LinuxMCE - User contributions [en]

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-06-14T15:45:03Z

Metcarob: /* TV Output, resoultion, etc. */

The author of this document ([[User:metcarob|metcarob]]) is a linuxMCE newbie and as such I am learning how LinuxMCE works and how I can get it working for me.

I have both a Windows XP Media centre PC and a LinuxMCE PC set up in my living room attached to my TV. I am hoping to replace the windows Media centre PC but before I do this I need to ensure that LinuxMCE is up to the job of replacing it. I am hoping the LinuxMCE community will be able to assist me with advice on how to get LinuxMCE performing the way I want it. For this reason I have created this page comparing the two highlighting areas where the LinuxMCE set up is not currently living up to my requirements.

--[[User:Totallymaxed|Totallymaxed]] 17:41, 3 May 2009 (CEST) Firstly I do agree that some of the UI slickness ('eye candy' mostly I have to say) is not there in LinuxMCE. However you really need to understand that LinuxMCE is not just a 'MediaCenter' replacement...Media playback/recording/management is just one part of LinuxMCE. LinuxMCE is a whole House home automation system wgich allows you to manage media of all types, Control/manage lighting and monitor energy usage, control/manage your heating system, integrates a full VOIP PBX, manage security using PIR's, door/Window sensors, Smoke/Gas sensors, IP cameras and many other things too... and it does this in multiple zones in an integrated fashion using a number of different control devices to suit your requirements. Windows MediaCenter just does the media part...and only in one location.

--[[User:metcarob|metcarob]] 12:57, 5 May 2009 (BST) Thanks for your comments and help. I have posted in the forum and since writing this I have learnt more about how LinuxMCE operates and this has helped with some of the issues. I fully understand that LinuxMCE is not simply a windows Media Centre alternative but an entire home automation platform. It has many exciting features which I want to use which is why I am trying to get to grips with it. I do however feel it should be Windows Media Centre (done right) + Home automation features. I want my LinuxMCE system to replace my Windows system and I think it's valid to compare the functionality in the Media Centre Area between the two systems.
The way media is arranged in LinuxMCE is impressive my issues are with the fact it is taking me 10 or more button presses to get at the functions I use. E.g. Finding the TV show I want to watch, Queueing up music without intrupting what is currently playing, deleting the TV show I have just finished watching. I am hoping to find out more about tagging media and I might look at the UI designer to see how it works and if it can solve any of my issues.
In the mean time I intend to update this article to reflect my progress.

= Base Systems =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Manufacturer</th>
<td valign=top>Eversham - EBox (Eversham have gone bust now)</td>
<td valign=top>Built myself</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Operating System</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Windows XP<BR>Media Centre Edition<BR>Vesion 2002<BR>Service Pack 3</td>
<td valign=top>LinuxMCE DVD Install</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Motherboard</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Abit AA8-Duramax<BR>http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AA8-DuraMAX&fMTYPE=LGA775<BR>06/12/2004-i925X-W83627-6A79FA19C-12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Processor</th>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.00Ghz</td>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>RAM</th>
<td valign=top>1Gb</td>
<td valign=top>1Gb (2x512Mb Sims www.crucial.com)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Graphics Card</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Express Card<BR>GeCube RADEON X550 256mb<BR>http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=&prod_cat_id=23&prod_id=61534</td>
<td valign=top>AGPx8<BR>NVidia Geforce 6600GT<br>http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6600.html</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>External Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard</td>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard (1 x RJ-45 GbE LAN Connector)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Internal Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>None</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>EtherFast Lan Adapter SP2500RS 10/100Mbps Auto-Negotiation<BR>http://www.micronet.info/model_detail.aspx?series_no=5&sno=211</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 1</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T500 Dual Digital Tuner<br>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500<BR>Not the diversity model</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 2</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Exactly the same as TV Capture Card 1</td>
<td valign=top>None</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Hard Disk</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Seegate Barracuda 7200.8 500Gb<br>http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=46cc99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Model&modelReqTab=TechSpecs</td>
</tr>
</table>

= TV Output, resoultion, etc.=
My TV is an old Sony TV. The only output device connected to the computers is the TV (Both Audio and TV outs are connected via a scart lead.) Both systems connect to the same TV via Scart and for the comparision I am using a switch box which switches from one to the other.
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Video connector</td>
<td valign=top>S-Video connector (PAL-I)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Resolution</th>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Color</th>
<td valign=top>High (32-bit)</td>
<td valign=top></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Refresh</th>
<td valign=top>60 Hz</td>
<td valign=top>60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Audio Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
</tr>
</table>

= Input =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Reciever</th>
<td valign=top>Reciever built into the case. I believe it's one that came with the windows MCE controler</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Remote</th>
<td valign=top>Windows Media Centre Remote</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Keyboard</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition - Keyboard - wireless - infrared - integrated mouse, integrated remote control</td>
<td valign=top>None (PS2 keyboard used for testing)</td>
</tr>
</table>
== Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine ==
Web Orbitor run from my laptop<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA Orbit 2 Mobile phone<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA IIi (my old mobile)<BR>
Wii Mote - I gave up on this quite quickly

= Comparison =
== Picture Quality ==
=== DVD Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
The DVD drive on the eBox is tempromental and works intermitently. When it does work and play back the DVD the playback and picture quality is fine with no juttering and bright colours.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have managed to play back DVD's both direct from disc and after being ripped. I was impressed that ripped DVD's retain the full DVD structure including menus etc. Playback is fine with no juttering. Unfortunatly the picture quality it not that good. The resolution is fine but the colours are all washed out and not bright at all.

--[[User:Totallymaxed|Totallymaxed]] 17:26, 3 May 2009 (CEST) You are using S-Video for output. I would suggest moving to DVI or HDMI you will see a massive improvement.

=== Recorded TV Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Most of the time the playback is fine. However sometimes the playback is jerky and completly unwatchable. I think this is when the program was recorded when both tuners were in use. The colour is normal.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Again the colour is very washed out. I have not come across any other problems with playback.
=== Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Watching Live TV has always been fine, except sometimes when both tuners are in use. When this happens playback is jerky.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Watching Live TV works fine.

== UI ==
=== General Control ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
General control is via the windows media centre remote.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The main method of control is via the media centre remote. I have also got an orbiter working on my laptop. I am having problems getting my XDAIIi and Orbit 2 working via bluetooth.
=== Listening to Music ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Music can be listed by Album, Artist, Playlist, Songs, Genres and Search. You browse albums by flicking through the album covers and it is all pretty easy. You can select a album and play it all of select an individual song on the album. The default option for selecting a song is to simply play it but personally I would have had 'add to queue' as the defauly option as I keep losing my playlist I built up by accidently selecting a song to play rather than add to queue.
Playlist management is not so good. You can't add a song to an already saved playlist easily. I would have designed it so thatyou can open a playlist, make edits and have them saved automatically.
Once you have music playing you get a now playing box in the bottom left corner which you can select, alter the playlist, move between songs and save the playlist.
==== LinuxMCE ====
For the most part I didn't apreciate how good the Windows Media Centre 'My Music' UI was untill I started to try and use the LinuxMCE one. Album art only seems to have appeared for one or two my albums. Unlike MCE where you scroll through the album covers you scroll through a list of music on the right. The album covers appear but in an unused area of the screen.
The UI is not nearly as pretty. There is also no 'Add to Queue option' Once you select one song and start playing it you are able to select aonther song and play that. That has the effect of adding it to the playlist but it will then stop playing it and start playing what you have selected. I havn't been able to find a way around that.
When you select a play list that you have saved it opens it up and starts playing it. You can select more tracks to play (again this untrupts playback) and then you are able to save the playlist. Unfortunatly just like with Windows Media Centre it dosn't remember the playlist name and you have to re-enter it. I don't understand why they can't give you save and save as options.
==== My Prefrence ====
Neither UI is exactly what I want but I prefer the Windows way of doing things over LinuxMCE because:
*It looks much better
*You scroll through actual album covers not the songs
*There is an add to queue option (Althogh this should be the default behaviour)

=== Watching Recorded TV ===

--[[User:Totallymaxed|Totallymaxed]] 17:32, 3 May 2009 (CEST) All the comments related to TV here are as far as i can see related to MythTV and its intergration into LinuxMCE...vdr in most cases addresses the functional critique leveled...but it still will not look like Windows MCE.

==== Windows Madia Centre ====
When you press the recorded TV button you see a list of recorded programs. This list can be viewed:
*Grouped and sorted by Title -> When you go into an item you see all the recorded shows then into the item
*Sorted by Date recorded -> Selecting takes you direct to an item
Once an item is selected you can see information about it including play and delete options.
At any time during the program you can press the i (more) button on the MCE remote. This brings up a mini menu which includes Restart and Delete
This makes finding and selecting a program to watch very quick and easy and once you have finished watching it deleteing it is very easy.
===== Seeking =====
The Skip forward button skips forward about a 30secs at a time which is perfect. The skip back button skips back about 10secs (or something like that) This makes back tracking easy, you skip forward until you are past what you want to see then you skip back. You usally only have to end up watching 5 or so secs before you are back in the program.
==== LinuxMCE ====
LinuxMCE is quite diffrent.
Pressing the recorded TV button brings up a list of all the TV and films in the system. Unfortunatly the Films are listed here. (It would be nice to have them on a sepreate menu.)
You have more options for filtering content. LinuxMCE does not group the items by title. So I have set The Simpsons for seris record and I have pages on the list where every single item just says 'The Simpsons'. This makes getting to the content far more difficult. I thought I could lessen the pain of this by sorting by date recorded. Unfrotunatly LinuxMCE only has options to sort by:
*Recently Used
*File Name
*Title
*Preformer
*Genere
*Director
This makes finding the show I want to watch time consuming.
When you select an item you see a menu with:
*Play
*Close
*Delete
*Move
options. You then select Play and the show will play. Unfortunatly while you are watching the show there is no way to get directly back to this menu. I like to watch a show then delete it afterwards. To do this I need to go back to the recorded TV guide and navigate through the menu, refind the show and select delete. This is a pain and it is easy to accidently select the wrong show. This is a pain espically when you have a lot of shows that just appear on the list with the title "The Simpsons" and you need to work out which you watched and want to delete. LinuxMCE has a 'unviewed only' option which does help but sometimes I want to keep something I have viewed.
===== Seeking =====
Skip forward and back use the same interval. I hadn't realised how useful the Windows Media Centre way of doig it was until I tried to use LinuxMCE. Skiping back the same amount means that you generally have to put up with 20/30 secs. I havn't got the advert skipping feature working.
The playback bar dosn't look very good either. It's a bit to complicated.
==== My Prefrence ====
Grouping recorded shows by title makes finding the program easy. Not having this in LinuxMCE is a pain.
I am excited about the advert skipping but on the whole the Windows way is far far beter than what I have got LinuxMCE doing. It's just such a pain to select a program. It also dosn't look nearly as good, the screen is cluttered.

=== Watching Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I usally select a channel from the guide. This is quite easy, you just press the guide button, use the up and down arrows to select what you want to watch and press ok. The guide takes up the whole screen and whenever you go into it is starts you off at what's on now.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The guide button dosn't do anything until you first press the live tv button. Once you are in live TV the guide button works. I reset the guide to display 10 chennels which made it far easier to use.
For some reason the guide lets you scroll into the past. I don't see why this is useful in fact it's sometimes confusing. I also can't seem to select a channel direct from the Guide. I have to remember the number then type it in. I can't understand why.
==== My Prefrence ====
Again I prefer window to LinuxMCE it's not easy and the UI is annyoing almost all the time. It's hard to get it to do what you want.

=== Scheduling Recordings ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
This is best done from the guide. You can press the record button the controller once when the program is selected to record that showing. If you press again you record the whole series and if you press once more it cancels the record.
You can also search for the show and record that way. Although I never use this feature.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have selected my recordings form the guide. I am impressed by the range of options but I am still confused as to which series record option I should use.
==== My Prefrence ====
I like the range of functions availible in LinuxMCE but I wish the default ones would just be the ones that I want.

== Stability ==
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I have been running this machine for a number of years. In order for windows media centre to recieve the guide listenings automatic updates must be turned on. The computer remains on standby for most of the time. Every now and again the automatic update or antivirus require a reboot. There have been a number of occasions where the update has effected the system problems with playback started after an update.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have only had this system up and running for a couple of weeks but there have been no stability issues so far.

= What my mate said =
I had a friend come over who was very intrested with what I was doing with my LinuxMCE computer. I gave him a side by side demo of LinuxMCE and Windows Media Centre. To say LinuxMCE didn't impress would be an understatement. Due to the issues listed above he thinks I'm wasting my time with LinuxMCE.

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-18T12:58:33Z

Metcarob: /* Step 5 - Remove the demo podcasts */

NOTE TO READERS - I have written this article and this has worked for me. I am not a LinuxMCE expert. I suggest someone who is looks over this and removes this message if this method looks ok.

