LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 06:48:55 am

Title: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 06:48:55 am
I've been reading the forums for the past week and Linux MCE has seriously interested me and I've decided to start building LinuxMCE core with 4 or so thin clients.

Quick Questions:

Can this do Skype?
Can you use a Bluetooth headset for when answering calls?
How do diskless thin clients work (I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and I can't figure it out!)
How should my set up be? (I want a cheap set-up but I also want it to do it flawlessly. I also have a ton of media. Should I put it all on the Hard drive of the core or should I use NAS?)
Can two or more thin clients access the core without interfering with each other? (i.e. one thin client is watching a recorded tv show another is watching a DVD from the Jukebox)
and One of the most important question is, can I access this through the internet (A la Slingbox or so?) If so I have a great project in mind :).

Thanks for reading and responding  :),
Clint
Title: Re: Help starting out.
Post by: richardj on August 24, 2007, 10:59:42 am
Clint Im in the same boat as you, need all of your questions answered as well with a few more ...

can a pc running windows connect the the core as a media director  ?  ie. stream tv to your windows pc while you are working on it ?
Title: Re: Help starting out.
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 04:46:32 pm
From what I've read, All you can do on Windows is control the remote. Nothing else =/..
Title: Re: Help starting out.
Post by: teedge77 on August 24, 2007, 05:08:17 pm
theres no media director support for windows....saying it only controls the remote isnt exactly right either....its an orbiter.....it does whatever you would normaly do minus playing the media on it. you can control the lights, make phone calls and start media and stuff on media directors.
Title: Re: Help starting out.
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 05:29:53 pm
Eh sorry about that ^^. I was also wanting to know if this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153053) would work as a media director.

It's has a 1Ghz processor (Or maybe a 1.3 Ghz Processor.. What would be the minimum for good viewing and no lag?), S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro IGP (I saw that Fiire used a Unichrome video card and I was wondering if this one could alpha blend), Video out, 1  GB Ram and 1 PCI slot (Possibly for a video card or a wireless card).

That brings me to my next question, in order to connect to the core, does the computer have to be connected with wires (computer - ethernet - modem - etc) or can I use a USB wireless N adapter or a PCI card?

Thanks a bunch,
Clint
Title: Re: Help starting out.
Post by: fibres on August 24, 2007, 05:32:29 pm
Hi Clint

I will try and answer most of your questions to the best of my knowledge.

It could probably do skype with some work. This will deffinaly not work out of the box and would need some extra software and some work configuring this. However it coudl be done.

As for the bluetooth headset I am  sure. I dont believe it is possible at present but might be in the pipe line.

Diskless thin clients is a standard way to have remote media directors. This is all plug and play. Once the core is up and running plug in a machine to the internal network aoot it over the network and it will set itself up.

You can store media either on the hard drive or on an external nas. This is upto you and I cannot comment on which would be better as I hav not used this with a nas. My setup whe I go live is gonna have a large raid array in the core for storage.

Each media director(thin client) can be used independently and each can perform a different task.

This cannot be accessed over the internet like clingbox.

Hope this answer most of your queries

Regards
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 05:37:44 pm
Thanks Fibres, you really helped a lot!

I got a few projects in mind right now..
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: teedge77 on August 24, 2007, 05:43:09 pm
the fiire media director uses a proprietary driver that they have licensed. i believe it will do alpha blending; but the regular driver will not AFAIK.....if you can find a wireless N card that is supported in linux that may be enough, if you do 720p video. i dont really know if that would be enough for 1080 anything.i dont know much about the compatibility of N cards with linux. sorry...i reread it...are you asking if the core can use wireless or if the media directors can?
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 07:17:08 pm
Sorry for mixing you up.

The Wireless N card question was for Media Director.. As I still don't understand how diskless boot works, I was wondering if my computer would recognize my Wireless N Card or USB N adapter without loading the OS..


