2 sagetv servers different locations - placeshifter as video source?

[d2globalinc]

Anyone know if this is possible in some way or another?

I have two SageTV servers at two different locations (different states / different cable providers).

LOCATION A. Has two HD200's (Soon to have 5 HD200's ) and very limited cable channel selection.

LOCATION B. Has three HD200's (Soon to have 3 HD300's) and a full lineup of digital HD channels and Analog channels (2 HDPVR's, and two tuner cards for 2x digital OTA and 2x analog channels) + large movies selection.

I've used the HD200's from both locations as placeshifters to the other and performance / quality was good. What would be nice is if instead of having to abort loading the local server and pull up the remote server full gui - is to just be able to add the channels of the other remote server to the channel lineup.. So if there was a way to add another sagetv server as a video source using its placeshifter.. that way it would be seamless between servers and the user wouldn't have to do anything but use the same sageTV gui and would still have access to their local channels easily.

Any suggestions? Or direction I should be looking? I've seen information about making sageTV a network encoder - but I'm thinking thats more of a local LAN deal.. I'd really like to get the same quality / performance that i get with the placeshifter setup / hd200s.. It would also be nice to link to videos/movies the same way

Thanks for any info in advance!

- D2G

[Fuzzy]

Probably not anything to really be able to do, mostly because of network bandwidth. The current network encoder system is not suited to this, nor is the current placeshifter system. You'd have to create some sort of live-transcoding network encoder, and then you'd have the problems of all shows recorded from the remote place would be at the horribly recompressed quality. You may be better off setting up some favorites, and copying the recordings between locations. (the nice thing about the new sage7 writing the metadata in the recording, they are easy to move from place to place).

[RetroBox]

I have a similar situation where I have SageTV Servers in two locations with different cable providers. I don't mind having two different channel line-ups, but do miss some content that is local to only one servers while visiting the other location. I would really like a way to access content from my other server, seamlessly, while still being able to use the functions specific to the server I'm visiting. Like Fuzzy suggested, copying the content from one server and downloading it in another is a solution, but it’s a little cumbersome. Dealing with switching servers with Placeshifter is also not ideal. I did toy around with an Internet connected NAS, but I’m not sure how that would work. Any ideas?

[Fuzzy]

Honestly, the only real workable solution would be the copying of files across. the problem is, pretty much NO residential internet service iwll have enough of an upload speed to stream the full quality recording, real time. If space/transfer time was a concern, you COULD set up your favorites with auto-compress, and the destination be either the remote site directly (using VPN or something), or a safer way would be to a local folder, and have a sync program send it to the remote site once compressed (this would provide a lower bitrate for transfer and storage, but provide you what you are looking for.

Yes, I can see a need for some sort of plugin that could connect a sage system to another sage system, but unfortunately, I don't think sage themselves will ever work towards this, as they don't support sharing of recordings among sage users, which this would pretty much imply.

[d2globalinc]

Yah I have done the VPN deal between the two locations before with some sync options..it may be what I'm left with. I was hoping there was a way that it would be possible to make a menu item or shortcut of somekind in the sagetv server interface (not the hd200's) that would auto launch the placeshifter to a specific channel ( or video file / recorded show ). It would be nice to keep all the content remote and local in the same user interface so ther would be no need to switch to stand alone Mode to connect to the remote server.. I know the quality isn't perfect but atleast it would play like the placeshifter does or my slingbox quality. The main location has 5MB upload speeds now - so that helps..

- D2G

[Slugger]

Copying a recording from one server to the other means you'll have to import a copied video as an imported video only because the metadata embedded in the file will have media file, airing, and show id keys that are most likely to be invalid in the other server (virtually guaranteed to be different; 1 in ~2 billion chance of being the same). You could relink them using the external show id (maybe?), but that won't happen automatically by the core (I don't think) and it'll only work if the show is also available in the other server's wiz.bin (which sounds like it might not be the case given the smaller channel selection on one server vs. the other).

[Fuzzy]

I'm pretty sure all the included metadata is int he file, not just ShowID. I know the original point of the metadata in the file was to allow full recovery without the original wiz.bin. That is basically what this situation is. I know I've brought recordings over to my 'test/development' system and it brought them in just as if they were recorded there. The problem I see, is that I'm not sure the transcoding keeps the metadata, so you'd have to create a .properties file, then transcode, and include the properties file in the transfer to the remote location.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'm pretty sure all the included metadata is int he file, not just ShowID. I know the original point of the metadata in the file was to allow full recovery without the original wiz.bin. That is basically what this situation is. I know I've brought recordings over to my 'test/development' system and it brought them in just as if they were recorded there. The problem I see, is that I'm not sure the transcoding keeps the metadata, so you'd have to create a .properties file, then transcode, and include the properties file in the transfer to the remote location.

I think this started with version 7. I had my OS drive fail last week (of course while I was out of town) and when I set up the new drive, all the shows came over as archived recordings.

B

[Fuzzy]

Yeah, it started with v7.. as mentinoed, though, I dont' think it works with transcoded files. For those, you'd have to have .properties file with them.

[RetroBox]

Maybe it is a little far-fetched, but perhaps a solution would be to call the Placeshifter client from within Sage with connection details to pass through as configured in the STV. I'm not sure how the details would work, but at a very crude level, the Placeshifter client could be called as an External App* and connection details could be passed from text captured in the STV to an argument Placeshifter could understand. A button could be used to disconnect and close Placeshifter and go back to local Sage. I don't think there is a problem running SageTV plus Placeshifter at the same time (?), and it would resolve any transcoding nightmares.

* When dynamic customizable menus are available, of course.

[d2globalinc]

Yah I could do something like this with a client w/ the "LM Remote Kemap" software - but I'm looking to do it with an HD200 or HD300.. so it would have to be something internal there that would disconnect local server, and open remote server.. :S but.. we are getting into places that im sure we can not go..

Thanks,

-D2G

[RetroBox]

This is not exactly a solution within Sage, but there is an interesting service out there called Libox that does what we are intending to do. I have not yet played around it myself, but I am curious /planning on doing it soon.

Another option I've been toying with is developing a UPnP server of sorts for content. The idea would be to leverage the PlayOn plugin using the Browse UPnP feature, but I'm not sure how that will work outside a LAN. The main issue for me so far has been finding good /easy software to do this. There are several choices out there, but I'm not sure which are worth exploring.