I listen to podcasts and I would like my core to automatically download podcasts when they become availible, for me to listen to later. I didn't want a whole RSS reader program, just something to downlaod podcasts, so I set this up using a php and a bash script.
I needed to use php because it has features to phrase xml files. This enables it to read the RSS feed for the podcast. I used bash to create a simple script which cron could run.
==Steps to follow==
In this example I will set up automatic downloads of two podcasts. Security Now and This week in Tech. At the end of the instruction set I show how you can add your own podcasts to this. This method checks if files are already downloaded and only downloads new ones.
===Step 1 - Create directory===
The first step is to create the relevant directories.
I did this on my code.
Log in as the linuxmce user
cd /home/public/data/audio/
mkdir podcasts
cd podcasts
mkdir security_now
mkdir twit
===Step 2 - Create and test PHP catching script===
I created two php files in the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts directory.
The first to get the Security Now podcast called get_security_now.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the security now POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
The second to get the TWIT podcast called get_twit.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the TWIT (This week in Tech) POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
// die("$ds\nTest End\n");
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
You can test these scripts.
Type "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php"
When this is done goto the security_now directory and check the files have appeared
Simularly "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php" should put the files into the twit directory.

===Step 3 - Make cron check for new items daily===
Now you can manually type these commands at the prompt to download new items but it would be nice for this to happen automatically. To do this you can add this as a daily cron task.
First create a bash script called get_pods.sh into the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/ directory:
#!/bin/sh

php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php

Once you have created this file type the following command to make it executable:
chmod 777 /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh
This allows cron to use it.
Finally create a link to this in the cron.daily folder to make this run daily:
sudo ln -s /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh /etc/cron.daily/rjm_get_podcasts

=== Step 4 - Add your own podcasts===
When I created the downlaod for security now and changed it to twit not many changes were required. You might be lucky and in the same boat. Or you may have to do an couple of changes depending on how the server produces the xml file for the RSS feed.
==== Step 4a - Find out the URL to get the xml file for the feed====
Most feeds will give you the url. You need to find this out and note it down
==== Step 4b - Copy a current php file to a new one for your new podcast====
Logged into the console goto the podcasts directory created eailier and type:
cd /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/
cp get_twit.php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
(Make sure you have the .php extension)

==== Step 4c - Create a directory for the files====
mkdir <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>
==== Step 4d - Edit the PHP file====
Edit the new file. I did this by typing:
nano <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Do changes to the file as follows:
Line 6 -> Change the message to user e.g.
print "Starting to get the <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>> POD Casts\n";
Line 8 -> Change to point to the directory you created in 4c
$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>/";
Line 10 -> Change to point to the url you have found
$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
(Change leiville.tv to the new url)
==== Step 4e - Edit the PHP file====
Test the file by typing:
php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Check the directory you created. If the files have downloaded then you are lucky and no further php changes are needed. Otherwise you need to change lines 13 and 16 to new values. This is because the xml file for the podcast has a diffrent format.
==== Step 4f - Add to script====
Finally add a line to get_pods.sh to download the new podcast.
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php
=== Step 5 - Remove the demo podcasts===
You may not want security now and twit podcasts to be downloaded. You can stop these downloading by removing the releavant lines in the get_pods.sh file. You may also want to delete their podcast directroies to remove all the old files. (/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/ and /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/)

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-18T12:54:27Z

Metcarob: /* Step 4b - Copy a current php file to a new one for your new podcast */

NOTE TO READERS - I have written this article and this has worked for me. I am not a LinuxMCE expert. I suggest someone who is looks over this and removes this message if this method looks ok.

I listen to podcasts and I would like my core to automatically download podcasts when they become availible, for me to listen to later. I didn't want a whole RSS reader program, just something to downlaod podcasts, so I set this up using a php and a bash script.
I needed to use php because it has features to phrase xml files. This enables it to read the RSS feed for the podcast. I used bash to create a simple script which cron could run.
==Steps to follow==
In this example I will set up automatic downloads of two podcasts. Security Now and This week in Tech. At the end of the instruction set I show how you can add your own podcasts to this. This method checks if files are already downloaded and only downloads new ones.
===Step 1 - Create directory===
The first step is to create the relevant directories.
I did this on my code.
Log in as the linuxmce user
cd /home/public/data/audio/
mkdir podcasts
cd podcasts
mkdir security_now
mkdir twit
===Step 2 - Create and test PHP catching script===
I created two php files in the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts directory.
The first to get the Security Now podcast called get_security_now.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the security now POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
The second to get the TWIT podcast called get_twit.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the TWIT (This week in Tech) POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
// die("$ds\nTest End\n");
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
You can test these scripts.
Type "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php"
When this is done goto the security_now directory and check the files have appeared
Simularly "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php" should put the files into the twit directory.

===Step 3 - Make cron check for new items daily===
Now you can manually type these commands at the prompt to download new items but it would be nice for this to happen automatically. To do this you can add this as a daily cron task.
First create a bash script called get_pods.sh into the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/ directory:
#!/bin/sh

php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php

Once you have created this file type the following command to make it executable:
chmod 777 /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh
This allows cron to use it.
Finally create a link to this in the cron.daily folder to make this run daily:
sudo ln -s /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh /etc/cron.daily/rjm_get_podcasts

=== Step 4 - Add your own podcasts===
When I created the downlaod for security now and changed it to twit not many changes were required. You might be lucky and in the same boat. Or you may have to do an couple of changes depending on how the server produces the xml file for the RSS feed.
==== Step 4a - Find out the URL to get the xml file for the feed====
Most feeds will give you the url. You need to find this out and note it down
==== Step 4b - Copy a current php file to a new one for your new podcast====
Logged into the console goto the podcasts directory created eailier and type:
cd /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/
cp get_twit.php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
(Make sure you have the .php extension)

==== Step 4c - Create a directory for the files====
mkdir <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>
==== Step 4d - Edit the PHP file====
Edit the new file. I did this by typing:
nano <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Do changes to the file as follows:
Line 6 -> Change the message to user e.g.
print "Starting to get the <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>> POD Casts\n";
Line 8 -> Change to point to the directory you created in 4c
$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>/";
Line 10 -> Change to point to the url you have found
$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
(Change leiville.tv to the new url)
==== Step 4e - Edit the PHP file====
Test the file by typing:
php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Check the directory you created. If the files have downloaded then you are lucky and no further php changes are needed. Otherwise you need to change lines 13 and 16 to new values. This is because the xml file for the podcast has a diffrent format.
==== Step 4f - Add to script====
Finally add a line to get_pods.sh to download the new podcast.
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php
==== Step 5 - Remove the demo podcasts====
You may not want security now and twit podcasts to be downloaded. You can stop these downloading by removing the releavant lines in the get_pods.sh file. You may also want to delete their podcast directroies to remove all the old files. (/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/ and /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/)

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-18T12:54:07Z

Metcarob: /* Step 4b - Copy a current php file to a new one for your new podcase */

NOTE TO READERS - I have written this article and this has worked for me. I am not a LinuxMCE expert. I suggest someone who is looks over this and removes this message if this method looks ok.

I listen to podcasts and I would like my core to automatically download podcasts when they become availible, for me to listen to later. I didn't want a whole RSS reader program, just something to downlaod podcasts, so I set this up using a php and a bash script.
I needed to use php because it has features to phrase xml files. This enables it to read the RSS feed for the podcast. I used bash to create a simple script which cron could run.
==Steps to follow==
In this example I will set up automatic downloads of two podcasts. Security Now and This week in Tech. At the end of the instruction set I show how you can add your own podcasts to this. This method checks if files are already downloaded and only downloads new ones.
===Step 1 - Create directory===
The first step is to create the relevant directories.
I did this on my code.
Log in as the linuxmce user
cd /home/public/data/audio/
mkdir podcasts
cd podcasts
mkdir security_now
mkdir twit
===Step 2 - Create and test PHP catching script===
I created two php files in the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts directory.
The first to get the Security Now podcast called get_security_now.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the security now POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
The second to get the TWIT podcast called get_twit.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the TWIT (This week in Tech) POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
// die("$ds\nTest End\n");
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
You can test these scripts.
Type "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php"
When this is done goto the security_now directory and check the files have appeared
Simularly "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php" should put the files into the twit directory.

===Step 3 - Make cron check for new items daily===
Now you can manually type these commands at the prompt to download new items but it would be nice for this to happen automatically. To do this you can add this as a daily cron task.
First create a bash script called get_pods.sh into the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/ directory:
#!/bin/sh

php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php

Once you have created this file type the following command to make it executable:
chmod 777 /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh
This allows cron to use it.
Finally create a link to this in the cron.daily folder to make this run daily:
sudo ln -s /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh /etc/cron.daily/rjm_get_podcasts

=== Step 4 - Add your own podcasts===
When I created the downlaod for security now and changed it to twit not many changes were required. You might be lucky and in the same boat. Or you may have to do an couple of changes depending on how the server produces the xml file for the RSS feed.
==== Step 4a - Find out the URL to get the xml file for the feed====
Most feeds will give you the url. You need to find this out and note it down
==== Step 4b - Copy a current php file to a new one for your new podcase====
Logged into the console goto the podcasts directory created eailier and type:
cd /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/
cp get_twit.php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
(Make sure you have the .php extension)

==== Step 4c - Create a directory for the files====
mkdir <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>
==== Step 4d - Edit the PHP file====
Edit the new file. I did this by typing:
nano <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Do changes to the file as follows:
Line 6 -> Change the message to user e.g.
print "Starting to get the <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>> POD Casts\n";
Line 8 -> Change to point to the directory you created in 4c
$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>/";
Line 10 -> Change to point to the url you have found
$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
(Change leiville.tv to the new url)
==== Step 4e - Edit the PHP file====
Test the file by typing:
php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Check the directory you created. If the files have downloaded then you are lucky and no further php changes are needed. Otherwise you need to change lines 13 and 16 to new values. This is because the xml file for the podcast has a diffrent format.
==== Step 4f - Add to script====
Finally add a line to get_pods.sh to download the new podcast.
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php
==== Step 5 - Remove the demo podcasts====
You may not want security now and twit podcasts to be downloaded. You can stop these downloading by removing the releavant lines in the get_pods.sh file. You may also want to delete their podcast directroies to remove all the old files. (/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/ and /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/)

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-18T12:52:22Z

Metcarob: /* Step 3 - Make corn check for new items daily */

NOTE TO READERS - I have written this article and this has worked for me. I am not a LinuxMCE expert. I suggest someone who is looks over this and removes this message if this method looks ok.

I listen to podcasts and I would like my core to automatically download podcasts when they become availible, for me to listen to later. I didn't want a whole RSS reader program, just something to downlaod podcasts, so I set this up using a php and a bash script.
I needed to use php because it has features to phrase xml files. This enables it to read the RSS feed for the podcast. I used bash to create a simple script which cron could run.
==Steps to follow==
In this example I will set up automatic downloads of two podcasts. Security Now and This week in Tech. At the end of the instruction set I show how you can add your own podcasts to this. This method checks if files are already downloaded and only downloads new ones.
===Step 1 - Create directory===
The first step is to create the relevant directories.
I did this on my code.
Log in as the linuxmce user
cd /home/public/data/audio/
mkdir podcasts
cd podcasts
mkdir security_now
mkdir twit
===Step 2 - Create and test PHP catching script===
I created two php files in the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts directory.
The first to get the Security Now podcast called get_security_now.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the security now POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
The second to get the TWIT podcast called get_twit.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the TWIT (This week in Tech) POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
// die("$ds\nTest End\n");
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
You can test these scripts.
Type "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php"
When this is done goto the security_now directory and check the files have appeared
Simularly "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php" should put the files into the twit directory.

===Step 3 - Make cron check for new items daily===
Now you can manually type these commands at the prompt to download new items but it would be nice for this to happen automatically. To do this you can add this as a daily cron task.
First create a bash script called get_pods.sh into the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/ directory:
#!/bin/sh

php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php

Once you have created this file type the following command to make it executable:
chmod 777 /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh
This allows cron to use it.
Finally create a link to this in the cron.daily folder to make this run daily:
sudo ln -s /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh /etc/cron.daily/rjm_get_podcasts

=== Step 4 - Add your own podcasts===
When I created the downlaod for security now and changed it to twit not many changes were required. You might be lucky and in the same boat. Or you may have to do an couple of changes depending on how the server produces the xml file for the RSS feed.
==== Step 4a - Find out the URL to get the xml file for the feed====
Most feeds will give you the url. You need to find this out and note it down
==== Step 4b - Copy a current php file to a new one for your new podcase====
Logged into the console goto the podcasts directory created eailier and type:
cp get_twit.php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
(Make sure you have the .php extension)
==== Step 4c - Create a directory for the files====
mkdir <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>
==== Step 4d - Edit the PHP file====
Edit the new file. I did this by typing:
nano <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Do changes to the file as follows:
Line 6 -> Change the message to user e.g.
print "Starting to get the <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>> POD Casts\n";
Line 8 -> Change to point to the directory you created in 4c
$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>/";
Line 10 -> Change to point to the url you have found
$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
(Change leiville.tv to the new url)
==== Step 4e - Edit the PHP file====
Test the file by typing:
php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Check the directory you created. If the files have downloaded then you are lucky and no further php changes are needed. Otherwise you need to change lines 13 and 16 to new values. This is because the xml file for the podcast has a diffrent format.
==== Step 4f - Add to script====
Finally add a line to get_pods.sh to download the new podcast.
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php
==== Step 5 - Remove the demo podcasts====
You may not want security now and twit podcasts to be downloaded. You can stop these downloading by removing the releavant lines in the get_pods.sh file. You may also want to delete their podcast directroies to remove all the old files. (/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/ and /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/)

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-18T12:50:40Z

Metcarob: /* Steps to follow */

NOTE TO READERS - I have written this article and this has worked for me. I am not a LinuxMCE expert. I suggest someone who is looks over this and removes this message if this method looks ok.

