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Messages - RichardP

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31
Users / Re: Hard-wired IP light switches???
« on: February 07, 2008, 01:52:23 am »
I'm looking for, and have been unable to find, IP light switches.  And more importantly, when I do find them, is LMCE going to be able to use them... that is if they exist...

Background: I'm currently building a house and starting the structured wiring in a couple of weeks, and have yet to install LMCE but I will when the house is finished and the core is built.  I think I do not want to use X10 or Zwave for my lighting because I think I want each light switch to have it's own rj45 port.  My google-fu is usually decent, but I am unable to find these devices...

If I am dense, tell me, but I would think this would be the ideal and best set up for my situation...

Skip


Light switches are usually part of a system. You would have a network hookup into some single part of the system, rather than for everydevice. For example CBus from Clipsal has each lightswitch and controller talking to each other via it's own private Cat5 network which carries it's own proprietry protocol. To talk to the system, you would add a network connector. This gives you a single RJ45 to connect to the computer network, and then sends commands down the CBus network. With one of these in the system, you can talk to every CBus device from your computer.

Most other systems would follow a similar philosophy.

Best Regards,
Richard.


32
Users / Re: LinuxMCE ignores xorg.conf?
« on: February 07, 2008, 01:42:49 am »
Hello,

   I edited xorg.conf and changed the modeline to fit my screen.
I've also changed '/usr/pluto/bin/Xconfigure.sh' so it will do nothing.

I've set LinuxMCE to load on startup. When it loads the resolution is as it was before I've touched
xorg.conf.  Now, If I kill the X session and start it again ('startx') KDE loads in the resolution I've set.



Hi,

The nVidia driver does not use modelines - they will be ignored, and only the name of the mode will be used.

Make some changes to your xorg.conf:
In your TVStandard option, change it from 720p to HD720p.
Turn EDID on, as you seem to be using the DVI connector, and the TV will tell the video card all the modes it supports and also which one it prefers.
In you Monitor section, add a DisplaySize option. It won't make any visible difference, but it will help select the correct aspect ratio when you are watching video and TV. See http://www.pillayfamily.com/blogs/index.php/LinuxMCE/2008/02/05/full_screen_tv for more info.

Once you've fully started up with that configuration, read the contents of /var/log/xorg.0.log and see what the TV is reporting back, and you will be able to figure out what other changes you need to make in your xorg.conf.

Finally, once your xorg.conf is set up correctly, copy it over the Pluto version, also in /etc/X11. Whenever you run the AVWizard, the first thing it does is copy this file over xorg.conf, so you will end up losing your changes.


ColinJones will probably be able to give you a lot of help with this issue, as he has gone through a fair amount of pain and has probably learnt a few tricks along the way.

Best Regards,
Richard.

33
Users / Re: VDR in 0710b3 - No key is working (except some function keys)
« on: February 07, 2008, 01:05:03 am »
Hi Andrew,

This didn't work for me. Nothing seems to happen when I try this. I may be following the wrong procedure - I'm currently finding I can't access the forum from home - so I'll print this out and try again this evening.


I take this back. When I sat in front of the screen with the printout of this thread, I saw what you meant, and it worked just as you said. Works well too.

Something else I've got to take back is what I said about EPG. I've no recollection of setting it up, but it is getting EPG from somewhere. I have EPG for some channels for a week. I thought the off-air EPG was only a Now/Next service. Does anyone know how much the Ausie stations put into EPG?

Many thanks for that, Andrew!


34
Users / Re: VDR in 0710b3 - No key is working (except some function keys)
« on: February 06, 2008, 02:52:14 am »

Sorry only just spotted this.

Yes it is from the UI2 EPG screen (use F6 to get "Compass Rose" on screen control... highlight the upper yellow triangle and press "OK"). Then hightlight the channel in the leftmost column... now press right on the remote (or keyboard) once to get the highlight in the centre column (this now displaying the TV program running order for the channel previously selected)... now us up/down to select the TV show you are interested in... Program info will be displayed in rightmost column at the top... below that is a panel with some controls... highlight & then "OK" or click the 'Red' record button to set a recording for that show.

Please realise this and other elements of lmcevdr are still a 'work in progress'...

Hi Andrew,

This didn't work for me. Nothing seems to happen when I try this. I may be following the wrong procedure - I'm currently finding I can't access the forum from home - so I'll print this out and try again this evening.
When you talk about the red record button - you do mean onscreen, right? The only screen I've seen which this could apply to is one where there are several menu options from 1 to 6, then down the bottom are coloured bars - Red for Record, Amber for Audio and so on. They are not clickable, and using the arrow keys on the Fiire merely select the menu options. I've tried using the key on the Fiire which has a Red dot below, but it retains it's original function and brings up the pictures screen (while the live TV continues).

