Beginner: Configuration of Plutohome

[archived]

Hi friends,
first, great job!!! I was looking for such software some month and finally I´ve found, what I need.
BUT

Till now, I´ve installed the core several times, have configured the MD several times, with changing the IPs and tried to configure the right resolution of the MD, with the Audio and all those things
but
it doesn´t work. The core is running (v29) but HOW to configure the MD, if you have a gerneric computer for that (the MD was configured as diskless boot, but the boottask stops after a while without showing the UI).

Unfortunatelly, there is not really a manual available, so is there a possibility to write only some few steps, to get the MD running. I would be glad, if I could play a DVD on the MD, which is stored on the core.

thanx mardoc

[archived]

Where does the boot process stop? Can you post me some of the messages on screen?

I can also try to get into your system via "Remote Assistance" but I have to ask you a few sensitive questions (i.e. can't have the answers public in the forum). Do you have Yahoo Messenger or Skype?

[archived]

Hi rado,
finally the media director is running on my second PC. Unfortunatelly I couldn´t solve the problem during the boot-task with the other PC...
But my next problem is, that I can not listen to music or watch movies.

Can you give me some hints, how to configure the audio and video? I guess, there must be audio and video configured in "media director", but how to do that? In "media director", there is a "edit" link, but I can not select some values for input / connection / output in "pipes used by device".

thanx mardoc

[archived]

Hi Mardoc,

Did you manage to get the videos and music playing, we have the same issue - where we can see the media on the 192.168.1.199\public share, but are unable to Play it.

Would like to know how the best way to approach this.

Thanks

[archived]

the concept of audio/video pipes is used for turning on and off other external devices.  In other words if the video pipe goes fromthe media director to a video scaler on input three, and to the TV on input4, and the audio pipe to a receiver on the 'dvd' input, then when you start using the media director it will turn on all three devices and set them to the right inputs.  Also it knows to forward commands, for example volume commands, go through the audio pipe to the receiver.  If you are not using Pluto to control and external AV equipment, the pipes serve no useful purpose.

I didn't really understand the question, you say you can see the media on the public share but are unable to play it.  I assume this means you are accessing it from another PC, like a Windows PC, correct?  What you mean is that you have attached to the network share from another PC, and are trying to play it using some other media player, such as Windows media player, and are getting access denied?  If so that is a file rights issue, and I'll fill out a bug report if the rights are not been set correctly.

[archived]

Hi aaron
I´m still learning, how pluto works, but let´s say, it´s not realy easy.
Let me explain it in other words:

My problem till now is only to play a dvd-movie on the MD (which is a notebook), if there is no TV, no projector... I only want to play a movie in the Orbiter. Maybe this is not possible, because pluto only works, if there is a TV or projector connected on the MD, and therefore you need those pipes for video and audio for controlling the TV and Audio equipment.

Till now, there are several things not clear for me: f.e. if I want to configure the MD, there is the button "set resolution & refresh", where you can conf. the resolution, but if I change the right values f.e. 1024x768 / 60 and press "test resolution", the values are not stored. But if I input the values directly in the fields, like: "1024 768/60", the values are stored.

Unfortunately, the config-steps in the wizard are not enough to get the video running. Is it possible, that you post some example of configuration-steps (screenshots), to get the MD / orbiter running, let say, to play a dvd-movie, which is stored in the cores´ public folder?

I´ll also check, if something is running, if I connect a TV on the MD.

Whould be great, if you can help me!

mardoc

[archived]

You don't need to connect the m/d to a tv/stereo.  Just leave the a/v pipes blank.

You should be able to play a movie out of the box, without any changes.  On all our test systems, you just install the kick-start cd, put a dvd in any media director, and it plays.  Then you hit 'copy disc', and the disc is copied to the core.  Then on any other md you hit 'movies' and choose the movie.

There really is nothing to configure--it should work out of the box.  And you can control it with the orbiter visible on the m/d itself, or with an orbiter running on another webpad/pda.

The only thing is we don't include a css decryptor (ie libdvdcss), so it only works with non css encoded dvd's.  Can you describe what you're experiencing?  YOu mention that it 'doesn't work', but what exactly happens?

[archived]

Hi aaron,
I guess, this is an hardware issue of my notebooks.
I have tested the MD on 2 notebooks, on the HP, the boot-process stops after the line Yenta, on my second notebook, a Gericom the boot-process stops right after some seconds, I think it was after the line "... hardware clock...".
This means, currently from my point, there is no networkboot for the MDs working.
I tried to run the Orbiter from XP-client, but as I wrote above, I can not play anything, no video nor audio.

I also guess, all this should work as you described, because the "only" two things are the MD-configuration and Orbiter-configuration.

One question regarding stored DVD´s: I have several dvds stored on my drive (my own dvds ;-). As you know properly, there is a folder named "Video_TS", where all .vobs are stored. I tried to play the dvd, but how do you do that, because the orbiter only show the  "Video_TS" folder, and if you go into this directory, there are no vob files listed, but of sure, the vobs are in this folder Video_TS.

Anyway, my conclusion is, its an issue of hardware (Yenta? / hardware clock).

I´m waiting of my new CORE-hardware (dual-Xeon), then I can use my current CORE-HW for MD.

I´m looking forward to get pluto running.

thanx
mardoc

[archived]

orbiter runs on both a media director, as well as an extra like your Windows XP computer.  but orbiter is just for control.  It does not have a media player built-in.  Think it is a remote control only.  Now it is intelligent enough to know that if it is controlling a media player on the same device on which it is running it needs to behave differently.

so if you hit movies, and choose a movie on the media director's built in orbiter, the orbiter will surrender control to the Xine media player.  However if you choose a movie from another orbiter, then that orbiter conference into a remote control for the media player.

when you run orbiter on your XP tablet, make note of the room that you are controlling, it is the lower right button.  When you start playing a movie by touching movies in choosing a movie on the XP tablet, the movie should start playing on whatever media director is in that room, and the XP tablet should display a remote control with fast forward, rewind, cover art and so on that you can use to control that media director.

if you go to the media director itself, which will have the same menu as you see on the tablet, and on the media director you choose movies and choose a movie, obviously the media director is supposed to show the movie--not a full-screen remote-control.  so in that case the movie will start, and if you click on the screen while the movie is playing, the movie window will shrink and you'll have a strip of controls at the bottom of the screen.

so remember when you are using an XP laptop or PC, it is just a remote control for another media director -- it is not in the director.  We do not have a Windows version of the media director -- only a Windows version of the remote control.

[archived]

Hi friends,
maybe I´ve one reason, why my laptop doesn´t work. I still have the problem, that if I´m using my laptop as MD, during the boot process of the MD, it stops at the line Yenta. I have searched the net and found some patch for yenta / kernel / cardbus-pcmcia.
Am I right, if I say, that the pluto-kernel do have that problem with PCMCIA cardbus?
If yes, how can I solve this problem?

thanx
mardoc

[archived]

There is no official support for PC Card or laptops in general. If it works, it's purely coincidental. Can't help you there. As for Yenta (I don't know what that is) I saw lots of tweaks/patches going into the 2.6.14 kernel.