*Edit* Also, Do I really need Cat5? Or can I use my wireless router?
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: teedge77 on August 24, 2007, 08:09:33 pm
diskless boot its PXE. the network card sends out a request for a boot image file which it loads into ram and uses most of the resources from the server. similar to some thin clients althought some thin clients have embedded OSs or even small hard drives. this allows a small OS to reside on the media director and request things from linuxmce once its loaded. most of the hard work is done on the core itself and then the video or audio is sent to the media director. anyone that can correct any of this please do...but this is how i understand it works. as far as pre n cards that will pxe boot...i dont know of any wireless cards that will pxe boot. that doesnt mean there arent...i know there are motherboards with on board wi-fi now. its possible that they can. id google that one though.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 09:13:52 pm
Hm Wow.. Thank you for helping me!! So for Diskless MD, I have to use a Ethernet to connect to the network?

Hm.. If I have to connect it via Ethernet, I'd rather buy a cheap Hard Drive, Install LinuxMCE, and use a compatible Wireless adapter.. I want this to be wire free as possible =/ or find a mother board with Wifi built in.

Or.. any other suggestions?

Thanks to everyone who helped me out! I think thats all the questions I have for now.. But I will have more  ;)
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: GoManutd on August 24, 2007, 09:23:40 pm
The underlying PBX software is asterisk which means you can use it with any VOIP provider that allows you to connect your asterisk PBX to their system.

I believe Skype is one of them - you'll just have to check with Skype to figure out the info you need when you configure asterisk...

asterisk.org has plenty of info on how to configure things.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 09:42:03 pm
Thanks GoMantud. I'll try that and see what happens =).

One last question (Hopefully), I was looking through the forums and saw this

Quote
Instead of using that shitty router, throw in a Gigabit network card in your LinuxMCE Core. Connect the old network card to your modem and use the Gigabit card for LAN. Get yourself a Gigabit switch for your lan. The Core is a Firewall/Router/DHCP server, and if you use it like this, everything will be a lot easier

For this I need:
A router
LAN switcher
Gigabit Network card

I connect the modem to my router, my router to the LAN switch, and the LAN switch to my Core? Sorry I got confused with this guy's the instructions..

Thanks =).
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: teedge77 on August 24, 2007, 09:52:17 pm
another option....if you want wireless....it may take up some more space...but....put in a regular network card....then get an adapter that would send that wirelessly to whatever you have....

something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124126 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124126)

as long as you have a pxe boot enabled network card that should work for you and youd still be wireless....hope this helps some.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Zaerc on August 24, 2007, 10:02:03 pm
Thanks GoMantud. I'll try that and see what happens =).

One last question (Hopefully), I was looking through the forums and saw this

Quote
Instead of using that shitty router, throw in a Gigabit network card in your LinuxMCE Core. Connect the old network card to your modem and use the Gigabit card for LAN. Get yourself a Gigabit switch for your lan. The Core is a Firewall/Router/DHCP server, and if you use it like this, everything will be a lot easier

For this I need:
A router
LAN switcher
Gigabit Network card

I connect the modem to my router, my router to the LAN switch, and the LAN switch to my Core? Sorry I got confused with this guy's the instructions..

Thanks =).

I think, in his own charming way, he meant this:

modem <---> [router] <---> (old nic) CORE (gb nic) <---> gb switch <===> rest of your network

the [router] is optional (some modems have them built in as well) they can avoid hassle with ppp etc.

Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 10:12:05 pm
Thanks to both of you guys.

Quote
another option....if you want wireless....it may take up some more space...but....put in a regular network card....then get an adapter that would send that wirelessly to whatever you have....

something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124126

as long as you have a pxe boot enabled network card that should work for you and youd still be wireless....hope this helps some.

I thought that too, but will it give me Wifi on PXE start up so I can connect to the core? If that's true, why can't I use the PCI adapter for Wifi? Maybe it has to do with the fact USB starts on boot up? I'm just guessing..

Quote
I think, in his own charming way, he meant this:

modem <---> [router] <---> (old nic) CORE (gb nic) <---> gb switch <===> rest of your network

the [router] is optional (some modems have them built in as well) they can avoid hassle with ppp etc.

But If I use Wifi for my MD, won't that conflict with the Router's DHCP server? Or was this setup made for a wired connection?


Once again, Thank you =).
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Zaerc on August 24, 2007, 10:23:37 pm
To be honest, I think wifi is a PITA.  And from what I've heard, playing media over wifi is no picnic either.

