Server for SageTV

[tshephard]

I'm an all mac household but going to sagetv means windows from what I can see. Thats the version they put their efforts into.

I'll have to buy a windows machine just to experiment with it. I'm looking at an HP Mediasmart server, the EX495. Its a 2.5Ghz Dual core intel machine. Comes with 2GB ram and 1.5 TB harddrive. It has three other bays that you can add drives to. Comes with Windows Home Server.

Another choice is the dell refurb 3.2Ghz i5 with 2GB ram and 640GB harddrive. Comes with W7 home.

The HP Home Media Server would be nice because it would work with all of my Mac's time machines, and iTunes sharing built in. Plus I like the idea of the raid configuration adding drives when needed.

The Dell, is just a mid tower, no biggie. But the i5 from what I read may be a better choice for comskip, transcoding for iphone/ipad, etc...

I want to get four of the HD300 extenders and I have a dual HD Homerunner tuner. So it needs the horse power to record two shows and drive 4 extenders, all in HD of course.

Looking for some advice! Want to pull the trigger!

Thanks

-Tim

 

[damage]

I want to get four of the HD300 extenders and I have a dual HD Homerunner tuner. So it needs the horse power to record two shows and drive 4 extenders, all in HD of course.

it doesn't really need horsepower to do that. just bandwidth. the hdhomerun streams are written straight to disk. no encoding/decoding necessary. the extenders do the decoding themselves, so your server just needs the bandwidth to serve the streams. you could also offload transcoding for remote viewing via slingboxes and you could run comskip overnight. comskip on HD content has been hit or miss for me.

 

[tshephard]

So you're saying the media smart server could do what I want.

My network will be wired gig and I have cable internet, if that is what you mean by bandwidth.

What is hit or miss on your HD content?

-Tim

I want to get four of the HD300 extenders and I have a dual HD Homerunner tuner. So it needs the horse power to record two shows and drive 4 extenders, all in HD of course.

it doesn't really need horsepower to do that. just bandwidth. the hdhomerun streams are written straight to disk. no encoding/decoding necessary. the extenders do the decoding themselves, so your server just needs the bandwidth to serve the streams. you could also offload transcoding for remote viewing via slingboxes and you could run comskip overnight. comskip on HD content has been hit or miss for me.

 

[Techvet]

So you're saying the media smart server could do what I want.

My network will be wired gig and I have cable internet, if that is what you mean by bandwidth.

What is hit or miss on your HD content?

-Tim

A MediaSmart Server will work nicely as a SageTV Server. I have a EX495 doing that and much more now and am VERY pleased with it's performance. It has NEVER skipped a beat. I personally do not run HD streams, mainly because of the space required to store a HD movie. All of my content is ripped standard DVDs (which I own) recompiled into MKV files using Handbrake. I may eventually get to loading up my HD content, but for now I can't find anything that condenses the file size down. At 15-25 GB per movie, you'll have all your drive bays full of 2 TB drives plus an external expansion cabinet full full of them as well.

As for bandwidth, a wired GB Ethernet setup will be more than ample. Many of us MSS folks are running 100MB and streaming HD content with no problem, so four HD300s shouldn't be a problem for you. If you haven't already done so, check out mediasmartserver.net - its a great forum with lots of activity and advice on the ways of the MSS.

 

[damage]

So you're saying the media smart server could do what I want.

My network will be wired gig and I have cable internet, if that is what you mean by bandwidth.

What is hit or miss on your HD content?

-Tim

yup it should be just fine and gig will be plenty of bandwidth. the default comskip settings only work for certain channels and for others, they're completely off. it worked almost all the time on SD content, but for some reason, it's only successful on maybe 50% of our HD recordings. it seems to be related to a particular set of channels.

 

[tshephard]

This is great news. I wanted to go with the EX495 but was not sure it was up to the job.

Thanks!

-Tim