Could my problem stem from the fact that I don't have EPG fully working? When installing, I chose only the Live EPG data - I havn't set up to get the EPG from an internet source.

Best Regards,
Richard.

35
Users / Re: VDR in 0710b3 - No key is working (except some function keys)
« on: February 05, 2008, 03:01:26 am »

Sorry only just spotted this.

Yes it is from the UI2 EPG screen (use F6 to get "Compass Rose" on screen control... highlight the upper yellow triangle and press "OK"). Then hightlight the channel in the leftmost column... now press right on the remote (or keyboard) once to get the highlight in the centre column (this now displaying the TV program running order for the channel previously selected)... now us up/down to select the TV show you are interested in... Program info will be displayed in rightmost column at the top... below that is a panel with some controls... highlight & then "OK" or click the 'Red' record button to set a recording for that show.

Please realise this and other elements of lmcevdr are still a 'work in progress'...

Many thanks, Andrew. I'll try it this evening.

Also going to try installing vdr-admin. Fingers crossed!

36
Users / Re: Disable flickr?
« on: February 05, 2008, 02:56:01 am »
Richard - so you are saying this isn't an explicit delete of particular files, but checks if a set of files in a directory actually exist on the disk and deletes them from the db if they don't? So in other words a "clean up" function?

How does it determine if the files are on disk or simply not available if that disk isn't around at the time (disconnected from the network, or simply network issues like I am having at the moment!) Does it distinguish between files that come back as not there, and files that come back as "device offline"?

At the moment, it doesn't verify the files exist on the disk - but read on.

What it does is delete all the files from the DB that are in the list of files missing from the disk. (This may sound confusing until you look at the screen). This list is originally created (when you open the page or refresh it), by querying the DB with a SQL statement which obtains all the files in the current directory which are marked (in the DB) as missing AND which do not exist on disk.

So the upshot of it all is you would open the page and down the bottom you would see a list of missing files, and a button which offers to delete all of them. If the files are missing because the storage device is offline, you would know it and not use the button, I guess. Alternatively you could bring the device online, re-sync the directory, then hit the delete-all button to delete files which truly are missing from device.

Does this sound plausible, or am I misreading the code?

Colin, if you have storage devices that are sometimes offline, I'd really appreciate your testing the new page.

Best Regards,
Richard.


37
Installation issues / Re: Help with CRT TV setup
« on: January 31, 2008, 09:56:10 am »
I am really wanting to get a Linux MCE box setup. I have a 31" Sanyo CRT tv (model ds31520), when installing it would appear that there is a screen inside of a screen, kinda a "virutal" screen. The TV has borders, however the picture does not extend to the borders. In the setup resolution wizard when the option to adjust comes up I can only adjust to about 1/8" from the right and bottom border. This would be on the "virtual" screen so to speak and not the actual borders of the real screen. My video card is an Nvidia GeForce 5700LE and it is connected to the TV via S-Video. During boot, it is fine...everything full screen, when Kubuntu completes loading, that is where the issue starts (after I hit 5 for S-Video input). I have also tried to adjust the screen resolution by pressing keys 6 - 10, however only 6 and 7 actually produce a pic. When selecting connections I have tried NTSC-J and M with no change. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP. I really want this to work for me. Thank you in advance.

Try installing the latest drivers from NVidia and then set up your settings in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. In particular, you want to set your resolution and your refresh rates. The fact that you get a good picture during bootup means the card and TV work fine, but when X starts, it changes video mode. When the picture shrinks like you are describing, it usually means the TV cannot display the signal it is getting from the card - the refresh or resolution rate is too high, or the frequencies being sent down the cable cannot be handled by the display.

38
Users / Re: VDR in 0710b3 - No key is working (except some function keys)
« on: January 31, 2008, 02:39:56 am »
We do have several 6 tuner systems on test and also in daily use. My home system has 3 tuners and we watch live/recorded TV with almost no limitations.

Andrew - is it currently possible to record and play back inside VDR in it's current state on B3?

Best Regards,
Richard.

39
Users / Re: Disable flickr?
« on: January 31, 2008, 02:32:58 am »
They do, and it works. But it's very tedious doing it one by one. We definately need a delete all or some such.

I've made some progress with placing a button on the webpage. When you click it, it will (hopefully) delete all the files from the current directory which are in the DB, but not on disk.

