LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: grepico on February 22, 2008, 09:19:34 pm

Title: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: grepico on February 22, 2008, 09:19:34 pm
Is there any kind of control interface that can be used to monitor/control MD's?

Specifically, let's say I have multiple entertainment areas with multiple MD's in them and I want to play different infomercial vids or DVD's on them as I choose.  Is there an interface that I can sit down in my office and choose MediaX play on Entertainment area 1 and MediaZ play on Entertainment area 2, etc.  I've explored the scenarios but that seems extremely cumbersome, I'd just like to select the media and it's destination as many times it will be a one off thing.  (Current promos and the like)

Also, is it possible to, from my office, view what is currently playing on a given MD?
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: Venom986 on February 22, 2008, 10:24:29 pm
assuming you have an MD or the core in your office you should, at a minimum, be able to load up the media you want and then using the Follow functionality in the floorplan send that media to the MD you want it playing at.  You can do that for each MD.
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: colinjones on February 22, 2008, 11:20:21 pm
and for controlling other MDs - yes, of course, that's the whole point of Orbiters, they can control any MD. You can just use an on-screen orbiter in your office, choose the room you want to control at the bottom - then that orbiter is controlling that room, not the room/screen that it is actually on. All orbiters are general like this - you could even get a Nokia770/800 with an orbiter and WiFi, then control any room from any location...
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: Zaerc on February 23, 2008, 07:01:17 pm
What a rediculous question. 

Why don't you install the system and try a few things out yourself if you're planning to make money off it, or is that to much effort?
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: grepico on February 24, 2008, 04:01:30 pm
assuming you have an MD or the core in your office you should, at a minimum, be able to load up the media you want and then using the Follow functionality in the floorplan send that media to the MD you want it playing at.  You can do that for each MD.

Thanks for the reply.

Is there a way to do that with entire entertainment areas?  We have a showroom that has 8 TV's in it.  I'd like to define that whole area and pipe media to them simultaneously.  I tried using the method you describe but the media plays at different intervals which doesn't work for us.
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: grepico on February 24, 2008, 04:03:28 pm
and for controlling other MDs - yes, of course, that's the whole point of Orbiters, they can control any MD. You can just use an on-screen orbiter in your office, choose the room you want to control at the bottom - then that orbiter is controlling that room, not the room/screen that it is actually on. All orbiters are general like this - you could even get a Nokia770/800 with an orbiter and WiFi, then control any room from any location...

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.  It didn't occur to me to use the on screen orbiter, I generally have a Windows mentality and I'm still adjusting to this environment.
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: grepico on February 24, 2008, 04:12:10 pm
What a rediculous question. 

Why don't you install the system and try a few things out yourself if you're planning to make money off it, or is that to much effort?

A: Was that comment necessary?  I was under the impression that these forums are where you go for assistance.

B: I have the system installed (note my reference to trying scenarios), yet I still needed some help.  I guess I'm a terrible person.

C: Try to remember that not everyone here is a Linux guru, I've stated in previous posts that I'm a Windows guy and have little to no working knowledge of Linux and I'm sure there are others like me.  But the LinuxMCE system seems to offer many features that we can't find in another integrated system so here I am giving it a shot.  Doin the best I can with the aid of the people of this community, with a few exceptions.

You sig says "Needs to work for LinuxMCE".  I'm curious as to what capacity you'd like to work, it certainly isn't support or customer relations.
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: hari on February 24, 2008, 04:57:56 pm
You sig says "Needs to work for LinuxMCE".  I'm curious as to what capacity you'd like to work, it certainly isn't support or customer relations.
that comment was also not necessary.

For your information: thats no sig. That a flag set by the forum for people with more than thousand posts. Zaerc is helping others every day, thats the reason he has such a high post count.

best regards,
Hari
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: teedge77 on February 24, 2008, 05:45:00 pm
You sig says "Needs to work for LinuxMCE".  I'm curious as to what capacity you'd like to work, it certainly isn't support or customer relations.
that comment was also not necessary.

For your information: thats no sig. That a flag set by the forum for people with more than thousand posts. Zaerc is helping others every day, thats the reason he has such a high post count.

best regards,
Hari

are you saying zaerc made an unnecessary comment?!?! :o
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: ddamron on February 24, 2008, 07:46:10 pm
Hari was just clarifying why Zaerc's status is "NEEDS to work for..."
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: teedge77 on February 24, 2008, 08:55:42 pm
Quote
that comment was also not necessary.

the use of the word ALSO means he thought zercs comment wasnt necessary either.
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: Zaerc on February 24, 2008, 08:56:25 pm
What a rediculous question. 

Why don't you install the system and try a few things out yourself if you're planning to make money off it, or is that to much effort?

A: Was that comment necessary?  I was under the impression that these forums are where you go for assistance.

B: I have the system installed (note my reference to trying scenarios), yet I still needed some help.  I guess I'm a terrible person.

C: Try to remember that not everyone here is a Linux guru, I've stated in previous posts that I'm a Windows guy and have little to no working knowledge of Linux and I'm sure there are others like me.  But the LinuxMCE system seems to offer many features that we can't find in another integrated system so here I am giving it a shot.  Doin the best I can with the aid of the people of this community, with a few exceptions.

You sig says "Needs to work for LinuxMCE".  I'm curious as to what capacity you'd like to work, it certainly isn't support or customer relations.

