Perspective Purchaser - But some ?'s...

[denyasis]

Good evening;

I'm in the process of building an HTPC and am currently looking at using Linux/SageTV as my PVR software (mainly cause I'm cheap and don't want to fork out $130 for Windows XP/WHS/MCE, Myth is too complicated, and Linux is better supported in general)

I've been browsing the forums and have compiled some questions that I would like to hear your candid opinions about your experiences with Sage and Linux (I'm particulary interersted in the impact of the different OS).

1) One of the big draws for Sage is the community customization and availibility of plugins. According to the FAQ, STV/STVi's will work on linux provided they are not Windows dependant. So, in your experience, how many of these plugins actually work? SageMC? Netflix? MiniGuide(s)? Autocompress?

2) I've been having trouble finding if SageTV has this feature at all, but does SageTV allow you to transcode your recorded shows for more archival storage (ala Beyond TV?) in the background/when idle and if so, what support does it have for alternative codecs? Or am I limited to Mpeg-2/4 and divx?

2a) By same token, playback, only Mpeg2/4 and Divx? or if I D/L a video in another format (avi, .261/.264, xvid, etc), will I be able to play it thru Sage?

3) I've no experience with LIRC and with to use USBUIRT as my blaster. The LIRCTuner thread seems straightforward enough. Any large/unexpected hurdles when setting this up on Ubuntu?

3a) How does this inteeaction work? Ie, does Sage have a Library of IR codes to send to the STB or does it send a call to LIRC/LIRCTuner which has the library, or do I create a Library by defining codes durring set up?

4)I've noticed that most use Linux/Sage as the backend, streaming the recorded/live content to MVP's or other clients (atleast that's the impression I get from reading the forums). I intend to use it as a front end, hooked to the living room tv (and later add MVP's for the other rooms/tv's). What are the drawbacks to using the Linux front end (Xorg, opengl - problems, etc)?

4a) for the streaming, I'm assuming you need gigabit for HD, has anyone tried .11n 2.0? results?

5) What's your utilization in so far as system resources while running Sage on Linux? Is it a hog?

Thanks for your help, I know some of these ?'s are more general purpose, but in my limited Linux experience, I've learned that some things you'd expect in one OS may be totally different in another OS.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by denyasis

Good evening;

I'm in the process of building an HTPC and am currently looking at using Linux/SageTV as my PVR software (mainly cause I'm cheap and don't want to fork out $130 for Windows XP/WHS/MCE, Myth is too complicated, and Linux is better supported in general)

Not to start a flame war or anything, but how is Linux "better supported in general"? Windows has far better hardware and software support.

I've been browsing the forums and have compiled some questions that I would like to hear your candid opinions about your experiences with Sage and Linux (I'm particulary interersted in the impact of the different OS).

1) One of the big draws for Sage is the community customization and availibility of plugins. According to the FAQ, STV/STVi's will work on linux provided they are not Windows dependant. So, in your experience, how many of these plugins actually work? SageMC? Netflix? MiniGuide(s)? Autocompress?

Netflix, the viewer at least won't work on Linux since it relies on Windows Media Player to play the DRM protected Netflix content. SageMC could be interesting for some functionality because it relies on external apps (comskip etc) but I'm not sure about that.

2) I've been having trouble finding if SageTV has this feature at all, but does SageTV allow you to transcode your recorded shows for more archival storage (ala Beyond TV?) in the background/when idle and if so, what support does it have for alternative codecs? Or am I limited to Mpeg-2/4 and divx?

Built-in is just MPEG-2/4, I think you can do H.264 as well.

2a) By same token, playback, only Mpeg2/4 and Divx? or if I D/L a video in another format (avi, .261/.264, xvid, etc), will I be able to play it thru Sage?

First off, don't confuse formats with containers, AVI, MKV, etc are just containers that could have any number of different audio/video formats (H.264, divx, VC1, etc). I'm not sure how codecs work with Sage on linux, on windows, if you've got the decoders installed, Sage can probably play it.

