Thoughts on my system design

[drksam]

Hi everyone.  I recently found linuxmce and am interested in building a system with mce as the core. I will be converting a system that I made with arduino and an android interface that currently controls my lights and stuff.  As well as integrate my cameras and media. I am interested in using arduino to interface things that already have an arduino controlling them. My system now uses laptops running linux mint connected to the TVs and I currently have an arduino based ir blaster for turning on and off my LG tv and arduino based switching devices (relays and ssr) and inputs (sensors and switches). Through some searching I found an article in the fourm about using arduino as a serial device. The code looks easy so I'm going to give it a try. I am going to install LMCE­ 1404­ 20151215202231755­ amd64.iso on my core and test everything on a stand alone network. I guess my questions are really.
Does anyone have any experience using arduino with mce?
Does anyone know if there are any hdmi capture cards a hat work?
Is there any way to watch netflix or Hulu on the md with out rebooting to mint?
And is there anyway to get the fiire remote?

Thanks in advance for any info I will document my project and how to if I can get it to work.

[tschak909]

Welcome to LinuxMCE. The best advice that we can give, is to be patient, and if needed, talk to community members on the #linuxmce channel on irc.freenode.org.

To answer your questions:
(1) not that I know of, but if you're comfortable writing code in either C++, Ruby, or Shell scripting, a device template and resulting DCE device can be made that LinuxMCE can easily control.
(2) Again, not that I know of, we are always looking for solutions in this department, but nothing has been made widely available on any platform, save for Windows.
(3) I did write a DCE device for the Hulu Desktop player, but Hulu Labs has since discontinued it (as of 2012), and it will no longer work on current systems, so we have removed it from builds. We are looking for creative solutions for Netflix, as well.
(4) The Fiire remote was a custom remote designed by Gyration for Fiire Inc., These remotes haven't been made since 2010, and the support code for them was disrupting a wide variety of other devices in the system, so the code was removed.

-Thom

[Esperanto]

Is there any way to watch netflix or Hulu on the md with out rebooting to mint?

no need to reboot; netflix runs in a browser. Then you need a remote to control it. I suppose smoothness depends on the MD hardware.