Building my own media center, Part 2

We left off last time with our internal personal video recorder (PVR) card in place in an upstairs PC, recording TV shows like there was no tomorrow. Next, we wanted to try out the SageTV client, a software application that lets other computers on the network watch the content stored our SageTV "server" (aka, the upstairs PC).

To start, the SageTV application had us enable the "server" portion so we could run the client on a separate machine. We chose a Windows XP laptop. After installing the client, we hit our first hurdle trying to connect to the server - it asked us to type in the IP address of the PC running the SageTV application.

Since we use DHCP to assign IP addresses to our different devices, we had to go into the router and bring up the DHCP clients table to locate the right number. The other method - typing IPCONFIG into the command line of the PC - yields the same results but meant a trip upstairs. Finding the IP address is an easy step for me, but a potential stumbling block for many consumers. 

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

We left off last time with our internal personal video recorder (PVR) card in place in an upstairs PC, recording TV shows like there was no tomorrow. Next, we wanted to try out the SageTV client, a software application that lets other computers on the network watch the content stored our SageTV "server" (aka, the upstairs PC).

To start, the SageTV application had us enable the "server" portion so we could run the client on a separate machine. We chose a Windows XP laptop. After installing the client, we hit our first hurdle trying to connect to the server - it asked us to type in the IP address of the PC running the SageTV application.

Since we use DHCP to assign IP addresses to our different devices, we had to go into the router and bring up the DHCP clients table to locate the right number. The other method - typing IPCONFIG into the command line of the PC - yields the same results but meant a trip upstairs. Finding the IP address is an easy step for me, but a potential stumbling block for many consumers. 

Once we put in the IP address, we could connect, and the interface appeared exactly like the regular SageTV application. But then our second hurdle appeared - when we tried to play our content, an error message said the client was looking (and failing to find) the correct video decoder.

This one had us stumped. Not wanting to break anything, we called SageTV support. The rep said we needed to install a video player (such as WinDVD) on the client system.

Most new laptops with a DVD player have a video player already installed, but not ours. Luckily, we had an extra copy of WinDVD, which we installed. Problem fixed.

With a decoder in place, we fired up the SageTV client, chose a show and … S-L-O-W-L-Y watched the program.

This third hurdle was a doozy, and pretty much the deal breaker. The TV show was traveling from the "server" to the client at a turtle's pace, causing extremely choppy video and audio.

The detective in me quickly mapped out the network path. Upstairs PC ("server") to router:  traveling over a Belkin power line adapter. Router to client: traveling over an 802.11g wireless connection.

Could the transmission type be the culprit?

To eliminate the wireless portion, I installed the client application on a second computer, a Windows 2000 laptop with a direct Ethernet cable to the router. This time I had no problems with the decoder and booted up another TV show.

This time, performance was a bit faster, but still very choppy and unacceptable.

In the meantime, all the TV recording on the upstairs PC filled up the hard drive (4 hours of programming takes more than 7G bytes). To relieve pressure on the PC, I decided to move its content onto a Buffalo LinkStation network-attached storage box with 160G bytes of space.

You never appreciate your company's network until you try transferring a 2G-byte file across a home network link. HomePlug equipment (in our case a Belkin adapter) has a 14M bit/sec data rate, which in theory should yield us about 7M bit/sec actual throughput.