N800/N810 Obriter Features

[samuelmukoti]

Hi All,

I'm trying to make a descision to buy a N800/N810 orbiter vs the Fiire Chief.  I've been looking through the wiki but cannot seem to find a feature list for the N800 Orbiter.  The main areas i'm curious about are:

• Intergrated SIP Phone - Can I make/recieve call directly through the Orbiter or do i need to run some other SIP client in the background e.g Ekiga
• Intergrated EPG - Would be great to navigate the EPG.  I saw a screencast showing an EPG the other day, but don't knew if that was a new UI in the works or the feature is already present in the current stable release
• Battery Life - Not realy a feature but, want to know if it makes sense to use this a primary remote in each room i have an MD

Lastly, I read a thread from 2007, where there were issues with switching to and fro the Orbiter software, How is that now.  I would imagine my wife would enjoy using the device to browse the web, check email etc - but also be able to easily & quickly switch back to the Orbiter Remote - when she quickly wants to answer the phone, or pause DVD playback to attend to a visitor at the door etc.  So in short i'm asking people who have been using this device what its like, ease of use, intuitiveness etc.

Thank you for your assistance,

Sam

[nite_man]

Hi Sam,

N800/N810 is good for using as an Orbiter (personally I use universal remote control. For me it's much more handy). But note that using N8100/N810 you'll able to control all devices in your system without switching on TV to get on-screen menu. It's reasonable to use it as a control panel for the whole system but not as remote only.

Currently it's impossible to make calls directly from Nokia's Orbiter. EPG for VDR is not ready for all Orbiters as well (not sure about MythTV). Battery life is reasonable. Especially with the latest OS2008. In the near future I'm gonna to modify the Orbiter for N800/N810 to be able switch between the Orbiter and other applications. So, stay tune

[samuelmukoti]

Thank you so much nite_man! It looks like its a 2/3? You say the Nokia Orbiter doesn't support making calls/recieving, are they any plans to implement this? And have you or anyones else made a work around, like runing a SIP client in the background, and setting it up as an extension - it just make the N800 even more handier, coz when the phone rings while watching TV, you can pause TV/DVD/Video/Audio etc, and answer the call from the same device - very nice.. rather than getting up to pickup the phone, or even scrambling for the Wireless DECT phone, and trying to remember if your teenage daughter brought it back into the living room after her last call 

I'm excited to recieve my N800 and start tinkering with it - I think i'll get a heads up from the wife when she can watch her favourite soap on it (assuming the MythTV Maemo client doesn't conflict with the Orbiter) while i watch my sport - its more likely to be vice-versa tho, me on the N800 wifey on the TV LOL!

thanks

[colinjones]

Btw, when the phone rings LMCE automatically pauses your media anyway! And you could answer the call using the on screen Orbiter as well...

[Marie.O]

It used to be, that the Maemo orbiter running on the Nokia machines was able to initiate phone calls. i.e. you click dial on the Maemo orbiter, and select the phone, that should be used to execute the call. Right now, that functionality is broken. Hopefully, it gets fixed in the Telecom Plugin.

Right now, EPG is not visible on the Maemo orbiter ( which really is a shame ), but that is something that should be possible in the very near feature. Again, this functionality existed already, but had been botched in the past releases.

rgds
Oliver

[samuelmukoti]

Well, thanks to the wonderful LinuxMCE team thats doing an amazing job - If im correct, i saw a screen cast by Thom - not so long ago with a EPG functionality, so i believe these features are on their way..

Whats also exciting is that there all those KDE developers from Academy with this sweet little devices, that should bread some nice apps and tools for KDE & Qt Maemo enviroments.  I'll certainly be also looking at the code to see if i can contribute.  I've done a couple small Qt/KDE projects, but small personal tools, nothing in Cyberspace - yet

[Marie.O]

samuelmukoti,

yes, the EPG and channel list on the orbiter should be fairly easily done, by using the HADesigner. No need for programming if I get things right.

