HDHomerun Network traffic load

[MalibuDave42]

After a month of trying to get an 1800 card to work with Comcast Denver clear qam, I need to try a new strategy. After reading and reading these forums, it looks like the HDHomerun is a solid device to solve the clear qam puzzle. Yes?

My question is about network traffic. I am running a 100mb network. I plan to drive 4 TVs with the Sage server. The majority of my recordings will be HD. When the HDHomerun is recording on both tuners concurrently AND 4 TVs watching HD Theater streams, will the 100mb network hold up?

Will the Sage Server network capacity be fast enough to handle this situation?

Thanks for your insights..

[QueOnda]

You wil get ~40Mbps max on a HD recording using 4.8.1 but the beta you will use ~19Mbps max while recording.

I currently have 2 HDHR and able to record 4 channels at once.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

You wil get ~40Mbps max on a HD recording using 4.8.1 but the beta you will use ~19Mbps max while recording.

Which of course means that the answer to the original question ("will it hold up?") is no. Recording two streams at 19 Mbps and watching 4 streams at 19 Mbps (6 streams total in/out between your server and your router/switch/hub).... 19x6= 114, which is >100 Mbps.

The real question is, will you really (and frequently) have all 4 TVs being watched at once (and all HD) while recording two other shows? I mean, if you have a big family, it's always possible, but, um... you could always tell someone "no, you can't watch your show right now, you have to watch what I am watching". You know, "family time".

[kbyrd]

Leave some room for overhead in that 100Mbps too. If you absolutely can't go to GigE (you really only need to upgrade your switch and your NIC in the server, leaving the clients at 100Mbps is fine), then consider putting the HDHR on a separate dedicated connection to your server (but if you're buying another 100Mbps NIC, why not just buy a GigE one?)

[MalibuDave42]

My current server only has 1 NIC, if I add another (gigabit for future capatibility) then direct connect the HDHR to the 2nd NIC port.. that would off load all of the traffic from the home network. Interesting idea...

pjpjpjpjpj, you are probably right about the 4 concurrent though...

Based upon this advice and configuration, sound likes driving 2 TVs and recording 2 HD programs should work fine.

[upgrading to gigabit is an option, albeit painful - repull cable, new hardware, etc.]

Thanks for the help!

[kbyrd]

Do you actually need to pull new cable? GigE will run over Cat5, especially if you don't have that much interference.

In any case, buying a single new GigE nic, putting that in the server, and doing a back-to-back cabling of the HDHR to the Server gives you some room on the 100Mbps side for the clients. Also, that's worst case of the largest possible QAM/ATSC stream so you'll likely be fine.

Another area of concern would be the storage system. Can your drive(s) handle the same bandwidth? If you're using a single drive the answer is probably no, espeically with all the seeking involved in 2 writes and 4 reads.

[pjpjpjpj]

I believe the worst load I have ever thrown on my old machine is two HD streams and one SD stream recording simultaneously, while playing one HD stream at an extender. So there were three HD streams and one SD stream passing through my (100 Mbps) server/router simultaneously. No problems at all, with either my network (not that I would expect it since this isn't close to 100 Mbps) or my single USB drive that held it all (the 500Gb Maxtor in my sig).

Just FYI.

[S_M_E]

I agree, get a gigabit switch and 2 nics, one for the server and one for you main WS. If that works with your existing cat5e then you can add more nics as needed. If it doesn't then you can still use the switch and the server nic until you rewire. I wired my house with cat5e and gigabit works fine.

[kbyrd]

Cat5e will absolutely work. GigE was originally designed for Cat5, I believe, so it should even work with that. If you wired for Ethernet in recent times, it's likely you have Cat5, and my point was you probably don't need to re-wire.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by MalibuDave42

...

[upgrading to gigabit is an option, albeit painful - repull cable, new hardware, etc.]

Thanks for the help!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122203

as others said, it is simple.

in fact, if you have it set up like this:

WAN ---> Modem ---> Router ---> clients

all you have to do is this:

WAN ---> Modem ---> Router ----> gigabit switch ---> clients



it can sit right beneath/on top of/next to your current router, and simply pass everything about at a 1000 mbps clip vs 100. your current router can continue to run firewall DHCP etc.


and if you can get by with less ports, it is even cheaper:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122128

[CarlR]

Originally Posted by MalibuDave42

My current server only has 1 NIC, if I add another (gigabit for future capatibility) then direct connect the HDHR to the 2nd NIC port.. that would off load all of the traffic from the home network. Interesting idea...

I would recommend this option. You want the recording side to be as reliable as possible, and this eliminates a lot of variables from your setup. I've seen problems with my network when I was trying to record 3 HD shows over a gigabit network - they went away when I connected the HDHRs to a dedicated NIC on the server.