Messages

1

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: Core Redundancy:What if?

« on: December 06, 2008, 06:04:15 pm »

I know this is a stupid solution, but why not just have a backup hard drive image on an external hard drive? I mean, an external hard drive costs, like, $60 these days?

If the Core burned out somehow, then you just boot from this backup drive on whichever backup computer you have (you could use one of your spare Media Directors, for example).

I keep a backup image of all my mission critical servers hard drives for exactly this possibility.

Virtualization is very labor intensive as a backup/redundancy solution.

2

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: Roadmap

« on: November 06, 2008, 08:10:56 pm »

This is an excellent idea. The Donations section of Linux MCE is directed at CD/DVD purchase. I haven't used a CD/DVD in a long time (lol), but would be willing to directly donate into a kitty to help with project development, say, via PayPal.

LinuxMCE is the most fun hobby I have ever had! (Although I do enjoy skiing and diving, world traveling, vascular surgery, moviemaking, and corporate mergers!)

I do not think the intent of mentioning Miro was to indicate what it does.

I think the previous poster was alluding more to how Miro makes pushing donations to them easy so people are more apt to provide dollars to help fund hardware/development.

3

Users / Re: Wireless or not?

« on: July 07, 2008, 04:27:08 am »

my hybrid/core is connected complete wireless.

the external connection to my network is an 802.11n draft card and my router is a linksys draft n router.
the MCE internal network is a 802.11g bridge from an ethernet card witha linksys travel router. I have not media directors only an orbitor on the internal network for now, but my fileserver is on the external network. all audio and video comes from it. its a bit bumpy at times, but mostly smooth. I can surf the web etc on the eternal network while streaming dvd ripped movies fine

Check out http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Wireless_Networking#Netbooting_Wirelessly

4

Users / Re: Brand New System ... can it do this

« on: July 07, 2008, 04:24:19 am »

Don't get hung up on the internal / external network distinction.

The "external network" can be as minimal as your DSL/cable modem, if you want.

In that way, your entire home LAN (except for the DSL modem) can be part of the "internal" network, which I'm sure is what you're asking.

5

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: Feature Request - Netflix WatchNow Support

« on: June 23, 2008, 10:31:40 pm »

I seem to recall somebody getting WatchNow to work with firefox by using a plugin that told the accessed page you were using IE instead...you can also use IETabs for firefox. As of now, the only way to get WatchNow working on a linux machine is to run a VM with Windows in it. Unfortunately, its not the most elegant solution. I'm actually trying to do this with my PS3 at the moment, which is a huge pain, but should be awesome once I get it working

There is also the possibility that WatchNow will work once somebody finishes a Silverlight port for linux, which was announced almost a year ago by Mono, but doesn't seem to have gone anywhere  . Here's hoping something gets done soon.

Novell announced download of Moonlight available May 2008:

http://www.go-mono.com/moonlight/

6

Installation issues / Re: Core Setup

« on: June 20, 2008, 04:20:35 am »

If setting up a core, can one safely skip all tv/audio setup, boot into Linux MCE, switch the desktop and and check only core to start?

Thanks!

Yes, it's safe to do that.

You can't use the Orbiter User Interface from a monitor connected to the Core if you do that, but you can still administer the Core (from the Core's monitor) using the LinuxMCE Admin Website (which needs no special graphics or sound). That generally is preferable anyway.

There are caveats -- if you output from the Core's soundcard directly to a whole house audio system, you should setup audio.

7

Feature requests & roadmap / Problems with motion detection

« on: May 26, 2008, 02:40:05 am »

Well, good thing I have the dog.

I can't get the motion detection to work.

I have analog cameras which are connected to a video capture board. The interface is the Motion Wrapper. I can see the cameras individually and in quad camera view. They refresh fine. So i know images are coming through.

I went into the Motion Wrapper device parameters page and made sure auto-brightness was off (my camera has auto brightness already), minimum_motion_frames was 2, framerate was 30 (the same as my video capture board).

I can send alerts to my Orbiter as a scenario, so that works. I can send alerts to my Orbiter as interval events, so that works.

But when I set up the event handler to send an alert when movement is detected on my surveillance camera, nothing happens.

Does anyone have any troubleshooting tips for motion detection by camera?

8

Users / Re: Thinking of Jumping In!!!

« on: May 25, 2008, 06:20:13 am »

I agree with Alex. But I tried to set up a complex system on Windows and got nowhere fast. At least in LinuxMCE it is possible to eventually sort out the details. I'm more interested in the home automation, climate control, and security capabilities than home theater (since I don't watch much TV). I could ave used ActiveHome, but then my kids and wife all started arguing about TVs and TiVo and PC access. You know, the usual.

Then the goose died so my old security system needed an immediate upgrade, and my dog got gastroenteritis and couldn't perform his "home automation" duties, so I was forced to step up my efforts to install LinuxMCE.

Turns out the dog figured out how to use the gyroscopic remote faster than the wife did... I'm still tweaking the wife. (It appears that documentation is non-existent for that module.)

So, you see, it's always something.

9

Feature requests & roadmap / Dog vs. LinuxMCE

« on: May 25, 2008, 06:05:41 am »

Here is a step in my current setup:

===Added an event in response to security camera motion detection===


Because I had to puzzle this step out, I took a break and fell back on my old home automation system.
  -- Trained my dog to bark when the pizza guy came up the steps.
  -- Trained my dog to sit (delayed command execution) while I got change from between the sofa cushions.
  -- Commanded my dog to take the money to the front door, fetch the pizza, and verify exact change (an advanced scenario).

During this entire time my media remained visible on my UI2 alpha blended on-screen Orbiter.

I think my dog should be integrated into version 0804. How about it, Paul, Hari, dan, Thom, Andrew, and Zaerc?

10

Users / Re: SloYerRoll install thread

« on: May 22, 2008, 07:55:06 am »

"If you want to use the MediaCenter part over wireless, LinuxMCE will not fit your need.
You will not get the LinuxMCE GUI over wireless."

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Why not? Netboot might not be very easy to set up over wireless, but certainly the Orbiters work wirelessly, as does access to the Admin pages.

Media streaming can be done over a Gigabit wireless router (like the Netgear Wireless-N Gigabit router), as long as you're not drying your poodle in the microwave (which might cause interference).

A Media Director may have to boot up from a hard drive partition with LinuxMCE (instead of a netboot), but that's not a very high price to pay (and may actually be faster than a netboot.)

No, I think a completely wireless system is quite possible, if you pay attention to the caveats.

See http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Wireless_Networking