Anyway, if you want to use wifi for media directors and such, make sure it's attached to the "inside" network of the core (where the gb-switch is attached in the example).  Firewalling (NAT/Masq) and DHCP should be turned off in the wifi router.  Having wifi on the [router] in the example is pretty much useless as that won't get your diskless MDs started.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: teedge77 on August 24, 2007, 10:30:14 pm
sorry...i didnt notice it was USB...i meant something like this....


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833203003 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833203003)

with this card (i wouldnt get it....get a better one) all you do is plug in your ethernet cable into the adapter and it receives it and sends it wirelessly for you. so that would relay the PXE boot request for you.

but like zerc said....wireless and streaming video is a crapshoot....youll need to be extremely close to your WAP and even over pre-N i think 720p might be the best you could do....if done some 720p at hoem on my laptop and it starts to stutter once any fast motion comes in...im gonna wire my house with cat5e or cat6 and get a Gb switch. if you dont expect to do any high definition then i think wireless (at least G with great signal) should be fine. we watch movies/tv shows like that on my laptop sometimes...

Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 10:47:22 pm
In reality, Wires are a PITA =/.. My rooms are very far apart and it would take a lot of time and wires for the house to be fully connected.

I'll either buy that adapter or I'm just going to buy a small hard drive, install Kubuntu, and buy a compatible wireless adapter.. But wait.. The DHCP server uuuuuuuuughhhhhh stupid DCHP & routerssss. Couldn't I just disable my router's DHCP & Firewall so my MD to connect to the core =/?

Btw, how do you know if your computer supports Diskless boot?

Thx
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: teedge77 on August 24, 2007, 10:57:11 pm
youd have to look up your motherboard or nic....if you use an onboard nic then it may say...if you use a pci card look it up on the manufacturers web site.

something like this one. the specifications will say if its PXE enabled.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106123 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106123)

Intel 82541PI Gigabit Controller
Compatible with Fast Ethernet and Ethernet
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) 2.3 32-bit 33/66 MHz
Category-5 Cabling
Interrupt Moderation
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI),Preboot Execution Environment (PXE)
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)/Desktop
Management Interface (DMI), Wired for Management (WfM)
Meets IEEE 802.3ab Technology
Advanced Cable Diagnostics
Support for Many Network Operating Systems (NOSs)
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 24, 2007, 11:06:40 pm
Alright thanks. Someone should really write a step by step on making a core (and install av equipment too..) & a MD, installing plugins, a plugin section on the forums, give minimum requirements for hardware, options for networking and such, and how to go into PXE (Unless it's pretty easy). It would really help people like me who don't know a lot about Linux and don't have experience in setting up a Linux HTPC.

Thanks for everything guys. Still need that "disabling the router's DHCP" thing answered and that should be my last question for a while.

Thanks you guys =).
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: dopey on August 25, 2007, 01:43:44 am
In reality, Wires are a PITA =/.. My rooms are very far apart and it would take a lot of time and wires for the house to be fully connected.

If that's the case then actually a wired solution is your best bet. The further apart your rooms are, the more likely wireless won't work...

If you disable DHCP on the core it won't allow you to boot diskless, which seems to not be what you want.

You can easily see if your motherboard/network card supports network boot by looking in the bios (you'll likely need to go in there anyhow to tell it to boot via network). Make sure that your integrated network card has the boot rom option enabled (usually in the Integrated Peripherals menu) and then change the boot priority to allow network boot (usually in the Advanced menu). Also some motherboards allow you to press a button (usually F8, but could be F10 or even ESC) on the POST screen (the very first screen on boot) to give you a menu to select how you want to boot (hard disk, network, etc.).
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 25, 2007, 01:59:37 am
If that's the case then actually a wired solution is your best bet. The further apart your rooms are, the more likely wireless won't work...

If you disable DHCP on the core it won't allow you to boot diskless, which seems to not be what you want.

You can easily see if your motherboard/network card supports network boot by looking in the bios (you'll likely need to go in there anyhow to tell it to boot via network). Make sure that your integrated network card has the boot rom option enabled (usually in the Integrated Peripherals menu) and then change the boot priority to allow network boot (usually in the Advanced menu). Also some motherboards allow you to press a button (usually F8, but could be F10 or even ESC) on the POST screen (the very first screen on boot) to give you a menu to select how you want to boot (hard disk, network, etc.).