I listen to podcasts and I would like my core to automatically download podcasts when they become availible, for me to listen to later. I didn't want a whole RSS reader program, just something to downlaod podcasts, so I set this up using a php and a bash script.
I needed to use php because it has features to phrase xml files. This enables it to read the RSS feed for the podcast. I used bash to create a simple script which cron could run.
==Steps to follow==
In this example I will set up automatic downloads of two podcasts. Security Now and This week in Tech. At the end of the instruction set I show how you can add your own podcasts to this. This method checks if files are already downloaded and only downloads new ones.
===Step 1 - Create directory===
The first step is to create the relevant directories.
I did this on my code.
Log in as the linuxmce user
cd /home/public/data/audio/
mkdir podcasts
cd podcasts
mkdir security_now
mkdir twit
===Step 2 - Create and test PHP catching script===
I created two php files in the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts directory.
The first to get the Security Now podcast called get_security_now.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the security now POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
The second to get the TWIT podcast called get_twit.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the TWIT (This week in Tech) POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
// die("$ds\nTest End\n");
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
You can test these scripts.
Type "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php"
When this is done goto the security_now directory and check the files have appeared
Simularly "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php" should put the files into the twit directory.

===Step 3 - Make corn check for new items daily===
Now you can manually type these commands at the prompt to download new items but it would be nice for this to happen automatically. To do this you can add this as a daily cron task.
First create a bash script called get_pods.sh into the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/ directory:
#!/bin/sh

php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php

Once you have created this file type the following command to make it executable:
chmod 777 /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh
This allows cron to use it.
Finally create a link to this in the cron.daily folder to make this run daily:
sudo ln -s /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh /etc/cron.daily/rjm_get_podcasts
=== Step 4 - Add your own podcasts===
When I created the downlaod for security now and changed it to twit not many changes were required. You might be lucky and in the same boat. Or you may have to do an couple of changes depending on how the server produces the xml file for the RSS feed.
==== Step 4a - Find out the URL to get the xml file for the feed====
Most feeds will give you the url. You need to find this out and note it down
==== Step 4b - Copy a current php file to a new one for your new podcase====
Logged into the console goto the podcasts directory created eailier and type:
cp get_twit.php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
(Make sure you have the .php extension)
==== Step 4c - Create a directory for the files====
mkdir <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>
==== Step 4d - Edit the PHP file====
Edit the new file. I did this by typing:
nano <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Do changes to the file as follows:
Line 6 -> Change the message to user e.g.
print "Starting to get the <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>> POD Casts\n";
Line 8 -> Change to point to the directory you created in 4c
$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>/";
Line 10 -> Change to point to the url you have found
$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
(Change leiville.tv to the new url)
==== Step 4e - Edit the PHP file====
Test the file by typing:
php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Check the directory you created. If the files have downloaded then you are lucky and no further php changes are needed. Otherwise you need to change lines 13 and 16 to new values. This is because the xml file for the podcast has a diffrent format.
==== Step 4f - Add to script====
Finally add a line to get_pods.sh to download the new podcast.
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php
==== Step 5 - Remove the demo podcasts====
You may not want security now and twit podcasts to be downloaded. You can stop these downloading by removing the releavant lines in the get_pods.sh file. You may also want to delete their podcast directroies to remove all the old files. (/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/ and /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/)

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-16T13:09:06Z

Metcarob: /* Step4 - Add your own podcasts */

NOTE TO READERS - I have written this article and this has worked for me. I am not a LinuxMCE expert. I suggest someone who is looks over this and removes this message if this method looks ok.

I listen to podcasts and I would like my core to automatically download podcasts when they become availible, for me to listen to later. I didn't want a whole RSS reader program, just something to downlaod podcasts, so I set this up using a php and a bash script.
I needed to use php because it has features to phrase xml files. This enables it to read the RSS feed for the podcast. I used bash to create a simple script which cron could run.
==Steps to follow==
In this example I will set up automatic downloads of two podcases. Security Now and This week in Tech. After the end of the instruction set I show how you can add your own podcasts to this. This method checks if files are already downloaded and only downloads new ones.
===Step 1 - Create directory===
The first step is to create the relevant directories.
I did this on my code.
Log in as the linuxmce user
cd /home/public/data/audio/
mkdir podcasts
cd podcasts
mkdir security_now
mkdir twit
===Step 2 - Create and test PHP catching script===
I created two php files in the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts directory.
The first to get the Security Now podcast called get_security_now.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the security now POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
The second to get the TWIT podcast called get_twit.php:
<?PHP
function GetFileName($p) {
return substr($p,strrpos($p,"/")+1);
};

print "Starting to get the TWIT (This week in Tech) POD Casts\n";

$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/";

$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url) or die("feed not loading");

foreach($xml->channel->item as $item){
print "Title:" . $item->title . "\n";
// print "Link:" . $item->link . "\n";
$fn = $fp . GetFileName($item->link);
if (file_exists($fn)) {
print " Already Downloaded\n";
} else {
$ds = "wget -P". $fp . " '" . $item->link . "'";
$foo = system($ds,$output);
print " Downlaoded\n";
};
// print "FileName:$fn\n";
// die("$ds\nTest End\n");
}
print "\n";
// var_dump($xml->channel->item);

print "End of get_pod.php\n\n";

?>
You can test these scripts.
Type "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php"
When this is done goto the security_now directory and check the files have appeared
Simularly "php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php" should put the files into the twit directory.

===Step 3 - Make corn check for new items daily===
Now you can manually type these commands at the prompt to download new items but it would be nice for this to happen automatically. To do this you can add this as a daily cron task.
First create a bash script called get_pods.sh into the /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/ directory:
#!/bin/sh

php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_security_now.php
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php

Once you have created this file type the following command to make it executable:
chmod 777 /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh
This allows cron to use it.
Finally create a link to this in the cron.daily folder to make this run daily:
sudo ln -s /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_pods.sh /etc/cron.daily/rjm_get_podcasts
=== Step 4 - Add your own podcasts===
When I created the downlaod for security now and changed it to twit not many changes were required. You might be lucky and in the same boat. Or you may have to do an couple of changes depending on how the server produces the xml file for the RSS feed.
==== Step 4a - Find out the URL to get the xml file for the feed====
Most feeds will give you the url. You need to find this out and note it down
==== Step 4b - Copy a current php file to a new one for your new podcase====
Logged into the console goto the podcasts directory created eailier and type:
cp get_twit.php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
(Make sure you have the .php extension)
==== Step 4c - Create a directory for the files====
mkdir <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>
==== Step 4d - Edit the PHP file====
Edit the new file. I did this by typing:
nano <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Do changes to the file as follows:
Line 6 -> Change the message to user e.g.
print "Starting to get the <<NAME_OF_PODCAST>> POD Casts\n";
Line 8 -> Change to point to the directory you created in 4c
$fp = "/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>/";
Line 10 -> Change to point to the url you have found
$request_url = "http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml";
(Change leiville.tv to the new url)
==== Step 4e - Edit the PHP file====
Test the file by typing:
php get_<<NAME_OF_PODCAST>>.php
Check the directory you created. If the files have downloaded then you are lucky and no further php changes are needed. Otherwise you need to change lines 13 and 16 to new values. This is because the xml file for the podcast has a diffrent format.
==== Step 4f - Add to script====
Finally add a line to get_pods.sh to download the new podcast.
php /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/get_twit.php
==== Step 5 - Remove the demo podcasts====
You may not want security now and twit podcasts to be downloaded. You can stop these downloading by removing the releavant lines in the get_pods.sh file. You may also want to delete their podcast directroies to remove all the old files. (/home/public/data/audio/podcasts/security_now/ and /home/public/data/audio/podcasts/twit/)

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-16T12:56:27Z

Metcarob: /* Step 2 - Create and test PHP catching script */

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-16T12:55:44Z

Metcarob:

Setup Automatic podcast download

2009-05-16T12:54:29Z

Metcarob: New page: NOTE TO READERS - I have written this article and this has worked for me. I am not a LinuxMCE expert. I suggest someone who is looks over this and removes this message if this method looks...

User:Metcarob

2009-05-16T12:37:12Z

Metcarob: /* Special Things I have done */

== Who Am I and why am I here? ==
I am from London in the UK. I currently have a Windows MCE media centre computer and I am trying to set up a linuxMCE system to escape the evil clutches of microsoft. There are a number of reasons for the conversion:

*Less reliance on Microsoft. I am worried about DRM and Vista.
*More features (Ability to rip DVD's)
*Using all my devices (Make my media collection directly accessable from more than one PC)
*Force me to learn more about LINUX
I am also keen to get involved in open source and see if I can contribute to a project.

I currently have my Windows MCE machine running along side my LinuxMCE machnie and I have made a [[Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison|comparison]] between the two.

== My current Set up ==
I currently use an Eversham ebox with as my current media centre machine. It has the following hardware:
*Realtek: RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC
*Half Hight Digital TV Tuner card
*Half Hight Digital TV Tuner card
*Grpahics Card
*DVD Drive (Currently giving me some trouble)
*MCE Infrared interface
*MCE remote control
*Microsoft Infrared keyboard
it runs the following software:
*Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Eddition
*AVG Anti virus
*Microsoft Media Player
*Internet Explorer (for downloading Securit now and TWIT podcasts)
*VNC Remote control software, to allow me to control the PC from other machines on my network. (Despite using large fonts it's practally impossible to read any of the dialogs via the TV)
I have a scart adapter that takes the TV out from the GFX card and the sound from the onboard sound card to an old TV.

== My LinuxMCE set up ==
I am trying to set up my CORE as a Dedicated Core. The core has two network cards, a happuage dual digital tuner. The External Network card is plugged into my Netgear Broadband router. My Internal network card is plugged into the internal hub. I have set up a monitor and keyboard on the CORE for testing pueposes but won't keep these there once the setup is finished. Adventually the CORE will also act as a print server for my network using CUPS.

=== CORE ===
* Setup using LinuxMCE DVD
* <a href="http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500">Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T 500 PCI</a> (I managed to get the origional version not the diversity model)
** Dual Digital Tuners
* External Network interface (Onboard)
* Internal Network interface (PCI Card)
* 500Gb SATA disk drives (I have more disk drives but will try and install them once I have the main system working)

I have setup MYTH TV to use the EIT program guide as I could not get radio times to work. (Channels appeared but no programs were listed on each channel)

==== Controling MCE Notes ====
I went through a process of trying lots of diffrent ways of controling LinuxMCE before I finally settled on the method I use.
===== Failed: Wii REmote =====
I followed the Wiki instructions for this but although I did get it working (not the pointer) it didn't work after reboot until I messed around with the bluetooth scanning bit. I decided to stick to using my Wii controllers to control my Wii
===== Failed: Built my own IR Reciever =====
Next I tried to build my own IR reciever. I trooped down to maplins and got all the stuff required using the LIRC home page. I read around the wiki site it wasn't clear if I had to rebuild the linux Kernel with LIRC drivers in or not. There wasn't a way to test what I had built. In the end I gave up and ordered a USB UIRT. This came in a couple of days and worked instantly.
===== Kinda working: Laptop as orbiter =====
I got my laptop configured as an orbiter. This works fine but isn't a very easy solution.
===== XDA Orbit 2 =====
The first thing I tried was the JavaMO orbiter software. This won't work on Pocket PC machines since the Java VM's don't have bluetooth support. In the end someone on the chat room pointed me to the Pocket PC version of the orbiter which worked fine.
===== Windows MCE controler =====
This worked fine with USB UIRT. After a while I learnt what the buttons did.
==== Setting up points ====
My windows MCE computer ran on PAL-I 1026x768 60Hz. LinuxMCE dosn't have this as an option in the setup. When you select S-Video you can select PAL-I but it won't let you select a resolution and it defaults to 640x480. Once I had it set up I found that I could go into both the Media Director and the Orbitor and change it to 1024.768. That seemed to work fine.
=Special Things I have done=
*[[Setup Automatic podcast download]]

User:Metcarob

2009-05-16T12:37:01Z

Metcarob: /* Setting up points */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-05T12:07:53Z

Metcarob:

The author of this document ([[User:metcarob|metcarob]]) is a linuxMCE newbie and as such I am learning how LinuxMCE works and how I can get it working for me.

I have both a Windows XP Media centre PC and a LinuxMCE PC set up in my living room attached to my TV. I am hoping to replace the windows Media centre PC but before I do this I need to ensure that LinuxMCE is up to the job of replacing it. I am hoping the LinuxMCE community will be able to assist me with advice on how to get LinuxMCE performing the way I want it. For this reason I have created this page comparing the two highlighting areas where the LinuxMCE set up is not currently living up to my requirements.

