Messages

136

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: Better Media Organization / Browser

« on: September 12, 2008, 08:27:11 pm »

Thanks Chris. Exactly my point.  That contribution of time and effort is time and effort no matter which part of the project it is being done for.

Back  OT, I am also not a fan of filesystems being the storage/search paradigm for a media UI.  The database with search is potentially a better way to go if done right.

Noone wants their mp3 library to be accessed by directory sorted alphabetically by album name, so Linuxmce should naturally fall in more with the "mp3 media library" model.

I think the trick would be to give users a hierarchical set of predefined searches for things like "by series-by date" which could be easily navigated.  Then the option to create additional searches.

I think that would satisfy everyone. 

137

Installation issues / Re: DVD Region

« on: September 09, 2008, 04:50:30 pm »

You should not use the "change DVD drive region setting" approach on the Wiki unless you have access to firmware for your drive that can reset the region change counter inside your DVD drive.  Otherwise once the countdown counter reaches 0- usually after 5 changes- you will lock your drive into the last region forever. Well, until you reflash the firmware anyway ;-)

That might be OK if you are always going to use DVD media from that region, but for many people this is a pain, they want to be able to play DVDs from different regions

As per the info here http://web.njit.edu/all_topics/Prog_Lang_Docs/html/mplayer/cd-dvd.html section 4.3, RPC1 allows much easier and more reliable access to the data on the DVD.  If the DVD drive is new it will be an RPC-2 so it always first checks and if the DVD region does not match its own  it will not send the encryption key stored on the DVD to DECSS algorithm (e.g. in libdecss) would normally use to unencrypt it.  If your drive is RPC-2 then it won't send the key to your computer, and the software has to try really really hard and maybe it can decrypt the info on the DVD using "brute force" decryption methods.  This is my understanding anyway!

Best approach is to load firmware into your DVD drive that makes it RPC1.  This means it does not go through the "check disk is in my region" test.

I added some resources to the DVD page in the wiki.

Summary- do not change the region code on the drive, instead flash new firmware into your drive that makes it RPC1.  If there is no firmware to flash your drive, then buy one that has RPC-1 available.  I chose a Pioneer 216 series drive (most pioneers have firmware to change them to RPC1 and these drives are recommended by http://www.silentpcreview.com as being quiet and reliable. Well, quiet under windows anyway, where there is a utility to set them to quiet/slow mode for playing movies.  Hopefully I can do this using Linux too!

I was also looking at Samsung and Liteon drives (Samsung as top choice behind Pioneer 216, probably ahead of earlier pioneer models).  Again see the rpc1.org web site for more info (Links is on LH side of page, scroll down).

As I build up my new system, I will provide more details on flashing the DVD drive with RPC1.

I really, really dislike DRM (and 99% of my media is legally bought!).

138

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: 2 orbiters on one machine??

« on: September 08, 2008, 01:30:24 pm »

You can definitely run 2 x-servers on 1 video card, so no need for 2 cards from an X perspective, maybe performance or overlay reasons or some other reason, but not X.

139

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: Better Media Organization / Browser

« on: September 08, 2008, 10:46:45 am »

Not sure where you are going with the Kmart story, you certainly can't compare a commercial project with a OSS project in that way for what should be obvious reasons.

...

Yes, doing documentation, wikis, bug report, etc is all helping the project, at the same time the real hard work is the coding!

Kmart story was to say don't blame the users for complaining if something gives them pain.  "The end user is right" is not always true but gives you a reason to at least consider that they might be.

And yes I think everyone recognises that the coding is long hard work, but rewarding. I have done some coding so know the late nights and the hair-tearing with bugs.  The documentation and wikis etc are tedious and are not rewarding in the same way.

140

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: 2 orbiters on one machine??

« on: September 08, 2008, 09:52:57 am »

Thanks Colin, I did sorta figure that that was the case, but thought if it sounded like a good idea then there might be some simpler ways to do it using native X & Linux multiuser rather than virtualisation which adds another layer of potential performance reduction (and possibly complexity), and may not support multiple sound outputs to different cards, serial and USB remotes for 2/3/4 rooms etc.

It sounds like an interesting area to investigate though!

My new hardware is arriving this week for my Linux MCE server, to replace my Mythtv server, so I will be able to start contributing more practically.

141

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: 2 orbiters on one machine??

« on: September 08, 2008, 04:02:21 am »

Linux can do this easily without Xen, X is based on one server with multiple graphics heads (displays)- you can have 2 or more separate users on one server, each running their own independent display. 

I did something similar for my Mythtv server, using one display adapter, using the S-Video output to drive a TV for Mythtv, while I could also use the computer monitor plugged into the adapter's VGA port as a normal monitor.  In my case I just had the one video card presenting as 2 separate displays to X, with a single logged in user (was going to change it to a completely separate one but it worked well enough that I couldn't be bothered).  Then ran a 2nd copy of a desktop GUI on the 2nd display- it was actually still accessible to my normal mouse and keyboard (in case I wanted to control mythtv from the keyboard or mouse).  I was going to completely separate it but never got around to it!

I didn't do this for sound (Mythtv owned the sound card) but that is also pretty easy if you just put in another sound card.

