Messages

1

Users / Re: GYR3101

« on: July 04, 2009, 05:35:55 pm »

That SOB he won't even return my emails.  I can't seem to find the appropriate dongle, however is there any chance that this receiver may work http://iphone.ebay.com/Pages/ViewItem.aspx?aid=120442475774&emvcc=0 I sure hope so or it looks like I'll have to buy a whole other setup...maybe I can buy one directly from gyration? Hmm looks like I'm gonna have to do a bit of googling today...
As usual thanks for the replies!

2

Users / GYR3101

« on: July 03, 2009, 07:29:39 pm »

Hello all, I just received my GYR3101 off of ebay today. I don't know if anybody is currently using this remote but is it supposed to come with a USB RF Receiver? If so I just got taken for $30.00 and I'll have to see if I can find a compatible one.  It appears in the wiki integration notes that the remote requires RF for the basic remote functions as well but will register as a gyration go mouse. Is it possible that I could use the receiver from a go mouse? Seems like I'm in a bit of a bind here and that this is a perfect example of how easy it is to get screwed on ebay, just hope I can figure out how to get it working so its not just a paperweight!
Regards,
.:MvH:.

3

Users / Surveillance issues...

« on: July 03, 2009, 01:52:28 am »

Ok here it is, I've got a PVR-150, at first I tried to hook up a camera to the composite video using two different methods. First the setup wizard detected the input and allowed me to assign a camera to it but no video showed for that camera under the security menu. The second attempt was adding a generic motion wrapper device and adding a generic analog camera. I tried messing around with the port/channel for the camera and the device ID for the input. Anyway no success so as an alternative I installed a 4 channel BT878 video capture card. before I was using the tuner the cam and the card were working just fine but after I can't seem to get it working using the same method that I had previously used. The other weird part is that since adding the BT878 my hybrid(which it is installed in) takes much longer to boot. I'm not sure whats going on but I know its designating the bt878 card as bttv0 and the PVR-150 as ittv0. I'm not sure if there is some conflict with the two cards and the pci bus? Seems kinda off to me but what I do know for sure is that the bt878 card was functioning fine before adding the hauppauge pvr-150 and that for some reason I can't get the composite in on the pvr-150 working. If anybody has a similar setup, that being a tuner & bttv, working together I'd love to know how.

Regards,
.:MvH:.

4

Users / Re: Hauppauge PVR-150 Woes....

« on: July 01, 2009, 03:17:34 pm »

Well I've seem to have cleaned up the picture a little bit by changing the following playback settings for MythTV:
I am deinterlacing the playback with the Kernel algorithm and handling mpeg 2 with libmpeg2.
When I use these settings am I allowing the on board decoder on the card to function or am I passing the work on to the CPU?
Though it cleaned up the blur/shakiness there is some really light rectangles that pass across the screen from right to left behind the picture? hopefully I can modify some config to clean that up too, so I guess I'll just keep playing with the various playback options and see what produces the best quality.

The only other problem I am having is displaying surveillance video from the component input. I've followed the instructions in the wiki for an analog cam and a bttv card, trying generic & hauppauge for the manufacturer with the motion wrapper. I also added a generic analog cam to be controlled through the motion wrapper using input ports 0 - 3 but still no dice....If anybody has had success with one of these WinTV PVR with an analog cam over the component input or the s-video in(I have an s-video to component adapter so that would work too) I be very interested to see the settings that you have used, or if there is a wiki article that deals with this issue that would be great too but I can't find anything that is terribly specific.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
.:MvH:.

5

Users / Hauppauge PVR-150 Woes....

« on: July 01, 2009, 04:27:08 am »

Hello all, I've just received my PVR-150 and got around to installing it today...All is well, well sorta. The image quality isn't great at all while using the tv tuner, I guess the best way to describe it is that the picture is shaky and you can't read the guide at the bottom of the screen. Not sure if its my cable it works just fine when connected directly to the tv. I don't know if there is some config that I can fine tune or if I just have a bunk card or if its due to the fact that its only a cheap 150. Any thoughts?

Also I was wondering how I add the component in as a video input for a cam. Do I go about it the same way I did with my BTTV card through the admin site. I simply went to inputs, selected generic and motion wrapper then I added a generic analog cam through the security section and that seemed to work just fine for that card. Though I must say that the combo of a PCI bus and a BT878A chip(for 4 inputs) only produces ~5FPS, max!

At any rate I just hope all this is some weird anomaly that can be easily remedied...I hope 

6

Users / Re: Just getting started....

« on: June 30, 2009, 02:18:14 pm »

Ok gotcha. Sorry if I'm coming across as a super newb  That was the part I didn't get, that you always need to netboot the MD. That makes a bit more sense now. As far as the Gyration remote goes thats great because as of replying to this post I've been able to pick one up for $31.00USD shipped! Seems to be in "like new" condition too! Well I guess I'm off to get everything setup! I'll report back as soon as I (or if I) put together a working setup. Also I was browsing through the board and took a look at Thom's letter to the community, it is amazing that only 5 people are able to develop and maintain such a complex codebase. I am fairly new to developing on linux though I have been using it for a number of "real world" solutions for about 7 years now. I do have some development experience on OS X(with C & Cocoa) as well as some web dev experience with HTML, PHP and the like. Once I understand LMCE on a more fundamental level and can begin to understand the intricate interactions and interdependencies of the various components I'd love to contribute back something, even if it is something small such as a new device template or a nifty hack that I've come up with that some how makes my life easier. I really appreciate the promptness and clarity of the guidance I've received so far in this board so I guess saying thanks is really the only way to show my gratitude at this point, so thanks!
.:MvH:.

7

Users / Re: Just getting started....