--[[User:Totallymaxed|Totallymaxed]] 17:41, 3 May 2009 (CEST) Firstly I do agree that some of the UI slickness ('eye candy' mostly I have to say) is not there in LinuxMCE. However you really need to understand that LinuxMCE is not just a 'MediaCenter' replacement...Media playback/recording/management is just one part of LinuxMCE. LinuxMCE is a whole House home automation system wgich allows you to manage media of all types, Control/manage lighting and monitor energy usage, control/manage your heating system, integrates a full VOIP PBX, manage security using PIR's, door/Window sensors, Smoke/Gas sensors, IP cameras and many other things too... and it does this in multiple zones in an integrated fashion using a number of different control devices to suit your requirements. Windows MediaCenter just does the media part...and only in one location.

--[[User:metcarob|metcarob]] 12:57, 5 May 2009 (BST) Thanks for your comments and help. I have posted in the forum and since writing this I have learnt more about how LinuxMCE operates and this has helped with some of the issues. I fully understand that LinuxMCE is not simply a windows Media Centre alternative but an entire home automation platform. It has many exciting features which I want to use which is why I am trying to get to grips with it. I do however feel it should be Windows Media Centre (done right) + Home automation features. I want my LinuxMCE system to replace my Windows system and I think it's valid to compare the functionality in the Media Centre Area between the two systems.
The way media is arranged in LinuxMCE is impressive my issues are with the fact it is taking me 10 or more button presses to get at the functions I use. E.g. Finding the TV show I want to watch, Queueing up music without intrupting what is currently playing, deleting the TV show I have just finished watching. I am hoping to find out more about tagging media and I might look at the UI designer to see how it works and if it can solve any of my issues.
In the mean time I intend to update this article to reflect my progress.

= Base Systems =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Manufacturer</th>
<td valign=top>Eversham - EBox (Eversham have gone bust now)</td>
<td valign=top>Built myself</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Operating System</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Windows XP<BR>Media Centre Edition<BR>Vesion 2002<BR>Service Pack 3</td>
<td valign=top>LinuxMCE DVD Install</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Motherboard</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Abit AA8-Duramax<BR>http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AA8-DuraMAX&fMTYPE=LGA775<BR>06/12/2004-i925X-W83627-6A79FA19C-12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Processor</th>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.00Ghz</td>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>RAM</th>
<td valign=top>1Gb</td>
<td valign=top>1Gb (2x512Mb Sims www.crucial.com)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Graphics Card</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Express Card<BR>GeCube RADEON X550 256mb<BR>http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=&prod_cat_id=23&prod_id=61534</td>
<td valign=top>AGPx8<BR>NVidia Geforce 6600GT<br>http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6600.html</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>External Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard</td>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard (1 x RJ-45 GbE LAN Connector)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Internal Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>None</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>EtherFast Lan Adapter SP2500RS 10/100Mbps Auto-Negotiation<BR>http://www.micronet.info/model_detail.aspx?series_no=5&sno=211</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 1</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T500 Dual Digital Tuner<br>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500<BR>Not the diversity model</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 2</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Exactly the same as TV Capture Card 1</td>
<td valign=top>None</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Hard Disk</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Seegate Barracuda 7200.8 500Gb<br>http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=46cc99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Model&modelReqTab=TechSpecs</td>
</tr>
</table>

= TV Output, resoultion, etc.=
My TV is an old Sony TV. The only output device connected to the computers is the TV (Both Audio and TV outs are connected via a scart lead.) Both systems connect to the same TV via Scart and for the comparision I am using a switch box which switches from one to the other.
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Video connector</td>
<td valign=top>S-Video connector</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Resolution</th>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Color</th>
<td valign=top>High (32-bit)</td>
<td valign=top></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Refresh</th>
<td valign=top>60 Hz</td>
<td valign=top>60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Audio Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
</tr>
</table>
= Input =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Reciever</th>
<td valign=top>Reciever built into the case. I believe it's one that came with the windows MCE controler</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Remote</th>
<td valign=top>Windows Media Centre Remote</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Keyboard</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition - Keyboard - wireless - infrared - integrated mouse, integrated remote control</td>
<td valign=top>None (PS2 keyboard used for testing)</td>
</tr>
</table>
== Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine ==
Web Orbitor run from my laptop<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA Orbit 2 Mobile phone<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA IIi (my old mobile)<BR>
Wii Mote - I gave up on this quite quickly

= Comparison =
== Picture Quality ==
=== DVD Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
The DVD drive on the eBox is tempromental and works intermitently. When it does work and play back the DVD the playback and picture quality is fine with no juttering and bright colours.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have managed to play back DVD's both direct from disc and after being ripped. I was impressed that ripped DVD's retain the full DVD structure including menus etc. Playback is fine with no juttering. Unfortunatly the picture quality it not that good. The resolution is fine but the colours are all washed out and not bright at all.

--[[User:Totallymaxed|Totallymaxed]] 17:26, 3 May 2009 (CEST) You are using S-Video for output. I would suggest moving to DVI or HDMI you will see a massive improvement.

=== Recorded TV Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Most of the time the playback is fine. However sometimes the playback is jerky and completly unwatchable. I think this is when the program was recorded when both tuners were in use. The colour is normal.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Again the colour is very washed out. I have not come across any other problems with playback.
=== Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Watching Live TV has always been fine, except sometimes when both tuners are in use. When this happens playback is jerky.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Watching Live TV works fine.

== UI ==
=== General Control ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
General control is via the windows media centre remote.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The main method of control is via the media centre remote. I have also got an orbiter working on my laptop. I am having problems getting my XDAIIi and Orbit 2 working via bluetooth.
=== Listening to Music ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Music can be listed by Album, Artist, Playlist, Songs, Genres and Search. You browse albums by flicking through the album covers and it is all pretty easy. You can select a album and play it all of select an individual song on the album. The default option for selecting a song is to simply play it but personally I would have had 'add to queue' as the defauly option as I keep losing my playlist I built up by accidently selecting a song to play rather than add to queue.
Playlist management is not so good. You can't add a song to an already saved playlist easily. I would have designed it so thatyou can open a playlist, make edits and have them saved automatically.
Once you have music playing you get a now playing box in the bottom left corner which you can select, alter the playlist, move between songs and save the playlist.
==== LinuxMCE ====
For the most part I didn't apreciate how good the Windows Media Centre 'My Music' UI was untill I started to try and use the LinuxMCE one. Album art only seems to have appeared for one or two my albums. Unlike MCE where you scroll through the album covers you scroll through a list of music on the right. The album covers appear but in an unused area of the screen.
The UI is not nearly as pretty. There is also no 'Add to Queue option' Once you select one song and start playing it you are able to select aonther song and play that. That has the effect of adding it to the playlist but it will then stop playing it and start playing what you have selected. I havn't been able to find a way around that.
When you select a play list that you have saved it opens it up and starts playing it. You can select more tracks to play (again this untrupts playback) and then you are able to save the playlist. Unfortunatly just like with Windows Media Centre it dosn't remember the playlist name and you have to re-enter it. I don't understand why they can't give you save and save as options.
==== My Prefrence ====
Neither UI is exactly what I want but I prefer the Windows way of doing things over LinuxMCE because:
*It looks much better
*You scroll through actual album covers not the songs
*There is an add to queue option (Althogh this should be the default behaviour)

=== Watching Recorded TV ===

--[[User:Totallymaxed|Totallymaxed]] 17:32, 3 May 2009 (CEST) All the comments related to TV here are as far as i can see related to MythTV and its intergration into LinuxMCE...vdr in most cases addresses the functional critique leveled...but it still will not look like Windows MCE.

==== Windows Madia Centre ====
When you press the recorded TV button you see a list of recorded programs. This list can be viewed:
*Grouped and sorted by Title -> When you go into an item you see all the recorded shows then into the item
*Sorted by Date recorded -> Selecting takes you direct to an item
Once an item is selected you can see information about it including play and delete options.
At any time during the program you can press the i (more) button on the MCE remote. This brings up a mini menu which includes Restart and Delete
This makes finding and selecting a program to watch very quick and easy and once you have finished watching it deleteing it is very easy.
===== Seeking =====
The Skip forward button skips forward about a 30secs at a time which is perfect. The skip back button skips back about 10secs (or something like that) This makes back tracking easy, you skip forward until you are past what you want to see then you skip back. You usally only have to end up watching 5 or so secs before you are back in the program.
==== LinuxMCE ====
LinuxMCE is quite diffrent.
Pressing the recorded TV button brings up a list of all the TV and films in the system. Unfortunatly the Films are listed here. (It would be nice to have them on a sepreate menu.)
You have more options for filtering content. LinuxMCE does not group the items by title. So I have set The Simpsons for seris record and I have pages on the list where every single item just says 'The Simpsons'. This makes getting to the content far more difficult. I thought I could lessen the pain of this by sorting by date recorded. Unfrotunatly LinuxMCE only has options to sort by:
*Recently Used
*File Name
*Title
*Preformer
*Genere
*Director
This makes finding the show I want to watch time consuming.
When you select an item you see a menu with:
*Play
*Close
*Delete
*Move
options. You then select Play and the show will play. Unfortunatly while you are watching the show there is no way to get directly back to this menu. I like to watch a show then delete it afterwards. To do this I need to go back to the recorded TV guide and navigate through the menu, refind the show and select delete. This is a pain and it is easy to accidently select the wrong show. This is a pain espically when you have a lot of shows that just appear on the list with the title "The Simpsons" and you need to work out which you watched and want to delete. LinuxMCE has a 'unviewed only' option which does help but sometimes I want to keep something I have viewed.
===== Seeking =====
Skip forward and back use the same interval. I hadn't realised how useful the Windows Media Centre way of doig it was until I tried to use LinuxMCE. Skiping back the same amount means that you generally have to put up with 20/30 secs. I havn't got the advert skipping feature working.
The playback bar dosn't look very good either. It's a bit to complicated.
==== My Prefrence ====
Grouping recorded shows by title makes finding the program easy. Not having this in LinuxMCE is a pain.
I am excited about the advert skipping but on the whole the Windows way is far far beter than what I have got LinuxMCE doing. It's just such a pain to select a program. It also dosn't look nearly as good, the screen is cluttered.

=== Watching Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I usally select a channel from the guide. This is quite easy, you just press the guide button, use the up and down arrows to select what you want to watch and press ok. The guide takes up the whole screen and whenever you go into it is starts you off at what's on now.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The guide button dosn't do anything until you first press the live tv button. Once you are in live TV the guide button works. I reset the guide to display 10 chennels which made it far easier to use.
For some reason the guide lets you scroll into the past. I don't see why this is useful in fact it's sometimes confusing. I also can't seem to select a channel direct from the Guide. I have to remember the number then type it in. I can't understand why.
==== My Prefrence ====
Again I prefer window to LinuxMCE it's not easy and the UI is annyoing almost all the time. It's hard to get it to do what you want.

=== Scheduling Recordings ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
This is best done from the guide. You can press the record button the controller once when the program is selected to record that showing. If you press again you record the whole series and if you press once more it cancels the record.
You can also search for the show and record that way. Although I never use this feature.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have selected my recordings form the guide. I am impressed by the range of options but I am still confused as to which series record option I should use.
==== My Prefrence ====
I like the range of functions availible in LinuxMCE but I wish the default ones would just be the ones that I want.

== Stability ==
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I have been running this machine for a number of years. In order for windows media centre to recieve the guide listenings automatic updates must be turned on. The computer remains on standby for most of the time. Every now and again the automatic update or antivirus require a reboot. There have been a number of occasions where the update has effected the system problems with playback started after an update.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have only had this system up and running for a couple of weeks but there have been no stability issues so far.

= What my mate said =
I had a friend come over who was very intrested with what I was doing with my LinuxMCE computer. I gave him a side by side demo of LinuxMCE and Windows Media Centre. To say LinuxMCE didn't impress would be an understatement. Due to the issues listed above he thinks I'm wasting my time with LinuxMCE.

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T13:44:46Z

Metcarob: /* Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine */

I have both a Windows XP Media centre PC and a LinuxMCE PC set up in my living room attached to my TV. I am hoping to replace the windows Media centre PC but before I do this I need to ensure that LinuxMCE is up to the job of replacing it. I am hoping the LinuxMCE community will be able to assist me with advice on how to get LinuxMCE performing the way I want it. For this reason I have created this page comparing the two highlighting areas where the LinuxMCE set up is not currently living up to my requirements.

