Thank you for answering that.  I am definately NOT investing in hardware I can't fully use.  So I guess VIA just lost a couple of sales as far as I'm concerned, congratulations to their marketting department for this brilliant strategy. 

Well if you want to use UI2 then the Fiirestation works great... the drivers are far less closed than nVidia's are in fact. We are'nt using UI2 so we use the Unichrome Pro on a number of different Via based motherboards.

So let me get this straight, these proprietary drivers that Fiire is using are not freely available at all?  At least Nvidia and ATI make theirs available for download. 

According to Fiire... they have licenced the Unichrome Pro II drivers from Via and it is those drivers that are bundled with their Fiirestation box and it is those drivers that enable the Fiirestation to work with UI2 as it needs compositing functions to do the overlay etc and these functions are not in either the Openchrome or Unichrome Pro drivers.

We use the freely available Via Unichrome Pro drivers that are mostly open but they do have some small precompiled binaries. You can download the sources for these from Via and build them yourself. The resultant Unichrome Pro drivers work great under UI1 or in terms of the video playback performance (premium video playback performance is what we are focussed on by the way)

Hi mce peeps,

I have only just come across Linux MCE and so far from what I have read it seems to be exactly what I have been looking for.

I have been using Ubuntu on a few linux boxes for quite a while so was doubly please to find that linuxMCE seems to be based on this.

Of my experiences of linux in a desktop enviroment ubuntu so far has been top so this gives me a good feeling about this being the right way to go.

I am in the UK and currently I have sky+. I love the ability to be able to record 1 channel while watching another but this is tied to the room where the box is located and quite often I find I need to record 2 programs while watching another and want to be able to do this in any room i have a tv in so as you see I am experiencing a few drawbacks and restrictions which it looks as though linuxmce could solve.


After watching the mce video and having a good look around the forum I decided I would start putting together the parts i want to use to build the core for my setup

I have started with the Asus M2UPV-VM mother board as it seem from what I have read that this is what they develop on and then a AMD AM2 Athalon 64 dual core 4000, 1 gig RAM - will I have enough power here?

initialy the main functionality I need to get set up on this base is the sky+ style functionality. I am obviously  going to need some tuner cards if I want to do this.biostar 200n uk

My plan is to have 2 conventional tuner cards taking their input from 2 different sky satalite boxes which from what I can make out I should be able to control with an ir usb dongle to change channels then I would like to have a third digital tv tuner to allow me to make use of all the freeview digital channels that are broadcast in the uk giving more channel options and recording possibilities.

I am wondering if any one can just make sure I am heading in the right direction with this and what I want to do is possible?
I am also not sure about what choice of tunner cards to go with. i have read quite a few threads on this and hauppage is a name that keeps appearing. checking prices they go from £20 to £400, mpeg2 sounds as though it would be helpful, but can anyone suggest any models that are going to be upto the job but not overkill and un needingly be pushing up the prices.


I would also like to hook up my security cameras to the systebiostar 200n ukm, I currently have a Conexant BT878 based card, will I be able to get this setup in the system?

biostar 200n uk
I want to be able to control the whole system with ipaq pdas if possibly as we already have a couple and have a blue tooth usb dongel. how stable is this as a method of controling stuff? I also like the look of the cutom remotes so maybe that is a better way to go.
any
I woulds also like to get a zwave control unit to be able to start controlling lights heating etc although it seems the module thingies are limited in the UK currently as we run on 230volts and this isn't compatible with all the US stuff.


for the Media Directors (md) or slim cliConexant BT878ents I think they are also refered to as, I have a few biostar 200n systems which I would like to make use of. currently they only have AMD sempron 2300 in so i am thinking of upgrading them to athalon 3200 should this be ok with 512 ram? these come with a built in ir port which I assume should allow the MD to turn the tv and audio on and off in thier respective rooms?

there are few more things I want to look into being able to do through linux mce but this, I think, is enough for now.

sorry for the long post and I hope its in the right place. I will start to get the parts shortly and keep you informed of how I get on and probably answer a lot on my own questions which hopefully will help others

Hi,

Wow... too many question ;-)
Conexant BT878
I can't see anything in you post that look a deal stopper. You'll need two cards to grab the Sky box outputs - a    Hauppauge 150 or 250 should do the trick (you would not be using the tuner side of the cards just the video in functionality). Then you need to control the Sky box over IR. Again doable but the none of the codes will be in the database... but you can add them. So no real gotchas there.

Conexant BT878 cards should be no problem.

The PDA Orbiter software is only compatible with specific releases of MS Windows Mobile software... make sure your PDA are compatible. The Gyro remotes are great by the way... and i would say they are the better option from a usability perspective... although froma cost perspective your existing PDA's look better if the are compatible!

Zwave... you need UK compliant control modules (ie the need to plug into a UK socket) and all your Zwave kit must be intended for the European market (even if it does not attach to the mains) as in Europe Zwave kit uses a different frequency to the US. The only Zwave USB interfaces that are currently supported are the Home Pro unit and the Boca USB stick. Both seem to be either out of production or extremely difficult to obtain.

The Biostar's with 512mb should be fine... I dont think the onboard nVidia graphics will support anything more than UI1 though (thats a guess on my part though).

We're UK based by the way.

Hope the above helps you out.

Andrew

Hi, everyone.  I just found LinuxMCE and it looks fantastic.

I have a large array with hundreds of DVD's stored in ISO format.  They're currently in subdirectories, ie /Gladiator/Gladiator.ISO, /Gladiator/Gladiator_Disc_2.ISO, etc. 