I mean disable DHCP on my router, not my core. Thanks for the network boot tip =).
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: dopey on August 25, 2007, 02:16:23 am
Sorry about that. The core is used as a router, so people often call the core the router...

Yes, you can disable your router's dhcp if you are using the Core to serve the internet (needs to network cards). However, that's dependant on how you set things up. What kind of router device and modem to you have? If it's all in one then you need to keep dhcp enabled and just connect the router to network card in your core. However, you won't be able to use anymore of the the network jacks on your router as it would bypass LinuxMCE. If you have a modem and a router then you connect the modem to the external network card in the core and then the router to the internal network card in the core. You would need to disable DHCP on that router, but it would turn it into a switch (just don't use the network port for the external network on the router).
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 25, 2007, 03:08:52 am
Thanks! I'll try the second option since I have a Linksys router and a modem =).
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 25, 2007, 05:17:16 am
Just a quick question,

Will 256 mb of ram will be ok for an MD? or should I splurge on a 512 mb? Thanks!
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 25, 2007, 09:53:29 am
I've been reading the forums for the past week and Linux MCE has seriously interested me and I've decided to start building LinuxMCE core with 4 or so thin clients.

Quick Questions:

Can this do Skype?
Can you use a Bluetooth headset for when answering calls?
How do diskless thin clients work (I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and I can't figure it out!)
How should my set up be? (I want a cheap set-up but I also want it to do it flawlessly. I also have a ton of media. Should I put it all on the Hard drive of the core or should I use NAS?)
Can two or more thin clients access the core without interfering with each other? (i.e. one thin client is watching a recorded tv show another is watching a DVD from the Jukebox)
and One of the most important question is, can I access this through the internet (A la Slingbox or so?) If so I have a great project in mind :).

Thanks for reading and responding  :),
Clint

Hi... you've had a lot of response to your questions already but I thought I'd put my '2 cents' worth in too ;-)

- Skype
I believe there is some work going on to integrate Skype as a backend Voip provider (or at least there was). But right now you can install the Skype client as a KDE desktop app and use it there just as you would under Windows/Mac.

- Bluetooth Headset integration
As far as I know you can't just attach a Bluetooth dongle to a MD and then use a Bluetooth headset directly connected to it. However you could use a Voip enabled mobile phone (eg Nokia N95 etc) running a Voip app and use a Bluetooth headset paired to the mobile (cellular phone...sorry I'm a Brit ;-)) connected back to the Core/PBX over WiFi. In this scenario the Core would be the PBX and the Mobile phone would work just like any 'normal' voip phone would. We have tested this and it works very well.

- Diskless PXE booted Clients
Essentially when a PXE booted client boots it is using a directory on the Core as its boot drive. All the processing and code execution happens in the clients processor/memory. It means that the client only needs minimally a processor & 512mb ram and no local HD and optionally an optical drive if you want to play local CD/DVD content direct from discs. The delivers a low cost, low energy & low maintenance solution.

- Core's Hard Drive or NAS?
Well lmce-0704 is a very flexible platform and offers numerous options here. You could 'load up' your Core with drives (and they could be RAIDed too) or you could add a low cost self contained NAS, or build a NAS using something like FreeNAS or as you could add HD's to one of you MD's and make that the main storage solution in your system. All would work independently or mixed together in pretty much any way that suited you. Whether one is better than the other will depend on your needs etc... there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way though!

- Can two or more thin clients access the core?
The simple answer is yes they can. But as with any system there will be limits on how smoothly performance is delivered as you 'load up' your system. In our experience using a 2.8 ghz Celeron M/i915/1Gb based Core using a 10/100 network we can smoothly handle 4 PXE booted MD's all playing media or streaming UK standard PAL TV concurrently (even while the Core is say ripping a DVD). But in the end it comes down to making sure your LAN is setup correctly and configure optimally as well.

- Can lmce-0704 be used like a SlingBox?
Well as of today not really. However in the short term you could attach a Slingbox to your Core or an MD and use it to stream/control the Core/MD from outside your house just like you would a TV or DVR. We have not tested this... but I can't see any reason that this might not work in principle.

Hope the above helps you!

Andrew
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 25, 2007, 06:46:53 pm
Wow thanks! You really did help!

