Yet another "help me setup my setup" from a semi-experienced cord cutter

[y0bailey]

Alright folks. Help me think outside of the box and try things I haven't gotten around to trying.


My current setup:

1) Dedicated Windows 8.1 server, hosting all of my movies, tv series, running a Plex server, hosting a teamspeak server, automatically backing up my gaming rig and my wife's laptop.

2) GamingPC/daily use computer, Windows 8.1. No TV requirements here. Occasionally just stream Netflix while writing a word document, etc.

3) HTPC upstairs. Windows 7 media center setup, with Plex Home Theater, Kodi, Netflix plugin, and Amazon Prime plug in. All 100% remote friendly. Rarely used for gaming (when friends come over), with an Hauppauge dual tuner recording OTA signal. This is where most TV is watched, so this TV has all of our shows scheduled to record, etc.

4) HTPC downstairs. Same as above with it's own dedicated tuner. Mostly just live TV watched here while we are cooking/eating dinner/etc.

5) Wife's laptop, purely work.

I went ahead and backed the HDHOMERUN PVR kickstarter and will be getting my first HDHOMERUN networked tuner, and I am thinking there has to be a cleaner way to run my setup.

Just want to see what you guys would do. I know we won't know the full capabilities of the HDHOMERUN PVR, but use the most common knowledge.

So I am thinking to make my server the "PVR" of the network, then to host to everywhere else. This will be the HDHOMERUM's main computer to record to, and I will likely not setup the individual HTPC's to even use the HDHOMERUN because I don't want to tie up all the HDHOMERUN's tuners when we have multiple TV's on.

The individual TV's will just use the Hauppauge tuners for live TV through WMC, or hop into the HDHOMERUN app's to access the recorded TV on the server (or Plex to do the same).

I don't want to buy another HDHOMERUN tuner at this time, but I want this to be wife friendly, energy efficient, etc. (the server is on 100% of the time anyways, so having my HTPC kick on to record shows means 2 computers are on at the same time every night during prime-time).

What would you do with all of this equipment?

 

[Kelvarr]

If it is working for you, why break it? K.I.S.S.

It seems that your current setup already has WAF achieved, and that is like 90% of the battle.

The one part I am not sure of/familiar with....and it WILL happen...on the upstairs PC, your wife will want to record something. Probably just by pushing the record button on the MC7 guide. If my understanding is correct (and for a regular homerun prime/duo, it is), you have to make MC7 aware of the tuners.

With your new setup, if I understand correctly, you will be needing to remote in to the server just to set up a recording. Would you be better off by having a mapped drive to your server from each PC, and just telling MC7 to record to that drive? The each PC should be able to see/record/playback from the original spot. I could be completely off the mark here though, as I haven't the foggiest clue how the HomeRun PVR will work.

 

[y0bailey]

If it is working for you, why break it? K.I.S.S.

It seems that your current setup already has WAF achieved, and that is like 90% of the battle.

The one part I am not sure of/familiar with....and it WILL happen...on the upstairs PC, your wife will want to record something. Probably just by pushing the record button on the MC7 guide. If my understanding is correct (and for a regular homerun prime/duo, it is), you have to make MC7 aware of the tuners.

With your new setup, if I understand correctly, you will be needing to remote in to the server just to set up a recording. Would you be better off by having a mapped drive to your server from each PC, and just telling MC7 to record to that drive? The each PC should be able to see/record/playback from the original spot. I could be completely off the mark here though, as I haven't the foggiest clue how the HomeRun PVR will work.

Yea...the KISS plan is kinda my life motto, but the urge to make sure I couldn't be doing it in a better way (and save electricity from having extra computers on) make me always want to tinker a bit.

So in your scenario, my wife could schedule the recording on the upstairs HTPC within WMC, and use the built in Hauppauge tuners. I would then see this down the road (and she is pretty good about telling me these things because she knows I micro-manage) and then remote into the server to set up the long term recording through the server using HDHOMERUN software/tuner. I would then cancel her show on the HTPC and she would access it from either upstairs or downstairs through Plex. So from that point forward just the server would need to be on to record the series. (the server idles at like 23 watts, the HTPC is my old gaming rig and uses the old power hungry AMD phenom II quad core and a hand-me-down graphics card for occasional gaming. Idles at like 80 watts no matter what power settings I put on).

OR even better, if the HDHOMERUN PVR software works as I hope, her scheduled recordings would be setup to all download to the server, etc. now matter what computer schedules the recording. I actually thinking/hoping this is how it will work. Then we can just use WMC/local Hauppauge tuners for live TV (to not tie up the HDHOMERUN), and Plex to access all recordings on server no matter which location.

That way for future recordings only the server is on, not the server and the HTPC.

I think this is all just purely speculation and just me thinking out loud. I just fear if I want to use my Hauppauge tuners I won't be able to fully ditch WMC, and I don't want to drop even more money into tuners at this point.