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Messages - TinkerMan

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16
Wow thanks for the speedy reply!!

Let me clarify the situation a little more, I have a USB UIRT already (but not yet installed, been busy playing with X10) and will use that until I upgrade my receiver and that's only if I have to. Here are two scenarios that I don't think will work without bi-directional communication (via rs-232 only and not IR) please correct me if I'm wrong.

#1  I would like to have a room without a media director and just speakers in the ceiling connected to the receiver and a lcd/vfd with buttons, like a iMON Ultra Bay if it gets supported by LinuxMCE and not just MythTV or my own version of a CrystalFontz with custom buttons controlling LinuxMCE via lirc somehow. The lcd/vfd would be mounted on the wall in a picture frame like appearance with buttons like Music, Movie, DVD, TV, Radio, XM or Sirius for the menu options, and play, pause, mute, ff, rev, stop, for the action buttons and also a navigation with a select button.  For example I would select Radio (FM) and LinuxMCE would control the receiver and change the output to FM radio. I know this much can be done with USB UIRT but now I think is where rs-232 come in play, I would now like the extended lcd/vfd to display the station I am listening to and would like to use left and right buttons to scroll through the presets and up and down buttons to tune in a station and have that displayed on the lcd/vfd and not just the fact I'm in radio mode and scroll and tune blindly. If I were to get a receiver that is XM or Sirius ready I would like to have the similar display capabilities as fm radio.

#2 I would also like to have a cheap DVD player connected to Video 2 (LinuxMCE is Video 1) but located near the TV not in the AV rack.  When I use the remote to change the input on the receiver to DVD I then lose the Orbiter display because I changed the video input. It now would be nice to be able to see the receiver's display on an extended lcd/vfd. I know you can route the DVD's cables through an PVR-x50 AV input capture but the you lose Dolby Digital or you have to deal with latency issues otherwise.  I know it sounds stupid that I want a cheap DVD player in the first place but the only real reason for it is to test burnt dvds to make sure that the will work properly on standard player or just an easy way to watch a DVD without having to go down stairs to put it in the hybrid machine, I know it kind of defeats the purpose but it's more for my roomates or future family that doesn't understand the system.

Thanks again, TinkerMan

17
What I want to do is put all my AV equipment in the rack with my network equipment and computers, a hybrid LinuxMCE being one of them.  But the only thing holding me back is the fact that I will be unable to see the receiver's lcd/vfd display, I still like to listen to regular radio and I need to be able to tune the stations. In the past (before I started using LinuxMCE) I tried googling for a way to extend the receiver's display by hacking it with a networked connected microcontroller and then being able to view the display in multiple rooms via network connected microcontrollers with attached lcd/vfd (if anybody knows of a link for this kind of thing I'm still interested in knowing how).  Now that I am running LinuxMCE I realize that it supports lcd/vfd (I have a CrystalFontz on the way) and not just MythTV's lcd support and also knowing that LinuxMCE can control a receiver via and rs-232 connection (I don't have one yet this is why I'm asking the question). So now is it possible to do what I want to do without electronic hacking??? Can LinuxMCE support multiple vfd/lcd for different zones that will not have a Media Director and just speakers connected to a receiver controlled by LinuxMCE??? 

Thanks, TinkerMan

p.s. this would make the ultimate home AV networked system!!

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