Messages

1

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: GUI, Now Playing & Bluray - Help from Hyderabad

« on: November 25, 2008, 06:09:01 am »

OK, so one is naughty and the other is bad, but neither are as ethical as open source, which is my point.

2

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: GUI, Now Playing & Bluray - Help from Hyderabad

« on: November 25, 2008, 03:48:50 am »

we are now living in a culture where it is socially acceptable to pirate software, but is wrong no matter how you look at it. Those companies have invested time, money and effort into a proprietary business model. Technology would not be where it is today if was not for proprietary software.

If today's culture is to reconise they they are stealing, they may consider making a better choice and going for open source software. Once they realise it doesn't quite look, or do everything the way they want, while excepting they can not afford to buy the proprietary software, they are more likely to contribute to that software.

I find that India has a very honest culture, compared to the other nations I have visited. No one really considers piracy to be a real crime here, as no one can justify to pay the retail price, when so free and easy to download. Imagine if they did consider it to be a crime like stealing from a shop, imagine if for every copy of priated windows they were using ubuntu.

You may be saying, "micro$oft can afford to not receive that revenue stream", I couldn't give a fuck about micro$oft's revenue, but I do care about getting a programming oriented country like India behind open source. The world would surely be a better place!

3

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: GUI, Now Playing & Bluray - Help from Hyderabad

« on: November 24, 2008, 07:04:57 pm »

Hey Chipppy

I am all down with the free choice aspect and I do think it is important that LinuxMCE is as cross compatible as possible. In my brief proposal I said to keep the current GUI options, but also to add standardized GUI's that the majority of people really want. I am not proposing to limit the communities options, just to forward the software so it is suitable for the consumer.

I believe open source is also about providing free choice for the consumer, not just the programmers. I want to promote and forward LinuxMCE allowing 3 things.

1. Improve media accessibility, automation, communication and security for those who can not afford it.

2. Allow those who can afford it, to distribute their budget towards improving the quality of their system and ultimately enhancing the experience of listening to music and watching movies.

3. Giving those who feel it necessary to pirate software, a chance to make the right choice.

These 3 things I am committed to. As I said before I will take the advice given, I will gather my resources and research LinuxMCE further, so I will be able to assist you all reaching its potential.

Cheers

4

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: GUI, Now Playing & Bluray - Help from Hyderabad

« on: November 24, 2008, 04:06:09 am »

Thanks for the feedback Thom.

I will see what resources there are within the Hyderabad community who are wanting to get involved, and who can assist me in understanding what is really involved on a programming level.

5

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: GUI, Now Playing & Bluray - Help from Hyderabad

« on: November 24, 2008, 03:20:08 am »

I appreciate the difficulty of one size fits all, I we would have always custom designed each different lay out for our clients.

If we were to limit the hardware and give clear guideline of what could be usedwhich would mostly cover the needs of the masses (to be discussed within the community), create a fixed range like what fiire has done, but also think about orbiters. Most people including the custom install guys will be happy to buy what hardware is recommended, even if this is limited.

Could we then develop individually GUI's for each of those fixed hardware devices. Then add to the menu where you choose the graphic your system supports.

• Basic
• Mid - no alpha bending
• High - with alpha bending
• Spec 1 - 720p/1080p - opengl 3D interface
• Spec 2 - PAL - opengl 3D interface
• Orbiter 1- itouch (or other suitable device)

Then the community can still use with random products and configurations, and the general masses can get a GUI they are proud to have on their new TV or Projector.

Cheers.

6

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: GUI, Now Playing & Bluray - Help from Hyderabad

« on: November 23, 2008, 06:13:00 pm »

Found it!

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Developers_Guide#9.3.1_HADesigner

Nice one.

Is this XBMC worth looking into? I don't want to start some big argument, like in the previous GUI post. A few pros and cons would be great, to help me make decision of to research deeper or not.

7

Feature requests & roadmap / GUI, Now Playing & Bluray - Help from Hyderabad

« on: November 23, 2008, 03:02:23 pm »

Hey Guys

First I would like to introduce myself. I am a founder of Cedia Award Winning UK Custom Installation Company www.finitesolutions.co.uk. I have designed and installed with systems with AMX, Crestron, Lutron, Linn, B&W, Imerge and Kaleidescape.

Just over a year ago I moved out to Hyderabad to personally setup a software & web development company. I have been following the progress of LinuxMCE over last 6 months and I think what the community has created is absolutely tremendous. I would like to take my hat off to you guys for all the innovation and hard graft.

I am not a programmer, but I do have a very good relationship with technology, and now have my own programming resources. I am also apart of the local Hyderabad open source community www.twincling.org, which I recently posted about LinuxMCE.

There are many limitation of LinuxMCE that need addressing so it will be embraced by the custom installation industry. The GUI is one of these, and I personally think this is a more important area to focus on, rather than the home automation side of things and getting it to do everything with everything. M$ Vista will win hands down on this, and is currently well worth the financial investment, despite the limited functionality, media compatibility and overall reliability. The mass majority of users just want to watch films and listen to music, as easy as possible.

I know that we all have different opinions on what is more important and should come first, and that is all part of the beauty of opensource, creating a parallel code which all works together.

I am not here to whine about LinuxMCE, but am here to offer my professional opinion, rally support from my local open source community and utilize my spare resources when available.

The areas that I am interested in tackling are as follows.

    * GUI (with the options of removing redundant menus)
    * "Now Playing" and play list editing
    * Bluray ripping and playback


Please advise me whether these are worth pursuing, are there still fundamentals that need addressing first and who are the key guys to talk to.

Thanks

Morgan