Does all my media (divx, mp3's, etc.) have to be ripped to the hd to work in MCE

[DJYoshaBYD]

I cannot figure this out... first.. what file system should I have my usb drives formatted to to be recognized by linux mce? like if I had an external hard drive with all my media on it, would linux mce AUTOMATICALLY pick it up and make it accessible? and with what file system?

2nd.. I cannot get ANY media except for DVD's to play from the dvd drive.. I thought you were supposed to be able to put in a disk of media, and have it play.. it doesnt (for me anyway)... which leads me to my main question....\

FOR MEDIA TO BE ACCESSIBLE FROM LINUX MCE, DOES IT HAVE TO BE ON THE HD? and WILL NETWORK SHARES (IF i SHARE SOMETHING FROM A WINDOWS MACHINE) AUTOMATICALLY SHOW UP WHEN LINUX MCE STARTS?

someone pppllleeeaaasssseeee help... I have been trying to figure this out for 2 weeks now.. PLLEASSSEEE

[totallymaxed]

I cannot figure this out... first.. what file system should I have my usb drives formatted to to be recognized by linux mce? like if I had an external hard drive with all my media on it, would linux mce AUTOMATICALLY pick it up and make it accessible? and with what file system?

2nd.. I cannot get ANY media except for DVD's to play from the dvd drive.. I thought you were supposed to be able to put in a disk of media, and have it play.. it doesnt (for me anyway)... which leads me to my main question....\

FOR MEDIA TO BE ACCESSIBLE FROM LINUX MCE, DOES IT HAVE TO BE ON THE HD? and WILL NETWORK SHARES (IF i SHARE SOMETHING FROM A WINDOWS MACHINE) AUTOMATICALLY SHOW UP WHEN LINUX MCE STARTS?

someone pppllleeeaaasssseeee help... I have been trying to figure this out for 2 weeks now.. PLLEASSSEEE

Here are some quick answers... but all of this info is available here or on the wiki... you need to search a little for it ;-)

USB drives can be added to the Core or an MD and can be formatted in a Linux file system like ext3 or NTFS

DVD or Audio CD's can be played or copied to the Core or any drives you have attached or made available on your MD's

If one of your MD's has a drive internally or you attach a USB drive then the Core will detect it and lead you through adding it to the system. After that depending on the answers you gave when adding the drive you can use it to store content.

[DJYoshaBYD]

ok.. I have divx files (.avi) that I have on dvds... they will play from the desktop, but when I am in the linux mce gui, the disks wont even get recoginez, and there is no way to choose the files from the disk... it wont even let me rip them.. is it because they a multisession disk? If I finalize them, will they work in linux mce?

and I did plug my usb drive in, and it works, but now I cannot see my internal drive.. I have hda1 (8 g) on ide 1, hdb1 (80 g) on ide 2, and sda1 (80 g) on the usb... hdb1 has hella mp3's and divx movies on there, and I cannot find any of them in linux... just on the kde desktop...

[colinjones]

It is looking for a video DVD or audio CD in your optical drives, but you aren't giving it that - you are giving it data. You need to copy those files to a read HDD.

You haven't mentioned anything about "using LMCE's structure" or not when you added these HDDs... Can I assume that you understand the difference between the options you chose? Cos there inlies your answer ...

[DJYoshaBYD]

see.. thats the thing.. I can barely figure out how to use it.. the instructions arent exactly the clearest...

So am I to understand, that linux mce cannot read data off of dvd's, and I have to GO TO KDE just to get them to be recognized and copied to the hard drive? haha.. I hate windows, but even windows mce can do that... there has to be a way to do it..

And why cant I organize files in linux mce? I have to go to kde to do it?

[PeteK]

LMCE uses a database to organize the files.  In that respect, it doesn't matter how you organize the files on the HD.  Unfortunately, partly due to this, it does not currently support reading other data files (XVID, MP3) off a CD.  Initially, Pluto/LMCE was designed as a consumer media appliance, meaning all media would be ripped through LMCE, so this was not a high priority.  It's obviously a good feature that needs to be added.

[DJYoshaBYD]

hell yeah it needs to be added.. hahaha... that is a veeeerrrryyyy important feature to me.. but I can deal with ripping everything using kde, organizing, and renaming everything to a nice pretty setup... its a pain in the arse, but well worth it... I love the program, its just got a very steep learning curve...

[PeteK]

I love the program, its just got a very steep learning curve...

It sure does, but for some reason we keep coming back for more!

[DJYoshaBYD]

I know.. I am pretty much to the point now where I do not run ANY microsoft products on any of my machines, except for the ones I play games on and the on in my studio, as linux will not run Reason, WaveLab, etc.. at least not the way I need it ran in the studio...

but my media and download servers, along with any other pc that will not be used for gaming or music, will have kubunu on them.. I love the OS.. its stable, FAST, and free.. it can do everything that a normal person would need to do on windows, but for free.. plus you can get compiz fusion and have an ill desktop scheme as well... I was messing around with that the other day... its so dope...

but yeah.. I love where linuxMCE is going, but they still have alot of support they need.. (like being able to play my divx files off of a dvd)... and maybe some way to organize the media from within MCE... pplllleeeaaasssseee... if I knew how to program, I would add it myself, but alas, Im not that big of a nerd.. I mean, I am.. (lets face it.. I use linux now..) but I just never got past qbasic.. haha