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Messages - davidsmoot

Pages: 1 [2]
16
Users / Re: I need orbiter advice
« on: March 12, 2010, 04:19:46 am »
I gotta admit from what little I know about LMCE that sounds like a good idea.  Off the bat you get cross architecture support for ARM and X86 which will allow for some innovative set top boxes.

David

17
Users / Re: I need orbiter advice
« on: March 11, 2010, 10:45:39 pm »
Wow. Are you saying that the orbiter platform will shift to MeeGo or are you saying the core system will shift to MeeGo?

18
Developers / Re: Current status of Maemo Orbiter
« on: March 11, 2010, 10:02:17 pm »
I'm a maemo user and I know a little C++.  I don't have a Maemo workstation set up at the moment.  The reason I'm here at these forums is I am buying a house and want to set up LMCE so I will be busy for at least the next month or so with house stuff but I will try to tackle this job.  If someone else gets to it first, that's great and I'll help test.

David.

19
Users / Re: I need orbiter advice
« on: March 11, 2010, 09:57:22 pm »
Coolness... if you are supporting MeeGo I have an N900 and I would love to help.
David

20
Users / Re: Multiple Displays
« on: March 11, 2010, 02:47:39 pm »
There is very little chance that you're going to get things running well in a VM environment... such setups are famously difficult for media applications, especially graphically intense ones...  Most VM environments simply do not support complex graphics.  If you do this, you will almost certainly be wasting your time.

I wholeheartedly concur with this.  I don't have a lot of LMCE experience but I have done some messing around with VM's as a way of running multiple development platforms inside one host.  The problem is if the virtual machine needs any kind of IO capability other than very basic stuff (keyboard, network, screen draw, USB mass storage), they usually don't support it or support it very poorly.  VM's are designed and optimized for running multiple server instances, not multiple multimedia stations.  It is a challenge to get bandwidth intensive IO running correctly on a "real" machine with access to the bare metal of the IO.  You are very unlikely to get the kind of throughput you desire inside a VM. 

If you just count the number of pixels you are trying to push, that is a monstrous IO load.  Just pushing that from one operating system is a non-trivial setup to have full motion video going.

That said, I'd love for you to prove me wrong because a virtual machine MD would be rather cool and it would open up some interesting usages.

21
Users / Re: Audio system options 101
« on: March 11, 2010, 02:35:52 pm »
Wow, thanks guys for answering a vague question with exactly what I needed.  I now have a starting point for at least getting a bit smarter about this.  I'll move audio system questions to an audio forum.

David

22
Users / Re: Audio system options 101
« on: March 10, 2010, 02:21:19 pm »
Denon it is then... RS232 control is something I understand, my current project at work has me integrating 7 different custom RS232 protocols into a single format.  Don't know a lick of Ruby that seems to be the language of choice in MCE but I know RS232.  Maybe I can contribute something to the project once I get my house moving settled.

David

23
Users / Audio system options 101
« on: March 10, 2010, 04:50:27 am »
This might be too stupid a question but sometimes I don't even know the right terms to Google...

I know the technical side of programming and development a lot better than I know the multimedia side.  I am in the process of buying a new house and I finally have my own space.  I want a "good" sound system.  I'm not an audiophile but I know that I want something better than standard PC desktop speakers.

I know there are a lot of variables, encoding bitrate, channels, analog outputs versus digital.  Is anyone here aware of a webpage or resource that takes you through the basics.  I've got a lot of questions.

I have a core with an SPDIF output... Does that need to go to a receiver to get good sound?  Is my money better spent on a high end sound card or a basic receiver?  I've got several gadgets with Bluetooth A2DP capability, is it worthwhile to try to get that supported in my office soundsystem or is the sound quality so much lower it isn't worth it?  How does the audio quality of streamed music compare to the audio

Any help appreciated.  I've googled "home audio systems", "audio system tutorial", and a few other phrases but I can't seem to hit on a basic introduction to your options, tradeoffs, and pricepoints.