I'm looking at picking up a dedicated HTPC/LinuxMCE box for playback.  But before I go that far, will someone kindly confirm or refute:

- That LinuxMCE will be able to mount my remote (FreeBSD) repository by Samba, NFS, or other means?
- That LinuxMCE will be able to read and catalog the big collection of ISO's?
- That I'll be able to import metadata to get the same result as if I had ripped the DVD's using LinuxMCE?
- That LinuxMCE won't do anything weird like modifying ISO files (even renaming, etc)?

Thanks in advance!

-b

Hi,

Can't see a problem with that other than currently lmce-0704 expects dvd iso's to have a '.dvd' extension. You could rename all your iso's to fix this or I guess create symlinks to each iso file in another directory that have the .dvd extension. We use to use the last trick to get .mpg files to play (you don't need to do that now). LMCE will initially scan your share for media and will create id3 files for each of your .dvd files these are used to contain meta data about the individual ripped DVD's (it will not modify the your .iso's). The process of adding a large amount of media to lmce's media database can take some time by the way ;-)

Hope the above is of help.

Andrew

FIIRE and the Unichrome II drivers...The problem I have with that is that once a company starts creating specific custom things that only belong to them they start becoming more like a Micro$oft and I start looking for something different.  I think we need to look at why the LinuxMCE product was created in the first place and really try at keeping as much stuff as public as possible while still keeping EVERYONE's budget insync.  This way the product progresses quite fast and everyone wants to use it because it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Well... as I said you can run Via hardware with the standard 'open' Unichrome (or totally open Openchrome) drivers and you get top notch Video performance using these drivers. We have the exact same Via hardware as the Fiire station but we use open Via drivers and I can honestly say that the video playback performance blows nVidia right out of the water... its just that some X features that UI2 needs like compositing etc are not supported with these drivers and therefore UI2 is not possible.

If you don't like Fiire's approach then don't use their products... its easy really ;-)

This might be the wrong place to post this so please forgive me as it is my first post.  I am looking at getting the above board and wanted to see if anyone has tried it with linuxmce?  I want to make sure that it works before I purchase.  I have some sneaky suspection it might be what is in the FIIRE system.  I am trying to build a good system for around $500 bucks or less.  I already have some Hard Drives. 

For motherboard specs see:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/motherboards.jsp?motherboard_id=450
or system
http://e-itx.com/via-epia-ex-2677.html

We have not tested that exact board but have tested many similar boards. But I cant see any reason why it would not be suitable if you use the Unichrome drivers from Via. But remember that Fiire have licensed the Unichrome Pro II drivers from Via and it is these drivers that enable there Via MD's to run UI2 in all its glory ;-). With the 'free' Unichrome drivers you will not currently be able to run UI2... but UI1 runs fine... and importantly the video playback performance will be excellent :-)

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.

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.

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 :-)

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.

what if you need to edit config files or troubleshoot mythtv problems, etc? you cant do that from an orbiter. his question seems valid to me. i hate having to walk from my living room to the office to do any of the things that are suggested as far as editing things. im, admittedly, one lazy bastard though.

Just open a console from your Orbiter login with you username/password then ssh into the MD you want to with "ssh moonNN" Where the "NN" is the device id of the MD you want access to (you can find out the Device ID of an MD by going to Web Admin -> Wizards -> Devices -> Media Directors and scrolling to the MD in question, the ID is the number with the "#" in front of it underneath the MD's name)

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.

It already uses MySQL locally as the database.

sqlcvs is a technology developed by the Plutohome guys to allow sychronisation with the Pluto servers.
The idea is that when a home user creates and adds a new Device Template then the sqlcvs software allows that to be absorbed back into the full set so that once approved and checked by Pluto people everyone else would automatically have access to that template.
I think it works the same (or is meant to) for local configuration setups like new remotes etc and also for local documentation. The idea there was that you would create the documentation for your new device template on your local pluto core and it would also automatically get distributed to everyone via the central hub.

Now that we have forked and are in linuxMCE world - I am not sure if the sqlcvs server still works and does the automatic updating. If Paul is reading this he might be best placed to answer. If it is not, it would be a good thing to bring back as it allows new devices to quickly become available - or even updates to existing ones. I am not sure how this is meant to occur otherwise - I guess it would need to be release based.

A seperate issue might be whether postgresql is a better option than MySQL. I am not sure about this one. Is the database really proving to be a problem at the moment.

Regards
Darren

re postgres v Mysql - I can say that we see any scalability issues at all. It just is not an issue in the context of LMCE

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.

I guess it makes some sense to have the core hybrid-capable.. Though, wouldn't any video chipset that can work with X (even with the generic vga or vesa drivers) be enough to work with UI1 since it's pre-rendered?

I'm just curious though.. Is it possible to install LMCE 0704 so that the core doesn't boot to X then (basically so it isn't a hybrid). I would imagine that it would perform better if you could do this and just serve X to the MDs.. All of the setup for the MDs (and any other services) is done via the web interface, correct?


-Dan-

Your right in a sense that any X capable chipset would suffice for purely UI1 rendering purposes. But often its useful to have the Core capable of playing media particularly when working with TV or streamed video.

Back in the very early days of Pluto (the ancestor of LMCE) it was possible to build an X free Core - in fact that was the only way to build a Core back then! But experience demonstrated that a Hybrid Core was far more flexible and was the configuration of choice for anyone who regularly did Pluto installs. Now however as far as i know there is no simple way to run an X free core.