I think the idea of using one piece of hardware for 2 users is a REALLY great GREEN idea.  Imagine with a multicore machine that feeds 3-4 rooms.  Cheap and green! And Linux!

142

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: just jumping in

« on: September 08, 2008, 04:00:44 am »

It not advocates we need so much as people who are willing to take on the task and DO it. People are working on a lot of things. So jump in 

Working involves not just coding but updating wikis, writing documentation, and also spending the time to document issues back to the developers so that they can improve things.  I have spent a LOT of time investigating the horrid area of Linux compatible TV tuners, and have documented my findings back to the linuxtv wiki.  I personally think this is also useful work.

I have to agree with other people on this forum, it seems that there is a "hair trigger" mentality here.  It is not really what I would class as a friendly forum, I get the feeling you have to be careful what you say or you will get crisped to a cinder.  Sometimes just for reiterating or agreeing with what someone else has commented on.  Definitely not the tone of say the Oztivo mailing list (where the same Qs get asked a lot of times but always get patiently answered, and yes I did my share of this tedious replying when I had a hacked TiVo), or the Mythtv forums.

I work with large UNIX computer systems (banks, retail etc).  K-Mart do rollouts of new systems or upgrades to their stores.  They have pilot rolllout stores where they test their procedures for installation/upgrades by having the store personnel carry out the process.  The rule is that if the user breaks the install/upgrade, then it is the fault of the developers, and it goes back for more bullet-proofing.  Same should be true of usability- the fact that people are complaining about the same thing many times says that it is an issue and needs to be fixed.

143

Users / Re: Can linuxmce connect to a normal mythtv backend?

« on: August 24, 2008, 07:33:32 pm »

Thanks, as I expected!  I was sorta hoping that the frontend/backend architecture of mythtv would have allowed it to be used without having to have linuxmce installed.  So now to check out is a fitpc is fit for linuxmce core as well as mythtv (not hybrid)!

Cheers,

Indulis

144

Users / Can linuxmce connect to a normal mythtv backend?

« on: August 22, 2008, 03:30:01 am »

Hi,

I am just about to set a direction for my home automation/theatre system.

One option is to use a FitPC (5W, $300) as a mythtv backend, using a dual tuner USB dongle (Pinnacle 2001E).  I helped a friend set this up and it works v nicely.

Is it possible to have linuxmce use a normal mythtv backend, or does it have to be a linuxmce system.

I did some browsing of the wiki and these forums, but didn't see anything that answered the Q directly.

I suspect that the answer is "all must be linuxmce" in which case I will give up my low-power ambitions and build a bigger central server to house linuxmce.

Thanks!

Indulis

145

Users / Re: about to give up on MYTHTV!

« on: July 07, 2008, 02:14:59 pm »

Once you get to a terminal, you can set up your XML grabber- you should try some of the mythtv specific sites for help on doing this.  You can run "mythfilldatabase" which allows you to pass options to the UK XMLTV grabber. In Australia the command I use is
mythfilldatabase --graboptions "-v -v -v"

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mythfilldatabase#Command_line_options

Then you can see what the grabber puts out as messages.  Note that "-v" may not work with your UK grabber!

Try these google hits
http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php
http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_id.php
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Uk_xmltv

Good luck!

146

Installation issues / Re: Whole house solution?

« on: June 11, 2008, 06:18:04 pm »

A couple of Qs- what is your network switch (some can't actually support all ports being run at full speed at the same time, or multiple ports in a group of ports), and are your network cards set to NOT autodetect full/half duplex?  I am am hoping you are not running wireless or ethernet over mains power (which for me was v v choppy due to fluorescent lights putting noise onto power lines).

You should also check your DMA settings for disks (google hdparm).  Don't forget that if you RAID5 your disks and have multiple streams reading/writing at the same time, it may be slower than a bunch of mirrored disks.

Finally, RAID5 on Linux is a pain in many ways- still you may know this.  RAID is often implemented as kernel code anyway (search for fakeraid on the net), mmd mirroring may be better.  If you are using an older PCI RAID adapter then I have heard of these adapters producing intermittent problems on new machines with faster PCI buses.

Can you get a look at the system performance using vmstat?  Is the CPU utilisation high?

Anyway- hope you solve the issues!

Indulis

147

Users / If DVB-T is available, *dont* use analogue TV card

« on: August 20, 2007, 02:51:13 am »

Unless you have a really good reason, don't use an analogue tuner card for mythtv- many analogue TV tuners put an extra load onto the CPU to sample and encode the video, amd the quality is not as good as digital, you don't get digital sound (Dolby 2 channel with surround, the digital version of the original Dolby Prologic is transmitted in Australia).

In Australia, you can go to http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?s=7281ed4ab8277f1668dca411079b53b7&showforum=9 for some information.

I am in Perth and use 3x Kworld Vstream DVB-T PCI tuners with Mythtv (currently on special as "HD" at Jaycar though the chipset in it can only go up to SD!).  Though they work you now have better options- I'd suggest the Technisat Airstar 2 as an HD tuner, from digitalnow (you can see posts by renura who owns this company) http://www.digitalnow.com.au/.  This is Linux supported, should be "out of the box" for recent Linuxes.

Also see this page for some more info http://www.digitalnow.com.au/dvb_setup.html