David

24
Users / How do you guys backup your media?
« on: March 09, 2010, 05:22:49 pm »
I'm putting together my first system mostly from stuff I have laying around. My Hybrid will be based off an ASUS AN-M2 motherboard (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Abit_AN-M2 in a Shuttle small form factor case that I happened to have available.

My question is how do you (or do you?) back up your media? In this box I only have room for two SATA drives.  I might be able to squeeze a USB stick or a 2.5" drive in there as well if I got creative.

Once you spend a lot of time ripping your DVD's and music, I would assume you would want that protected from mechanical disk failure.  I could do raid but a hardware RAID controller is about the same money as an external raid enclosure.  I could buy a NAS with RAID for not much more.

So based on your experience with LMCE, what would you recommend.  If it matters, I am more interested in ease of use than absolute performance.

1. Software RAID built into motherboard
2. Buy a hardware RAID card
3.  Buy an external RAID enclosure and connect through ESATA
4.  Buy a NAS with RAID built in
5.  Just connect an external drive and run backup scripts regularly

What do you guys do?  Do you run separate physical disks for OS versus media or just separate partitions?

David

25
Users / Re: Huluplayer proxy
« on: March 08, 2010, 07:21:23 pm »
I know that VPN tunnels can be used in countries with internet censorship like China.  It would probably be an expensive way to get your Hulu fix but you could pay a provider to give you a VPN tunnel endpoint in the states.  Of course Hulu could very easily just fight back by blocking all traffic from one of these providers.

David

26
Users / Re: Wayne Dalton Zwave Themostat Owners....
« on: March 07, 2010, 05:44:15 pm »
I'll paypal $10 in. Its the least I can do for such awesome software...

27
Users / Re: LinuxMCE best hardware suggestion
« on: March 07, 2010, 05:42:26 pm »
Hey Sonicwind... I noticed you got a big chunk of your parts from Directron. You would not happen to be near Houston. TX (Directron HQ)? I'm in Pearland (or will be soon, close on a new house in a couple of weeks).

28
Users / Serving other services / tasks from the core?
« on: March 07, 2010, 05:38:48 pm »
First post greetings... I'm a embedded system developer and I am in the process of buying a new house.  I finally will have my own office / study / gadget lab area and I am looking forward to playing with Linux MCE.  In the past, I really only had room for one computer and the wife did not want my Linux projects interfering with her computer use (Ubuntu 64 bit did not play nice with flash a couple years back).  So finally I can play around.  To be honest, the security cam / alarm integration appeals more to me, I don't watch that much TV.

I'm working my way through the Wiki and online info and I have come into some slightly contradictory info:  Should my core be a dedicated core doing nothing but MCE tasks or can it be a general purpose server/workstation?

For example, I want a Trac/SVN server for some of my code development projects.  I'm trying to learn Python / QT (got an N900 that I am playing with) and I want to use my linux box as a development workstation for Maemo / Meego. I own a domain that I have never put to good use and I might try to throw wordpress up there.  I'll probably try to set up openVPN and an incoming SSH server (I know about the SSH keys issue).

One place in the wiki it says that you can use your MCE box as a standard workstation, but elsewhere it talks about a "clean core". Am I going to break a lot of MCE functionality if I update pieces of Ubuntu for software development tasks?

Anybody else use their MCE box as a general purpose home server?

Many more questions to come but I'm going to finish the Wiki first...

Ok so maybe my question was too vague but here's my specific confusion:
From http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/User_Manual:
"It is best to dedicate one PC as the Core server. You can put this computer somewhere out of the way and not connect a monitor to it."

But from http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions
"We didn't take any modules away from the Kubuntu distribution, we only added some. You can still use your Core as a normal Kubuntu Linux PC. In fact, our additions can be bypassed if they get in your way, as is explained below. But in general, DCERouter and other devices, like the home automation modules, all run in the background and won't interfere in screen sessions."

I'm laying out my systems / network and I would prefer to have one "home server" that has my media, my VPN server, my TRAC / SVN server.  But if I am going to be constantly fighting compatibility between what works for MCE and the other services I want to run, I'd like to know sooner rather than later.  Surely with all the geeks around here somebody runs other Linux services on their core?.

Thanks,
David

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