Some questions about the HD-300

[dida2010]

Hi
I'm new here,

Can anyone confirm the ability to write/delete files to an USB hard disks attached to the extender over a network from the PC?
Or is there another way or maybe similar?


If it is affirmative,i think i will go ahead and buy the HD300, i will use it for viewing my movie collection: attached usb drive and streaming medias (Isos and Mkvs) from my PC (wired network).

Plus, I would like to connect my cable box "Comcast" to the HD-300.

I have 3 tvs set in 3 different rooms , do i will need 3 cable boxes hooked up to 3 extenders?
Is comcast cable box compatible with the HD 300?

I will be switching from a WDTV first generation.
Thank you.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dida2010

Can anyone confirm the ability to write/delete files to an USB hard disks attached to the extender over a network from the PC?
Or is there another way or maybe similar?

I think I got this on your post at AVS, but I think you can read/write to a local drive, I know you can read/write to it's local file system (it's got a CIFS/Samba server built in).

That said, it's probably easiest to just leave the storage attached to your PC and have the HD300 play from that.

Plus, I would like to connect my cable box "Comcast" to the HD-300.

I have 3 tvs set in 3 different rooms , do i will need 3 cable boxes hooked up to 3 extenders?
Is comcast cable box compatible with the HD 300?

I assume by "connect" you mean you want to record and/or view live TV from your cable box?

The HD300 has no such abilities on it's own, for TV (recording/viewing) capabilities you need to run SageTV on a PC with tuners and connect to it (with the HD300) as an extender.

As far as compatibility, anything you can record with Sage you can use with the HD300, so yes you can use your cable box. As far as how many you'll need, that's hard to say.

What you need is one tuner (cable box) for each channel you wish to view/record simultaneously. So if you wanted to watch 3 things at the same time, you'd need 3 boxes, three "tuners".

A common first reaction/thought is that if you've got x TVs you'll need x tuners, but I think most people find that's not the case, usually you don't need as many. Reason being usually most people don't use all their TVs for live TV at the same time. And as far as recordings go, stuff on cable channels tends to be repeated a lot (like running prime time lineup twice in a row, etc) so Sage can usually manage to record everything with less tuners than it would take if you had to record everything at once.

The other thing is a lot of people seem to like mostly major network shows, so they can usually get by with only a couple boxes and supplement that with either OTA or (clear) QAM tuners.

I've got two STBs (Dish Network) and an HDHR (for OTA).

[dida2010]

Thank you for the quick answer, and good insight about the use of the cable box with sageTV

I do have couple 1.5 TB drives attached to the WDTV , i will connect them to my pc , and every hd 300 will have access to their content , right?

I will be using a wired connection, my WDTV always start stuttering with "1080p" files , but reads them perfectly, from an attached USB hard disk.
Is it gonna be the same with HD 300 ?

Here is a video from youtube , it is not my video but shows similar stuttering and audio loss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTjiMewV68I
is playing content from an Usb hard drive versus network the same quality with hd-300 ?

One last question
Where is the best store to buy the hd 300?
Best buy, micro center ??

Thank you again.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by dida2010

Where is the best store to buy the hd 300?
Best buy, micro center ??

SageTV's Online Store the best (and only) place you can buy a HD300 as far as I know.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dida2010

Thank you for the quick answer, and good insight about the use of the cable box with sageTV

I do have couple 1.5 TB drives attached to the WDTV , i will connect them to my pc , and every hd 300 will have access to their content , right?

I haven't had any trouble with any content I've thrown at my extenders, even Blu-ray (like I said in the other thread, I don't use local storage).

I should ammend that, I have had some trouble with some video from my 7D but I haven't had time to debug it.

[pjpjpjpj]

I had all of my media on USB external drives attached to my old server, and the extenders (older HD100s) handled them all smoothly with no issues, even 1080p files. If the HD100s could handle it perfectly, I'm sure the HD300s won't have a problem.

One thing to consider though, depending on what your setup ends up looking like, is network bandwidth. If you have Gigabit, you'll be fine, but if you have 10/100, and are streaming multiple HD files simultaneously, you could max out (especially if streaming Blu-Ray rips). Similarly, if you are recording and watching multiple files simultaneously, you could have hard drive read/write issues, depending on the speed and other specs of your drives.

[dida2010]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I had all of my media on USB external drives attached to my old server, and the extenders (older HD100s) handled them all smoothly with no issues, even 1080p files. If the HD100s could handle it perfectly, I'm sure the HD300s won't have a problem.

I would like to thank you for all these tips, i found out that you can use a different way also:

Another nice feature is the ability to share that media connected to your HD300 across the network. Just go into the settings and share your HD300 on the network as another network drive. You can even share from one HD300 to another if you have more than one.

Source:
http://www.geektonic.com/2010/08/sag...geektonic.html


what 's the difference between these 2 methods of sharing content?
is one better than the other?

This streaming stuff is new to me
Thanks Stranger89 and pjpjpjpj.

[dida2010]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

If you have Gigabit, you'll be fine, but if you have 10/100, and are streaming multiple HD files simultaneously

I already have 1 long cable cat5e, with gigabit ethernet (PC and router), and i wanna buy 3 hd-300 ( 3 tv's), do i need to get 2 more cat5e , OR simply add some Hub/Switch and run only one cable cat5e through the house?

