Messages

391

Users / IP Phones Plug-N-Play

« on: June 08, 2007, 12:43:05 am »

Does anyone have a list of the IP phones that LinuxMCE will automatically recognize (by MAC address) and configure?  I know Cisco phones work.  Any others?

thanks,
-Pete

392

Installation issues / Re: Installer won't launch on Ubuntu 7.04

« on: June 07, 2007, 05:16:20 pm »

No sweat man. Welcome to the club.  Anyone willing to spend 16-20 hours playing with an install trying to get it to work is the kind of hardcore geek we need.

393

Installation issues / Re: Monitor says "Mode Not Supported" after linuxmce install

« on: June 06, 2007, 10:46:27 pm »

The easiest (though probably least fun) way to do it is to reinstall LinuxMCE and choose the hybrid installation.  That way, it will run the orbiter and let you acknowledge the messages for detecting a new device, etc.  In fact, I can't think of a good reason not to install LMCE as a hybrid.  That way, you'll get a message on your LMCE orbiter telling you that a new PC has been detected and giving you the option of configuring it as an MD.  From there, it's a matter of just waiting (for about 15-20 minutes) for the LMCE PC to generate an O/S image for your new MD.

394

Installation issues / Re: LinuxMCE - can you still use your computer normally?

« on: June 06, 2007, 09:53:35 pm »

There is an install option for LMCE that lets you choose to use your PC primarily as a standard Ubuntu PC.  In that case, you click on an icon to launch LMCE.

395

Users / Re: Embedding Title, Artist, Album, etc. information in ripped music files

« on: June 05, 2007, 07:38:53 am »

Hmm.  After playing with ripping to .mp3, it looks like LinuxMCE is
writing the id3 tags in the MP3 files. My script modifications write Title,
Artist, Album, Year, Track Number and Genre information.  LinuxMCE by default
writes Title, Artist, Album and Composer information, but doesn't
include Track Number or Genre information, which I think are worth
having. 

Incidentally, the ripping script doesn't use the quality settings for
MP3 or Ogg rips.  I don't know if a Mantis report has been filed, but
I'm guessing it was on the Pluto guy's todo list. I recommend ripping to Flac (no options) until that gets fixed.  That way you know what you're getting.

In any case, the script should now work correctly for MP3, FLAC, and Ogg rips.  Again, paste the
included ripDiskWrapper.sh in your /pluto/bin directory.  Save your
existing copy.

Also, make sure you set the execute permissions correctly. If you
don't know what I'm talking about, after copying type chmod a+x
ripDiskWrapper.sh Please let me know if you have any issues.

On another note, Lame wasn't installed by default, so ripping to MP3
failed outright initially. I'm surprised it wasn't installed by default by
LinuxMCE.  Can anyone else confirm this?

396

Developers / Re: Embedding tags when ripping CDs

« on: June 05, 2007, 07:34:18 am »

Hmm.  After playing with ripping to .mp3, it looks like UpdateMedia is
writing .id3 tags for MP3 files. My script modifications write Title,
Artist, Album, Year, Track Number and Genre information.  UpdateMedia
writes Title, Artist, Album and Composter information, but doesn't
include Track Number or Genre information, which I think is worth
having.  I'm guessing UpdateMedia is where all tag information should
be written.  I should be able to get it to use Metaflac to edit the
tag for .flac files, and obviously UpdateMedia can edit .id3 tags, but
I don't know of a good simple ogg comment editor.  Does anyone know of
one?

Incidentally, the ripping script doesn't use the quality settings for
MP3 or Ogg rips.  I don't know if a Mantis report has been filed, but
I'm guessing it was on the Pluto guy's todo list. I recommend ripping to Flac (no options) until that gets fixed.  That way you know what you're getting.

In any case, the script should now work correctly for MP3, FLAC, and Ogg rips.  Again, paste the
included ripDiskWrapper.sh in your /pluto/bin directory.  Save your
existing copy.

Also, make sure you set the execute permissions correctly. If you
don't know what I'm talking about, after copying type chmod a+x
ripDiskWrapper.sh Please let me know if you have any issues.

On another note, Lame wasn't installed by default, so ripping to MP3
failed outright. I'm surprised it wasn't installed by default by
LinuxMCE.  Can anyone else confirm this?

