User:Freymann

About Me

First, a brief history:

Hello. My name is Gerald Freymann and I live in Ontario, Canada.

I first attempted a LinuxMCE installation in March 2008, using 7.10 B4. My core machine worked like crap, one media director was OK but had a bad PVR card and the second media director caused me grief with the video card and I gave up, rather frustrated, confused and extremely disappointed.

Afterwards, I set up a 3 station MythBuntu system in a day, and have been tinkering with it and learning more about MythTV since then. I'm happy to say that I was able to get my MCE Transceivers working under MythBuntu. See: [1]

I then tinkered with the X10 equipment I bought but never got to use with LinuxMCE, and quite happily, did very well integrating X10 under MythBuntu both through on-screen menus and remote buttons. See: [2]

From MythBuntu 7.10 to 8.04, I've enjoyed the system and I've learned a heck of lot more! but have been keeping tabs on LinuxMCE, as it was my system of choice in the first place, I just needed another way to play with it without pressure or time constraints.

So, in mid-May I purchased yet another system that I figured would replace the MythBuntu core, but before I did that, I wanted to load LinuxMCE 7.10 RC2 on it, just to see how things have progressed since the 7.10 B4. I was very fortunate this time around, as things just worked! I freely goofed around, not caring if the system came crashing down, and other than tinkering with network cards that caused a fresh reload, this version just seems to work.

On June 14, 2008, I put the new core in place in the basement, set the living-room to network boot, and started to use LinuxMCE! On June 17th, I took the HTPC from the master-bedroom and tried it under LMCE but decided to load MythBuntu 7.10 and do some network mapping to give it access to our media collection on the core, and it is working great now too.

I thought I would take this opportunity to document what equipment I am using, and what worked, and what didn't.

System

Prices are in CDN Funds and most don't include shipping, taxes or mail-in rebates.

Core

Hybrid/Core -- June 2008 -- WORKS!

• $279.99 -> AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ Socket AM2
• 1 x AMD Original AM2 CPU Fan (a little noisy, not too bad)
• 1 x ECS nVidia GeForce6100SM-M Motherboard
• 2GB DDR II 667 Memory 240 Pin (Kingston?)
• 1 x LG 20X IDE DVD RW + Dual Layer optical drive
• disabled on-board nVidia GeForce 6100 as I couldn't use VGA output
• Realtek ALC660 6-channel HD Audio
• Onboard 10/100 Network Card (connected to my main wired/wireless Linksys Router, which is connected to DSL modem)
• 6 x USB 2.0 Port, 1 Parallel, 1 Serial
• 1285 Deluxe Black Tower Case
• 450 Watt Power Supply
• $ 99.99 -> Hitachi 500GB Serial ATA HD, 7200/16MB/SATA-3G (Main OS and initial installation on here)
• $ 79.99 -> WD Caviar 500GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G (Media drive in LMCE file structure)
• $ 24.99 -> D-Link DGE-530T 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Network Adapter (for the inside Network)
• $ 48.99 -> EVGA GeForce 7200 GS 256MB (will take up to 512MB) PCIe Video card
• $ 7.50 -> CPU Case Slot Fan (to further cool the video card)
• $102.02 -> Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-150 MCE BNDL MPEG2 w/REMOTE
• $ 45.00 -> TP-Link TL-SG1008D 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch (connected to internal nic in Core, rest of the internal LAN connects here)
• $ 39.99 -> Logitech Cordless Desktop LX310 (keyboard/mouse)
• $ 58.83 -> USB-UIRT
• $ 69.59 -> Gyration Motion Sensing Remote Control (GYR3101US)
• $150.00 -> APC 750VA 450 watts UPS with auto shutdown software/usb port

This is my main Core/Hybrid located in the Basement.

It is connected to a no-name 26" LCD HD TV from Wal-Mart via HDMI at 720p, with a DVI to HDMI cable. I have a Bell ExpressVU 4700 Dish Receiver with SVideo output connected to the PVR-150 input with Left/Right RCA Audio cables. I have an old cheap stereo that you have to control manually that the Core's sound output feeds on AUX input. The USB-UIRT controls the dish receiver with one IR dongle stuck to the front and the IR Blaster seems to have no problems controlling the TV. This computer has a UPS attached to it.