Is anyone willing to test it? I need to verify that on other systems besides mine, it does not remove from the database any files which exist on the disk, and that it does not have any other unexpected side-effect.

Installation will be a matter of replacing two files on the core (you can save the original ones first, in case you need to go back to the original).

I should have it ready to distribute this evening (morning of the 1st for the British and Americans).
Best Regards,
Richard.


40
Users / Re: NVidia drivers removed!
« on: January 31, 2008, 01:59:52 am »
Hi,

My main diskless MD is now dead because LMCE has decided to remove the drivers from /lib/modules/xxx. I have no idea why it has decided to do this, as nothing has changed in the admin GUI.

Does anyone know why this happens?

I have no real knowledge of this, but could it be an automatic update process that is removing libs it thinks are not used on your system?


41
Developers / Re: C-Bus ported to MCE
« on: January 30, 2008, 05:28:56 am »
(1) The notes at http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Implementing_Clipsal_Interface_using_Generic_Serial_Device gave me the impression that LinuxMCE is talking directly to the clipsal 5500PC device.  Is that the case ?  Are the magic binary strings documented or were they determined by reverse engineering ? 

Forget the PC - use the CN instead. In my own installation, I had both, but only because I got the 5500PC early on, for free. It was used only until I bought the 5500CN, after which I never looked back.

Everything you do with the PC works with the CN. All it does is change a single point to point connection via RS232 to a network connection from anywhere in the house. Nothing else changes - even the protocol is still considered to be "serial".

I used C-Gate for a short while, while I played around with Mr House. For anything else I went direct to the interface.

Best Regards,
Richard.

42
Users / Re: Disable flickr?
« on: January 29, 2008, 05:39:26 am »

Richard - I agree, that would be much better (I have about 200 to delete!), but did you end up making any progress on scripting it?

Actually - Zaerc is right, I can choose that option and delete the whole Flickr folder, with the files presumably as children in the database, this cleaned those out as well! I had to resync my own pictures for some reason, but all OK.

I missed that - I was deleting the entries one by one, rather than the entire directory. I'll try it when I get home.

Sorry, Colin, havn't even looked at the script yet. I was out most of the weekend - had out of state visitors.

Zaerc - could you point me toward the webpage and/or PHP file that shows the files which are in the DB but not in the filesystem. I'll take a look at that as the starting point for the script, and also have so I can have a look at whether or not I feel competent enough to attempt to place a "DeleteAll" button on the webpage.

Best Regards,
Richard.

43
Users / Re: Disable flickr?
« on: January 28, 2008, 11:08:10 pm »
Tried ticking the "Show files who are missing from disk" box in the webadmin's Media Files Sync screen?   They should have a "Delete from Database" button.

They do, and it works. But it's very tedious doing it one by one. We definately need a delete all or some such.

44
Users / Re: Disable flickr?
« on: January 28, 2008, 03:45:48 am »
Richard - the other thing is, has anybody noticed that the playback of the images you add isn't random (don't know if this was true for the Flickr stuff as well) it seems to get stuck on 2 images and goes back and forth between them up to 7 or 8 times, then suddenly seems to find another 2 and moves on... I don't quite get what is going on but I'm sure that's not how it was intended. Unless it is a side effect of having a large number of Flickr images in the database, still, that no longer exist on disk...

Curious. I did notice that, but didn't think anything of it, because I was fiddling so much. I might poke around under the hood, although I'll have to find where that is first...

45
Users / Re: Disable flickr?
« on: January 27, 2008, 12:35:02 pm »
I have renamed the script and killed the process (and subsequently rebooted), added my own pictures and set the attributes using the new feature. And deleted the Flickr files that it had already downloaded.

Unfortunately, before I thought it through, I just deleted the Flickr photos and directories with a sudo rm command...

Then subsequently realised that this wasn't going to clear out the database - no matter, I thought I would just resync. Did that successfully, but it seems that this won't delete it from the database. When I use the file sync section and browse the folders for my pics, it has "Screensaver for MD: *" next to each of them. When I click on the "*" it takes me to the list of all pics marked with the screensaver attribute, and it still lists hundreds of Flickr photos, albeit with "!" next to their name. I could delete them manually, but this would take hours as there are about 14 pages of them and you can't multiple select!

How can I clean up the database given that resync doesn't do it? I have tried to recreate the flickr folder, resync, and then delete it again using the web site, but this doesn't seem to reconnect with the database and clean it up....

Any advice?

I had the same issue this morning. Does anyone have any suggestions? If not, I'll see if I can write a script that will remove all pictures out of the database that are not on the disk.


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