397

Users / Embedding Title, Artist, Album, etc. information in ripped music files

« on: June 04, 2007, 08:01:06 am »

Note-- Cross posted in the developer's forum

Hey everyone--
I was kind of annoyed that when LinuxMCE ripped CDs, it wouldn't embed any information on the title, album, etc in the files themselves, instead using the .id3 files in the directories and the database.  That's great for LinuxMCE, but if I'm going to rip all my CDs, I want to have the information in the files themselves for flexibility.

I was able to get LinuxMCE to embed Artist/Album/Track/Genre/Date information into the music files when ripping a CD.  You can now see the information on the Squeezebox when playing back ripped files from the core.  After digging around inside LinuxMCE, I've modified the shell file that performs the ripping.

So far I've got it working for the Ogg and Flac encoders.  I hope to get it working for WAV and MP3 files shortly.

I'd appreciate it if anyone was interested in trying it out and letting me know how it works for them.  I'm not a scripting expert by any means, so any input would be appreciated.  I don't think this is the ideal solution, as it requires another CDDB lookup in addition to the one perfomed by UpdateMedia, but it works for now while I try to understand exactly the process the Pluto gang put in place for ripping a CD.  I hope to move on to getting Pluto to work with a more modern (6.5.x) version of Slimserver next.

The attached file goes in your /usr/pluto/bin directory.  Please remember to save the existing ripDiskWrapper.sh to a different name first, so you can go back if it gets screwy.

Thanks everyone,
-PeteK

398

Developers / Re: Embedding tags when ripping CDs

« on: June 04, 2007, 07:54:53 am »

Hey gang.  I was able to get LinuxMCE to embed Artist/Album/Track/Genre/Date information into the music files when ripping a CD.  You can now see the information on the Squeezebox when playing back ripped files from the core.  After digging around inside LinuxMCE, I've modified the shell file that performs the ripping.  I modified ripDiskWrapper.sh to include calls to abcde's cd-id utilities to identify disc information and pass it to the encoder.  I used the cddb_id.sh script in the src/CDDB_Identifier directory as a guide.  So far I've got it working for the Ogg and Flac encoders.  I hope to get it working for WAV and MP3 files shortly. 

I'd appreciate it if anyone was interested in trying it out and letting me know how it works for them.  I'm not a scripting expert by any means, so any input would be appreciated.  I don't think this is the ideal solution, as it requires another CDDB lookup in addition to the one perfomed by UpdateMedia, but it works for now while I try to understand exactly the process the Pluto gang put in place for ripping a CD.  I hope to move on to getting Pluto to work with a more modern (6.5.x) version of Slimserver next.

The following file goes in your /usr/pluto/bin directory.  Please remember to save the existing ripDiskWrapper.sh to a different name first, so you can go back if it gets screwy.

This is my first time actually contributing to Open Source Software, so I'm kind of (nerdily) excited.

Thanks everyone,
-Pete

399

Installation issues / Re: watching videos: Sound but no video (black screen)

« on: June 01, 2007, 12:15:54 am »

Say I saw yer post, and was wondering if anyone had a solution, or idea what could be the problem?  I'm having a very similar issue...

The Installation seemed to work (MCE 1.1 Beta 2, using cache CD), however when I attempt to play a DVD or a divx file the video is very choppy (1 frame every 10 sec), Green in color, and shadows in the video, however I do have good audio.  I checked the resources (through top) and I'm using about 50% of the CPU and 600MB of RAM

Here are my box specs:

Processor: P4 2.8GHz HT
Video: ATI Rage Xl (onboard)
Ram: 4 GB

MCE Version: 1.1 Beta 2
GUI: UI1

I am able to play both the DVD and divx files through xine from within kubuntu. 

Any help or guidance you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

I'm having this same issue when I try to watch MythTV on my core using the PVR-500 card in the core. I have an intel server board with an ATI Rage XL chip onboard.  However, I have no problem seeing TV on an MD with an Nvidia 6600.  I'm guessing it's the ATI chip (whether drivers or hardware I'm still not sure).  I'm guessing you're going to use that box as a core.  If so, I suggest you try hooking up an MD with a decent video card. I expect you'll be able to watch without a problem.