A. About as necessary as your "question", you are not looking for assistence you are just being lazy.
B. Then you could have known how the system works, instead of asking for the obvious.  Anybody that has spent some time playing around with this system knows that there are several "control interface that can be used to monitor/control MD's".
C. This has shit to do with being a linux guru, but everything to do with being a sponge.  You want to make money off this system and yet you can't even be bothered to take a few minutes figuring out how to work it.

As for your ignorance concerning the difference between a signature and a postcount ranking...  :P

Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: Zaerc on February 24, 2008, 08:57:57 pm
Hari was just clarifying why Zaerc's status is "NEEDS to work for..."

Just ignore him, it's another one of his lame attempts at sarcasm again.
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: teedge77 on February 24, 2008, 08:59:34 pm
Hari was just clarifying why Zaerc's status is "NEEDS to work for..."

Just ignore him, it's another one of his lame attempts at sarcasm again.

 :-*
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: jimmejames on February 24, 2008, 09:58:03 pm
I would like to see a screen similar to what's on TV's that show 9 channels (or however many) and what is on each in a little window.  If we could do that with each of the windows showing what is playing on each of the MD's then you could monitor the status of the media.  Extra features would allow you to select a box/screen and then have control over that device. 

I'm currently trying to sort thru the code and learn how to code as I go (not a comp sci grad) so that I can write something like this.  You're not alone and there are non-commercial applications of such features.
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: grepico on March 14, 2008, 11:04:26 pm
OK, giving certain people the benefit of the doubt about my possible lack of effort, I believe I have exhausted every possible resource in trying to figure this out.

To Recap:
What I want to do is be able to sit at one computer or MD and be able to see what is currently playing on other MD's.  I don't think I was clear enough in the original post when I say "see", I mean actually view the media.  I see where I can choose the MD at the bottom of the orbiter screen but it doesn't actually show me the media.  Yes, it tells me via the remote the name of the media that's playing, but I want to actually see the video as if I were looking at the MD in question.

Before anybody calls me "lazy" again, I've searched the Wiki, this Forum, and the internet at large exhaustively with no success.  I've tried every possible setting/configuration on the core and on my PC (acting as a remote orbiter) that seems relevant to what I'm trying to do and I have had no success.

Is what I'm trying to do possible?
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: hari on March 14, 2008, 11:30:17 pm
so after selecting the MD's you have to select a stream from the list, too.
That will then be extended to the additionally selected MD's.

Works perfect.

best regards,
Hari
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: Zaerc on March 15, 2008, 01:34:37 am
As Hari says, go to the media>floorplan, select the MDs you want it to show on and select the playing media.  See also: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Play_the_same_media_in_multiple_rooms_simultaneously#How_to_use_it

Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: fibres on March 15, 2008, 04:42:15 am
Hi all

I think what grepico is trying to do is to be able to sit on his laptop which is acting as an orbiter and select an md on the system and be able to see the media that is being played on a certain media director from the remote orbiter on the laptop.

If this is correct I am not aware of this being possible.

Regards
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: totallymaxed on March 15, 2008, 10:49:16 am
Hi all

I think what grepico is trying to do is to be able to sit on his laptop which is acting as an orbiter and select an md on the system and be able to see the media that is being played on a certain media director from the remote orbiter on the laptop.

If this is correct I am not aware of this being possible.

Regards

Hmmm... no it isn't on a Windows orbiter... but if you you use an MD at your desk as Hari & Zaerc have suggested and add that MD to the stream already playing on say MD2 in some other location, using the Media Floorplan, then your MD will receive what MD2 is receiving. Admittedly not as elegant as having a 'multi-screen' view which shows each MD's stream as thumnails... but nevertheless achievable with features already implemented.

All the best

Andrew 
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: fibres on March 16, 2008, 11:48:24 am
Ah ok I had not thought of that approach.

I assume that means it will play fullscreen on that second MD though?

Regards
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: colinjones on March 16, 2008, 11:41:49 pm
Just to be clear (from some of the posts I read it seems that the wrong impression may have been given...)

The Orbiter (in this case the on screen Orbiter) is a "remote control" functionality, but isn't limited just to controlling the local MD it is running on, it can be used to control other MDs as well... ie tell them to start playing media remotely.

The second part of the question was whether you can then monitor what other MDs are playing. It should be noted here that this is not a function of the Orbiter as it is just a remote control. HOWEVER, as a result of it being a very flexible control system, there IS a function that allows you to instruct the local MD to take a copy of the stream going to a remote MD and start playing it locally, by using the remote control functions of the Orbiter. The end result is much the same, but conceptually you can see this is different. This is why it is understandable that it isn't as "elegant" as it could be, like totallymaxed pointed out, because it isn't really an extra (monitoring) function, it is just using the remote control functionality in a specific way to achieve the result you are looking for. This is also why (fibres) why, yes, it will be "full screen" and in fact identical to if you were sitting in front of the other MD - it isn't additional functionality, it is just 2 Orbiters/MDs playing the same file that just happens to be at a (~)synchronised point in that file.

To do the 9 thumbnails view, suggested, would be a possible extension I guess, but is definitely additional functionality, not simply an exension to the described process in this thread, so not a small mod! Plus given that the MDs are playing from file shares using file sharing protocols (typically) then you would need 9x the network bandwidth to achieve this and that could be a major problem depending on the source material bit rates. Putting intelligence at the source end to send only certain frames/recompress/otherwise reduce the bandwidth needed would be an even bigger undertaking for a single feature and rended the feature incompatible with source devices that couldn't run that "agent" software such as NAS's, etc....
Title: Re: Commercial installation questions.
Post by: grepico on March 18, 2008, 07:32:46 pm
Thank you, that cleared it right up for me.