Just getting started....

[mvhurlburt]

Hello all, this is my first post! I'm just getting started with LinuxMCE and have a few questions. First I'll post my setup.
Hybrid Core/MD
Biostar MB NVidia NForce 2 Chipset
Athlon XP 2800+
768MB DDR
256MB NVidia GFX(the model escapes me at the moment, but it is supported so its kinda irrelevant to my question)
80Gb HDD
DVD ±RW
WinTV PVR-150 on the way
38" Panasonic TV
Harmon Kardon Stereo Receiver
320GB SATA NAS(for storage)
I guess my first question is about IR recievers, I see a ton of them on ebay with remote combos for pretty cheap. I don't really need anything fancy so any receiver and universal remote will do. I guess I'm not really sure on compatibility issues. Will almost any USB unit do? I'd like to be able to turn on my TV with it if possible. If there is a list somewhere I could reference that would be great. Also I'd like to use this as a security setup as well. I've got two 4 channel BNC capture cards on the way. I'd like to use one of them in another unit on my lan located elsewhere in my apartment with two cameras connected. I'd also like to attach another camera to the WinTV card in the above setup. What I'd like to know here is if I could basically have two cores, one used strictly to attach cameras to and the other for media use. Is it possible for me to view all three cameras on the media director?

Basically to sum it up is I'm a bit confused about IR receivers/transceivers and a universal remote and what is compatible.

Secondly could I have cameras attached to two seperate cores and view them all on one media director?

Thanks in advanced!
regards,
Mike

[tschak909]

(1) use the USB UIRT. You can get them here.. http://www.usbuirt.com/

We have a device template for a standard Windows MCE remote that will work out of the box, and you can create other device templates to work with other remotes.

This device also has IR learning and blasting capability so you can learn the remotes of other AV devices and control them.

Keep in mind too, that LinuxMCE can be controlled by a huge variety of devices, most of them running Orbiter, such as:

* Tablets
* PDAs
* Cell phones
* Cisco 7970 IP phones
* web page display capable devices

Please read the wiki article on Orbiters, for more information.

Also:

(2) you may be confused about the terminology of a core. There is only one "Core" in a house, but there are multiple Media Directors and Orbiters. Any peripherals attached to the core or media directors are shared house wide to the other devices on the network. This system is meant to be the center of your home. Design your network as such.

-Thom

[mvhurlburt]

Thanks for the quick reply. I've checked out the USB-UIRT, it seems like a nice device but I'm not sure if its quite in the price range I'm looking at right now, though I probably won't find a transceiver for less. I'm also considering grabbing a gyration mouse + kbd combo off of ebay. Hopefully that will do the trick though I wish I could get a cheap compatible ir receiver and media remote as I'm trying to do this on a budget. The gyration mouse would be nice for web browsing, checking email and using the mce interface the only downside I can see with it is changing channels while using MythTV and for simple tasks like volume control etc unless I get something with two buttons on each side(one side for channels, the other for volume) As for the whole core/media director confusion, thanks for clearing that up. Just to clarify so I understand you correctly; it would in fact be possible to perhaps reverse this setup by having the capture card with the two cams attached to the core and have the PVR-150 operating in the media director? I think that would make more sense for my setup. Also I know you can netboot the media director from the core but it is also possible to just install linuxmce on the other machine and tell it to run as a media director, right? Hopefully I'll be able to get a decent setup going on a budget!

[merkur2k]

Well, its worth saving your pennies until you can do it right. Otherwise you spend twice as much in buying poorly supported hardware before giving in and then buying the stuff that works. Think about how much your time is worth. Also think about what youre getting for free with this software. You can afford to budget out more for the hardware.

[mvhurlburt]

