Revision as of 14:46, 25 October 2008

Hardware used

• MB: Asus M2NPV-VM
• CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4000+
• RAM: 3GB 667MHz Patriot
• HDD: Seagate 160GB SATAII
• VGA: Onboard VGA (128MB), using UI2 without alpha blending
• DVD/RW: Pionner 112
• Hauppage PVR-150-MCE
• Onboard audio
• Onboard NIC(Gigabit) for internal network
• Realtek 10/100Mbit NIC for external network
• Case: Antes NSK2400 + PSU LC Power 550W
• Fiire Chief remote - dint try Follow me options

Here is a picture of my house setup[1]

Currently running one Core/Hybrid just for testing purposses, on Philips 20" connected with VGA. After installing with no problems, i had random crashes with my Core. After messing with xorg.conf (and i am a complete Linux newbie, learned a lot surfing this wiki) and changing the driver used for VGA, crashes seemed to disapper. Autodetection of PVR-150MCE didnt work so a did a manual install, scanned for channels and all seems to work for now. Didnt bother with scheduling and recording, just watched Live TV and everything seemd to work fine.

Orbiters and Media Directors

I am using laptop Compaq Presario 900EA (got it for 50$, used, battery dead, but it does its job:) ) as a Media Director in a living room, with UI1, using PXE boot. Couldnt find option on LinuxMCEDVD to install as media director only, so i went for PXE boot. I rarely turn of this MD so i dont mind booting it for like 5 mins.

Second orbiter is Nokia N95, using JAVAMO, over Bluetooth. Its kinda slow, but it does its job. Instalation was simple, had to change one file with a new one and after it all worked.

I am in a process of getting a Nokia 770 tablet, when i get it i will test it and write a feedback.

Problems and errors

• Core crashes randomly and for undetermined reasons. I have been suspecting NIC, read on this wiki about Realtek chipset not functioning properly. Since i am Linux newbie i dont know where to search for some system logs...Anybody can help on this?
• I would like to access my File server (see my Home setup, File server is running FreeNas OS) which is in other subnet, dont know how to manage that. I dont want to put it in LinuxMCE subnet because my other PCs require its contest.
• Fiire Chief remote seems to be kinda hard to operate; cursor "jumps" up and down and its not easy to navigate menus with it, using UI2.
• MythTV shows picture in 4:3 format. My setup is 720p which is clearly 16:9 format. Dont know where the problem is, and seems that MythTV doesnt have apsect ratio option, to change ratio during live TV. Maybe the problem is in my cable provider who servers me 4:3 format media.

Future improvements