Help me decide - LinuxMCE vs VistaMCE in an XP environment

[mrcanngo]

Well, i've installed and used LinuxMCE for about a week and am extremely impressed with all the capabilities and functions.  I do miss some things in VistaMCE - which I am almost going to put back unless you experts could somehow explain/help with my issues.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for all the hard work that went into this project. 

Now for the questions

1.) Back in VistaMCE i used to be able to hit "play" and it would show me a sort of status bar at the bottom so i could see how far into the movie i was.  This was useful for 2 reasons:
a.) it showed me how much longer the tv or movie was
b.) it allowed me to quickly get back the the spot in a visual manner.  I know i could look at the exact time i left off at but for me, it is easier to remember if i was pass a halfway mark/before a halfway mark...or inbetween somwhere.

Is there a way of doing this in LInuxMCE that i'm just missing? 

2.) I finally got my remote to work using the second "mce-usb2" setting in the admin login page but not all the buttons work properly.  For example, the skip next button goes to the beginning of the show and the volume buttons don't work.
How do i fix this?  Heck, even when i try to use the keyboard and mouse (which the demo video said i could use), the volume is still a little fidgety.  I need to move it ever so slightly past the middle line and hold it there for the volume to adjust slowly.  The volume bar doesn't accurately represent the volume of the speakers. 

I apologize if i didn't explain that clear but here is what usually happens.  When i use the KB/Mouse to adjust the volume, i had to hit F6 and hit enter on the volume buttons.  Then i see a slider bar (which i assume represents the volume line) and move the mouse to the left (similar to what the demo video showed using a gyro remote).  If i move i all the way to the left, the volume change way to fast. 

How do i program my remote to make the volume buttons work?  How do i adjust the sensitivity of the volume?  Is there just a volume + button on the keyboard i could press so the volume went up slowly?

I have a Microsoft media center remote and usb receiver that came with the hauppage pvr-150 MCE kit btw.

3.) While were on the subject, I searched for a long time on the wiki and in the forums for a keyboard guide.  Is there a list somewhere that shows ALL the keyboard commands?  It was annoying having to push every button on the keyboard to find out F6 and F7 were the keys i needed.

4.) I have been at this for a while trying to update my video card driver because the video quality in mythtv is horrible.  I'm pretty sure it is a video card issue because one of the diskless media directors showed the tv quality pretty good.  How do i fix this?  I have tried and accidently caused an problem with my hybrid box.  It now keeps saying "dcerouter admin" over and over...
I have a Nvidia EN8400GS.  What is the proper way of installing the driver.  Will it even help?  I tried Nvidia's website and ran the setup via the console but fudged up my hybrid and needed to reinstall.

5.) This might be more related to a mythtv thing but how can i add a show to the recording through the gui?  I know i can go to the admin page and search and add shows to record but how do i use the gui to search by keyword for shows and add them to record? 
5a.) what record setting makes it just record new episodes and now re-runs.  I was able to do this with vista but have not seen this option with mythtv.

6.) If i downloaded something on my XP machine (tv show or movie) and wanted to transfer it to a shared folder on the hybrid, what is the easiest way of doing that?  Before i used to just map drives on my xp machine and dragged and dropped.

7.) without having to install media directors everywhere, how can i watch recordings i made on linuxmce? With xp and vista together, i used to just look through the mapped drives and watch the videos/recordings on the fly without having to install too much.  Basically just the klite mega codec pack and the newest version of media player.

What should i do? I would like to stick with LinuxMCE but all my tv-shows are being missed because my guide subscription is expired.  Should i go back to vistamce or are there ways to fix all my issues?

Please advise.

Thank you!

[freymann]

Hello and welcome to LMCE. It sounds like you've been experimenting quite well with the system on your own. Hopefully the community can fill in the blanks for you.

1.) Back in VistaMCE i used to be able to hit "play" and it would show me a sort of status bar at the bottom so i could see how far into the movie i was.

If you're playing back a video you can press F8 to bring up the ff/rw slide bar. On the screen it will show you the time frame reference and how long the the show is.