= Base Systems =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Manufacturer</th>
<td valign=top>Eversham - EBox (Eversham have gone bust now)</td>
<td valign=top>Built myself</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Operating System</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Windows XP<BR>Media Centre Edition<BR>Vesion 2002<BR>Service Pack 3</td>
<td valign=top>LinuxMCE DVD Install</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Motherboard</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Abit AA8-Duramax<BR>http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AA8-DuraMAX&fMTYPE=LGA775<BR>06/12/2004-i925X-W83627-6A79FA19C-12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Processor</th>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.00Ghz</td>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>RAM</th>
<td valign=top>1Gb</td>
<td valign=top>1Gb (2x512Mb Sims www.crucial.com)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Graphics Card</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Express Card<BR>GeCube RADEON X550 256mb<BR>http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=&prod_cat_id=23&prod_id=61534</td>
<td valign=top>AGPx8<BR>NVidia Geforce 6600GT<br>http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6600.html</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>External Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard</td>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard (1 x RJ-45 GbE LAN Connector)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Internal Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>None</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>EtherFast Lan Adapter SP2500RS 10/100Mbps Auto-Negotiation<BR>http://www.micronet.info/model_detail.aspx?series_no=5&sno=211</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 1</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T500 Dual Digital Tuner<br>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500<BR>Not the diversity model</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 2</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Exactly the same as TV Capture Card 1</td>
<td valign=top>None</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Hard Disk</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Seegate Barracuda 7200.8 500Gb<br>http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=46cc99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Model&modelReqTab=TechSpecs</td>
</tr>
</table>

= TV Output, resoultion, etc.=
My TV is an old Sony TV. The only output device connected to the computers is the TV (Both Audio and TV outs are connected via a scart lead.) Both systems connect to the same TV via Scart and for the comparision I am using a switch box which switches from one to the other.
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Video connector</td>
<td valign=top>S-Video connector</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Resolution</th>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Color</th>
<td valign=top>High (32-bit)</td>
<td valign=top></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Refresh</th>
<td valign=top>60 Hz</td>
<td valign=top>60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Audio Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
</tr>
</table>
= Input =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Reciever</th>
<td valign=top>Reciever built into the case. I believe it's one that came with the windows MCE controler</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Remote</th>
<td valign=top>Windows Media Centre Remote</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Keyboard</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition - Keyboard - wireless - infrared - integrated mouse, integrated remote control</td>
<td valign=top>None (PS2 keyboard used for testing)</td>
</tr>
</table>
== Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine ==
Web Orbitor run from my laptop<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA Orbit 2 Mobile phone<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA IIi (my old mobile)<BR>
Wii Mote - I gave up on this quite quickly

= Comparison =
== Picture Quality ==
=== DVD Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
The DVD drive on the eBox is tempromental and works intermitently. When it does work and play back the DVD the playback and picture quality is fine with no juttering and bright colours.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have managed to play back DVD's both direct from disc and after being ripped. I was impressed that ripped DVD's retain the full DVD structure including menus etc. Playback is fine with no juttering. Unfortunatly the picture quality it not that good. The resolution is fine but the colours are all washed out and not bright at all.
=== Recorded TV Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Most of the time the playback is fine. However sometimes the playback is jerky and completly unwatchable. I think this is when the program was recorded when both tuners were in use. The colour is normal.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Again the colour is very washed out. I have not come across any other problems with playback.
=== Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Watching Live TV has always been fine, except sometimes when both tuners are in use. When this happens playback is jerky.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Watching Live TV works fine.

== UI ==
=== General Control ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
General control is via the windows media centre remote.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The main method of control is via the media centre remote. I have also got an orbiter working on my laptop. I am having problems getting my XDAIIi and Orbit 2 working via bluetooth.
=== Listening to Music ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Music can be listed by Album, Artist, Playlist, Songs, Genres and Search. You browse albums by flicking through the album covers and it is all pretty easy. You can select a album and play it all of select an individual song on the album. The default option for selecting a song is to simply play it but personally I would have had 'add to queue' as the defauly option as I keep losing my playlist I built up by accidently selecting a song to play rather than add to queue.
Playlist management is not so good. You can't add a song to an already saved playlist easily. I would have designed it so thatyou can open a playlist, make edits and have them saved automatically.
Once you have music playing you get a now playing box in the bottom left corner which you can select, alter the playlist, move between songs and save the playlist.
==== LinuxMCE ====
For the most part I didn't apreciate how good the Windows Media Centre 'My Music' UI was untill I started to try and use the LinuxMCE one. Album art only seems to have appeared for one or two my albums. Unlike MCE where you scroll through the album covers you scroll through a list of music on the right. The album covers appear but in an unused area of the screen.
The UI is not nearly as pretty. There is also no 'Add to Queue option' Once you select one song and start playing it you are able to select aonther song and play that. That has the effect of adding it to the playlist but it will then stop playing it and start playing what you have selected. I havn't been able to find a way around that.
When you select a play list that you have saved it opens it up and starts playing it. You can select more tracks to play (again this untrupts playback) and then you are able to save the playlist. Unfortunatly just like with Windows Media Centre it dosn't remember the playlist name and you have to re-enter it. I don't understand why they can't give you save and save as options.
==== My Prefrence ====
Neither UI is exactly what I want but I prefer the Windows way of doing things over LinuxMCE because:
*It looks much better
*You scroll through actual album covers not the songs
*There is an add to queue option (Althogh this should be the default behaviour)

=== Watching Recorded TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
When you press the recorded TV button you see a list of recorded programs. This list can be viewed:
*Grouped and sorted by Title -> When you go into an item you see all the recorded shows then into the item
*Sorted by Date recorded -> Selecting takes you direct to an item
Once an item is selected you can see information about it including play and delete options.
At any time during the program you can press the i (more) button on the MCE remote. This brings up a mini menu which includes Restart and Delete
This makes finding and selecting a program to watch very quick and easy and once you have finished watching it deleteing it is very easy.
===== Seeking =====
The Skip forward button skips forward about a 30secs at a time which is perfect. The skip back button skips back about 10secs (or something like that) This makes back tracking easy, you skip forward until you are past what you want to see then you skip back. You usally only have to end up watching 5 or so secs before you are back in the program.
==== LinuxMCE ====
LinuxMCE is quite diffrent.
Pressing the recorded TV button brings up a list of all the TV and films in the system. Unfortunatly the Films are listed here. (It would be nice to have them on a sepreate menu.)
You have more options for filtering content. LinuxMCE does not group the items by title. So I have set The Simpsons for seris record and I have pages on the list where every single item just says 'The Simpsons'. This makes getting to the content far more difficult. I thought I could lessen the pain of this by sorting by date recorded. Unfrotunatly LinuxMCE only has options to sort by:
*Recently Used
*File Name
*Title
*Preformer
*Genere
*Director
This makes finding the show I want to watch time consuming.
When you select an item you see a menu with:
*Play
*Close
*Delete
*Move
options. You then select Play and the show will play. Unfortunatly while you are watching the show there is no way to get directly back to this menu. I like to watch a show then delete it afterwards. To do this I need to go back to the recorded TV guide and navigate through the menu, refind the show and select delete. This is a pain and it is easy to accidently select the wrong show. This is a pain espically when you have a lot of shows that just appear on the list with the title "The Simpsons" and you need to work out which you watched and want to delete. LinuxMCE has a 'unviewed only' option which does help but sometimes I want to keep something I have viewed.
===== Seeking =====
Skip forward and back use the same interval. I hadn't realised how useful the Windows Media Centre way of doig it was until I tried to use LinuxMCE. Skiping back the same amount means that you generally have to put up with 20/30 secs. I havn't got the advert skipping feature working.
The playback bar dosn't look very good either. It's a bit to complicated.
==== My Prefrence ====
Grouping recorded shows by title makes finding the program easy. Not having this in LinuxMCE is a pain.
I am excited about the advert skipping but on the whole the Windows way is far far beter than what I have got LinuxMCE doing. It's just such a pain to select a program. It also dosn't look nearly as good, the screen is cluttered.

=== Watching Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I usally select a channel from the guide. This is quite easy, you just press the guide button, use the up and down arrows to select what you want to watch and press ok. The guide takes up the whole screen and whenever you go into it is starts you off at what's on now.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The guide button dosn't do anything until you first press the live tv button. Once you are in live TV the guide button works. I reset the guide to display 10 chennels which made it far easier to use.
For some reason the guide lets you scroll into the past. I don't see why this is useful in fact it's sometimes confusing. I also can't seem to select a channel direct from the Guide. I have to remember the number then type it in. I can't understand why.
==== My Prefrence ====
Again I prefer window to LinuxMCE it's not easy and the UI is annyoing almost all the time. It's hard to get it to do what you want.

=== Scheduling Recordings ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
This is best done from the guide. You can press the record button the controller once when the program is selected to record that showing. If you press again you record the whole series and if you press once more it cancels the record.
You can also search for the show and record that way. Although I never use this feature.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have selected my recordings form the guide. I am impressed by the range of options but I am still confused as to which series record option I should use.
==== My Prefrence ====
I like the range of functions availible in LinuxMCE but I wish the default ones would just be the ones that I want.

== Stability ==
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I have been running this machine for a number of years. In order for windows media centre to recieve the guide listenings automatic updates must be turned on. The computer remains on standby for most of the time. Every now and again the automatic update or antivirus require a reboot. There have been a number of occasions where the update has effected the system problems with playback started after an update.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have only had this system up and running for a couple of weeks but there have been no stability issues so far.

= What my mate said =
I had a friend come over who was very intrested with what I was doing with my LinuxMCE computer. I gave him a side by side demo of LinuxMCE and Windows Media Centre. To say LinuxMCE didn't impress would be an understatement. Due to the issues listed above he thinks I'm wasting my time with LinuxMCE.

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T13:43:48Z

Metcarob: /* Scheduling Recordings */

I have both a Windows XP Media centre PC and a LinuxMCE PC set up in my living room attached to my TV. I am hoping to replace the windows Media centre PC but before I do this I need to ensure that LinuxMCE is up to the job of replacing it. I am hoping the LinuxMCE community will be able to assist me with advice on how to get LinuxMCE performing the way I want it. For this reason I have created this page comparing the two highlighting areas where the LinuxMCE set up is not currently living up to my requirements.

= Base Systems =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Manufacturer</th>
<td valign=top>Eversham - EBox (Eversham have gone bust now)</td>
<td valign=top>Built myself</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Operating System</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Windows XP<BR>Media Centre Edition<BR>Vesion 2002<BR>Service Pack 3</td>
<td valign=top>LinuxMCE DVD Install</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Motherboard</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Abit AA8-Duramax<BR>http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AA8-DuraMAX&fMTYPE=LGA775<BR>06/12/2004-i925X-W83627-6A79FA19C-12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Processor</th>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.00Ghz</td>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>RAM</th>
<td valign=top>1Gb</td>
<td valign=top>1Gb (2x512Mb Sims www.crucial.com)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Graphics Card</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Express Card<BR>GeCube RADEON X550 256mb<BR>http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=&prod_cat_id=23&prod_id=61534</td>
<td valign=top>AGPx8<BR>NVidia Geforce 6600GT<br>http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6600.html</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>External Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard</td>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard (1 x RJ-45 GbE LAN Connector)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Internal Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>None</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>EtherFast Lan Adapter SP2500RS 10/100Mbps Auto-Negotiation<BR>http://www.micronet.info/model_detail.aspx?series_no=5&sno=211</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 1</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T500 Dual Digital Tuner<br>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500<BR>Not the diversity model</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 2</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Exactly the same as TV Capture Card 1</td>
<td valign=top>None</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Hard Disk</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Seegate Barracuda 7200.8 500Gb<br>http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=46cc99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Model&modelReqTab=TechSpecs</td>
</tr>
</table>

= TV Output, resoultion, etc.=
My TV is an old Sony TV. The only output device connected to the computers is the TV (Both Audio and TV outs are connected via a scart lead.) Both systems connect to the same TV via Scart and for the comparision I am using a switch box which switches from one to the other.
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Video connector</td>
<td valign=top>S-Video connector</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Resolution</th>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Color</th>
<td valign=top>High (32-bit)</td>
<td valign=top></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Refresh</th>
<td valign=top>60 Hz</td>
<td valign=top>60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Audio Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
</tr>
</table>
= Input =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Reciever</th>
<td valign=top>Reciever built into the case. I believe it's one that came with the windows MCE controler</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Remote</th>
<td valign=top>Windows Media Centre Remote</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Keyboard</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition - Keyboard - wireless - infrared - integrated mouse, integrated remote control</td>
<td valign=top>None (PS2 keyboard used for testing)</td>
</tr>
</table>
== Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine ==
Web Orbitor run from my laptop<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA Orbit 2 Mobile phone<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA IIi (my old mobile)<BR>
= Comparison =
== Picture Quality ==
=== DVD Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
The DVD drive on the eBox is tempromental and works intermitently. When it does work and play back the DVD the playback and picture quality is fine with no juttering and bright colours.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have managed to play back DVD's both direct from disc and after being ripped. I was impressed that ripped DVD's retain the full DVD structure including menus etc. Playback is fine with no juttering. Unfortunatly the picture quality it not that good. The resolution is fine but the colours are all washed out and not bright at all.
=== Recorded TV Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Most of the time the playback is fine. However sometimes the playback is jerky and completly unwatchable. I think this is when the program was recorded when both tuners were in use. The colour is normal.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Again the colour is very washed out. I have not come across any other problems with playback.
=== Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Watching Live TV has always been fine, except sometimes when both tuners are in use. When this happens playback is jerky.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Watching Live TV works fine.