Wow a Celeron M Core handled 4 MDs while ripping a DVD?! I thought I need something powerful like a Core 2 Duo and If needed a Quad Core, But If a Celeron M can do that then I guess the cost should go down a bit :).

I think I'm going to go with NAS so my media can be safe and secure.  The core can write to the NAS right?

Anyways this thread really has helped me and I hope this can help other people too :)!
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 25, 2007, 06:58:56 pm
Wow thanks! You really did help!

Wow a Celeron M Core handled 4 MDs while ripping a DVD?! I thought I need something powerful like a Core 2 Duo and If needed a Quad Core, But If a Celeron M can do that then I guess the cost should go down a bit :).

I think I'm going to go with NAS so my media can be safe and secure.  The core can write to the NAS right?

Anyways this thread really has helped me and I hope this can help other people too :)!

If you have an a little PC or one that doesn't have the graphics 'grunt' to be a good MD then a low cost way to build a NAS would be to install a low cost HD inside it and add it to your core as a PXE booted MD (ie just use the drive for Data) and then accept the option to add the drive for storage when the Core auto detects it. Instant NAS!

Alternatively buy an off the shelf NAS and add that as a Windows share when your Core auto detects it.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 25, 2007, 07:51:54 pm
I was looking around New Egg and found a perfect motherboard for my MD (I found a good one but I want it to be small) but than I remember reading a thread that AMD processors don't work well with LinuxMCE.. Or was that ATI graphics? I get them both confused since it's now one company.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 25, 2007, 08:34:24 pm
I was looking around New Egg and found a perfect motherboard for my MD (I found a good one but I want it to be small) but than I remember reading a thread that AMD processors don't work well with LinuxMCE.. Or was that ATI graphics? I get them both confused since it's now one company.

Motherboards with AMD processors (32 bit ones at least) are fine... but ATI graphics cards or motherboards that use ATI on-boards are problematic. Having said that one my home MD's has an old ATI 9200 card in it and runs UI1 and TV/Video really well.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 25, 2007, 08:55:32 pm
Oh thats perfect since this has a NVidia GeForce 6100 on board so it should have UI2 :) awesome!
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: 1audio on August 27, 2007, 04:37:56 am
I saw a lot of discussion on using WiFi for wireless access to media. Here is a short summary of my testing (and similar to the published results of a respected engineering magazine)

1) WiFi is fine for audio, but not video. Same room you can do SD. Multiroom forget it.
2) 802.11n: too soon to bet on anything. It may or may not work.
3) Powerline- if your house is compatible (important) it can support 1-2 HD streams. Forget booting across it. way too slow for that. (I have tried. . .) My house is allergic to all of the powerline stuff. However I have seen it work in a few houses. I would go with HomeplugAV, just because it has the most momemtum in the US. DS2 in Europe and Panasonic in Asia. But they are all expensive- approx $100 per connection.
4) UWB will just make it to the other end of the room.
5) Wiring isn't that expensive or difficult. I can get a pro here (San Francisco) to pull wires for well less than $200 a connection and a little shopping is closer to $75. Other areas can for $50 or less. its just not too difficult to do. Look for an alarm installer looking to moonlight. And its far more reliable and secure.

I have seen a system using WiFi deliver problem free HD over 100'. However everything in it was very special and not compatible.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 27, 2007, 07:36:19 am
I saw a lot of discussion on using WiFi for wireless access to media. Here is a short summary of my testing (and similar to the published results of a respected engineering magazine)

1) WiFi is fine for audio, but not video. Same room you can do SD. Multiroom forget it.
2) 802.11n: too soon to bet on anything. It may or may not work.
3) Powerline- if your house is compatible (important) it can support 1-2 HD streams. Forget booting across it. way too slow for that. (I have tried. . .) My house is allergic to all of the powerline stuff. However I have seen it work in a few houses. I would go with HomeplugAV, just because it has the most momemtum in the US. DS2 in Europe and Panasonic in Asia. But they are all expensive- approx $100 per connection.
4) UWB will just make it to the other end of the room.
5) Wiring isn't that expensive or difficult. I can get a pro here (San Francisco) to pull wires for well less than $200 a connection and a little shopping is closer to $75. Other areas can for $50 or less. its just not too difficult to do. Look for an alarm installer looking to moonlight. And its far more reliable and secure.

