Call for donations for features.

[skeptic]

1) video phone such as skype, i'm a little bit shocked that I haven't seen this requested very often when posts like these come up. Am I only the one who is interested in that being a part of a advanced system like LinuxMCE?

No, you're not the only one.  I'd love to see video SIP phone support.  As I understand it, the linuxmce asterisk setup is audio only, but perhaps with all that in place it may not be nearly as difficult to add video sip phone support as it would something like skype.  Perhaps with an ekiga or similar client?  I'm not all that familiar with skype, but as I understand it, it's closed source and not completely free to use.

3) Return of the Disked MD option

This would be handy, if for no other reason it could allow wifi connected MDs.  Not as good as a wired connection, but it should be fine for most things.  With 802.11N the speed to a MD may not be an issue at all.  It would also provide an alternative to those potential MDs that for one reason or another cannot fully net boot into LMCE.

Are you guys not grasping that I am working on this because I have no other choice?

I am trying to get donations, so I do not starve. I have no job. People are not hiring me, I am being TURNED DOWN from LESSER jobs because I am in their words, "OVERQUALIFIED"

So, you guys can sit back, with your jobs, and use the software, for free, as it is right now... or... you can help pay for my expenses so I can EAT, so I can have a ROOF OVER MY HEAD..and oh yeah, SO I CAN WORK ON THIS THING I LOVE SO MUCH.

-Thom

You don't seem to be the type that likes to take advice, but I'm going to give you my 2 cents anyway.  You have enough info about what people want and need right now.  Instead of asking people what they want, start a thread like the gyration remote thread and simply state "if you want feature xyz, I need $abc.  Post up how much you are willing to donate and when we hit that number I'll implement it."  If you get the donations you need, you're set for that project.  If not, then decide if you are willing to work on it for less, or if you want to try it with another project.  You also might want to consider dropping your rate.  LMCE is a small community, it would be much easier to get people as a group to come up with $500 instead of $2,000 for an estimated 20 hour project, just as an example.

[widescreen]

Are you guys not grasping that I am working on this because I have no other choice?

I am trying to get donations, so I do not starve. I have no job. People are not hiring me, I am being TURNED DOWN from LESSER jobs because I am in their words, "OVERQUALIFIED"

So, you guys can sit back, with your jobs, and use the software, for free, as it is right now... or... you can help pay for my expenses so I can EAT, so I can have a ROOF OVER MY HEAD..and oh yeah, SO I CAN WORK ON THIS THING I LOVE SO MUCH.

-Thom

Hold the F@ck up a minute!!!!! Before I respond to that.....please tell me that response wasn't suppose to be as condescending and crude as it sounded! I may not be a linuxmce genius, but I can m@therfu@king read and your post was:

"So this means, that we need:

(1) features that most people want
(2) and are willing to pay for.

So please, don't just think of yourselves, think of what would be of benefit to most people."

So how the hell is me trying to help you by giving a suggestion to get the ball rolling by posting a poll for what probably will turn out to be a feature that is not a benefit for me, but i would contribute to help you out anyway, turn into you asking me if i'm "grasping" your request for a "donation"?!?! Now forgive me if i took it the wrong way, but if not, this is the second time you had some less then humble response for a man in your position.

[colinjones]

All of you, please simmer down and consider your wording before posting!! This thread in particular must stay on topic to get anywhere, and if it starts veering off topic or getting abusive I will start deleting posts.

A valid point has been made, and I would like to reinforce it. It is clear that there are _many_ features desired, and that list is getting bigger. However, not enough people have expressed interest in the same features to be able to garner enough donations to get one of them off the ground.

My suggestion - to Thom, if you don't mind - is to read through all the posts carefully and try to pick the most common 1-3 features mentioned, and consolidate them into a clear description of each. Then post a new thread for each of them, describing this process as picking the most desired features, and calling for donations specific to each feature. This in no way lessens the importance of the other features requested, it merely focuses on the ones most likely to achieve the donations needed. Also, if features that require work in similar areas could be picked (say Media Plugin), this will allow for some leverage between the donations for these features.

Remaining features requested can be picked up again after the first few have been delivered, and the community can see meaningful results for the contributions... this would likely prompt more people to donate.

[tschak909]

I apologise that my comments have come across wrong, this happens.. a lot.

I didn't mean to sound condecending.

-Thom

[Techstyle]

Thom,

I was especially offended by the last half sentence:

SO I CAN WORK ON THIS THING I LOVE SO MUCH.

I thought it should be:

SO I CAN WORK ON THIS THING WE ALL LOVE SO MUCH.

The Amazon affiliate link I set up that would benefit the community, including the 'dev hardship fund' has had 7 clicks and no sales.  Does nobody in this community buy things on Amazon?  this doesn't cost you anything but the community will recieve commission for your sale at 4-7% of the purchase price.  Just click thru the link below and search Amazon, select, Buy, the community gains

http://www.techstyleuk.co.uk/lmce_ass.htm

[Viking]

Hi,

I think Krys has the most wanted on his list

1. Recompiling- xinelib (or whatever it takes) to take advantage of vdpau. This way all you need is a $30 card to be able to play HD movies flawlessly.
2. HDPVR- whatever it would take to make the HDPVR work, supposedly its functional now with MythTV trunk. In my opinion MythTV is just about useless since the very best quality a person can get is from s-video. The HDPVR encodes in x264 which would workout perfect if we have xinelib with vdpau support.
3. Pick a popular board and make it the LinuxMCE recommended board and make it pnp. For example, the Zotac board has everything that you would need for a great media director (if we have xinelib with vdpau) and can be up and running for about $160. When someone new comes to the project and wants a board that will work right now there are too many hoops to jump through and no clear answer on what will work with LinuxMCE.
0 hours a month dev work that most people don't ever hear about.

