New Build - questions on virtualized approach

[Garbui]

Hi all,
After spending far too much time and effort chasing support from Dianemo and sadly ending up with no further contact and no system, I am Looking to build a new Linuxmce system and get back into it. I have a new replacement system and considering virtualizing the core and two mds. The hardware, bios and cpu support vt-d so running proxmox and with a couple of gpu I am hoping to passthrough a card for each md and distribute via hdmi matrix.

Thanks to user Deepb for the inspiration and wiki entry.

I have zwave lighting devices and will be looking to utilize my aeon labs usb controller and usb sound card for squeezeslaves and a Hd homerun for broadcast tv. So other than working my way through proxmox setup and virtualize networking and pxe boot for mds in vm, are there any immediate pitfalls for this approach that other experienced users can advise?

I am also keen to setup remote access, qorbiter, a couple of rpi md and better tv and movie tagging with linuxmce. Can anybody provide a quick status update on how these aspects are / are not implemented?

Thanks for the help in advance guys.

Cheers Garath

[Marie.O]

Garath,

I have yet to see a working LinuxMCE install with a HDMI matrix switch. Support for the matrix switch is one of the things that set Dianemo apart from LinuxMCE.

For MDs, I do not see a need for virtualisation due to the availability and support of RPIs.

HDMI matrix switches only use, imho, would be, if you need to run settop boxes to get to your daily dose of TV broadcasts from a PayTV provider.

[Garbui]

Thanks Posde for quick reply,

The matrix is serial controlled, I was hoping to use it as more of a multiple hdmi switch rather than matrix all outputs simultaneously etc. That said, thanks for the feedback.

Virtualizing mds was due to no vdr/myth on rpi and looking forward for gpu intensive uses such as game player (waiting with hope and patience for Thoms  work) and UI2. These would be for living areas where live TV for example is desired. Set-top boxes are no longer useful nor affordable in Australia these days.

I3/i5 Nuc or equivalent would quickly see me spending another good chunk of cash with Aud prices. Hence the option for vm and leverage some existing power.

[Marie.O]

If you take game player out of the mix, I do not see anything the rpis can't do. Granted, I didn't yet get of my butt to make the VDR Player work for the rpi, but it is on my radar of things to do. Probably as soon as SD TV is being turned off in Germany, I'll go and bite the bullet. The VDR Player device itself is already being built, iirc, so it is just a matter of installing the necessary vdr packages.

[Garbui]

Thanks Posde
It was some time ago that I made enquiries on status of rpi, so wasn't aware of the work on VDR. It sounds positive that vdr will find a place on rpi and as you point out does everything else as well as cec control.

Taking this into account and Exploring the rpi option:

- Noting Thoms very recent and impressive beta work on vlc player, will this be supported in the rpi build?
- Qorbiter on rpi I read is in progress, is there a likely time frame on this work?
- in your experience are the rpi3 playing well with mkv?

In asking, by no means am I looking for a definative time frame or to set an expectation for others I am merely trying to understand where my efforts are best directed.

If I can back track a little, and doing a big of extra forum searching hdmi matrix seems to be a mixed bag. Are there device templates or work that is needed or is this new device, database work? It seems that the Dianemo approach is not compatible or at least readily adaptable for use with Linuxmce?

I appreciate ur comments and feedback Posde.

[Marie.O]

VLC on rpi is possible, but has issues due to no direct support for hardware acceleration. There is some work in the VLC/RPI community to get the omxplayer acceleration code into VLC. No idea when that might happen.

People are using qOrbiter on RPI, but I have no idea how far it is in terms of being replacement for the onscreen Orbiter.

If a file can't be played hardware assisted, I just go ahead and recode it with ffmpeg. But most just work.

[Marie.O]

oh, and a note on multizone playback: Audio multizone playback is already working very nice due to phenigma's work with software Squeezeboxes on rpis. I did a 9 rpi install on Cyprus and the audio sync worked perfect.

[_if_]

I have done some tests with proxmox some years ago to virtualize the core. The biggest problem I had, was performance issues with my quad TV card. You can passthrough the PCI slot, but still it ended up being way too slow at channel switching and HD was not even running smooth.
Also note that the dhcp server will be running in the VM in LMCE and as soon as you stop it (for backups or upgrades) you will have to find a nice way to still be able to connect to proxmox.

IF

[pointman87]

I´m running the Core (14.04 AMD64) on VMWare ESXi without any issues. I'm using 3 dvb-s2 tuner (one terratec pic-e dual tuner and one terratec s2 USB) and VDR for tv. I'm also running 5 other VMs on the same physical server (HP Microserver Gen8), one being a LMCE 1604 for testing. The benefits running virtual for me is the ability to use functions such as minecraft server for the kids, UNifi AP-controller and more without messing with the LMCE system. i have snapshots so a roll-back due to me messing things up is done very quickly.

BR Daniel