Help keep this SageTV user a SageTV user!

[cdhickey]

Here's my story- for the past several years I have been using an old laptop with a Hauppauge Wintv-pvr-usb2 as a media center, with the laptop sitting next to my TV and output through the laptop's s-video port. Alas, the long suffering laptop has died and I need to find a new solution. After playing with my cable provider's PVR and a Blu Ray player with network capabilities, I'm still unsatisfied and want Sage TV back. I'm trying to keep the cost of a new setup to a minimum, so I'd like to utilize what I have as much as possible. My main desktop is an Athlon 64 3800+ x2 with 3GB of RAM, running XP. Not exactly a powerhouse, but it's what I've got.

My questions are:
1) would this desktop be sufficient to run SageTV server with the PVR-USB2, with a HD300 connected to my TV?
2) Does the SageTV server run fully in the background? What kind of CPU drag would it cause on my desktop?
3) If I decided to upgrade my tuner to a HD-PVR, would my desktop burst into flames?

Thanks for any help or advice you can provide- I'm open to whatever suggestions can get me back to SageTV!

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by cdhickey

Here's my story- for the past several years I have been using an old laptop with a Hauppauge Wintv-pvr-usb2 as a media center, with the laptop sitting next to my TV and output through the laptop's s-video port. Alas, the long suffering laptop has died and I need to find a new solution. After playing with my cable provider's PVR and a Blu Ray player with network capabilities, I'm still unsatisfied and want Sage TV back. I'm trying to keep the cost of a new setup to a minimum, so I'd like to utilize what I have as much as possible. My main desktop is an Athlon 64 3800+ x2 with 3GB of RAM, running XP. Not exactly a powerhouse, but it's what I've got.

My questions are:
1) would this desktop be sufficient to run SageTV server with the PVR-USB2, with a HD300 connected to my TV?
2) Does the SageTV server run fully in the background? What kind of CPU drag would it cause on my desktop?
3) If I decided to upgrade my tuner to a HD-PVR, would my desktop burst into flames?

Thanks for any help or advice you can provide- I'm open to whatever suggestions can get me back to SageTV!

Your specs should be more than sufficient. The hd-pvr is a hardware encoded so uses very very little cpu. With thed hd300 connected it would do all the heavy lifting decoding the video so again very little cpu usage.

The sagetv service runs in the background fine (the computer just must be on to record tv).

The only issues you may have is if you decide to use commercial skip but even that running at night wouldn't be much of an issue.

cheers

[cdhickey]

Thanks for the quick reply. That's exactly what I wanted to hear!

[pjpjpjpj]

Yeah, cd, my first SageTV server was a dinosaur. It wasn't even a fraction of what you have in your desktop. But as long as I didn't try to watch HD video on it (I use extenders only), it never had a problem. Of course, I don't use comskip - but with good use of the two extender "jump ahead" buttons on the remote, you really don't need comskip if it's the difference between buying a new server or not. I know a lot of people here swear comskip is the end-all, be-all, but you lived your life to this point fast-forwarding through commercials, so if it saves you not having to buy a new server right now, you'll live, ya know?

I had that old computer on hand when I started looking into the whole HTPC thing, and the fact that Sage's extenders allowed me to use it (and save $$ not having to buy a high-end server) was one of the main reasons I started in SageTV. (I only recently moved to the server in my sig below)

[JetreL]

Like said above, if you start playing HD content on the server you are in for a world of frustration. It works but you will probably have to spend some $$ to get it right. I fought playback issues a couple years back then bought an extender and kicked myself for not doing that first. I now have (3) extenders and have been nothing but satisfied with their playback.

Comskip should work fine on your system, it just won't be real time.

[festus]

My server is an Athlon XP 2000+. It's in constant use with HD streams to two HD-200s.

So long as you don't do a lot of transcoding, everything will be fine.

[wrems]

I agree with the others and will add some additional food for thought. If your current rig hasn't been reformatted/re-installed lately you should definitely consider doing that first. Who knows what kind of bloat you've acquired over time. Freshly loading your OS will definitely help as you move forward, not too mention getting rid of a lot of crud. To echo a refrain from Davephan grab an image once you get everything up and running so that if trouble strikes you can be back up and running in as little time as possible.