Difference between revisions of "User Manual"

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====Media Directors====
 
====Media Directors====
  
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[[Media Directors]] (MDs) are PCs with outputs to connect to a television (such as S-video or RCA jacks). Sound outputs to speakers, from a good sound card, is also important.  The MDs play all your streaming music and video from the Core, from network attached storage (NAS), and from other MDs in your system.  Output to a TV and speakers can create an awesome multimedia experience.
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[[Media Directors]] (for short: MDs) are Home Theater PCs (HTPCs or just PCs for short) with outputs to connect to a television (such as; VGA, HDMI, S-video or RCA jacks). Sound outputs to speakers, from a good sound card or embedded sound chipset, is also important.  An MD plays all your streaming music and video from the Core, from network attached storage (NAS), and from other MDs in your system.  Output to a TV and speakers can create an awe inspiring multimedia experience.
  
 
[[:Category:Media_Directors|Here are some possible Media Director platforms.]]
 
[[:Category:Media_Directors|Here are some possible Media Director platforms.]]

Revision as of 16:25, 2 August 2012

Also see:

Hardware

Also see: Hardware Category

Picking The Right Components

The Core

The most important component is the "Core". This is the main LinuxMCE server that runs all the applications. A good Pentium 4 with at least 80 GB of storage and two network cards (Gigabit ideally) is often sufficient. A high-end server with RAID-5 storage is best.

It is best to dedicate one PC as the Core server. You can put this computer somewhere out of the way and not connect a monitor to it. If there will be only one computer in your LinuxMCE system, that computer will be a "hybrid" Core server and media player. It will defnitely require a connection to a TV.

Here are some possible Core server platforms.

Media Directors

Media Directors (for short: MDs) are Home Theater PCs (HTPCs or just PCs for short) with outputs to connect to a television (such as; VGA, HDMI, S-video or RCA jacks). Sound outputs to speakers, from a good sound card or embedded sound chipset, is also important. An MD plays all your streaming music and video from the Core, from network attached storage (NAS), and from other MDs in your system. Output to a TV and speakers can create an awe inspiring multimedia experience.

Here are some possible Media Director platforms.

Orbiters

Orbiters are the devices used to communicate/interface with LinuxMCE at the user level. The Orbiter devices display the standardized Orbiter User Interface (UI) from which users control all user-aspects of LinuxMCE. LinuxMCE provides for multiple Orbiter options such as using a generic PC, wireless tablet PCs, PDAs, mobile phones running Symbian or Microsoft Mobile, or through a web interface accessible to any computer within your LinuxMCE network, or even from the Internet. (The web interface requires user authentication.) Media Directors have their own on-screen Orbiter UI.

Here are some possible Orbiter platforms.

In addition, Orbiter can be skinned in a variety of different ways, We have a default skin, Titanium, which has multiple variations for data grid color, and a dark version called Slate.

Here Are some Orbiter Skins

Network Attached Storage

An alternative to having a lot of storage space in the Core PC itself is to store your files on a network attached storage (NAS) server. You can store large music and video collections this way. Your LinuxMCE system can also record TV shows (using MythTV) and video from your security cameras (using Motion), both of which require lots of hard drive storage space. An example of an NAS is the Buffalo Terastation.

Here are some possible NAS solutions.

Additional Devices

These are examples of devices that require a controller device called a gc100. The gc100 allows these and other devices that communicate using a serial port (e.g. alarm panels) or an infrared port (e.g. a TV) to connect to the network and talk with your LinuxMCE Core.

Plug 'n' Play Capabilities

Once LinuxMCE is installed, you can treat it like an appliance -- plug it in, turn it on, and leave it alone. You don't even need to install any software on the media PCs that will be used as Media Directors. If these PCs are connected to the Core by wired Ethernet, they can usually be set to boot LinuxMCE from the Core server over the network whenever you want to use them as a Media Director. The rest of the time they can be used as a regular PC, using whatever operating system is already on their hard drives.

The LinuxMCE Core must be the DHCP server for your LinuxMCE network so that it can offer both plug-and-play and network boot services. The Core server bridges your "external" home LAN and an "internal" LinuxMCE LAN. For this to work, it is recommended to have dual network cards in the Core -- one to connect to the "external" network (which can be your home LAN or simply your Internet connection), and one for the "internal" LinuxMCE network (to which all your LinuxMCE devices are connected). The LinuxMCE Core server effectively acts as both the DHCP server and the firewall for the "internal" LinuxMCE network.