== UI ==
=== General Control ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
General control is via the windows media centre remote.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The main method of control is via the media centre remote. I have also got an orbiter working on my laptop. I am having problems getting my XDAIIi and Orbit 2 working via bluetooth.
=== Listening to Music ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Music can be listed by Album, Artist, Playlist, Songs, Genres and Search. You browse albums by flicking through the album covers and it is all pretty easy. You can select a album and play it all of select an individual song on the album. The default option for selecting a song is to simply play it but personally I would have had 'add to queue' as the defauly option as I keep losing my playlist I built up by accidently selecting a song to play rather than add to queue.
Playlist management is not so good. You can't add a song to an already saved playlist easily. I would have designed it so thatyou can open a playlist, make edits and have them saved automatically.
Once you have music playing you get a now playing box in the bottom left corner which you can select, alter the playlist, move between songs and save the playlist.
==== LinuxMCE ====
For the most part I didn't apreciate how good the Windows Media Centre 'My Music' UI was untill I started to try and use the LinuxMCE one. Album art only seems to have appeared for one or two my albums. Unlike MCE where you scroll through the album covers you scroll through a list of music on the right. The album covers appear but in an unused area of the screen.
The UI is not nearly as pretty. There is also no 'Add to Queue option' Once you select one song and start playing it you are able to select aonther song and play that. That has the effect of adding it to the playlist but it will then stop playing it and start playing what you have selected. I havn't been able to find a way around that.
When you select a play list that you have saved it opens it up and starts playing it. You can select more tracks to play (again this untrupts playback) and then you are able to save the playlist. Unfortunatly just like with Windows Media Centre it dosn't remember the playlist name and you have to re-enter it. I don't understand why they can't give you save and save as options.
==== My Prefrence ====
Neither UI is exactly what I want but I prefer the Windows way of doing things over LinuxMCE because:
*It looks much better
*You scroll through actual album covers not the songs
*There is an add to queue option (Althogh this should be the default behaviour)

=== Watching Recorded TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
When you press the recorded TV button you see a list of recorded programs. This list can be viewed:
*Grouped and sorted by Title -> When you go into an item you see all the recorded shows then into the item
*Sorted by Date recorded -> Selecting takes you direct to an item
Once an item is selected you can see information about it including play and delete options.
At any time during the program you can press the i (more) button on the MCE remote. This brings up a mini menu which includes Restart and Delete
This makes finding and selecting a program to watch very quick and easy and once you have finished watching it deleteing it is very easy.
===== Seeking =====
The Skip forward button skips forward about a 30secs at a time which is perfect. The skip back button skips back about 10secs (or something like that) This makes back tracking easy, you skip forward until you are past what you want to see then you skip back. You usally only have to end up watching 5 or so secs before you are back in the program.
==== LinuxMCE ====
LinuxMCE is quite diffrent.
Pressing the recorded TV button brings up a list of all the TV and films in the system. Unfortunatly the Films are listed here. (It would be nice to have them on a sepreate menu.)
You have more options for filtering content. LinuxMCE does not group the items by title. So I have set The Simpsons for seris record and I have pages on the list where every single item just says 'The Simpsons'. This makes getting to the content far more difficult. I thought I could lessen the pain of this by sorting by date recorded. Unfrotunatly LinuxMCE only has options to sort by:
*Recently Used
*File Name
*Title
*Preformer
*Genere
*Director
This makes finding the show I want to watch time consuming.
When you select an item you see a menu with:
*Play
*Close
*Delete
*Move
options. You then select Play and the show will play. Unfortunatly while you are watching the show there is no way to get directly back to this menu. I like to watch a show then delete it afterwards. To do this I need to go back to the recorded TV guide and navigate through the menu, refind the show and select delete. This is a pain and it is easy to accidently select the wrong show. This is a pain espically when you have a lot of shows that just appear on the list with the title "The Simpsons" and you need to work out which you watched and want to delete. LinuxMCE has a 'unviewed only' option which does help but sometimes I want to keep something I have viewed.
===== Seeking =====
Skip forward and back use the same interval. I hadn't realised how useful the Windows Media Centre way of doig it was until I tried to use LinuxMCE. Skiping back the same amount means that you generally have to put up with 20/30 secs. I havn't got the advert skipping feature working.
The playback bar dosn't look very good either. It's a bit to complicated.
==== My Prefrence ====
Grouping recorded shows by title makes finding the program easy. Not having this in LinuxMCE is a pain.
I am excited about the advert skipping but on the whole the Windows way is far far beter than what I have got LinuxMCE doing. It's just such a pain to select a program. It also dosn't look nearly as good, the screen is cluttered.

=== Watching Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I usally select a channel from the guide. This is quite easy, you just press the guide button, use the up and down arrows to select what you want to watch and press ok. The guide takes up the whole screen and whenever you go into it is starts you off at what's on now.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The guide button dosn't do anything until you first press the live tv button. Once you are in live TV the guide button works. I reset the guide to display 10 chennels which made it far easier to use.
For some reason the guide lets you scroll into the past. I don't see why this is useful in fact it's sometimes confusing. I also can't seem to select a channel direct from the Guide. I have to remember the number then type it in. I can't understand why.
==== My Prefrence ====
Again I prefer window to LinuxMCE it's not easy and the UI is annyoing almost all the time. It's hard to get it to do what you want.

=== Scheduling Recordings ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
This is best done from the guide. You can press the record button the controller once when the program is selected to record that showing. If you press again you record the whole series and if you press once more it cancels the record.
You can also search for the show and record that way. Although I never use this feature.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have selected my recordings form the guide. I am impressed by the range of options but I am still confused as to which series record option I should use.
==== My Prefrence ====
I like the range of functions availible in LinuxMCE but I wish the default ones would just be the ones that I want.

== Stability ==
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I have been running this machine for a number of years. In order for windows media centre to recieve the guide listenings automatic updates must be turned on. The computer remains on standby for most of the time. Every now and again the automatic update or antivirus require a reboot. There have been a number of occasions where the update has effected the system problems with playback started after an update.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have only had this system up and running for a couple of weeks but there have been no stability issues so far.

= What my mate said =
I had a friend come over who was very intrested with what I was doing with my LinuxMCE computer. I gave him a side by side demo of LinuxMCE and Windows Media Centre. To say LinuxMCE didn't impress would be an understatement. Due to the issues listed above he thinks I'm wasting my time with LinuxMCE.

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T13:38:23Z

Metcarob: /* Watching Live TV */

I have both a Windows XP Media centre PC and a LinuxMCE PC set up in my living room attached to my TV. I am hoping to replace the windows Media centre PC but before I do this I need to ensure that LinuxMCE is up to the job of replacing it. I am hoping the LinuxMCE community will be able to assist me with advice on how to get LinuxMCE performing the way I want it. For this reason I have created this page comparing the two highlighting areas where the LinuxMCE set up is not currently living up to my requirements.

= Base Systems =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Manufacturer</th>
<td valign=top>Eversham - EBox (Eversham have gone bust now)</td>
<td valign=top>Built myself</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Operating System</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Windows XP<BR>Media Centre Edition<BR>Vesion 2002<BR>Service Pack 3</td>
<td valign=top>LinuxMCE DVD Install</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Motherboard</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Abit AA8-Duramax<BR>http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AA8-DuraMAX&fMTYPE=LGA775<BR>06/12/2004-i925X-W83627-6A79FA19C-12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Processor</th>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.00Ghz</td>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>RAM</th>
<td valign=top>1Gb</td>
<td valign=top>1Gb (2x512Mb Sims www.crucial.com)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Graphics Card</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Express Card<BR>GeCube RADEON X550 256mb<BR>http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=&prod_cat_id=23&prod_id=61534</td>
<td valign=top>AGPx8<BR>NVidia Geforce 6600GT<br>http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6600.html</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>External Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard</td>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard (1 x RJ-45 GbE LAN Connector)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Internal Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>None</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>EtherFast Lan Adapter SP2500RS 10/100Mbps Auto-Negotiation<BR>http://www.micronet.info/model_detail.aspx?series_no=5&sno=211</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 1</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T500 Dual Digital Tuner<br>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500<BR>Not the diversity model</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 2</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Exactly the same as TV Capture Card 1</td>
<td valign=top>None</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Hard Disk</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Seegate Barracuda 7200.8 500Gb<br>http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=46cc99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Model&modelReqTab=TechSpecs</td>
</tr>
</table>

= TV Output, resoultion, etc.=
My TV is an old Sony TV. The only output device connected to the computers is the TV (Both Audio and TV outs are connected via a scart lead.) Both systems connect to the same TV via Scart and for the comparision I am using a switch box which switches from one to the other.
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Video connector</td>
<td valign=top>S-Video connector</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Resolution</th>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Color</th>
<td valign=top>High (32-bit)</td>
<td valign=top></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Refresh</th>
<td valign=top>60 Hz</td>
<td valign=top>60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Audio Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
</tr>
</table>
= Input =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Reciever</th>
<td valign=top>Reciever built into the case. I believe it's one that came with the windows MCE controler</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Remote</th>
<td valign=top>Windows Media Centre Remote</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Keyboard</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition - Keyboard - wireless - infrared - integrated mouse, integrated remote control</td>
<td valign=top>None (PS2 keyboard used for testing)</td>
</tr>
</table>
== Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine ==
Web Orbitor run from my laptop<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA Orbit 2 Mobile phone<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA IIi (my old mobile)<BR>
= Comparison =
== Picture Quality ==
=== DVD Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
The DVD drive on the eBox is tempromental and works intermitently. When it does work and play back the DVD the playback and picture quality is fine with no juttering and bright colours.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have managed to play back DVD's both direct from disc and after being ripped. I was impressed that ripped DVD's retain the full DVD structure including menus etc. Playback is fine with no juttering. Unfortunatly the picture quality it not that good. The resolution is fine but the colours are all washed out and not bright at all.
=== Recorded TV Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Most of the time the playback is fine. However sometimes the playback is jerky and completly unwatchable. I think this is when the program was recorded when both tuners were in use. The colour is normal.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Again the colour is very washed out. I have not come across any other problems with playback.
=== Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Watching Live TV has always been fine, except sometimes when both tuners are in use. When this happens playback is jerky.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Watching Live TV works fine.

== UI ==
=== General Control ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
General control is via the windows media centre remote.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The main method of control is via the media centre remote. I have also got an orbiter working on my laptop. I am having problems getting my XDAIIi and Orbit 2 working via bluetooth.
=== Listening to Music ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Music can be listed by Album, Artist, Playlist, Songs, Genres and Search. You browse albums by flicking through the album covers and it is all pretty easy. You can select a album and play it all of select an individual song on the album. The default option for selecting a song is to simply play it but personally I would have had 'add to queue' as the defauly option as I keep losing my playlist I built up by accidently selecting a song to play rather than add to queue.
Playlist management is not so good. You can't add a song to an already saved playlist easily. I would have designed it so thatyou can open a playlist, make edits and have them saved automatically.
Once you have music playing you get a now playing box in the bottom left corner which you can select, alter the playlist, move between songs and save the playlist.
==== LinuxMCE ====
For the most part I didn't apreciate how good the Windows Media Centre 'My Music' UI was untill I started to try and use the LinuxMCE one. Album art only seems to have appeared for one or two my albums. Unlike MCE where you scroll through the album covers you scroll through a list of music on the right. The album covers appear but in an unused area of the screen.
The UI is not nearly as pretty. There is also no 'Add to Queue option' Once you select one song and start playing it you are able to select aonther song and play that. That has the effect of adding it to the playlist but it will then stop playing it and start playing what you have selected. I havn't been able to find a way around that.
When you select a play list that you have saved it opens it up and starts playing it. You can select more tracks to play (again this untrupts playback) and then you are able to save the playlist. Unfortunatly just like with Windows Media Centre it dosn't remember the playlist name and you have to re-enter it. I don't understand why they can't give you save and save as options.
==== My Prefrence ====
Neither UI is exactly what I want but I prefer the Windows way of doing things over LinuxMCE because:
*It looks much better
*You scroll through actual album covers not the songs
*There is an add to queue option (Althogh this should be the default behaviour)

=== Watching Recorded TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
When you press the recorded TV button you see a list of recorded programs. This list can be viewed:
*Grouped and sorted by Title -> When you go into an item you see all the recorded shows then into the item
*Sorted by Date recorded -> Selecting takes you direct to an item
Once an item is selected you can see information about it including play and delete options.
At any time during the program you can press the i (more) button on the MCE remote. This brings up a mini menu which includes Restart and Delete
This makes finding and selecting a program to watch very quick and easy and once you have finished watching it deleteing it is very easy.
===== Seeking =====
The Skip forward button skips forward about a 30secs at a time which is perfect. The skip back button skips back about 10secs (or something like that) This makes back tracking easy, you skip forward until you are past what you want to see then you skip back. You usally only have to end up watching 5 or so secs before you are back in the program.
==== LinuxMCE ====
LinuxMCE is quite diffrent.
Pressing the recorded TV button brings up a list of all the TV and films in the system. Unfortunatly the Films are listed here. (It would be nice to have them on a sepreate menu.)
You have more options for filtering content. LinuxMCE does not group the items by title. So I have set The Simpsons for seris record and I have pages on the list where every single item just says 'The Simpsons'. This makes getting to the content far more difficult. I thought I could lessen the pain of this by sorting by date recorded. Unfrotunatly LinuxMCE only has options to sort by:
*Recently Used
*File Name
*Title
*Preformer
*Genere
*Director
This makes finding the show I want to watch time consuming.
When you select an item you see a menu with:
*Play
*Close
*Delete
*Move
options. You then select Play and the show will play. Unfortunatly while you are watching the show there is no way to get directly back to this menu. I like to watch a show then delete it afterwards. To do this I need to go back to the recorded TV guide and navigate through the menu, refind the show and select delete. This is a pain and it is easy to accidently select the wrong show. This is a pain espically when you have a lot of shows that just appear on the list with the title "The Simpsons" and you need to work out which you watched and want to delete. LinuxMCE has a 'unviewed only' option which does help but sometimes I want to keep something I have viewed.
===== Seeking =====
Skip forward and back use the same interval. I hadn't realised how useful the Windows Media Centre way of doig it was until I tried to use LinuxMCE. Skiping back the same amount means that you generally have to put up with 20/30 secs. I havn't got the advert skipping feature working.
The playback bar dosn't look very good either. It's a bit to complicated.
==== My Prefrence ====
Grouping recorded shows by title makes finding the program easy. Not having this in LinuxMCE is a pain.
I am excited about the advert skipping but on the whole the Windows way is far far beter than what I have got LinuxMCE doing. It's just such a pain to select a program. It also dosn't look nearly as good, the screen is cluttered.

