Other Media Centers

[jgaffney]

tschak909,

I'm not leaving for Netflix,  it's *one* of the features I'd like to have.  XMBC and Vista MCE have it, it should at least be on the radar.  The main issue I have is no touch screen with UI2 and coverart,  that's just critical for me.  I stated in my origial post I think LMCE is great and the developers have done a great job so far.  Why is everyone so sensitive out here?
Why does the touchscreen feature I keep mentioning keep being passed over?  When the users don't and/or can't use the Fiire remote with ease a touchscreen is the best solution.

My comment about losing things after an upgrade are because that's what happend when I went from 704 to 710.  I did an in place *upgrade* and ended up with some issues I couldn't get resolved.  Issues that others out here had also, it was easier to wipe the drive and start over with a clean install.  Resulting in lost coverart.  Maybe there is a way around it now or the next "upgrade" will actually work.  But after going through 4000+ files twice,  it's not something I want to do again.

[Zaerc]

Zaerc,  at least have the decency to read what's written.  For you to decide for someone else what's a minor issue is just foolish.

So here are the detailed reasons (for others to understand) for my so called "uber-important issues that make no sense at all"    that you claim "are a joke"

The main users in my house are my wife and children.  The Fiire remote is OK, but not great.  It's not something you can move around very accurately with and tends to drift at times.  It ends up being more a pain for us than ease of use and my kids have no shot at it.  So, the answer to this problem is a touchscreen.  A touchscreen that requires cover art as my kids are to  young to read.  You just can't beat the ease of use of a touchscreen.  And who wants a media center without cover art?

Yes, I could *manually* add cover art to over 4000+ files through a clunky web interface, but it's very impracticable.  Especially when it will most likely get lost when an updated is needed. 

Playlists are created almost daily in my house.  When I'm use to using an app like Amarok that can browse files and *queue* them to a playlist in seconds compared to the tedious method in LMCE, it just isn't worth doing.  And yes, I followed the playlist thread and tried it that was mentioned early, it just needs more work at this point.
Finally, Netlix.  If you're a subscriber it only makes sense to have it tie into ones media center.

The bottom line here is LMCE just doesn't fit my needs.  I understand this make you angry, get over it.  As you stated, you started a bitch post because you're tired of people whining.  Now that's just hypocritical. Not to mention you're really not helping your cause here at any level.

Finally, if these issues are as "minor" as you claim.  I would think a kid of your skills would be able to fix them without much effort.  So get at it and you won't have to read so many threads about people "bitching". 

Sir! yes Sir!  I'll get on it right away... Can you believe this guy?  

I'm not really sure how to break it to you, but useless people like you don't get to schedule my priorities thank you very much. And if you can't even be bothered to put in any effort yourself while they are "the biggest problems ever", then why should I when they never really bother me? 

[colinjones]

jgaffney - the point that was being made about not loosing attributes and coverart was a new feature in 0710. UpdateMedia not only writes the attributes and coverart into its LMCE database, but also inserts both into the id3 tags embedded in your mp3 files (which you can easily confirm by looking at your audio files in Windows Explorer or a decent id3 tag editor). For file formats that are not convenient/possible to tag internally such as video files, UpdateMedia creates a file alongside the media file with a .id3 extension to contain both attributes and coverart. If you upgrade but don't retain the database, or reinstall from scratch, UpdateMedia will simply read all that info back into the database - thus you will not loose anything again. Believe me, I have rebuild dozens of times from scratch, and this works seemlessly. Just be aware that you will loose your playlists, but jondecker76 has written a backup utility for that.


Thom - have looked around most of the devices and plugins and cannot find a switch that sounds like the one you were referring to. Am really keen to try it out, can you let me know where it is?

Col.

[jgaffney]

Sir! yes Sir!  I'll get on it right away... Can you believe this guy?  

I'm not really sure how to break it to you, but useless people like you don't get to schedule my priorities thank you very much. And if you can't even be bothered to put in any effort yourself while they are "the biggest problems ever", then why should I when they never really bother me? 

*hmm*

Collinjones,  that's good info to know.  But I still need touchscreen functionality with UI2

[tschak909]

sorry, OOPS.

It's set for each orbiter. Go into the devices view of each orbiter, there is a "queue instead of instant play" checkbox.

-Thom

[colinjones]

Sorry Thom - I feel like I'm being really stupid here! I go into the devices tree (Advanced->Configuration->Devices), navigate down to the On-Screen Orbiter device under The core/hybrid, click on it, then read through the device configuration data in the right pane, but can't see a check box called "queue instead of instant play". Even if I go in via Wizard->Devices->Orbiters and click the Advanced option, its the same config data, without that option....

Am I looking in completely the wrong place? There are other options like OCG Format, Don't Auto Jump To Remote, etc just so you know exactly where I am in the web admin.

I'm using 0710 i386 DVD install, but haven't updated since RC2 except Andrew's new VDR-10 code... is it possible you have a later build where this has been added or was it always there?

[tschak909]

oh.. heh.. it seems to be in trunk, not the 0710 release. ;-)

sorry

-Thom

[colinjones]

arrgghh!!! No fair, teaser

Is it orbiter code or media plugin? And whichever, is it possible for me to just build that bit of code from the trunk checkout I have and pop the binary into the right spot plus reload? Or are there too many changes for it to be compatible?

[tschak909]

it would be very difficult to back-port any current changes to the orbiter, i've tried this before and some interesting breakages have resulted.

-Thom

[jgaffney]

I can say I'm officially done with LMCE.  Thanx to tschak909 and Zaerac they have inspired me to write up a full review of my LMCE experience and it's comparison to VMC and why I made the switch.

So zaerac and tshak909 prepare yourself for more sleepless nights,  my post will be coming soon.

[tschak909]

You will be missed. May your review never be read.

-Thom

[hari]

So zaerac and tshak909 prepare yourself for more sleepless nights,  my post will be coming soon.

*muahahahaha*

* hari gets some popcorn.

[Zaerc]

I can say I'm officially done with LMCE.  Thanx to tschak909 and Zaerac they have inspired me to write up a full review of my LMCE experience and it's comparison to VMC and why I made the switch.

So zaerac and tshak909 prepare yourself for more sleepless nights,  my post will be coming soon.

Yeah people like you trolling around with smart responses like "*hmm*" really give me sleeples nights, honest! 

Now let me save you some trouble and write that review for you:

Linuxmce totally blows in comparison to VMC because the playlists did not work exactly as I want them to and it didn't find all the pictures for my CDs, the end.

[tschak909]

oh, btw. We don't keep passing over the touch screen option. We have had it for years. Install Orbiter on a touch screen PC. Done. It controls the media directors and other devices in the house.

-Thom

[hari]

i'm sure he has seen the 3M, ELO and Egalax pages in the Touchscreen category on the wiki..