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DHCP clients don't request specific IP addresses.

Well, it depends. If it has received an IP address, it will ask for a renewal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol#DHCP_discovery

Maybe this is a Windows/Linux difference.  Windows clients don't include option 50 in the DHCP discover.  Only during the DHCP Request is it included and is set to the IP address sent by the server during the DHCP Offer.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749902.aspx

So, I setup a timed event to play a playlist in the morning.  I originally set it up to play on two of my MD's and it works great.  I decided I also wanted it to play on a third MD so I went into the timed event and added the third entertain area.  It was 2,3 changed it to 2,3,4.  Now the playlist only starts on the first TV and for some reason Myth fires up on the third, the second one simply sits there on the Photo Screen Saver.  This is true of any combination of MD's.  Any two will work flawlessly, i.e. 2,3 - 2,4 - 3,4.  Anytime I try to add a third, I get the above behavior. 

Any ideas?

DHCP clients don't request specific IP addresses.  They simply ask for an address, any address.  The DHCP server assigns the first available address if it's a new network device.  The DHCP server checks for the MAC address of the requesting device and if it has an existing lease it will assign that IP address.  If that device's lease has expired there will be no record and it will be assigned the first available address (this may or may not be the same one it got before).

The way to get psuedo-static IP addresses is to change the lease time in your DHCP server.  Essentially this will simply not let the lease expire and there will always be a record of the MAC to IP address in the DHCP table, ensuring you always get the same IP.  If you change the NIC in a machine it will be assigned a different IP address (new MAC address means new network device as far as the DHCP server is concerned).

I realize that you guys are right and there is no need to statically assign addresses on a stable DHCP network, but I can't sleep well if my Win Servers don't have static IP's (just a throwback from when DHCP servers sucked).  I simply address my servers outside the DHCP range.

YAY!!  Another Windows guy!!!  Welcome, you'll love LMCE and if you're a 'techie' guy (and I think you are), you'll just have a blast learning it.

I also researched the 32/64 bit addressable RAM thing when first getting into LMCE.  Here's what I discovered.  First, out of the box the 32bit Kubuntu does only support the 3.3GB or whatever it is.  64 bit will address up to 64GB I believe.  BUT, I also have been told by guys that know more than me to stick with the 32 bit install for stability.  So, I ended up buying a core from Fiire and it only has 2GB of RAM in it.  I'm running 4 media directors and it runs flawlessly so I think it's probably not necessary to go beyond the 4GB limit.

Now, your installation looks like it might be more complex than mine so I'd get input from the more experienced guys regarding RAM requirements but I think you'd be fine with 2GB in your core running the 32bit OS.

Somebody correct me if any of this is wrong.

Nice job, my network is slightly different, I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning in your wiki.

I plug my core external interface into my switch so it goes BROADBAND ROUTER > SWITCH > CORE EXTERNAL AND HOME PC/PRINTERS/ETC.

I then have another switch plugged into the internal interface of the Core so it goes: CORE INTERNAL > SWITCH2 > MD'S

There is no advantage to this other than keeping my network traffic separate and not having to worry about configuring port forwarding on both my router and core for my PC's.

I've worked in computers my entire adult life and consider myself to be a pretty sharp guy.  I've been working with LMCE for about 4 months now and I haven't even touched the Security, Lighting, Telcom stuff (though I intend to).  I'm running a very simple 1 core, 4 MD system and I honestly think these guys are UNDERstating the learning curve.

PLEASE, take some time and seriously reconsider offering this product to end users.  As I said, I'm computer savvy and I understood what 'opensource' meant when I decided to install, so my level of expectation was what it should be.  However, if I were the average consumer purchasing this system from someone I would have had a much higher level of expectation and honestly you or I don't have the expertise to provide it.  Not knocking you, just trying to give you a 'regular guy' perspective on it.  A good example is it took me 2 weeks to get the control of my receiver right.  Your customers will and should find something like that unacceptable.

The system is incredibly powerful and with that comes incredible complexity.  In my opinion you shouldn't even consider selling this to end users until you have had extensive test bed experience with it.  (I actually think the 1 year suggested might be a bit short for someone considering reselling/supporting LMCE.)

Just my opinion

Your sleep scenario is based on a timed event.  While working with some playlist timed events I noticed that there is a volume level argument that can be set.  I'd say investigate that.

I'll play around with it on my box and see what I see.

I'm really a LMCE noob so I don't have any "hard data" on this.  However, if your LMCE box is like mine, it's up and down with a frequency that I would find undesirable for a web server.  Also, thinking about running any other non-LMCE service on my Core makes me feel queesy (again, no hard evidence whatsoever, just my gut feeling).

And that, I'm sure, was of absolutely no use to you. 

I'm running a Fiire Server with Fiire Invisible MD's.  I ran one MD on UI2 +alpha for about 2 weeks but changed it to overlay for astetic reasons (just didn't care for the UI).  My other two MD's have always run on UI2 +overlay.  In all cases I've never had tearing, black boxes, sluggish response or any of the issues noted here.  Not sure of the exact chipset/specs of the Invisible but maybe there is something there that can give a hint to a solution, they seem to have figured it out or I'm just extremely lucky.

