Reelbox Avantgarde HD

[DonChaos]

I don't know if someone in this Forum ever heard of the Reelbox Avantgarde HD.
In short this MediaCenter Box is based on Notebook Technology and runs VDR and Kubuntu 7.10.
Further infos: http://www.reel-multimedia.com/rmm-english/avantgarde.html

As you can imagine the box lacks real MediaCenter capabilities like the one's in LinuxMCE. 
Now my questions are:
1. Is there a beta Version already available for LinuxMCE 7.10? (Would love to test it as soon as I receive my box.)
2. Will the VDR of LinuxMCE 7.10 overwrite the settings of the installed VDR on the box?
3. VDR requires a special graphics adapter (like the Micronas DeCypher) and doesn't work with a normal Graphiccard. Is this different with LinuxMCE 7.10?

Thanks a lot in advance for any feedback,
DonChaos

[rrambo]

I don't quite understand what you're asking...  are you asking if you can install linuxmce on this device??  If you do (or can, based on compatibility with the hardware) it would have to be on its on partition on the hard drive or you would wipe out the software on the box (if the bios will even allow it)  I don't see where you're getting that it uses a special graphics card..  technical specs state that is uses an Intel GMA 950 graphics chip..  the processor itself is just a Celeron 1.86Ghz...  what are you wanting to do with this device?

[DonChaos]

Hi, I know it's a bit confusing, but with this device Kubuntu uses the Intel GMA 950 out and VDR uses the PCI HDTV Decoder Card (Micronas DeCypher).
As you can install LinuxMCE over an existing Kubuntu installation you wouldn't have to wipe out or partition the existing harddrive.

Therefore my questions.

[rrambo]

ahh..  now I follow you....  however, due to the way linuxmce handles the kubuntu packages, updates, etc.., it is recommended that linuxmce be installed on a clean, new kubuntu install...  there is a great possibility that packages related to the software already installed on the device would be removed or be unusable...

it would be interesting to see someone take the barebone device they sell and get linuxmce running on it...  however, I didn't see a price..

[DonChaos]

there is a great possibility that packages related to the software already installed on the device would be removed or be unusable...

I see, so I would have to install it the other way round. Do a clean install and add the packages for the box to have a better success, right?
Fortunately they include a recovery DVD with the box so if anything goes wrong I can just insert the DVD.

Unfortunately there is no price yet for the Reelbone as they just started shipping the AVG.
The Reelbox Avantgarde HD sells for € 1'500.00 so I guess the Reelbone will be around half of the price.

[totallymaxed]

there is a great possibility that packages related to the software already installed on the device would be removed or be unusable...

I see, so I would have to install it the other way round. Do a clean install and add the packages for the box to have a better success, right?
Fortunately they include a recovery DVD with the box so if anything goes wrong I can just insert the DVD.

Unfortunately there is no price yet for the Reelbone as they just started shipping the AVG.
The Reelbox Avantgarde HD sells for € 1'500.00 so I guess the Reelbone will be around half of the price.

The ReelBox Avantgarde HD uses a customised version of vdr to support the HD card etc. Also ReelBox customise vdr in many other ways. I would imagine a linuxMCE install would probably work... but the standard VDR does not have the support for the HD side of the box so... that might be a bit of a problem.

ReelBox seem to be a little controversial in the VDR community in Germany as they are doing some things with VDR that are not respecting the GPL etc... at least thats what i hear.

[DonChaos]

Thanks a lot for all the feedbacks so far.
Wow, I didn't know that RMM is controversal in the VDR community. 

For me it's not so important to keep using the HD extension but would need to use the NetCeiver in order to get the TV channels. But if the VDR version of RMM is different than the normal version then I might have problems. In addition I was not able to find Linux drivers or the Plug-in Software for the VDR so far.

[totallymaxed]

Thanks a lot for all the feedbacks so far.
Wow, I didn't know that RMM is controversal in the VDR community. 

For me it's not so important to keep using the HD extension but would need to use the NetCeiver in order to get the TV channels. But if the VDR version of RMM is different than the normal version then I might have problems. In addition I was not able to find Linux drivers or the Plug-in Software for the VDR so far.

My understanding is the VDR used is not the 'stable' rlease version and requires special plug-ins etc to make use of the NetCeiver and the HD features.

[DonChaos]

Thanks a million. I have just found the plugin:
http://www.vdr-wiki.de/wiki/index.php/Reelchannelscan-plugin

So I just need LinuxMCE 7.10 now