A valid setup for HP HomeServer?

[stefam]

Hello!

I am planning to roll out Sage as soon as the HD extenders are back in stock... I've tested on my gaming box, but will deploy on my homeserver. Can't test there because I have not yet purchased USB TV Tuners.

I've lurked enough to put together what I think may work for me... The good news is that I have only OTA (over the air) reception - no cable or pay-TV mucking things up! Can anyone validate or give advice on this setup before I purchase more $$ hardware $$ ?

I am planing to run on a heavily modified HP MediaSmart home-server (model 475, 2GB RAM and a 2.6 GHZ processor) with:

• Two "stick" style digital tuners from hauppauge (HVR-950Q)
• plugged into in a USB2 hub.
• I will use one or two HD-extenders
• I will use my old MCE remote (actually Logitec harmony with MCE profile)
• For recording and DVD rips, I will have an internal 750 GB drive formatted as recommended and not attached to the HomeServer drive pool.

I only have OTA ATSC signals (no cable or sat). My pioneer receiver will do the audio from the extender. I still believe that for playing DVDs, a DVD player does best, but I intend to rip some to the server as well.

An external eSATA/USB DVD or Bluray may come later - as may the Wii Remote interface I'm tinkering with.

Any comments? I'm concerned about the 2 tuner sticks on the USB hub. Also, has anyone had good luck with external dvd in this type of setup?

Thanks!

-Mike

[inlvnv]

Your harware is fine. Don't know what the differences are between the older 950 and 950q sticks, but I've never got the older 950 sticks to work with whs/sage combo and ended up putting in an hvr1800 card in my custom built whs machine. I would suggest buying just one stick and playing with it first, or search the forum and buy a usb stick known to work with sage.

DVD rips work fine from pooled drives; however, everyone has their preference as to whether to use dvd player or rip it to whs. I personally prefer them ripped because it's much easier then flipping through DVDs. Ripping it also has the obvious advantage of being able to access the movies from anywhere in the house with your client machines, which you can't do with dvd players; and with HD-100 hooked to your TV using an HDMI cable, will upconvert your DVD movies to 1080, just in case your DVD player doesn't. Regular dvd player or blu-ray player hooked to whs machine using eSata/usb connection won't play encrypted movies through HD-100.

[stefam]

Thanks for the suggestions...

Slowly moving cowards this setup - no hurry since the extenders are still out...

However, I'd like to know if anyone out there would recommend the HD Home-run on this setup... I've been doing the research and people love them - however I am concerned about network saturation.

On the WHS, it serves as a file-share, backup device, and will be streaming HD to 2 extenders. Can it also do the HD Home-run on top of this?? I'm on a gaga-bit line. Or should I go with Two "stick" style digital tuners from hauppauge (HVR-950Q) plugged into in a USB2 hub.

Thank you for your help!
-Mike

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by stefam

Thanks for the suggestions...

Slowly moving cowards this setup - no hurry since the extenders are still out...

However, I'd like to know if anyone out there would recommend the HD Home-run on this setup... I've been doing the research and people love them - however I am concerned about network saturation.

On the WHS, it serves as a file-share, backup device, and will be streaming HD to 2 extenders. Can it also do the HD Home-run on top of this?? I'm on a gaga-bit line. Or should I go with Two "stick" style digital tuners from hauppauge (HVR-950Q) plugged into in a USB2 hub.

Thank you for your help!
-Mike

Go the way of the HDHomerun. I have three HD100's, 3 MediaMVP's and run placeshifter and do not run into network saturation. The HDHomerun only uses at max 50mbps if recording two shows so as long as you are on a GB network, you will not have any problems. I actually use a 26port hub with 24 10/100mb ports and 2 GB ports. My servers are hooked to the GB ports and the rest of my clients are hooked to the 10/100 ports (including the HDHomerun) and I have NO problems whatsoever. These can be had these days for less than 150 dollars which is about $70 per tuner and while I can only compare my HDHomerun to my Fusion5 Lite (which is now obsolete) I can tell you it kicks the Fusion's butt in pulling in difficult signals.

[stefam]

OK... So with the HD Homerun, does it need a separate remote or IR blaster? or can I keep it in the closet with my server and control everything from the extender?

I'm curious because the HD Homerun ships with a remote. I don't want to have to hook up more IR blasting beyond what I already have and hope the channels are tuned over the tcp/ip connection.

Thanks for the help...

-Mike

[dgeezer]

Actually, the HDHomeRun does not ship with a remote. The HDHomeRun software that gets installed on your server does all the channel changing over the network. Mine lives in the closet with the cable modem, router, switches and my NAS. It's not even necessary that it's near the server. As a matter of fact several users have said that they have the HDHomeRun installed in the attic right beside the antenna for OTA.

[Polypro]

In the current HDHR BDA model I believe the software is only used to add the HDHR to the Sage properties file and configure the channels. I added an OTA HDHR in about 5 minutes...definitely go this route. DVD's play back from my WHS duplicated share just fine, but TV drives should be seperate...if you can't go internal, use e-SATA for external...USB external on WHS is slooooowww.

P

[pjpjpjpj]

+1 for the HDHomerun. I'm one of those who has the unit (two, actually) up in a second floor closet, just below the attic where the antennas live. Glad to see another "all OTA" person here, sometimes I feel like a freak when everyone starts talking about HD-PVRs with cable or satellite or whatever.

(actually, with all of the set up issues in the various posts, I feel lucky)

Since the latest firmware update and Sage update, I have seen a few issues when I have one HD show recording, another being watched on an extender, and try to turn on the second extender. This was not a problem before the latest updates, and I read that it is "being worked on". But I only have a 10/100 network, so I could make the issue moot with a hardware upgrade. With a GB network, it wouldn't even blink.

[stefam]

You guys were right! Just purchased the HD Homerun and it works GREAT. NewEgg was running a special!

Using it with VMC right now. Since I'm going to use an HP Home Server, I need the extenders to be back in stock before I can use Sage there.

But the HD Homerun works great and so much easir than any of the tuners I have used before! Thanks again for the great advice!

-Mike