4)I've noticed that most use Linux/Sage as the backend, streaming the recorded/live content to MVP's or other clients (atleast that's the impression I get from reading the forums). I intend to use it as a front end, hooked to the living room tv (and later add MVP's for the other rooms/tv's). What are the drawbacks to using the Linux front end (Xorg, opengl - problems, etc)?

No DXVA support is the big one. Today's video cards offer deinterlacing far supperior to anything in software, and that's only possible with DXVA. Also, you'll need a lot more CPU power if you can't use DXVA for playback.

4a) for the streaming, I'm assuming you need gigabit for HD, has anyone tried .11n 2.0? results?

You only "need" about 20Mbps for HD (if that), but the problem is it needs to be reliable/consistent, and wireless, even N is hit or miss on that front.

Thanks for your help, I know some of these ?'s are more general purpose, but in my limited Linux experience, I've learned that some things you'd expect in one OS may be totally different in another OS.

Frankly, if you have limited linux experience and think Myth is too hard, I really think you'd be better off going with Windows.

But hopefully some Linux users will stop in with more definitive answers (and corrections )

[denyasis]

Ok thanks for the input! I've enough Linux experience to get around, but my HTPC experience in that OS is non-existant. The last time I built an HTPC it was windows based, and things like Sage and Beyond TV didn't even exist yet, so essentially I'm a Noob to the whole thing, lol, but I'm interested in learning.

The reason I shy from Myth is that no one I know personally (a few are Linux gurus) has been able to run Myth with out some problems durring and after setup. Now I don't mind a challange, but my family is going to be using this, so having to spend a few days messing with conf files to get X,Y, or Z working properly won't do. They will hurt me. Sage (alteast from what I've read) works and is fairly easy to set up.

I did not know about the DXVA issues and I appreciate the info there. Also, I had a feeling the STV/STVi support was more in spirit than practice.

Thanks again for the info, I really like Sage and it seems very competitive compared to other PVR's out there, although I definitely need to research a bit more

[stuckless]

It's sad, but unfortunately, Windows does have a wider hardware selection to choose from. That doesn't translate to being easier to setup After I installed windows this weekend, I realized I had no network, no audio, no accellerated video So even though the hardware was supported, I still had plenty of work to do, in order to make the system usable

As for codecs, I haven't had any issues playing any non-drm file formats under linux. I do see the odd post regarding windows codec hell. I'm currently running HD-PVR under linux with no issues. If you ware using Ubuntu, you can check out the Ultramatix project. It's a carry forward of the Automatix project.

LIRC under ubuntu is quite easy to setup. Just install the package, and follow the prompts.

Keep in mind, that even though sage is pretty easy to setup.... it still may take some time to get things setup perfectly. So be prepared to spend some time configuring it, fighting with it, etc.

I'll think you'll be happy with it, whether you go windows, linux or mac.

[mayamaniac]

I know you said you wanted a cheap setup, but if you want to take half of the headache away, get an HD Extender and use it as playback device. It will play almost anything you throw at it. As for OS, I think SageTV linux runs on Gentoo, but I've read people got it to work with Ubuntu and other distros. So depending on your experience with linux, you can try it on your linux distro.

[denyasis]

ok thanks for the info! An extender would get rid of any possible front end headaches. Thing is, I only have 1 tv at the moment and the HTPC will be inside of my Entertainment center, so having an extender right next to the HTPC right next to the TV seems a little weird to me. An MVP is all I need right now(I think), as my TV is a CRT, and even better, while I pay for "Digital cable" Time Warner's STB is essentially crippled so all it outputs thru the coax (analog) only. Might give HDHomeRun a look. That would give me at the minimum, three signals to record and watch.

I haven't really looked into extenders at all for those reasons, but now I will.

Thanks for the tip with Ultramatix, I've heard of Automatix (that's the codec installer right?) and it is wonderful from what I've read. The last time I linuxed, I ended up installing most of the codecs by hand. My understanding is that Ubuntu 8.04 comes with almost everything Automatix had pre-installed. So is Ultramatix extra codecs not included (a quick google search revealed it is also a band, lol)?