Note that you can easily have PCs outside of the LinuxMCE internal network, if you choose. Simply do not connect them to the LinuxMCE network. Alternatively, you can choose to have all PCs in your house be part of the LinuxMCE network. In this case the Core server provides DHCP and firewall services for your entire home LAN.

Wiring Considerations

The connection between the Core server and the Media Directors requires a significant amount of data transmission. Furthermore, netbooting is not very easy wirelessly and therefore must usually be done over a wired connection. For this reason, it is recommended that a wired Ethernet connection be used between the Core server and each peripheral Media Director.

Other devices which do not have as high data transmission requirements, such as PDAs used as Orbiter remote controls, can be used wirelessly through a wireless access point (which can be connected later to the LinuxMCE LAN).

Additional Hardware Resources

Choosing hardware components can be difficult. There are multiple articles regarding hardware selection in the Hardware Category.

Also see:

Setting Up The Hardware

Using your own PCs

LinuxMCE is Linux-based. Sometimes drivers are not available for Linux as soon as they are for Windows. If you bought some new exotic hardware, there may not yet be drivers for Linux. Check out the Hardware Category first. Also, check out linuxcompatible.org for a list of Linux-compatible hardware. As a last resort to find out if your hardware might work, post a message in the LinuxMCE forums.

Additional Hardware

You can also put multiple cards in the Core, such as analog phone line interfaces (e.g. from www.digium.com), or analog video capture cards for surveillance cameras. Make sure they are Linux compatible, as above. There are several choices as to where to install these cards in your LinuxMCE network. For example, you could put a PVR/satellite video capture card in an individual Media Director PC, or you could put it in the Core server PC (where it will be more easily shared throughout the system).

Bluetooth mobile phones can be used as remote controls by adding a USB Bluetooth Dongle to each Media Director (around $25). Each Media Director will report the signal strengths of each mobile phone (this is how the Core figures out what room you're in). Since all resources in the whole house are shared, you will be able to control any device in any room from anywhere -- as long as you're within Bluetooth range of a Media Director (within 10m, or 30feet).

You can also use low-cost network audio players, like the Squeeze Box, which can be placed anywhere in the system.

A Dedicated Core

Connects to a Dedicated Core

The Core is the central point of the LinuxMCE system and runs applications and daemons needed for the other devices to exchange data and commands. A dedicated Core controls all of the LinuxMCE components. In this LinuxMCE configuration, the user does not use the Core as a Media Director at all. Other PCs will need to be used as Media Directors in order to play movies, listen to music, and watch TV. This kind of setup is recommended when you have a lot of extra devices, all of which will have full access to the Core's resources.

The Clean Core project is an ongoing effort to further reduce the resource consumption of the Core server.

A Dedicated Hybrid

Connections to a Hybrid Core

A "hybrid" is a PC that runs the "Core" software while also serving as a Media Director. This is often done with standalone LinuxMCE setups, with a single PC in the Home Entertainment Center. However, other Media Directors can still be added into the system later.

The Core server (and therefore a hybrid) generally requires more processing power, runs hotter, needs more cooling fans (and is therefore noisier), and is often a bigger PC than those used only as Media Directors. For many users it is less desirable to place such a PC in their Home Entertainment Center.

However, there are now multimedia-oriented PCs made with this in mind, that are quite suitable for use as hybrids.

A Media Director cannot run without first setting up a LinuxMCE Core (or hybrid) server.

Installation of Software Components

There are currently two methods of LinuxMCE installation. The DVD installation requires a single installation disk. The CD method requires 3 disks (one of which is the Kubuntu LiveCD), but offers more flexibility in installation.

DVD Installation

CD Installation

Setting Up LinuxMCE

Tell LinuxMCE About Your Home


Setting up your LinuxMCE system consists of 4 steps:

