New install questions

[vvulture]

Hi all..
I am thinking of migrating over.
I will be setting up a core unit in the garage which will have 3 tv tuners connected.
In the house, i will have 2 media directors, and as i understand it, they do not need a hard drive.

My questions is this :
If i set up the core without alpha blending ( UI2 ), will this affect the MD's ?
If the answer is no, do the MD's have to have an nVidia based video card ? Or is all the alpha blending taken care of by the core ?

Sorry if i sound blonde, but i am still trying to get my head around all this.

The reason i ask all this, is because i have plenty of ATI based cards lying around...  however, in the demo video, it mentions thin clients...  how do you get UI2 on a thin client ??

cheers

[darrenmason]

Each Media Director runs its own user interface as is independent of what Orbiter (user interface) is installed on the CORE. In fact, the only reason for the CORE to have an Orbiter if it is also acting as a Media Director (Hybrid). Even then it still has no impact at all about what is on the other machines.

Nvidia cards are the most sure fire way to have success with UI2 and Alpha Blending.

The Media Directors are not thin clients. They are PC's running full operating systems and are where all the processing for presenting the media to the user takes place. It is possible (and advisable) to have these machines network boot. This means that instead of using a local hard drive, they share the hard drive of a central computer (the CORE).

HTH
Darren

[Hagen]

there's no need for the MDs to have a HDD at all.
It is possible if you want to use the machines for other stuff as well, you can even have windows on them if you want.
But they all need video cards, and ATI is coming with new drivers for Linux "soon" I heard christmas mentioned.
But a new GeForce 6xxx card isn't very expensive either, and will work well right now.

On the client/MD you will get the same Audio/video wizard and setup that you got on the core install, the UIs are independant of whats on the other machines. I have UI2 alpha blending on the core and UI1 and UI2 around the house.
The only thing the MD is really depending on the core for is HDD and media, as it installs the MD on the core and runs from the core.

[vvulture]

Thanks for the heads up guys...

So let me get this straight...  ATI cards will not work end of story...   correct ?
if not, is there a way to install the current linux ATI drivers ?

thanks again..

[tschak909]

for now, it's significantly harder to get the ATI drivers to behave. use NVIDIA if you want all of the features of UI2 enabled.

-Thom

[Hagen]

So let me get this straight...  ATI cards will not work end of story...   correct ?

Not entirely true, most ATI cards from Rage 128 up works great with UI1, some may even work for UI2 overlay (I haven't tried it), but none (that I know) work for UI2 alpha blending.

[darrenmason]

I have a laptop which uses an ATI chipset video card and it runs UI2 (not with Alpha Blending) no problems.

I basically made it network boot, left it alone for a while, ran the A/V wizard and it was running.
I did not try it with Alpha Blending, but from other messages I would assume that it wont work.

[vvulture]

cool...  thanks heaps guys.. things are a little clearer now..   :-)

what cards would you recommend ?  I have a PCI-E nVidia 6500 256mb ram..  would that work ok ?


what other cards would you recommend ?

cheers