Two quick questions

[andy90]

Hi,
I know im going to get some sarcasm, and some links to the search page but I have searched for last two or three days now and cant find the answers, either because no one has asked them or I'm being stupid.

First:
Whats the deal with media center remote controls? I'm knew to them and their ways.  Do they all match a standard? how different are chipsets etc?  I ask because I want to setup Linux MCE (which btw looks amazing guys, im well excited and will be helping friends get them setup if this goes well) on a budget then get better parts over time.  The remote Im looking at is
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Slim-PC-USB-Media-Center-Remote-Controller-pc41p_W0QQitemZ160178445081QQihZ006QQcategoryZ51086QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
or
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Remote-Control-for-Win-XP-Media-Center-USB-Receiver_W0QQitemZ110193180604QQihZ001QQcategoryZ51086QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

TBH the first one to me is nicer as its slimmer.  I have looked for a HCL and can't find one that goes into much detail.  Is there any way to find the chipset from this info (i know its a long shot but sometimes people amaze me with little tricks).


Second
I know Nvidia are much more linux friendly, but I have an old ATI Radeon with mATX mobo and bits laying around which would be nice to use (as they are all free), if not its a new graphics card, which will be PCIe, which will need a new CPU, looking at £110 ish.

http://blogs.gnome.org/rodrigo/2007/08/31/linux-media-center/
makes the Radeon 7000 sound like an easy option, if not has anyone any bookmarks to a nice guide?

Any info or links would be great.

PS - Nice work on the Wii remote project, sounds brilliant and would be amazing to use !!

[Zaerc]

1. http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Category:InfraRed
The deal is that nobody can be bothered to add what they got working to the wiki.

2. http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers
And just to clear that misconception up: nVidia has never been linux-friendly at all.

[andy90]

Thanks for the links Zaerc

Im stuck as a duck in muck, I just dont get it, how on earth are you meant to find a card and chip that works with Linux MCE.  Ubuntu forums has loads of instances where it works with ubuntu not kubuntu. 

Also very very few mentions of Svideo/Composite output, which as this is going to a TV is essential 

[tschak909]

dude,

just get a USB UIRT, and use any windows XP MCE remote.

done.

-Thom

[1audio]

Composite and S are supported in the Nvidia setup but most users are using DVI/HDMI or VGA to their TV's today, here in the nerd world, in the US. If you get a standard MCE IR remote and a USBUIRT is all works.  As does an Asus M2NPV-VM. Its $80 or less here, a 3800+ dual core processor and 1 GB of ram and you have all you will need (except for Blu-ray and HDDVD playback, that requires a more powerful processor).

[Hagen]

The Win MCE remote will work with the IR dongle... sometimes...
I have a machine that it works flawlessly on, until I change something (Add a GeForce card and drivers for it), that's the only machine I have gotten it to work on at all.
I hope this will be better in 0710

[totallymaxed]

The Win MCE remote will work with the IR dongle... sometimes...
I have a machine that it works flawlessly on, until I change something (Add a GeForce card and drivers for it), that's the only machine I have gotten it to work on at all.
I hope this will be better in 0710

All our IR receivers are mce compatible... they work plug-n-play for us. Sometimes if you add remotes after some of the lmce updates have been applied you might need to do a 'depmod' at the console of the MD that has the IR problem... but that is the rare exception.