Messages

4651

Users / Re: Identify and add my content to LMCE

« on: May 22, 2007, 10:25:03 pm »

How do I get LMCE to identify my content and add the album art to content thats already been cataloged? The content is there and it should be identifiable (e.g. Casablanca) but no picture. Same for music.

Take a look in Web admin -> Files & Media -> Media Files Sync

4652

Users / Re: USB z-wave

« on: May 21, 2007, 08:03:51 am »

1audio I allredy email them, not really complaining but asking for a place to buy. Thanks for the info. Can you tell me why z-wave is better than zegbee or other systems?

totallymaxed any web pages or telephone?

Hugo

Hi again,

Well as others have said there is not that much technically that differetiates zigbbe from zwave apart from the way the mesh network is maintained/updated and the number of devices you can have in a single net is larger under zigbee. But these differences are largely irrelevant unless you have an incredibly large home installation or you are working deep down under the 'hood' as a software developer.

I guess the most important difference is that zwave support is already built into linux-mce now - and it works quite nicely. We have been using it for over a year now and although the linux-mce implementation still lacks some features/support it does really work.

Regards

Andrew

4653

Users / Re: Can I buy LinuxMCE products?

« on: May 21, 2007, 07:56:10 am »

Hello all,

The linuxmce.com web site, under the heading "Why buy a licensed LinuxMCE product? What's the difference?", implies that there are commercial versions of Linux MCE available for purchase. However, after googling around for awhile I can't find any distributers or manufacturers of such a product.

Is anyone aware of a turn-key product based on Linux MCE that I could just purchase, plug in and be up and running within minutes?

Thanks!

Hi,

Take a look at www.plutohome.com to see the Pluto system - linux-mce is based on Pluto and is aimed more at commercial installers (although is also has a following of private individuals to). Another place to see someone delivering a commercial product around linux-mce is www.fiire.com (although in this case its standard linux-mce on custom hardware).

Andrew

4654

Users / Re: Will this setup work?

« on: May 20, 2007, 10:07:07 pm »

so you're telling me that wifi wouldn't allow for network boot? I would be willing to install what's necessary to boot on the HD of that box, or on a usb stick/cd.

Still, does anyone have answers to my other questions?

Hi,

Most WiFi adapters do not have the PXE boot code in them to handle the network boot. However even if they did I doubt whether you would enjoy the performance much.

We are testing the new 1.1 ability to boot up from a local hard drive and so far it looks to work really nicely. So it might be possible to get acceptable performance via WiFi if only the media was sent across the network connection... we have not tested that though yet.

Hope this helps

Andrew

4655

Users / Re: Core Requirements...

« on: May 20, 2007, 10:33:17 am »

Hi,

Well our Cores are typically i945 motherboards with 3.0Ghz Celeron's and 512mb of RAM and ours are configures as hybrids so they also perform as MD's too. Our Hybrid cores can reliably support 3-4 pxe booted MD's in this config. That at least gives you some metrics to base a decision on.

Hope this helps

Andrew

Andrew,

That actually gives me a pretty good idea.. I'm sure that a 4x900mhz p3 with loads of ram can probably handle the load of at least 3-4 pxe boots. regardless, it's not like i couldn't find a use for a machine like that if it didn't work.

Now, I guess the only question left is how important are the specs for the MD?.. or can they be basically barebones aside from the sound and video cards?


Thanks,

Dan

Hi Again Dan,

Well at the MD end of the system it comes down to what you need the MD to actually do. We have i915 based MD's with and without on-board optical drives but without HD's. These have typically again 512mb of ram and are usually low end Celeron-M powered to reduce heat and cooling noise. We also are testing several Via based fanless motherboards using CN700 graphics chip and the C7 processor. The Via's using the Openchrome driver make great MD's as they run silent (no fan), are low  heat/energy, have excellent graphics power for video playback and also good IO options.

The other product that is worth checking out (we have not tested this product yet) is the FiireStation from www.fiire.com as these guys are Linuxmce specialists and the FireStation comes with special Via Bianry drivers to really get the most our of the Via chipset. Again I have not tested these units but I have it on good authority that these are likely to be nice products and have been designed for Pluto/linuxmce from the outset. However they are not cheap!

Again hope the above is of help.