I have seen a system using WiFi deliver problem free HD over 100'. However everything in it was very special and not compatible.

I think as you say peoples experience with WiFi will vary. My experience having used 802.11G in all our setups since early Pluto days is that in most locations it works but is not perfect if you are streaming Standard Def TV or Audio to a laptop running Windows. We use 85mbit and 200mbit Powerline line boxes (mostly HomePlug) and again these can work very nicely and PXE booting from even 85mbit units is fine. But I agree some house wiring will just trip powerline up and it can take a lot of work and extra Powerline boxes to route around these problems... by which time pulling cat5 might have been easier and cheaper. I guess you just have to use the approach that best suits you... as each has its place.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: 1audio on August 27, 2007, 07:52:34 am
Boot over powerline? I'm impressed. When we tried it we gave up after 15 min.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 27, 2007, 09:23:56 am
Boot over powerline? I'm impressed. When we tried it we gave up after 15 min.

I am writing this to you from a machine pxe booted over 85mbit powerline from my home lmce system :-)
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: bulek on August 27, 2007, 11:21:09 am
Boot over powerline? I'm impressed. When we tried it we gave up after 15 min.

I am writing this to you from a machine pxe booted over 85mbit powerline from my home lmce system :-)

Hi,

could you please post more info to wiki about such setup ?

Thanks in advance,

regards,

Bulek.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 27, 2007, 04:34:27 pm
Boot over powerline? I'm impressed. When we tried it we gave up after 15 min.

I am writing this to you from a machine pxe booted over 85mbit powerline from my home lmce system :-)

Hi,

could you please post more info to wiki about such setup ?

Thanks in advance,

regards,

Bulek.

Well there is not really much to it... Powerline adapter linked to port on my router.... 2nd Powerline box plugged into mains outlet behind MD with rj45 into back of MD. Set MD box to PXE boot in bios... and restart. Thats it really... the only gotchas are to do with the house wiring and devices like fridges/freezers that might inject some interference into the mains.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: majkaj on August 27, 2007, 09:02:19 pm
Just a quick question,

Will 256 mb of ram will be ok for an MD? or should I splurge on a 512 mb? Thanks!

I use thin clients at work on Kubuntu/LTSP (http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/WebHome).   I think that LinuxMCE is using the same technology.  The memory requirements of the CORE/Server is 500meg to 1 gig if you are running around 10 thin clients.  The thin client memory requirements are VERY low... on the order of 32 meg to 128 meg.  I have booted up 64 meg thin clients and the response is almost the same as a full blown computer.

Note that in the thin client / Core setup , all the computer processing is being done on the SERVER... not on the client.    I have not tested out thin clients with LinuxMCE , yet, but I will post the results after I do.  I would suggest that you try a thin client with 256 mb of ram before purchasing more ram. 

Mike
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 27, 2007, 11:08:20 pm
Just a quick question,

Will 256 mb of ram will be ok for an MD? or should I splurge on a 512 mb? Thanks!

I use thin clients at work on Kubuntu/LTSP (http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/WebHome).   I think that LinuxMCE is using the same technology.  The memory requirements of the CORE/Server is 500meg to 1 gig if you are running around 10 thin clients.  The thin client memory requirements are VERY low... on the order of 32 meg to 128 meg.  I have booted up 64 meg thin clients and the response is almost the same as a full blown computer.

Note that in the thin client / Core setup , all the computer processing is being done on the SERVER... not on the client.    I have not tested out thin clients with LinuxMCE , yet, but I will post the results after I do.  I would suggest that you try a thin client with 256 mb of ram before purchasing more ram. 

Mike

I'll try and and do 64 - 128 megs. Webhome looks pretty interesting and so does Powerline! Wow! I never knew such a thing existed!! I'm thinking of buying that instead of networking my house since its a BIG P.I.N.A. with forwarding ports, changing ips, disabling the DCHP server blah blah the list goes on =/... and even some companies have proprietary hardware, so you have to buy their router & your adapters for it to work.. so hmm thanks =)!
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 28, 2007, 12:45:47 am
Anyone still know about if the Via Motherboard with the S3 Unichrome Graphics card can do UI2? I've seen a couple of people on the forums  who have said that they have the GFX card.. anyone?
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 28, 2007, 01:23:57 am
Just a quick question,

Will 256 mb of ram will be ok for an MD? or should I splurge on a 512 mb? Thanks!

