm toying with the possiblity of running VMWare ESXi as the bare metal OS and then run SageTV on one guest and PlayOn and ShowAnalyzer on another guest.

One of the reasons for the separation is that PlayOn doesn't work properly on a system with multiple ethernet connections. The way I have it set up at the moment is that I'm running PlayOn inside a VMWare Server guest and using the SageTV OS as a host. This is obviously not as efficient since the resources of the host OS are being used by the guest. Not to mention that the hardware VT that would be used by ESXi is quite a bit more efficient.

The problem with using ESXi is that it doesn't support direct connected USB devices. There are USB servers, similar to USB print servers, that I can use to provide USB connectivity. Just wondering if anyone has any experience in their use with respect to the HDPVR?

[stanger89]

I really doubt it would work, the HD PVR seems to be rather finicky WRT USB.

[Taddeusz]

Yea, it seems this might also add too much complexity to the whole thing. I think just keeping it the way it is right now running PlayOn inside of the VM and adding more RAM to the system is probably the better way to go.

[hemicuda]

I've had luck w/ Grid Connect's 4 port USB-to-Ethernet device with printers and usb drives. you'd have to go 2-port to get high speed usb. as said though, if the HDPVR is finicky it'd be a $100+ gamble.

I'd planned on trying it w/ the comcast DVR in the future, but I hear the IR doesn't really work that well. Wish I could find one of these things that translated firewire. That'd be the shiznit.

[trini0]

I tried that gamble before. It was a Lantronix UBox 2100.
It would work most of the time, but appeared the HDPVR was pushing it to its limit regularly thus causing recordings to give up the ghost after a couple minutes.
I was lucky to be able to sell it for what I paid for it..

[Taddeusz]

Well, that's it. I'm sticking with my current solution. I'll buy more DDR2 for the new motherboard to offset that needed by VMWare Server. Part of the problem is that PlayOn requires 512MB of RAM before it will even install. For a VM that's fairly large.

[Fuzzy]

Have you tried running your dual network cards bridged? This should eliminate the PlayOn issues, but still provide you the split bandwidth.

[Taddeusz]

No, I haven't tried that. Nor have I felt the need to. The reason I have two network adapters is to separate my HDHR from the rest of the network. That way it's not using up bandwidth to the server that could be used for extenders.

[Fuzzy]

right, but bridging will still not use up the network bandwidth on the other side, it will just make it so your computer uses the same subnet and ip on both adapters. It still won't be retransmitting the HDHR stream to the other side, when the destination isn't over there.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

right, but bridging will still not use up the network bandwidth on the other side, it will just make it so your computer uses the same subnet and ip on both adapters. It still won't be retransmitting the HDHR stream to the other side, when the destination isn't over there.

Hmm... worth a try. Would that also allow me to use the DHCP server on my router for my HDHR rather than needing to use tftpd32 for that?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

No, I haven't tried that. Nor have I felt the need to. The reason I have two network adapters is to separate my HDHR from the rest of the network. That way it's not using up bandwidth to the server that could be used for extenders.

I assume you are using 2 100mb adapters then? Why not just upgrade to a single 1 GB adapter. Even at the highest recording rate (MPEG2 1080i), you are only going to use 20mbps per stream which means you could send/receive upto 50 streams! That would take a lot of extenders and HDHR's before you max out that bandwidth (and honestly you would probably max out your hard drives before you maxed out your NIC's bandwidth).

It seems like going all GB would be cheaper and/or easier than doing what you are proposing in this thread.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

I assume you are using 2 100mb adapters then? Why not just upgrade to a single 1 GB adapter. Even at the highest recording rate (MPEG2 1080i), you are only going to use 20mbps per stream which means you could send/receive upto 50 streams! That would take a lot of extenders and HDHR's before you max out that bandwidth (and honestly you would probably max out your hard drives before you maxed out your NIC's bandwidth).

It seems like going all GB would be cheaper and/or easier than doing what you are proposing in this thread.

Actually, both adapters are already gigabit. I suppose I could switch back to just having a single adapter. The main reason I changed to begin with was a series of troubleshooting steps to determine why the playback on my extender would get choppy at times. As it turned out it had nothing to do with that but I had decided that segregating the bandwidth was not a bad thing.

My primary adapter is an Intel PCIe gigabit adapter. I'm pretty sure it could probably handle the added load without issue. I suppose I would be more worried about the switching capabilities of the Dlink 8-port switch I have. I haven't had any issues yet and have actually had up to 100+MB/s transfers since moving into the new house and wiring things up.

I can't wait to see how much performance improves with the new system. It's not going to be night and day but both processors were used as my main daily use computer and that upgrade was noticeable. It was the difference between being able to play 1080p H.264 video through software and not between the C2D E6550 and the X2 4200+ even though actual clock speeds aren't that different. The C2D's are just better at doing more per clock.

[brian89gp]

Since I am interested in this subject in regards to getting a HD-PVR and SageTV in ESXi working together, figured I would dig this tread up.

How about this new device? The marketing seems to focus on "high speed" .
http://www.silexamerica.com/products...sx-3000gb.html

[stanger89]

As far as I've been able to tell (limited testing) the HD PVR works fine in ESXi 4.1 via USB passthrough.