I know that many people have less than stellar things to say about Fiire, but for me they've been perfect.  Timely delivery, good support when needed, accurate order, etc.  Again, maybe I'm just extremely lucky.

I do notice that when I have 4 going they are all a little out of sync, the MD's are all the same though (Jetway JNC62K).  That's fine, they are close enough, it's good to know that using a playlist will probably help too.

Any idea from my log post why it doesn't broadcast AVI files?  I find it strange that DVD's and MP3's work fine, but avi does not.

Something I noticed when working on looping video playlists is that avi, mp4, etc. are a separate media type from DVD's.  Video files are referred to as StoredVideo in the code whereas .dvd files are coded as DVD.  i.e. Pluto_StoredVideo_Constant vs. Pluto_DVD_Constant. 

My video (either files or .dvd's) both stream to multiple MD's fine, but I do notice that the .dvd files are much closer to being sync'd than the avi files.  DVD files usually have less than a second difference in the sync and are quite often perfectly sync'd but avi/mpeg files are commonly a few seconds off.  I have no idea why this is, but I think they are handled differently in the code per StoredVideo vs. DVD. (Possibly in the timecode stuff)

None of this actually provides a solution to your problem but maybe bringing it up will jog someone's memory or give you a different direction to approach it from.

Slightly different for me, I've been a computer guy my entire adult life so my wife views LMCE as just the latest project to consume my time.  If it weren't this it'd be something else, it always is.  hehe

At least this is something she reaps direct reward from.  She thinks the MD in the kitchen is the coolest shit ever.

GOT IT!!!

As usual a big thanks to all the help from the devs, TSChak, TKMedia, Zaerc, Hari, to name a few.  Thanks a ton guys.

Here is what I did.  And I'll be making a wiki page for it as well.

So, I got my dev environment and I start sifting through the Media_Plugin files for anything related to StoredVideo, Playlist, Repeat, Loop, etc.  With no luck at all.

So I start thinking, maybe it's in the player itself, I do the above for Xine as well, no love.  Then I find Xine_Plugin.

In Xine_Plugin there is a file called XineMediaStream.cpp and at the bottom of that file I see this:

      // do not remove the playlist when we are playing stored audio. (it will just confuse the user)
      if ( m_iPK_MediaType == MEDIATYPE_pluto_StoredAudio_CONST && m_iRepeat != -1)
         return true;

      return MediaStream::CanPlayMore();

So I think to myself "Maybe if I do the same for StoreVideo, my shit will replay.  And I cut/paste the first if statement changing StoredAudio to StoredVideo and DVD so it ends up like this.

      // do not remove the playlist when we are playing stored audio. (it will just confuse the user)
      if ( m_iPK_MediaType == MEDIATYPE_pluto_StoredAudio_CONST && m_iRepeat != -1)
         return true;

      if ( m_iPK_MediaType == MEDIATYPE_pluto_StoredVideo_CONST && m_iRepeat != -1)
         return true;

      if ( m_iPK_MediaType == MEDIATYPE_pluto_DVD_CONST && m_iRepeat != -1)
         return true;


      return MediaStream::CanPlayMore();

Save file
Run 'make so'
Copy said Xine_Plugin.so to /usr/pluto/bin
Reload Router
And Video Playlists now loop!!

As I said I'll post detailed instructions on the wiki.  Thanks again to the folks that helped me with the mechanics of working with a development environment, couldn't have done it without you.

Edit:

Here is the wiki page: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Video_Playlist_-_Enable_Looping

You know, Windows doesn't have these driver problems Zaerc, maybe that's a good option for you.



Hehe, I'm totally kidding man, I just wanted to make your head explode.

I think you'll find this is just the scaling feature rather than anything to do with zooming. Way back when, the photo screen saver couldn't handle pics greater than 1024 pixels (I think, can't remember if this is vertical, horizontal or both!).

When you put pics in there that are larger than this, it would start cycling back and forth between 2 specific pics, for ages, before moving on, or even between a black and white screen. This was fixed up simply in the latest release by adding a scaling function (you can see the Device Data for this in the device) that prescales each image down if it is larger than this, first before displaying it. I think that is what you are seeing. If you remove all images but a handful of small ones, you should see them all appear unscaled and at their correct size (ie with blank borders around them).

Also, tail the PSS log file, you can see the messages being logged in there about pictures being scaled so that you can confirm what is happening.

No, I saw the section that referred to scaling and you are correct, it seems to have been added to correct images larger that the screen resolution and it works perfectly.  When I put an image in my pictures folder that is too large for the screen it scales it down to fit.  (When the ZoomAmount1 and 2 are changed as detailed above)

The ZoomAmount1 and 2 settings are in fact just that, a random zoom variable for your images.  When they are left default the same image will refresh zoomed in and out at different intervals so it's not scaling it is actually zooming in and out on your image.

...UI2 + Alphablending causes degraded mpeg performance... tearing during video playback. In addition feedback from our customers told us that they found the alphablended UI confusing and it reduced usability because of that. So because of both of these issues we currently never use it for customer systems... and would not even if the tearing issue was was fixed.

Andrew

From a user view, I agree.  I don't find alphablending "confusing" but I do prefer the overlay.  I just like my menu system to be distinct from the content.