  • Providing some general information, such as what kind of network you have.
  • Specifying the devices in your home (lights, TVs, surveillance cameras, etc.).
  • Creating scenarios. A "scenario" is a group of commands, or tasks, you want executed when you touch a button. Each scenario you create will appear on the Orbiter remote controls as an option button.
  • Scenarios are generally organized into 5 categories: lighting, media, climate, security and telephone. You can create, for example, a lighting scenario called "Entertaining" which turns on all the lights in the house and in the front yard. A button labeled "Entertaining" will then appear on the Orbiters in the lighting section -- touch it to activate the scenario. Any scenario can do anything. For example, just because the "Entertaining" scenario is a lighting scenario doesn't mean the scenario only affects lights. You can make the scenario also play some music, and maybe open the front gate. You can use the "Advanced, My Scenarios" menu option for low-level control over a scenario, to make it do whatever you want. However the Wizard includes pages that make it very easy to create scenarios. For example, when you add a lighting scenario with the Wizard, it lists all the lights in the house and lets you pick the ones you want to change with the scenario.
  • Creating event handlers. This is how you tell LinuxMCE you want it to do something in response to some event. For example, you may want LinuxMCE to turn on the Front Porch light when a motion detector is tripped. Or you want it to play a loud message on the TV when there is a security breach. Perhaps you would like to stop watering the lawn when it rains.

AV Wizard

The Audio/Video Wizard is designed to allow for easy setup of the components (ranging from a simple monitor to an HCTV with composite inputs and outputs) to which a Media Director outputs the multimedia content that is streamed from the Core.

House Setup Wizard

This allows you to specify the floorplan of your house and to assign scenarios to each room.

Media Player Wizard

This allows you to specify the location of file shares and other media locations within your system.

Using the LinuxMCE Admin Website

Although there are automated wizards to assist in setup, there are more options provided in the LinucxMCE Admin web page. The user can create and modify any and all devices that LinuxMCE controls through the Admin page. It is displayed by any web browser, such as the ones available both on the Core/Hybrid and on each Media Director.

Scenarios, Events & Security

In the Scenarios page, add the scenarios, or buttons, you want for each room. For example:

  • A Lighting scenario in the Bedroom called 'Go to sleep' can dim the lights.
  • A Security scenario in the Living Room can view a camera.

When you do a 'quick reload router', DCERouter will automatically add Media Scenarios for each room which will include the media devices that are located there.

Your new scenarios will then be visible on the Orbiter remote controls after you regenerate.

Add Events to specify conditional events (such as turning on a light) when something else happens (a motion detector is tripped, the sun sets, etc.). This can be used for security. For example, you want to be notified (by VOIP, a message on a TV, etc.) when certain events happen in the house (motion detector is tripped). Settings will take effect next time you reboot or 'quick reload router'.

Configuring Myth TV

Most of the setup for MythTV is done automatically. For more information take a look at the following link.

Upload Your Media

LinuxMCE is capable of accessing Microsoft Windows-compatible network shares using the built-in Samba network protocol. LinuxMCE also creates a "public" share folder on the Core (or NAS) for storing the files that the whole family can share -- movies, music, etc. A "private" share folder for each family member is also created on the Core (or NAS). These network shares can be accessed from Windows-based PCs on your home LAN by listing the LAN IP address of the Core (or hybrid) as a network share (it is usually 192.168.80.1).

Once you copy your media into the appropriate folder, go to the LinuxMCE Admin web page-->Files & Media--> Media Files Sync and be sure your media is now in the database. You can now add attributes (artist, actor, etc.) and choose cover art.

Configure Telephony

General Usage Pages

Lights

Climate Control

Security

Media

Controlling A/V Equipment

Using Media

Media Attributes

Telecom

Troubleshooting

This troubleshooting guide assumes some basic knowledge of Linux. In LinuxMCE, everything is a device. In the LinuxMCE Admin Website, you can choose Devices, to see a list of all the devices in your installation. We recommend you don't make changes here - you can break things! The top level device is usually a computer, either the core or a hybrid or an orbiter. All the logs for the devices on that computer are stored in /var/log/pluto. You can ssh in to the core using the root password you chose, and from there, you can ssh to all the media directors-shared keys were automatically setup.

All current activity is logged in the file that ends in ".log". At bootup, certain device logs are archived into /var/log/pluto/*.log.*.gz files

All DCE devices are running in separate screen sessions. Type "screen -ls" to see all active screen sessions, and "screen -r PID" where PID is the id you saw in the -ls list to attach to the screen session. There is not much for you to do or see though since all the output on stderr and stdout is going into the logs. DCERouter is running the same way on your core or hybrid.

At bootup, all the scripts listed in the LinuxMCE Admin Website under Boot Sequence are run. If any programs crash, a core dump file is put in /usr/pluto/coredump.

If you're a programmer, you can also check out our Programmer's Guide. If you want to learn about writing DCE Devices, see the DCE.

Other Items

Accessibility and Languages

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