400

Developers / Embedding tags when ripping CDs

« on: May 31, 2007, 08:46:05 am »

Hi-

I'd like to use LinuxMCE to rip my CDs to flac.  I tried a few, and it looks like LinuxMCE uses the ripDiskWrapper.sh script to manage the ripping and encoding of CD audio. From digging into this file, it looks like it calls cdparanoia and pipes the output directly to the chosen encoder (in my case the flac encoder).  Unfortunately, this method doesn't tag the files with artist, album information, etc. LinuxMCE obviously does access cddb to get the information to generate file names and to load the database. I would like to use that information to tag the  files as well.  This would avoid having to re-rip if I wanted to reload LinuxMCE or use the files elsewhere.

I was wondering if anyone understands and could explain the exact sequence of events in getting CD information.  I was thinking of using a tool like xmcd to get cddb information, but I would like to use the same source of information that is used for populating the database. I'll keep digging until I can understand it, but I'd appreciate any advice.
 
Thanks!

-Pete

401

Users / Re: Is it possible to switch network interfaces between internal and external? H

« on: May 29, 2007, 08:32:47 am »

Cryoniq--

What does that page contain in your setup?  Does the line "Number of network adapters: 2" appear?  Does it list both adapters and their current settings (i.e. DHCP or Static IP info)?

I attached a screen shot of the configuration page as it looks in my setup.

402

Developers / Re: GSD to interface USB device

« on: May 28, 2007, 05:45:37 pm »

Have you checked out the pluto forums?  http://www.plutohome.com.  I think they've got some pretty good implementation information that you might find useful.

403

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: OpenTherm support

« on: May 28, 2007, 05:42:47 pm »

That's interesting.  However, there are a very few supported systems at the moment.  It looks like the system is uses RS-232 as a communications bus.  The modular nature of LinuxMCE should make the creation of a 'device' in the software fairly straightforward.  This would be interesting to play with.  How does Opentherm handle 'zoned' climate control?  It looks like a single thermostat controls a single heater.

404

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: Single NIC installation

« on: May 28, 2007, 05:24:23 pm »

The thing to keep in mind is that this system was designed to be THE computing system in a house.  As such, it was assumed that the network for the home could be configured around it.  Actually, having two NICs and having your core act as your router for the devices attached to your LinuxMCE core makes a pretty nice sandbox to play with the system.  At least it does for me.  Jpelzer does bring up an excellent point in that DHCP can be utilized independently of the router (though I'm not sure LinuxMCE can do this right now).  I know Pluto gives the option of a single NIC install when the system is installed.  I guess the LinuxMCE developers removed that in the fork.  Is that correct?
 
To throw my $.02 in:

1) Pluto provided an opportunity for a single NIC install, so performing that with LinuxMCE should be fairly easy to do, but:
2) The PNP functionality of the LinuxMCE system is really neat, and I think important to expand the attractiveness of the system beyond the hardcore tinkerers who are playing with it now.
3) I respectfully disagree with Cryoniq that the voicemail, lighting, security features are not that important.  If I want just a media center with tv and video, I can use Myth and be done.  The strength of LinuxMCE/Pluto lies in the fact that it ties together all the disparate peices of hardware and software to create a cohesive system that makes sense and can allow control of a complex system through a (semi-intuitive) interface.  The fact that there are a lot of issues with the implementation still means that that is where the developers (I hope to be included) should spend their effort, as that is the true magic happens.

405

Users / Re: MD not identifying CD/DVD media

« on: May 28, 2007, 07:33:08 am »

Thanks Norcal!

Since a lot of the software that was optional in the Pluto version looks like it was installed by default in the LinuxMCE install, I assumed it was installed by default for the MDs, but that does not appear to be the case.  When I was using Pluto, I had to call /usr/pluto/bin/getxmls to poplulate the additional software install options.  Then I had to add id-my-disc from the MD's orbiter.  Running getxmls looks to be successful.  It assisgns package IDs to what are Pluto's additional packages (I'm not 100% sure of their status in LinuxMCE).  However, when I go to the 'Add Software' screen, none of those packages show up in LinuxMCE, while they did in Pluto.  I had to login to a terminal on the MD and use apt-get to install id-my-disc.

I'll update the mantis bug report.  If id-my-disc is installed by default on the core/hybrid, it should probably be installed by default on the MDs.  Plus, the additional software install process needs to be looked at.  I know this had some issues in the Pluto build.