Any recommendation? Before i pull the plug, i need to make sure i know what to do.
If i need hub/switch , can you recommend any brand that works with this setup?
Thanks

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by dida2010

I already have 1 long cable cat5e, with gigabit ethernet (PC and router), and i wanna buy 3 hd-300 ( 3 tv's), do i need to get 2 more cat5e , OR simply add some Hub/Switch and run only one cable cat5e through the house?

Any recommendation? Before i pull the plug, i need to make sure i know what to do.
If i need hub/switch , can you recommend any brand that works with this setup?
Thanks

Are all 3 tv's next to each other? Then yes one single cate 5 run to a switch (never use hubs, but then again I am not sure you can even still buy hubs anymore).....

[dida2010]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Are all 3 tv's next to each other? Then yes one single cate 5 run to a switch (never use hubs, but then again I am not sure you can even still buy hubs anymore).....

Hi
Thanks for your help
Live in a condo , i can run one long cable between the rooms , and add a switch next to each TV.
Does one cat5e hold all the streaming being used simultaneously , no buffering?


Or

is it better for quality purpose to get 3 cat5e, between the main Router conected giga to my pc, to each hd 300?

[dida2010]

I am trying to do like this picture:

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3...etvhighres.png


I hope this will help new customers like me who are trying to get on the SageTV board.
I will go with 3 cat5e between that router and each extender.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by dida2010

I am trying to do like this picture:

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3...etvhighres.png


I hope this will help new customers like me who are trying to get on the SageTV board.
I will go with 3 cat5e between that router and each extender.

Yeah, I see what you were getting at now. Ethernet was designed to be a "star" pattern so that you use a centralized hub/switch that the clients all hook into. So yes, going with 3 cat5 between the routers and extenders is what you want.

[JetreL]

Just a FYI you will get better LAN throughput if sage server, computers, and extenders are on the same switch but it's not a game changer. As a rule of thumb good routers make so-so switches.

[dida2010]

Originally Posted by JetreL

Just a FYI you will get better LAN throughput if sage server, computers, and extenders are on the same switch but it's not a game changer. As a rule of thumb good routers make so-so switches.

Any good product you can recommend? Mine is a Belkin N+ router with 4 ports (giga ethernet)


I think, i will need also an hauppauge HD-PVR (connected to my motorola comcast Digital hd box) to watch Live Tv ?

Is that correct?

[drewg]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Ethernet was designed to be a "star" pattern so that you use a centralized hub/switch that the clients all hook into.

That isn't historically accurate.

Ethernet was designed in the 70s as a bus based network (multiple NICs all on the same coax cable with no switches). That's what carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) and exponential backoff was all about, and why ethernet stats even today include a "collisions" counter. Anybody else remember old-school 10Base2 and 10Base5 coax networks? You just spliced another T connector (or used a vampire tap) into the wire to add another computer to the network. They were about as much fun as old fashioned Christmas lights to diagnose when there was a kink in the wire, a bad connector, etc. To add more users than a single wire could handle, you used a "repeater", which was essentially a hub.

It was only in the 1990s that ethernet switches & the 10BaseT physical layer began to appear and the star topology that we all know and love was born.

Drew

[JetreL]

Originally Posted by dida2010

Any good product you can recommend? Mine is a Belkin N+ router with 4 ports (giga Ethernet)
I think, i will need also an hauppauge HD-PVR (connected to my Motorola comcast Digital hd box) to watch Live Tv ?
Is that correct?

I personally go with Netgear or Linksys for unmanaged switches. They should do fine for your home network. Home lan through-put isn't really your biggest concern. I was just adding that in-case you ran into any latency issues or were going to copy large files around.

To get HD video from the HD Comcast box you will need to use the HD-PVR. That will connect directly to your SaveTV server via USB. (There is a sticky somewhere discussing the best way to connect and configure the HD-PVR) Be prepared for file sizes in the 10s to 20 gig range when recording HD video.

[Fuzzy]

As late as 98, I built a 10Base2 network in an apartment me and some of my friends were sharing. 4 computers, needing to share dial-up internet. The coax, cards, terminators, etc were all practically free at the local computer show. Worked just fine for about a year of use before we moved out.

[dida2010]

Originally Posted by JetreL

To get HD video from the HD Comcast box you will need to use the HD-PVR. That will connect directly to your SaveTV server via USB. (There is a sticky somewhere discussing the best way to connect and configure the HD-PVR) Be prepared for file sizes in the 10s to 20 gig range when recording HD video.

Let say i record 3 hours of Football Red Zone HD, isn't the rule 1 gig per hour?

3 hours = 3 GB

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by dida2010

Let say i record 3 hours of Football Red Zone HD, isn't the rule 1 gig per hour?

3 hours = 3 GB

I think top end quality on the HD-PVR is about 5GB/hour

[dida2010]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I think top end quality on the HD-PVR is about 5GB/hour

If i install sagetv server on my vista64 on the system drive C: and planning to get a new 2TB hard drive just for all the recording.
Let say i format to the new drive to NTFS , i will get like 1.6 Tb left in real space?

Is that how it works?