The phone out is another issue.

rgds
Oliver

[totallymaxed]

samuelmukoti,

yes, the EPG and channel list on the orbiter should be fairly easily done, by using the HADesigner. No need for programming if I get things right.

The phone out is another issue.

rgds
Oliver

EPG and channel list on the N800/CE/Windows XP Orbiter is as you say should be 'doable' with some HAD work.

Andrew

[tschak909]

I did a quick proof of concept of it on my setup here, so yes, it is very doable.

-Thom

[bulek]

Hi,

to add few info:
- currently sip client is built in and works (although have problems when being outside local LAN) - but it's separate app...
- there is also somekind of mythtv client, but again as separate application....

BTW, I'm curious if you spot same problem with N800 Orbiter as I do (on certain backgrounds, devices on floorplan have whole rectangles filled with color, although it works on white background) - Nite_man knows about this, so we're probably both curious if you spot same behaviour....


HTH,

regards,

Bulek.

[jeangot]

Hello,

this is somewhat unrelated, but can anyone confirm whether a stand alone orbiter (meaning not an MD, and in this case not a Nokia, but for example a windows XP tablet running the orbiter binary) can act as a phone endpoint, to where you can make or receive a phone call, and listen and talk using the speaker/mike on that local orbiter?

So far this is not working for me, and I wanted to confirm that this is at all supported before looking further. Although the orbiter is launching outbound calls, I get no audio on them, and for inbound calls, I can't pick them up (it will say call dropped, unknown reason).

Thank you!

Jean

[bulek]

Hello,

this is somewhat unrelated, but can anyone confirm whether a stand alone orbiter (meaning not an MD, and in this case not a Nokia, but for example a windows XP tablet running the orbiter binary) can act as a phone endpoint, to where you can make or receive a phone call, and listen and talk using the speaker/mike on that local orbiter?

So far this is not working for me, and I wanted to confirm that this is at all supported before looking further. Although the orbiter is launching outbound calls, I get no audio on them, and for inbound calls, I can't pick them up (it will say call dropped, unknown reason).

Thank you!

Jean

AFAIK,

WinXP Orbiter per se cannot do that. But, you can have any other sip or iax client running on same laptop that is running Orbiter and therefore can control that phone (start call) from Orbiter in same way you can for any other registered phone device...

HTH,

regards,

Bulek.

[jeangot]

Bulek,

thanks for the info, that way I don't spend time trying to make something work that's not supposed to work in the first place.
Great idea about the additional softphone, I'll try that out. It will also give me the ability to talk on that orbiter independently of the MD (TV) located in the same room...

So currently (without softphone), if a call comes in and I click "Answer here" on the orbiter/tablet, it would try to answer the call on the MD in the same room, correct? (which is failing, but that's another story).

Jean

[bulek]

Bulek,

thanks for the info, that way I don't spend time trying to make something work that's not supposed to work in the first place.
Great idea about the additional softphone, I'll try that out. It will also give me the ability to talk on that orbiter independently of the MD (TV) located in the same room...

So currently (without softphone), if a call comes in and I click "Answer here" on the orbiter/tablet, it would try to answer the call on the MD in the same room, correct? (which is failing, but that's another story).

Jean

If call comes in, you usually setup incoming route so your softphone will ring - generally popup will appear and you can easily answer on softphone. No need to tackle Orbiter....

Regards,

Bulek.

[royw]

• Battery Life - Not realy a feature but, want to know if it makes sense to use this a primary remote in each room i have an MD

N800 OS2007 about 12 hours battery life.  We usually leave it plugged in when not in use so it's always ready.

Only have two wishes on using it as an orbiter:

• The double screen saver takes about 10s to wake up before you can press the pause.  It would be really neat to map pause/play to the nokia's physical keys.
• The On-Screen UI2 during DVD playback has a "Zoom & Aspect" feature that I haven't found on the Nokia's UI1.  Movies that I played using my old video setup (NTSC) usually have to be zoomed out to 135% when first played on my new 1080p TV.

HTH,
Roy