=== Watching Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I usally select a channel from the guide. This is quite easy, you just press the guide button, use the up and down arrows to select what you want to watch and press ok. The guide takes up the whole screen and whenever you go into it is starts you off at what's on now.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The guide button dosn't do anything until you first press the live tv button. Once you are in live TV the guide button works. I reset the guide to display 10 chennels which made it far easier to use.
For some reason the guide lets you scroll into the past. I don't see why this is useful in fact it's sometimes confusing. I also can't seem to select a channel direct from the Guide. I have to remember the number then type it in. I can't understand why.
==== My Prefrence ====
Again I prefer window to LinuxMCE it's not easy and the UI is annyoing almost all the time. It's hard to get it to do what you want.

=== Scheduling Recordings ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
==== LinuxMCE ====

== Stability ==
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I have been running this machine for a number of years. In order for windows media centre to recieve the guide listenings automatic updates must be turned on. The computer remains on standby for most of the time. Every now and again the automatic update or antivirus require a reboot. There have been a number of occasions where the update has effected the system problems with playback started after an update.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have only had this system up and running for a couple of weeks but there have been no stability issues so far.

= What my mate said =
I had a friend come over who was very intrested with what I was doing with my LinuxMCE computer. I gave him a side by side demo of LinuxMCE and Windows Media Centre. To say LinuxMCE didn't impress would be an understatement. Due to the issues listed above he thinks I'm wasting my time with LinuxMCE.

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T13:22:18Z

Metcarob: /* Comparison */

I have both a Windows XP Media centre PC and a LinuxMCE PC set up in my living room attached to my TV. I am hoping to replace the windows Media centre PC but before I do this I need to ensure that LinuxMCE is up to the job of replacing it. I am hoping the LinuxMCE community will be able to assist me with advice on how to get LinuxMCE performing the way I want it. For this reason I have created this page comparing the two highlighting areas where the LinuxMCE set up is not currently living up to my requirements.

= Base Systems =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Manufacturer</th>
<td valign=top>Eversham - EBox (Eversham have gone bust now)</td>
<td valign=top>Built myself</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Operating System</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Windows XP<BR>Media Centre Edition<BR>Vesion 2002<BR>Service Pack 3</td>
<td valign=top>LinuxMCE DVD Install</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Motherboard</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Abit AA8-Duramax<BR>http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AA8-DuraMAX&fMTYPE=LGA775<BR>06/12/2004-i925X-W83627-6A79FA19C-12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Processor</th>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.00Ghz</td>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>RAM</th>
<td valign=top>1Gb</td>
<td valign=top>1Gb (2x512Mb Sims www.crucial.com)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Graphics Card</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Express Card<BR>GeCube RADEON X550 256mb<BR>http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=&prod_cat_id=23&prod_id=61534</td>
<td valign=top>AGPx8<BR>NVidia Geforce 6600GT<br>http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6600.html</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>External Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard</td>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard (1 x RJ-45 GbE LAN Connector)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Internal Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>None</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>EtherFast Lan Adapter SP2500RS 10/100Mbps Auto-Negotiation<BR>http://www.micronet.info/model_detail.aspx?series_no=5&sno=211</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 1</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T500 Dual Digital Tuner<br>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500<BR>Not the diversity model</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 2</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Exactly the same as TV Capture Card 1</td>
<td valign=top>None</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Hard Disk</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Seegate Barracuda 7200.8 500Gb<br>http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=46cc99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Model&modelReqTab=TechSpecs</td>
</tr>
</table>

= TV Output, resoultion, etc.=
My TV is an old Sony TV. The only output device connected to the computers is the TV (Both Audio and TV outs are connected via a scart lead.) Both systems connect to the same TV via Scart and for the comparision I am using a switch box which switches from one to the other.
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Video connector</td>
<td valign=top>S-Video connector</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Resolution</th>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Color</th>
<td valign=top>High (32-bit)</td>
<td valign=top></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Refresh</th>
<td valign=top>60 Hz</td>
<td valign=top>60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Audio Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
</tr>
</table>
= Input =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Reciever</th>
<td valign=top>Reciever built into the case. I believe it's one that came with the windows MCE controler</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Remote</th>
<td valign=top>Windows Media Centre Remote</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Keyboard</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition - Keyboard - wireless - infrared - integrated mouse, integrated remote control</td>
<td valign=top>None (PS2 keyboard used for testing)</td>
</tr>
</table>
== Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine ==
Web Orbitor run from my laptop<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA Orbit 2 Mobile phone<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA IIi (my old mobile)<BR>
= Comparison =
== Picture Quality ==
=== DVD Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
The DVD drive on the eBox is tempromental and works intermitently. When it does work and play back the DVD the playback and picture quality is fine with no juttering and bright colours.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have managed to play back DVD's both direct from disc and after being ripped. I was impressed that ripped DVD's retain the full DVD structure including menus etc. Playback is fine with no juttering. Unfortunatly the picture quality it not that good. The resolution is fine but the colours are all washed out and not bright at all.
=== Recorded TV Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Most of the time the playback is fine. However sometimes the playback is jerky and completly unwatchable. I think this is when the program was recorded when both tuners were in use. The colour is normal.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Again the colour is very washed out. I have not come across any other problems with playback.
=== Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Watching Live TV has always been fine, except sometimes when both tuners are in use. When this happens playback is jerky.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Watching Live TV works fine.

== UI ==
=== General Control ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
General control is via the windows media centre remote.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The main method of control is via the media centre remote. I have also got an orbiter working on my laptop. I am having problems getting my XDAIIi and Orbit 2 working via bluetooth.
=== Listening to Music ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Music can be listed by Album, Artist, Playlist, Songs, Genres and Search. You browse albums by flicking through the album covers and it is all pretty easy. You can select a album and play it all of select an individual song on the album. The default option for selecting a song is to simply play it but personally I would have had 'add to queue' as the defauly option as I keep losing my playlist I built up by accidently selecting a song to play rather than add to queue.
Playlist management is not so good. You can't add a song to an already saved playlist easily. I would have designed it so thatyou can open a playlist, make edits and have them saved automatically.
Once you have music playing you get a now playing box in the bottom left corner which you can select, alter the playlist, move between songs and save the playlist.
==== LinuxMCE ====
For the most part I didn't apreciate how good the Windows Media Centre 'My Music' UI was untill I started to try and use the LinuxMCE one. Album art only seems to have appeared for one or two my albums. Unlike MCE where you scroll through the album covers you scroll through a list of music on the right. The album covers appear but in an unused area of the screen.
The UI is not nearly as pretty. There is also no 'Add to Queue option' Once you select one song and start playing it you are able to select aonther song and play that. That has the effect of adding it to the playlist but it will then stop playing it and start playing what you have selected. I havn't been able to find a way around that.
When you select a play list that you have saved it opens it up and starts playing it. You can select more tracks to play (again this untrupts playback) and then you are able to save the playlist. Unfortunatly just like with Windows Media Centre it dosn't remember the playlist name and you have to re-enter it. I don't understand why they can't give you save and save as options.
==== My Prefrence ====
Neither UI is exactly what I want but I prefer the Windows way of doing things over LinuxMCE because:
*It looks much better
*You scroll through actual album covers not the songs
*There is an add to queue option (Althogh this should be the default behaviour)

=== Watching Recorded TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
When you press the recorded TV button you see a list of recorded programs. This list can be viewed:
*Grouped and sorted by Title -> When you go into an item you see all the recorded shows then into the item
*Sorted by Date recorded -> Selecting takes you direct to an item
Once an item is selected you can see information about it including play and delete options.
At any time during the program you can press the i (more) button on the MCE remote. This brings up a mini menu which includes Restart and Delete
This makes finding and selecting a program to watch very quick and easy and once you have finished watching it deleteing it is very easy.
===== Seeking =====
The Skip forward button skips forward about a 30secs at a time which is perfect. The skip back button skips back about 10secs (or something like that) This makes back tracking easy, you skip forward until you are past what you want to see then you skip back. You usally only have to end up watching 5 or so secs before you are back in the program.
==== LinuxMCE ====
LinuxMCE is quite diffrent.
Pressing the recorded TV button brings up a list of all the TV and films in the system. Unfortunatly the Films are listed here. (It would be nice to have them on a sepreate menu.)
You have more options for filtering content. LinuxMCE does not group the items by title. So I have set The Simpsons for seris record and I have pages on the list where every single item just says 'The Simpsons'. This makes getting to the content far more difficult. I thought I could lessen the pain of this by sorting by date recorded. Unfrotunatly LinuxMCE only has options to sort by:
*Recently Used
*File Name
*Title
*Preformer
*Genere
*Director
This makes finding the show I want to watch time consuming.
When you select an item you see a menu with:
*Play
*Close
*Delete
*Move
options. You then select Play and the show will play. Unfortunatly while you are watching the show there is no way to get directly back to this menu. I like to watch a show then delete it afterwards. To do this I need to go back to the recorded TV guide and navigate through the menu, refind the show and select delete. This is a pain and it is easy to accidently select the wrong show. This is a pain espically when you have a lot of shows that just appear on the list with the title "The Simpsons" and you need to work out which you watched and want to delete. LinuxMCE has a 'unviewed only' option which does help but sometimes I want to keep something I have viewed.
===== Seeking =====
Skip forward and back use the same interval. I hadn't realised how useful the Windows Media Centre way of doig it was until I tried to use LinuxMCE. Skiping back the same amount means that you generally have to put up with 20/30 secs. I havn't got the advert skipping feature working.
The playback bar dosn't look very good either. It's a bit to complicated.
==== My Prefrence ====
Grouping recorded shows by title makes finding the program easy. Not having this in LinuxMCE is a pain.
I am excited about the advert skipping but on the whole the Windows way is far far beter than what I have got LinuxMCE doing. It's just such a pain to select a program. It also dosn't look nearly as good, the screen is cluttered.

=== Watching Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
==== LinuxMCE ====
=== Scheduling Recordings ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
==== LinuxMCE ====

== Stability ==
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I have been running this machine for a number of years. In order for windows media centre to recieve the guide listenings automatic updates must be turned on. The computer remains on standby for most of the time. Every now and again the automatic update or antivirus require a reboot. There have been a number of occasions where the update has effected the system problems with playback started after an update.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have only had this system up and running for a couple of weeks but there have been no stability issues so far.

= What my mate said =
I had a friend come over who was very intrested with what I was doing with my LinuxMCE computer. I gave him a side by side demo of LinuxMCE and Windows Media Centre. To say LinuxMCE didn't impress would be an understatement. Due to the issues listed above he thinks I'm wasting my time with LinuxMCE.

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T13:19:02Z

Metcarob: /* Watching Recorded TV */

I have both a Windows XP Media centre PC and a LinuxMCE PC set up in my living room attached to my TV. I am hoping to replace the windows Media centre PC but before I do this I need to ensure that LinuxMCE is up to the job of replacing it. I am hoping the LinuxMCE community will be able to assist me with advice on how to get LinuxMCE performing the way I want it. For this reason I have created this page comparing the two highlighting areas where the LinuxMCE set up is not currently living up to my requirements.