« on: June 30, 2009, 05:19:58 am »

Well all of my gear finally came in(the cameras, BTTV cards & PVR-150) I was wondering if there was another way that I could do this.  At first I was thinking of just having a simple setup(core/hybrid) in my living room since I live in a relatively small townhouse apartment.  The problem is the wiring for the cams(at least 2 of the 3, maybe all 3) will be upstairs and the hybrid is not.  Also I'm not exactly using the most capable hardware, just some parts that I had lying around.  Now I've got a machine upstairs with 2.6Ghz celeron and 512MB of DDR that seems to fit the bill of attaching 2 or 3 cameras. The problem is how should I approach this.  Should I netboot that machine as just a media director, and if so will my hybrid be able to use the cameras attached to the other machine? The only thing I fear is that a machine with only 768MB of ram, an Athlon 2800+ with an IDE drive running over a 10/100 network just won't do the trick as a core/media director/netboot server though I may be mistaken.  Could I just install LMCE and boot it as a MD(I assume I can, but I am having trouble navigating the documentation in regards to configuring that to work with a core) or is there another way entirely to go about this? If someone could maybe point me to the relevant wiki pages that would likely suffice and maybe someone could also point me to one that teaches paitence  I hate having new goodies and not being able to get them to work the way I'd like them too!!!  None the less all the help and advice I've gotten thus far from this community has been prompt, informative, friendly and above all just generally helpful!
Regards,
.:MvH:.

8

Users / Re: Just getting started....

« on: June 26, 2009, 03:07:59 pm »

Agreed I'll probably break down at some point and buy USB-UIRT at some point. It would be nice if there were some instructions on how to build one but I guess that would be a counterintuitive business plan. The real reason I'm putting this system together is for security purposes as there has been a string of break-ins recently in my apartment complex. I was going to use zoneminder at first but LinuxMCE seems to offer a more integrated, more scalable solution. Anyhow I thought if I was going to set it up for surveillance I might as well cough up the cash for a tuner and use the software to more of its potential. Has anybody had any experience with gyration products(Mice, remotes?) I might pickup a GYR3101 on ebay if I can find it for the right price as it really kills two birds with one stone. I just purchased a cheap plug'n play(At least under XP & Vista) USB bluetooth dongle($2.95 shipped) to use my apple bluetooth kbd which I suspect will be supported under linux, if not no big loss there. The IR transmitter would be nice and I'm sure I'll get one eventually, its just not a necessity at this point. I guess short of the USBUIRT, gyration remote or something along those lines I probably wont have much luck finding a plug n' play USB IR receiver for use with say a microsoft mce remote or some other universal remote. I have been browsing the wiki pages but they are a bit confusing to navigate and find the info I'm looking for. I can't really complain as the work that the opensource community has done to bring this piece of software to the world is nothing short of amazing and as most wiki's its probably safe to view this one as a work in progress. Again thank you to tschak909 & merkur2k for the insight and quick replies, much appreciated. Hopefully I will end up being successful endeavor!
Regards,
.:MvH:.

9

Users / Re: Just getting started....

« on: June 26, 2009, 04:19:13 am »

Thanks for the quick reply. I've checked out the USB-UIRT, it seems like a nice device but I'm not sure if its quite in the price range I'm looking at right now, though I probably won't find a transceiver for less. I'm also considering grabbing a gyration mouse + kbd combo off of ebay. Hopefully that will do the trick though I wish I could get a cheap compatible ir receiver and media remote as I'm trying to do this on a budget. The gyration mouse would be nice for web browsing, checking email and using the mce interface the only downside I can see with it is changing channels while using MythTV and for simple tasks like volume control etc unless I get something with two buttons on each side(one side for channels, the other for volume) As for the whole core/media director confusion, thanks for clearing that up. Just to clarify so I understand you correctly; it would in fact be possible to perhaps reverse this setup by having the capture card with the two cams attached to the core and have the PVR-150 operating in the media director? I think that would make more sense for my setup. Also I know you can netboot the media director from the core but it is also possible to just install linuxmce on the other machine and tell it to run as a media director, right? Hopefully I'll be able to get a decent setup going on a budget!

10

Users / Just getting started....

« on: June 26, 2009, 12:38:17 am »

Hello all, this is my first post! I'm just getting started with LinuxMCE and have a few questions. First I'll post my setup.
Hybrid Core/MD
Biostar MB NVidia NForce 2 Chipset
Athlon XP 2800+
768MB DDR
256MB NVidia GFX(the model escapes me at the moment, but it is supported so its kinda irrelevant to my question)
80Gb HDD
DVD ±RW
WinTV PVR-150 on the way
38" Panasonic TV
Harmon Kardon Stereo Receiver
320GB SATA NAS(for storage)
I guess my first question is about IR recievers, I see a ton of them on ebay with remote combos for pretty cheap. I don't really need anything fancy so any receiver and universal remote will do. I guess I'm not really sure on compatibility issues. Will almost any USB unit do? I'd like to be able to turn on my TV with it if possible. If there is a list somewhere I could reference that would be great. Also I'd like to use this as a security setup as well. I've got two 4 channel BNC capture cards on the way. I'd like to use one of them in another unit on my lan located elsewhere in my apartment with two cameras connected. I'd also like to attach another camera to the WinTV card in the above setup. What I'd like to know here is if I could basically have two cores, one used strictly to attach cameras to and the other for media use. Is it possible for me to view all three cameras on the media director?

Basically to sum it up is I'm a bit confused about IR receivers/transceivers and a universal remote and what is compatible.

Secondly could I have cameras attached to two seperate cores and view them all on one media director?

Thanks in advanced!
regards,
Mike