Agreed I'll probably break down at some point and buy USB-UIRT at some point. It would be nice if there were some instructions on how to build one but I guess that would be a counterintuitive business plan. The real reason I'm putting this system together is for security purposes as there has been a string of break-ins recently in my apartment complex. I was going to use zoneminder at first but LinuxMCE seems to offer a more integrated, more scalable solution. Anyhow I thought if I was going to set it up for surveillance I might as well cough up the cash for a tuner and use the software to more of its potential. Has anybody had any experience with gyration products(Mice, remotes?) I might pickup a GYR3101 on ebay if I can find it for the right price as it really kills two birds with one stone. I just purchased a cheap plug'n play(At least under XP & Vista) USB bluetooth dongle($2.95 shipped) to use my apple bluetooth kbd which I suspect will be supported under linux, if not no big loss there. The IR transmitter would be nice and I'm sure I'll get one eventually, its just not a necessity at this point. I guess short of the USBUIRT, gyration remote or something along those lines I probably wont have much luck finding a plug n' play USB IR receiver for use with say a microsoft mce remote or some other universal remote. I have been browsing the wiki pages but they are a bit confusing to navigate and find the info I'm looking for. I can't really complain as the work that the opensource community has done to bring this piece of software to the world is nothing short of amazing and as most wiki's its probably safe to view this one as a work in progress. Again thank you to tschak909 & merkur2k for the insight and quick replies, much appreciated. Hopefully I will end up being successful endeavor!
Regards,
.:MvH:.

[merkur2k]

Unfortunately things are in a bit of a flux right now being that 0710 doesnt support newer hardware and 0810 isnt in final release yet. So while the Gyration remote will be supported eventually, it isnt yet. Probably the easiest IR remote solution right now is a USB-UIRT and a windows mce remote, they are both plug and play.

[mvhurlburt]

Well all of my gear finally came in(the cameras, BTTV cards & PVR-150) I was wondering if there was another way that I could do this.  At first I was thinking of just having a simple setup(core/hybrid) in my living room since I live in a relatively small townhouse apartment.  The problem is the wiring for the cams(at least 2 of the 3, maybe all 3) will be upstairs and the hybrid is not.  Also I'm not exactly using the most capable hardware, just some parts that I had lying around.  Now I've got a machine upstairs with 2.6Ghz celeron and 512MB of DDR that seems to fit the bill of attaching 2 or 3 cameras. The problem is how should I approach this.  Should I netboot that machine as just a media director, and if so will my hybrid be able to use the cameras attached to the other machine? The only thing I fear is that a machine with only 768MB of ram, an Athlon 2800+ with an IDE drive running over a 10/100 network just won't do the trick as a core/media director/netboot server though I may be mistaken.  Could I just install LMCE and boot it as a MD(I assume I can, but I am having trouble navigating the documentation in regards to configuring that to work with a core) or is there another way entirely to go about this? If someone could maybe point me to the relevant wiki pages that would likely suffice and maybe someone could also point me to one that teaches paitence  I hate having new goodies and not being able to get them to work the way I'd like them too!!!  None the less all the help and advice I've gotten thus far from this community has been prompt, informative, friendly and above all just generally helpful!
Regards,
.:MvH:.

[merkur2k]

I am slightly confused as to what you are asking, but its really pretty simple what is supported:
A network has one and only one core (that can optionally also be a media director). ALL other media directors ALWAYS netboot from that core. There is no support for installing the MD software to its local hard drive (if it has one). All hardware that the system supports can be attached to any MD or the core; it will be consolidated and made available to all other devices.
While youre right that those machines arent terribly fast, they should work fine for SD media. You will encounter problems with higher bitrate HD stuff though.
Oh and since my last post, the Gyration remote support is now in 0810. This makes the Gyration remote the best choice for remote control, other than the touchscreen pad based orbiters anyway.

[mvhurlburt]

Ok gotcha. Sorry if I'm coming across as a super newb  That was the part I didn't get, that you always need to netboot the MD. That makes a bit more sense now. As far as the Gyration remote goes thats great because as of replying to this post I've been able to pick one up for $31.00USD shipped! Seems to be in "like new" condition too! Well I guess I'm off to get everything setup! I'll report back as soon as I (or if I) put together a working setup. Also I was browsing through the board and took a look at Thom's letter to the community, it is amazing that only 5 people are able to develop and maintain such a complex codebase. I am fairly new to developing on linux though I have been using it for a number of "real world" solutions for about 7 years now. I do have some development experience on OS X(with C & Cocoa) as well as some web dev experience with HTML, PHP and the like. Once I understand LMCE on a more fundamental level and can begin to understand the intricate interactions and interdependencies of the various components I'd love to contribute back something, even if it is something small such as a new device template or a nifty hack that I've come up with that some how makes my life easier. I really appreciate the promptness and clarity of the guidance I've received so far in this board so I guess saying thanks is really the only way to show my gratitude at this point, so thanks!
.:MvH:.