I have spent hours getting LinuxMCE up to a point where it is usable in my oppinion.
I dumped my first 0710 install where I did not get VDR running and have now got an 0810 with MythTV and VDPAU (Avenards updates) and flawlessly LiveTV picture.

So the VDPAU is not only going to benefit HDTV users, but also SDTV as the Picture quality is very good and there is no tearing ! Maybe that is something that most of you have not undestood yet. MythTv LiveTV 1080i@50hz looks so good - it is incredible Also playing DVD/HD content using Mythvideo is good quality. So VDPAU is the way to go.

Therfore 1. and 2. is a very important part that would get LinuxMCE a lot further. 2. is already there as there are the Avenard repositories providing this. We could mirror that over to ourselfs and then use it. 1. would maybe take some more work, but also give good quality replay. when I find time I will myself take a look at it and see if I can get that running - but that will take months. Therefore I would gladly spend 2 times $100 for that.

And 3. would also be very important as it will bring a possibility to get new users quickly "online".
As it is right now I can't reccomend this to any of my firends because it is to difficult to get up and running. And you never know if the hardware works.
I would maybe reccomend to use something like the Acer Revo - a ready-to-go system. (If I see it right several have not got this one running = kernel dumps)

As the 4. point I would say that we need more orbiters like Windows Mobil, Iphone and Android. I have got 2 Windows mobile devices I would like to use and therefore vote for Windows Mobile first Again I would spend $100 for the Windows Mobile orbiter. Preferably not the same month

After getting easy setup, good picture quality, then we can improve sorting and other things. Otherwise we will loose people trying to set this up. I was shortly before giving up several times, but did not find anything capable of doing the same as LinuxMCE could - if it was easier setting up.

Greetings
Viking

[Ray_N]

http://www.techstyleuk.co.uk/lmce_ass.htm

Well, well, well...let me tell you Techstyle...I was especially offended by your link... What the hell do you mean by lmce ass? 

R

[widescreen]

I apologise that my comments have come across wrong, this happens.. a lot.

I didn't mean to sound condecending.

-Thom

Ok Thom, I apologise also.

[Techstyle]

didn't really think about that until it was already published!!  

it came from 'LMCE amazon ASSociates'

The page is really to get it started, I wanted the code adding to the LMCE webpage.

[wierdbeard65]

And 3. would also be very important as it will bring a possibility to get new users quickly "online".
As it is right now I can't recommend this to any of my friends because it is to difficult to get up and running. And you never know if the hardware works.
I would maybe recommend to use something like the Acer Revo - a ready-to-go system. (If I see it right several have not got this one running = kernel dumps)

Personally, I'd go with a board rather than a system (or ideally both). This is because some people will want VESA mounting systems, others will want an HTPC case. The MD needs to be able to blend in in a lot of situations. Having a board and letting the user select an appropriate case reaches a wider audience

[pcbastard]

My vote is for VDPAU and HDPVR support.  Actually, exactly what krys suggested!

I'd easily donate $100+ for each.

Thom - look for a gift from me soon  .  I hate that you are having such a tough time...

Leo

[widescreen]

I think projects that would benefit everyone and at the same time bring in more users which will in turn bring more interest and donations are... ( these are also projects that I would personally donate the $100 for)

1. Recompiling- xinelib (or whatever it takes) to take advantage of vdpau. This way all you need is a $30 card to be able to play HD movies flawlessly.
2. HDPVR- whatever it would take to make the HDPVR work, supposedly its functional now with MythTV trunk. In my opinion MythTV is just about useless since the very best quality a person can get is from s-video. The HDPVR encodes in x264 which would workout perfect if we have xinelib with vdpau support.
3. Pick a popular board and make it the LinuxMCE recommended board and make it pnp. For example, the Zotac board has everything that you would need for a great media director (if we have xinelib with vdpau) and can be up and running for about $160. When someone new comes to the project and wants a board that will work right now there are too many hoops to jump through and no clear answer on what will work with LinuxMCE.


Looks like most people support kris' suggestions. vdpau and the MD mainboard for LinuxMCE does make sense. I would do a mobile orbiter, but those two do make sense in my opinion.

[speedyone]

Colinjones, thank you for calming things down. It's a big turn off when folks get nasty. Thom, thank you for realizing your bad and being humble enough to apologize. I don't have a wish list for you but I do have a donation to give. I trust that the community knows enough (that I don't) and I like Techstyle's advice to compile the wish list and start working on the most requested item first and then on down the list.

Regards and thanks to all of the community!

Peaceout

Speedyone 

[colinjones]

thats my job! and Thom's just passionate about this thing

thom - cue list please!

[Rukus]

Thom,

Do you a personal PayPal account set up for this, or should we donate through the LMCE site?