Andrew

4656

Users / Re: USB z-wave

« on: May 20, 2007, 10:21:19 am »

Ok, so I need european z-wave. Thanks for the info. Anyone knows if UK z-wave and european z-wave are compatible? And anyone know somewhere else where I can buy z-wave usb adaptor? the web that totallymaxed gave me sais they will have it in april but now in may they still dont.

Any help apreciated

Hugo

Hi again,

You need European power modules (UK ones have a different mains plug design) but the USB interface is a single design for the whole of Europe and as others have said here is uses the European Zwave frequency.

There are several European manufacturers that have extensive ranges of Zwave enabled electrical/climate/security products that should launch this summer. These companies will have very extensive ranges aimed at both the DIY and professional install markets.

Cheers

Andrew

4657

Users / Re: Core Requirements...

« on: May 19, 2007, 10:18:37 pm »

hmmm.. nobody has any input on this? basically what i need to know is this: what does the core do if it's not also used as a media director? does it do any processing of videos (conversion..etc), running the MDs, etc.. or does it just serve the files to the MDs on the network requiring only enough power to make sure that disk read/write speeds are fast enough to keep up?

basically i want to know if a quad P3 xeon 700 or 900mhz server with 2-4GB ram and a nice RAID could keep up if it was only used as a core, if i had faster (P4 or better) nodes for the MDs.

Hi,

Well our Cores are typically i945 motherboards with 3.0Ghz Celeron's and 512mb of RAM and ours are configures as hybrids so they also perform as MD's too. Our Hybrid cores can reliably support 3-4 pxe booted MD's in this config. That at least gives you some metrics to base a decision on.

Hope this helps

Andrew

4658

Users / Re: USB z-wave

« on: May 19, 2007, 10:11:39 pm »

Hi

I am having a lot of trouble finding a z-wave usb adapter in Barcelona, where I live. I found in the web a US shop that will send it to me. They have the model ZCU000 - Zwave USB Interface (http://www.automatedoutlet.com/product.php?productid=24&cat=235&page=1). Does anybody knows if it works with linux or linuxmce?

If someone can also point me to a z-wave web or normal shop in the Uk or any other part of Europe I apreciate. Obviously a shop in Spain would be great but its going to be hard. Sometimes I feel like Spain is some kind of undeveloped country. We are allways the last ones to get things in Europe. Anyway, any help much apreciated.

Hugo

Hi Hugo,

LetsAutomate in the UK has a good range of Zwave hardware. The new Zwave usn hub from HomePro is here;

http://www.letsautomate.com/12434.cfm?

But it appears that they still have not had deliveries when i checked just now.

Hope this helps

Regards

Andrew

4659

Installation issues / Re: dual booting

« on: May 19, 2007, 10:02:13 pm »

so i did a search in this forum and didnt find many people talking about dual booting. my question is who can give me the best advice or point me in the best direction, to learn how to dual boot linux with windows xp. so i can keep xp but also have that orgasmic linux mce. would appreciate any help here, thanks you everyone!
                 Nate

Hi,

Just use the Kubuntu 7.04 LiveCD and use the Install icon on the desktop to intiate an install on your hard drive. The installer will provide the options to resize your Windows partition to make room for your Kubuntu install. I have used this on numerous machines now and it has worked perfectly and in each case XP was already installed.

Kubuntu will add your Windows XP partition to the Grub menu which you will see first after you power up your computer - enabling you to choose to boot into Windows or Kubuntu.

Make sure you have a good backup of any valuable data and any applications in your Windows partition just in case before you try this though. I have never had any problems resizing my Windows XP partitions... but you never know when the unthinkable might happen ;-)

Hope this helps

Andrew

4660

Users / Re: Ripping Failed

« on: May 02, 2007, 12:54:05 pm »

Ok it will copy a DVD to the HD fine with no problems at all. I was amazed at how easy it was to get ripped and the speed was excellent.

Sadly though My CD Ripping will not work. Im not sure if this is anything to do with it but I may have selected MP3 in the setup and not MP3, will that make any difference?

Cheers in advance


Matt

If you have selected mp3 as your ripping format you will need to add the lame package to your installation;

from the console type;

sudo apt-get install lame
(**you'll need your password**)

Now go back to the Orbiter and you should find that mp3 ripping works fine :-)

Andrew