If I'm not mistaken, pressing the pause button on your remote should accomplish the same thing.

However, one thing to remember is that LMCE will automatically "remember" where you were when you stop the playback before it is completed. Next time you start the video, you should be asked if you wish to start from where you left off. It will save this position for the current user. If you move from that station to another and start to play the video back, it will know you had a bookmark and ask you the same question no matter where you are. It will save bookmarks for other users on the same movie too.

2.) I finally got my remote to work using the second "mce-usb2" setting in the admin login page but not all the buttons work properly.  For example, the skip next button goes to the beginning of the show and the volume buttons don't work.

I guess the volume will depend on what device is controlling your volume, like your tv/stereo/computer. If you're using the computer's sound card you may have to make sure the card is supported.

I can't remember if the F10/F11 keys control volume in movies and sound... but they should for MythTV playback.

3.) While were on the subject, I searched for a long time on the wiki and in the forums for a keyboard guide.  Is there a list somewhere that shows ALL the keyboard commands?  It was annoying having to push every button on the keyboard to find out F6 and F7 were the keys i needed.

I'm not sure if there is a master keyboard map for LMCE. There is for MythTV though:

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-11.html

4.) I have been at this for a while trying to update my video card driver because the video quality in mythtv is horrible.  I'm pretty sure it is a video card issue because one of the diskless media directors showed the tv quality pretty good.  How do i fix this?

See

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers

When you fiddle with the video drivers, and your machine screws up, double check the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to ensure it's using the proper video driver. I would suggest you make a backup of the xorg.conf before making changes so you can always try to stick that back in if you whack your setup.

Also check the media directory entry in the web admin to ensure it is set the way you want.

Your media directors have their file structure stored on the core's hard drive in /usr/pluto/diskless/xxx where xxx is the device number of the MD, which you can get from the web admin.

5.) This might be more related to a mythtv thing but how can i add a show to the recording through the gui?

If you've scheduled a recording through MythTV, it should automatically add the show to the grid. You can find your TV shows easier by going to F7 > Media > Video and then using the atttributes. Bring up Type > TV I believe. I use the gyro mouse so it's very easy to filter by whatever you need and move around.

You should be able to start TV and then F7 > Recordings, which will bring you into the recordings menu of MythTV. Playing back recorded shows this way will enable the automatic commercial skip ;-)

I know i can go to the admin page and search and add shows to record but how do i use the gui to search by keyword for shows and add them to record? 

Personally, I use mythweb to do all my scheduling.

6.) If i downloaded something on my XP machine (tv show or movie) and wanted to transfer it to a shared folder on the hybrid, what is the easiest way of doing that?  Before i used to just map drives on my xp machine and dragged and dropped.

LMCE sets up samba shares to allow you to do this. On your XP box, go to My Computer > Network Places > Entire Network > Workgroups > LinuxMCE.

You should be able to find your core in there as DCEROUTER.

Double click it.

If it asks you for a username and password, enter the username/password of the first user you created when you set up LMCE.

Now you should see the Public and your Username folder.

Click on Public > Data > Videos.

Copy your video in there and LMCE will find it automatically and the name will appear on the grid.

Using the WebAdmin, you can work on adding cover arts and attributes by using Files & Media > Media File Sync. Navigate to the Home > Public > Data > Videos directory on the left.

Now you'll see your folders and files on the right. Click on a file, click Check Amazon, click Get Amazon Attributes & Cover Art. Select the entry from the results, click get at the bottom.

And from here you can fine tune the remaining attributes such as type and media subtype.

7.) without having to install media directors everywhere, how can i watch recordings i made on linuxmce? With xp and vista together, i used to just look through the mapped drives and watch the videos/recordings on the fly without having to install too much.

See above, and the Samba network shares!

I would like to stick with LinuxMCE but all my tv-shows are being missed because my guide subscription is expired.  Should i go back to vistamce or are there ways to fix all my issues?

Your guide subscription has expired? for XP? Get an account with Schedules Direct so you can have a working guide with MythTV and get rid of VistaMCE. Schedules Direct is $20/US/Year and works great.