Thanks geoffrey - this is all it's for...

Cheers,
Adriel.

Hey All,

Just after some advice on adding a second 500GB SATA drive. Have installed it and was about to format but didn't know if I should pay some special attention to the partition setup for LMCE? Is there a best practice to integrate most efficiently or doesn't it really matter for the second drive?

Many Thanks,
WR.

Thanks rnmixon - I had not seen that. I think I might wait for intels new Atom's to come out anyway and then get something that can double as a UMPC.

I'm thinking something like the Gigabyte M528 MID (runs Ubuntu I believe): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76NviXg_1g4&feature=related

Huge overkill for an Orbiter no doubt

Hey Mario,

Still having troubles with the blaqbox eh? 

it can be hard trying to find the right hardware when alot of the tested hardware is superseded, and I'm not really going to be much help here, however...

I  ended up using an ASUS P5K Pro (full ATX 775 chipset). It is a Crossfire MOBO so that part of it is kinda wasted, however the onboard sound works well and have had no other problems.

I expect though you're after a MOBO with integrated HDMI our onboard video? Not sure about this. I tried the Asus P5E-VM HDMI motherboard at one point, thinking the G35 onboard video would work - however it turns out that although linux drivers are around for the X3100, the latest X3500 integrated video doesn't currently work (or at least not for me).

Might be easier just to get a separate video card and and decent MOBO with supported audio...?

Sorry I'm not much help.

Cheers,
Adriel.

[Edit typo]

Don't suppose anyone has the Nokia N810 and given it a go? Kinda like the idea of having the keyboard available and I expect it should work as well or better than the n800?

Edit: Also additional Q: Does anyone know of the N800/N810 could be added as VoIP devices as well as orbiters?

Cheers,
WR

From what I understand I would recommend steering clear of ATI with LinuxMCE (or linux in general). The drivers provided by ATI are not very good and you'll have trouble getting the box to work properly.

I got an older NVida 7300 for this reason, and although I have not been able to get 1080p output as yet, alpha blending @1280 x 1024 seems to run well...  Others may have better recommendations but if you're looking at running a core/hybrid you still need a bit of power for the GUI.

I take it the AGP X1650 listed is separate from the LinuxMCE build? You also seem to have 2 lots of RAM listed (maybe have not decided yet), not sure 4GB is needed, I have 2GB of DDR800 and it seems to run fine on a core/hybrid. Other than that I think it should be fine.

Re the file server - I don't see any reason why you couldn't install LinuxMCE and after config simply not add any media (just use the Samba file shares). If it is going to house a large amount of data you may want to make sure you are happy with the build prior moving everything across though. Nothing worse than having to backup a backup 

Hey Randykc,

Speaking from a similar experience - I expect at some point the "Auto scan all media * - Start" button has been hit and you have not gone through the list of results it collected... So, when you scan for a new cover, it just adds it to the list of ones to be reviewed.

You may be able to clear the stored results without using the admin interface somehow, but I don't know how (maybe someone else can tell you).

If you want an immediate (but slightly annoying fix) click through all the 38 pages, leaving the "None of this" radio selected and click the Match Cover Art button at the bottom of each page - this will clear them all out. After you have done this once - all should be back to normal (assuming you don't hit the "Auto scan all media" button again)

Cheers,
WR.

Seems I missed the boat on this - bummer. Don't suppose anyone has a left over they want to sell?

If not I guess I'll have to order from Fiire...

Cheers,
WR.

Thanks NOS. Spread spectrum is already on (or at least on Auto, I only have Auto and disabled options in BIOS)

I moved the card but I only have 2 PCI slots to choose from - the rest are PCIe. It is now as far away as it can get from the GPU however it is closer to the PSU now. I think I'll try and dual boot to Windows to confirm it is hardware/interference in the box. Once that is confirmed (and I know it isn't anything to do with LinuxMCE) I can move forward. Thanks for your help.

WR

Hmmmm, still no joy I'm afraid.

* Using the same cable direct to the Samsung M8 46" LCD and have no issues at all.
* Putting the Avermedia 777 into a Windows XP machine (using the same cable - they are sitting almost side by side), again no quality issues
*Quality issues continue on LinuxMCE box (the degree depends on the channel - HD Ten seems to suffer the most). I have also moved the box to within a metre of the signal source.

On Mythtv/LinuxMCE box ABC1 displays a signal strength of 40% with a S/N ratio of 4.8 %. This still has video quality issues (artifacts), with occasional sounds cut outs/pops. Would this signal normally prove insufficient in others experience?

If it is not driver related, the only thing I can think of is something in the box is causing interference? Are there any other things I can do to isolate the problem that doesn't require additional equipment?

Thanks again for the help.

Cheers,
Adriel.

I'm in Aus - but I noticed totallymaxed's sig has the following which may be of use:

Andrew Herron,
Convergent Home Technologies Ltd
United Kingdom
http://www.dianemo.co.uk

Pre-configured LMCE Systems to order;
http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Convergenthome

 

Hey SloYerRoll,

I'm by no means an expert, however just having gone through an install - would make the following recommendations.

If you have existing media and don't plan on editing the attributes of each files via the Web interface (Which is currently not a speedy process) - you may want to be able to browse via filename (which allows browsing via Folders), otherwise it can be tough to get to what you want as the filters can't work on media that has no attributes.

To do this you'll need to Use LinuxMCE's Directory Structure - when you install a new device. This creates new directory structures on your NAS/File server, but it won't delete any data. Once this structure has been created - you can move the media into the appropriate folder and LinuxMCE will be able to find it.

More info is available here:
http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Howto:_Using_Network_Shares

Cheers,
Adriel.

right now, the only way is to go into the media files sync, and adjust the attributes of each individually..this is why I want to rewrite it.

-Thom

FWIW IMHO - this would be a key for people migrating existing data or linking to a NAS (which a bunch of rips).

I am browsing via filename currently (which is fine) - mainly because I can't be bothered editing all the attributes via the admin tool... one by one... by one...

Thanks Thom 

Thanks ShamIAm & totallymaxed.

I had kinda assumed that it wasn't a signal issue as its the same line that was working with Mythbuntu - but to be honest I have not really troubleshooted signal strength and I guess something may have been damaged recently... It seems to have no trouble finding channels/locking onto the signal but I'll try a few isolation tests etc...

Thanks for the help - will post results once I am able to test.

Cheers,
WR