I use thin clients at work on Kubuntu/LTSP (http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/WebHome).   I think that LinuxMCE is using the same technology.  The memory requirements of the CORE/Server is 500meg to 1 gig if you are running around 10 thin clients.  The thin client memory requirements are VERY low... on the order of 32 meg to 128 meg.  I have booted up 64 meg thin clients and the response is almost the same as a full blown computer.

Note that in the thin client / Core setup , all the computer processing is being done on the SERVER... not on the client.    I have not tested out thin clients with LinuxMCE , yet, but I will post the results after I do.  I would suggest that you try a thin client with 256 mb of ram before purchasing more ram. 

Mike

With lmce the PXE booted MD is handling all the processing in its local processor/memory and not in the Core. In essence the Core is acting like a local hard drive to the MD... it just has less performance. However we have found that the performance of PXE booted MD's really excellent and it is only in very rare circumstances that you see any performance issues. After using PXe booted MD hardware with Pluto and now with lmce we have a lot of experience with the hardware and memory requirements - our standard is to fit 512mb of ram as this seems to optimum currently. In some situations where for example you were using the PXE booted MD to maybe capture analog video from say an external satellite or cable box while still playing audio or TV/video locally you might look at fitting 1gb RAM to allow for more buffering in local RAM.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: majkaj on August 28, 2007, 06:52:11 pm
>>With lmce the PXE booted MD is handling all the processing in its local processor/memory and not in the Core. In essence the Core is acting
 >>like a local hard drive to the MD... it just has less performance.

Thank you for correcting me.  I ASSUMED that lmce was using the Linux Terminal Server Project  LTSP.  Because of this assumtion, my advice about the amount of ram needed for the "thin client" is, of course, not valid. 

Mike
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: richardj on August 29, 2007, 01:28:06 pm
I have a wireless router and a wireless extender ... brick walls are a bitch.  Signal to my lounge, etc are poor.  I have a single story house, im keen to try and put the wireless extender in the ceiling ... signal should travel better through the soft thin ceilings ...

Lan over power is interesting, here in south africa we have 240v ... so will have to find devices that support this.

How much bandwidth does high def video streaming use ?  ie. how many bits per second ?  I can play with my network and test data transfer rates through the house before investing any real time or money in one solution ?
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 29, 2007, 02:30:20 pm
I have a wireless router and a wireless extender ... brick walls are a bitch.  Signal to my lounge, etc are poor.  I have a single story house, im keen to try and put the wireless extender in the ceiling ... signal should travel better through the soft thin ceilings ...

Lan over power is interesting, here in south africa we have 240v ... so will have to find devices that support this.

How much bandwidth does high def video streaming use ?  ie. how many bits per second ?  I can play with my network and test data transfer rates through the house before investing any real time or money in one solution ?

1080p takes about 13mbit's a second at 30fps... roughly
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: dopey on August 30, 2007, 03:01:15 am
The bandwidth needed is completely dependent on the codec used, which can vary greatly depending on the service, tuner box (cables box or satellite receiver), or capture card you use.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: totallymaxed on August 30, 2007, 07:10:12 am
Anyone still know about if the Via Motherboard with the S3 Unichrome Graphics card can do UI2? I've seen a couple of people on the forums  who have said that they have the GFX card.. anyone?

Any of the Via motherboards based on the C7/CX700M chipset (like Fiire's Fiirestation) can potentially run UI2 excellently... problem is you need Unichrome Pro II drivers and currently they have to be licensed from Via. The Fiirestation has these drivers bundled with it.
Title: Re: Seriously..
Post by: Clint07 on August 30, 2007, 02:40:46 pm
Anyone still know about if the Via Motherboard with the S3 Unichrome Graphics card can do UI2? I've seen a couple of people on the forums  who have said that they have the GFX card.. anyone?

Any of the Via motherboards based on the C7/CX700M chipset (like Fiire's Fiirestation) can potentially run UI2 excellently... problem is you need Unichrome Pro II drivers and currently they have to be licensed from Via. The Fiirestation has these drivers bundled with it.

They are Unichrome Pro II