= Base Systems =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Manufacturer</th>
<td valign=top>Eversham - EBox (Eversham have gone bust now)</td>
<td valign=top>Built myself</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Operating System</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Windows XP<BR>Media Centre Edition<BR>Vesion 2002<BR>Service Pack 3</td>
<td valign=top>LinuxMCE DVD Install</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Motherboard</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Abit AA8-Duramax<BR>http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AA8-DuraMAX&fMTYPE=LGA775<BR>06/12/2004-i925X-W83627-6A79FA19C-12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Processor</th>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.00Ghz</td>
<td valign=top>Intel(R) Pentuim(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>RAM</th>
<td valign=top>1Gb</td>
<td valign=top>1Gb (2x512Mb Sims www.crucial.com)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Graphics Card</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Express Card<BR>GeCube RADEON X550 256mb<BR>http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=&prod_cat_id=23&prod_id=61534</td>
<td valign=top>AGPx8<BR>NVidia Geforce 6600GT<br>http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6600.html</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>External Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard</td>
<td valign=top>On Motherboard (1 x RJ-45 GbE LAN Connector)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Internal Network Card</th>
<td valign=top>None</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>EtherFast Lan Adapter SP2500RS 10/100Mbps Auto-Negotiation<BR>http://www.micronet.info/model_detail.aspx?series_no=5&sno=211</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 1</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card</td>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T500 Dual Digital Tuner<br>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500<BR>Not the diversity model</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>TV Capture Card 2</th>
<td valign=top>PCI Card<BR>Exactly the same as TV Capture Card 1</td>
<td valign=top>None</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Hard Disk</th>
<td valign=top></td>
<td valign=top>Seegate Barracuda 7200.8 500Gb<br>http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=46cc99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Model&modelReqTab=TechSpecs</td>
</tr>
</table>

= TV Output, resoultion, etc.=
My TV is an old Sony TV. The only output device connected to the computers is the TV (Both Audio and TV outs are connected via a scart lead.) Both systems connect to the same TV via Scart and for the comparision I am using a switch box which switches from one to the other.
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Video connector</td>
<td valign=top>S-Video connector</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Video Resolution</th>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
<td valign=top>1024 x 768</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Color</th>
<td valign=top>High (32-bit)</td>
<td valign=top></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Refresh</th>
<td valign=top>60 Hz</td>
<td valign=top>60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>Audio Connector used</th>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
<td valign=top>Motherboard Stero out going to a splitter going to Scart lead adapter</td>
</tr>
</table>
= Input =
<table border=1>
<tr><th></th><th>Windows Media Centre</th><th>LinuxMCE</th></tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Reciever</th>
<td valign=top>Reciever built into the case. I believe it's one that came with the windows MCE controler</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Remote</th>
<td valign=top>Windows Media Centre Remote</td>
<td valign=top>USBUIRT<BR>http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Usbuirt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign=top>IR Keyboard</th>
<td valign=top>Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition - Keyboard - wireless - infrared - integrated mouse, integrated remote control</td>
<td valign=top>None (PS2 keyboard used for testing)</td>
</tr>
</table>
== Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine ==
Web Orbitor run from my laptop<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA Orbit 2 Mobile phone<BR>
Windows Mobile Orbitor installed on my XDA IIi (my old mobile)<BR>
= Comparison =
== Picture Quality ==
=== DVD Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
The DVD drive on the eBox is tempromental and works intermitently. When it does work and play back the DVD the playback and picture quality is fine with no juttering and bright colours.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have managed to play back DVD's both direct from disc and after being ripped. I was impressed that ripped DVD's retain the full DVD structure including menus etc. Playback is fine with no juttering. Unfortunatly the picture quality it not that good. The resolution is fine but the colours are all washed out and not bright at all.
=== Recorded TV Playback ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Most of the time the playback is fine. However sometimes the playback is jerky and completly unwatchable. I think this is when the program was recorded when both tuners were in use. The colour is normal.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Again the colour is very washed out. I have not come across any other problems with playback.
=== Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Watching Live TV has always been fine, except sometimes when both tuners are in use. When this happens playback is jerky.
==== LinuxMCE ====
Watching Live TV works fine.

== UI ==
=== General Control ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
General control is via the windows media centre remote.
==== LinuxMCE ====
The main method of control is via the media centre remote. I have also got an orbiter working on my laptop. I am having problems getting my XDAIIi and Orbit 2 working via bluetooth.
=== Listening to Music ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
Music can be listed by Album, Artist, Playlist, Songs, Genres and Search. You browse albums by flicking through the album covers and it is all pretty easy. You can select a album and play it all of select an individual song on the album. The default option for selecting a song is to simply play it but personally I would have had 'add to queue' as the defauly option as I keep losing my playlist I built up by accidently selecting a song to play rather than add to queue.
Playlist management is not so good. You can't add a song to an already saved playlist easily. I would have designed it so thatyou can open a playlist, make edits and have them saved automatically.
Once you have music playing you get a now playing box in the bottom left corner which you can select, alter the playlist, move between songs and save the playlist.
==== LinuxMCE ====
For the most part I didn't apreciate how good the Windows Media Centre 'My Music' UI was untill I started to try and use the LinuxMCE one. Album art only seems to have appeared for one or two my albums. Unlike MCE where you scroll through the album covers you scroll through a list of music on the right. The album covers appear but in an unused area of the screen.
The UI is not nearly as pretty. There is also no 'Add to Queue option' Once you select one song and start playing it you are able to select aonther song and play that. That has the effect of adding it to the playlist but it will then stop playing it and start playing what you have selected. I havn't been able to find a way around that.
When you select a play list that you have saved it opens it up and starts playing it. You can select more tracks to play (again this untrupts playback) and then you are able to save the playlist. Unfortunatly just like with Windows Media Centre it dosn't remember the playlist name and you have to re-enter it. I don't understand why they can't give you save and save as options.
==== My Prefrence ====
Neither UI is exactly what I want but I prefer the Windows way of doing things over LinuxMCE because:
*It looks much better
*You scroll through actual album covers not the songs
*There is an add to queue option (Althogh this should be the default behaviour)

=== Watching Recorded TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
When you press the recorded TV button you see a list of recorded programs. This list can be viewed:
*Grouped and sorted by Title -> When you go into an item you see all the recorded shows then into the item
*Sorted by Date recorded -> Selecting takes you direct to an item
Once an item is selected you can see information about it including play and delete options.
At any time during the program you can press the i (more) button on the MCE remote. This brings up a mini menu which includes Restart and Delete
This makes finding and selecting a program to watch very quick and easy and once you have finished watching it deleteing it is very easy.
===== Seeking =====
The Skip forward button skips forward about a 30secs at a time which is perfect. The skip back button skips back about 10secs (or something like that) This makes back tracking easy, you skip forward until you are past what you want to see then you skip back. You usally only have to end up watching 5 or so secs before you are back in the program.
==== LinuxMCE ====
LinuxMCE is quite diffrent.
Pressing the recorded TV button brings up a list of all the TV and films in the system. Unfortunatly the Films are listed here. (It would be nice to have them on a sepreate menu.)
You have more options for filtering content. LinuxMCE does not group the items by title. So I have set The Simpsons for seris record and I have pages on the list where every single item just says 'The Simpsons'. This makes getting to the content far more difficult. I thought I could lessen the pain of this by sorting by date recorded. Unfrotunatly LinuxMCE only has options to sort by:
*Recently Used
*File Name
*Title
*Preformer
*Genere
*Director
This makes finding the show I want to watch time consuming.
When you select an item you see a menu with:
*Play
*Close
*Delete
*Move
options. You then select Play and the show will play. Unfortunatly while you are watching the show there is no way to get directly back to this menu. I like to watch a show then delete it afterwards. To do this I need to go back to the recorded TV guide and navigate through the menu, refind the show and select delete. This is a pain and it is easy to accidently select the wrong show. This is a pain espically when you have a lot of shows that just appear on the list with the title "The Simpsons" and you need to work out which you watched and want to delete. LinuxMCE has a 'unviewed only' option which does help but sometimes I want to keep something I have viewed.
===== Seeking =====
Skip forward and back use the same interval. I hadn't realised how useful the Windows Media Centre way of doig it was until I tried to use LinuxMCE. Skiping back the same amount means that you generally have to put up with 20/30 secs. I havn't got the advert skipping feature working.
The playback bar dosn't look very good either. It's a bit to complicated.
==== My Prefrence ====
Grouping recorded shows by title makes finding the program easy. Not having this in LinuxMCE is a pain.
I am excited about the advert skipping but on the whole the Windows way is far far beter than what I have got LinuxMCE doing. It's just such a pain to select a program. It also dosn't look nearly as good, the screen is cluttered.

=== Watching Live TV ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
==== LinuxMCE ====
=== Scheduling Recordings ===
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
==== LinuxMCE ====

== Stability ==
==== Windows Madia Centre ====
I have been running this machine for a number of years. In order for windows media centre to recieve the guide listenings automatic updates must be turned on. The computer remains on standby for most of the time. Every now and again the automatic update or antivirus require a reboot. There have been a number of occasions where the update has effected the system problems with playback started after an update.
==== LinuxMCE ====
I have only had this system up and running for a couple of weeks but there have been no stability issues so far.

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T12:23:31Z

Metcarob: /* Listening to Music */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T12:11:24Z

Metcarob: /* Comparison */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T11:59:41Z

Metcarob: /* Picture Quality */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-03T11:03:21Z

Metcarob: /* Watching Live TV */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T16:23:37Z

Metcarob: /* Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:57:15Z

Metcarob: /* Other Input Methods tried for LinuxMCE Machine */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:56:58Z

Metcarob: /* Input */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:55:15Z

Metcarob: /* Input */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:55:01Z

Metcarob: /* TV Output, resoultion, etc. */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:36:06Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:35:39Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:31:39Z

Metcarob: /* TV Output, resoultion, etc. */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:28:32Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:15:33Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T13:09:14Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T12:59:15Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T12:55:39Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T12:30:50Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T12:28:03Z

Metcarob: /* Base Systems */

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T12:27:18Z

Metcarob:

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-05-02T12:26:49Z

Metcarob:

Metcarob's Windows MCE vs Linux MCE Comparison

2009-04-29T12:06:41Z

Metcarob: New page: I have both a Windows XP Media centre PC and a LinuxMCE PC set up in my living room attached to my TV. I am hoping to replace the windows Media centre PC but before I do this I need to ens...

User:Metcarob

2009-04-29T12:02:21Z

Metcarob:

User:Metcarob

2009-04-27T19:38:47Z

Metcarob:

== Who Am I and why am I here? ==
I am from London in the UK. I currently have a Windows MCE media centre computer and I am trying to set up a linuxMCE system to escape the evil clutches of microsoft. There are a number of reasons for the conversion:

*Less reliance on Microsoft. I am worried about DRM and Vista.
*More features (Ability to rip DVD's)
*Using all my devices (Make my media collection directly accessable from more than one PC)
*Force me to learn more about LINUX
I am also keen to get involved in open source and see if I can contribute to a project.

== My current Set up ==
I currently use an Eversham ebox with as my current media centre machine. It has the following hardware:
*Realtek: RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC
*Half Hight Digital TV Tuner card
*Half Hight Digital TV Tuner card
*Grpahics Card
*DVD Drive (Currently giving me some trouble)
*MCE Infrared interface
*MCE remote control
*Microsoft Infrared keyboard
it runs the following software:
*Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Eddition
*AVG Anti virus
*Microsoft Media Player
*Internet Explorer (for downloading Securit now and TWIT podcasts)
*VNC Remote control software, to allow me to control the PC from other machines on my network. (Despite using large fonts it's practally impossible to read any of the dialogs via the TV)
I have a scart adapter that takes the TV out from the GFX card and the sound from the onboard sound card to an old TV.

== My LinuxMCE set up ==
I am trying to set up my CORE as a Dedicated Core. The core has two network cards, a happuage dual digital tuner. The External Network card is plugged into my Netgear Broadband router. My Internal network card is plugged into the internal hub. I have set up a monitor and keyboard on the CORE for testing pueposes but won't keep these there once the setup is finished. Adventually the CORE will also act as a print server for my network using CUPS.

=== CORE ===
* Setup using LinuxMCE DVD
* <a href="http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-500">Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T 500 PCI</a> (I managed to get the origional version not the diversity model)
** Dual Digital Tuners
* External Network interface (Onboard)
* Internal Network interface (PCI Card)
* 500Gb SATA disk drives (I have more disk drives but will try and install them once I have the main system working)

I have setup MYTH TV to use the EIT program guide as I could not get radio times to work. (Channels appeared but no programs were listed on each channel)

==== Controling MCE Notes ====
I went through a process of trying lots of diffrent ways of controling LinuxMCE before I finally settled on the method I use.
===== Failed: Wii REmote =====
I followed the Wiki instructions for this but although I did get it working (not the pointer) it didn't work after reboot until I messed around with the bluetooth scanning bit. I decided to stick to using my Wii controllers to control my Wii
===== Failed: Built my own IR Reciever =====
Next I tried to build my own IR reciever. I trooped down to maplins and got all the stuff required using the LIRC home page. I read around the wiki site it wasn't clear if I had to rebuild the linux Kernel with LIRC drivers in or not. There wasn't a way to test what I had built. In the end I gave up and ordered a USB UIRT. This came in a couple of days and worked instantly.
===== Kinda working: Laptop as orbiter =====
I got my laptop configured as an orbiter. This works fine but isn't a very easy solution.
===== XDA Orbit 2 =====
The first thing I tried was the JavaMO orbiter software. This won't work on Pocket PC machines since the Java VM's don't have bluetooth support. In the end someone on the chat room pointed me to the Pocket PC version of the orbiter which worked fine.
===== Windows MCE controler =====
This worked fine with USB UIRT. After a while I learnt what the buttons did.
==== Setting up points ====
My windows MCE computer ran on PAL-I 1026x768 60Hz. LinuxMCE dosn't have this as an option in the setup. When you select S-Video you can select PAL-I but it won't let you select a resolution and it defaults to 640x480. Once I had it set up I found that I could go into both the Media Director and the Orbitor and change it to 1024.768. That seemed to work fine.

User:Metcarob

2009-04-13T13:06:18Z

Metcarob: /* My current Set up */

User:Metcarob

2009-04-12T15:39:47Z

Metcarob:

User:Metcarob

2009-04-12T15:37:34Z

Metcarob: /* CORE */

User:Metcarob

2009-04-12T15:35:20Z

Metcarob: /* CORE */

User:Metcarob

2009-04-12T15:32:15Z

Metcarob: /* My LinuxMCE set up */

User:Metcarob

2009-04-12T15:30:56Z

Metcarob: /* My LinuxMCE set up */

User:Metcarob

2009-04-12T15:27:15Z

Metcarob: /* CORE */

User:Metcarob

2009-04-12T15:27:02Z

Metcarob: