Brand New Home...Brand New Installation 5k (US) Budget

[epsolon77]

I don't understand what the advantage of the network based tuners is.  As I understand it the linuxMCE system automatically shares video feeds from various sources, so having an internal card in your Core would share that feed throughout the house already. 

A lot can be said for needed to crack a case to add storage.  I would recommend a NAS as opposed to storage on the Core, but almost all the Intel bridge chipsets support hot-swappable SATA ports.  Drop a basic linux install on it and run MDADM and you have a larger, very VERY robust NAS system that you can even integrate your windows boxes with.  The price for 2tb of storage in this manner is about 455, with about 200 of that coming from 2 2tb storage drives.  Be careful with your selection of hard drives.  The Seagate tb drives have had some major issues lately.

I would also like to note that the hardware I listed earlier has been reviewed on newegg as working with MythTV.

[Schmich]

Having all your MDs centralized works and is neat but I like having them in the rooms so that they can be used to boot Windows as well. Also you can attach a CD/DVD drive and just pop things in to play. Not that I have this but I can also assume that follow me works well so you can have the bluetooth dongles on each one of them.

[epsolon77]

Having all your MDs centralized works and is neat but I like having them in the rooms so that they can be used to boot Windows as well. Also you can attach a CD/DVD drive and just pop things in to play. Not that I have this but I can also assume that follow me works well so you can have the bluetooth dongles on each one of them.

schmich, I agree about having your media directors by the tv's.  So many advantages.  However I was commenting on removing the tuner from the core and placing it as a network device.  That concept seems very expensive and with little real advantage.  I would like to be proved wrong though.

[tkmedia]

You said you can not integrate business lines.  It is my understanding that the UI allows you to configure multiple phone lines under linuxMCE and select which phones to ring.  How is that different from configuring a business line?

Currently a second line requires manual intervention
See Wizard-->Devices-->phone-lines
"To learn about how to add more than 1 phone line, or to add a voice over ip provider that's not on the list, click here."

Question though since I do have a fair amount of asterisk experience.

We gladly accept patches.

I don't understand what the advantage of the network based tuners is.  As I understand it the linuxMCE system automatically shares video feeds from various sources, so having an internal card in your Core would share that feed throughout the house already.

Certainly not required but gives two tuners great picture and no slots or cpu cycles on the core (Enabling the use of an ATOM box as a core)

Also I have never had a problem with linux and an Intel chipset.  Every intel GMA based mobo I have used has worked all but perfectly out of the box, and all sources I can find have not complained of intel compatibility. Is this something specific to LinuxMCE or is this a specific chipset you are referring to?

Yes its specific to the Lmce UI2

In addition the ION based units support video acceleration without it ATOM based fail miserably with HD video.

What I dont understand though, is how specifically it integrates with LinuxMCE.  Is it all controlled off the orbiter,

Basically yes but depending on the MFG for instance (Very Expensive but very nice)  Vizia Rf from leviton has Scene and Zone controllers which are very handy at the foyer to hit an all light out button.  But lmce has various ways of handling this as well. Including timed events and blue-tooth detection/ drop.


Tim


Tim

[epsolon77]

Yes its specific to the Lmce UI2

In addition the ION based units support video acceleration without it ATOM based fail miserably with HD video.

Thanks for that reminder.  UI2 is where the issue would lie.  I am pretty leary about sticking a ATOM230 or 330 proc on the core though.  Considering high enocoding loads would have to kill that proc pretty quick.  I guess you are trying to solve that with your homerun boxes, but you would probably get a better bang for your buck by putting a good proc and some good encoding cards into your core.  That will also fix some network latency problems and take strain off your NIC. 

We gladly accept patches.

One of my goals is to have a test lab setup and start assisting the open source community in a much more hands on way.  Currently I only get to dabble in open source stuff because I work in IT and am dealing with these products at work.  One day soon.

In another post you made mention that the NAS needs to be on the client side network of the Core, and not on the greater internet side.  This seems pretty counter productive.  Could you elaborate why the NAS needs to be client to the core?  I know there are likely several ways to fix this,  but since you seem to already have encountered some of these problems I would love your insight into why you solved the problem by moving the NAS.

[tkmedia]

In another post you made mention that the NAS needs to be on the client side network of the Core, and not on the greater internet side.  This seems pretty counter productive.  Could you elaborate why the NAS needs to be client to the core?  I know there are likely several ways to fix this,  but since you seem to already have encountered some of these problems I would love your insight into why you solved the problem by moving the NAS.

Lmce uses DHCP on the internal net to provide Plug-n-Play functionality.
You can put some devices on the external net but its not advised and wont be plug-n-play.
Some devices such as Cisco phones and the webdt will not work at all when connected to the external net of lmce.
Actually there are  still some features hard coded to the internal 192.168.80 network.


Tim

[dlewis]

And I'd recommend the Cisco 7970 for you phones...

[tridum]

I've heard/seen the cisco's  mentioned in the post's repeatedly, is there any particular advantage to these phones versus others?  Ive read a bit that it's because they are able to be Orbiters as well..is this the only reason?

[epsolon77]

I know that cisco model is among the 5 easiest phones to configure with asterisk.  No argument that it is a nice phone.  With the price tag approaching 300 per phone I think I will find an alternate phone though.

[dlewis]

Yes, the price is steep... However it's PnP and has orbiter right on the phone (which isn't a feature to just brush over).

[Schmich]

however I was commenting on removing the tuner from the core

sorry wasn't targeting you :p meant in general

[tridum]

i could probably justify this expense in this phone in one location ..possibly two, if my wife agrees...(she is reading this gentlemen/ladies so please justify it for me) but Im thinking more in the lines of some type of phone system that is workable around the house....something more domestic.....

[tschak909]

Attach Phoenix Solo USB microphones to each media director. Done.

You get a speaker phone setup that can encompass a room, with the added benefit of being completely integrated into the system. Media pauses when the phone is answered, and resumes when the phone is hung up.

See my phone system demonstration for details:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNaWUM4bX3I <-- part 1, using a touch pad orbiter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dUE9_s6EnI <-- part 2, using the on screen orbiter and a remote.

-Thom

[tridum]

Well this weekend is my week, and Im making my initial purchases to run Cat 6E...will take pictures....

[Tred]

As for the gaming, I had the same thought, if you want an explanation
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=9561.0