Networking

-> various additional network cabling

• $17.99 -> 2 x 25 FT CAT5e 5e Computer Ethernet Network Internet Cable
• $ 6.99 -> 50 FT CAT5e CAT 5e Computer Ethernet PS3 Internet Cable
• $ 6.99 -> 25 FT 8M CAT 6 Network Patch Cable
• $ 3.99 -> 10 FT CAT5e 5e Computer Ethernet Network Internet Cable

We use Bell HSE for our DSL Internet. That uses an external DSL Modem.

That DSL Modem is connected to a LinkSys WRT54G Firmware Version: v1.02.5 providing wireless access to the house. This is located in our upstairs dining room. A wired network cable runs from one of the 4 wired jacks in the router to the core in the basement.

The core in the basement connects to the upstairs router at 100MB. I added a 1000MB NIC to the core to run the internal network, so a long network cable connects to the 1000MB port and runs into my basement office, where it connects to a gigabyte 8-port unmanaged switch.

From this location (my basement office) I feed all the internal devices:

• my work PC which runs Ubuntu 8.04 and VirtualBox XP, also dual-boots Vista (which I rarely do)
• a work area in my office. Sometimes in use, sometimes not. Right now the retired core is sitting

here doing nothing.

• the via EPIA HTPC in my office, connected to the TV
• the master-bedroom MythBuntu 7.10 Frontend
• the upstairs spare bedroom, where the better half uses her XP notebook
• the living-room MD

I think that leaves me with two empty connections.

I had to run network cables from the dining room to the basement, behind the drywall. Fortunately, I had an electrical box behind the TV to run coax and this gave me the ability to fish more wires behind. Moving the suspended ceiling panels out of the way gave me access.

We have a suspended ceiling in some areas of the basement, in other areas the ceiling is open, and in my office the ceiling is dry-walled. Running wires to the living-room and master-bedroom was easy as everything was open. The spare bedroom was a little harder as the ceiling is drywalled underneath (my office) but I was able to use a long rod with a hook and fish the wire from between rafters from the furnace room and run that to the office.

Running a network cable from the switch in my office to my office TV wasn't too bad either. There's a small section of suspended ceiling that gives us access to the plumbing above, so removing a few panels gave me the ability to fish a wire from the switch to the wall, and from there I had to fish the wire down to the antenna outlet.

With some patience and time the house is wired!

Automation

-> various X10 equipment

• $46.09 RCA X10 ActiveHome PC Interface (CM11A)
• 6 x dimmable lamp modules (LM465)
• 2-way transceriver module (RR501)
• $42.70 -> KR22A, LM15A, AM466, WS12A

In the living-room, I have X10 light controls on a table lamp, floor lamp and china cabinet light. I have a 3-prong appliance controller on an electric fireplace.

I created two lighting scenarios, one for watching TV which turns on the table lamp and fireplace, and one for watching Movies will only have the fireplace and china cabinet light on.

In the master-bedroom, I have a X10 wall light switch rocker switch on my side of the room. I had one on my better half's side but she hated the way the light switch works and I had to remove it. Now that it's summer, and warmer at night, I grabbed one of my extra X10 appliance controls and plugged a small circulating fan into it and placed one of my extra keychain remotes beside the bed. I can hit 3 On/Off to control the fan without leaving the bed!

In the basement, I have X10 light controls on a floor lamp and a small accent light at the bottom of the stairs, and I have two X10 wall light switch rocker switches controlling a ceiling light above the bar and two wall sconces on one wall.

I created one lighting scenario for the basement, which turns on the light above the bar and the wall sconces. This basically puts light to the left and right of me while watching TV.

I have the X10 wireless transceiver in an outlet in the laundry room at the back of the house. It's completely out of the way and nobody notices the antenna. I used a couple socket rocket's to control the front entrance and rear entrance lights. I have one of the key chain remotes attached to my car key chain and now we're able to flip on the lights when we approach the door so we don't have to leave the lights on when we're out.

I put an X10 appliance control in the garage to control the outside lights there. There are two lantern type lights on the front of our garage, and whoever installed them originally attached a 3-prong plug to the end of the wire and used a mechanical timer to turn the lights on and off. I replace the mechanical timer with the X10 appliance module.

Before LinuxMCE I had used heyu to program a schedule into the CM11A controller, which would turn on the garage lights at dawn, and turn them off at 11pm. The schedule would also turn on the basement accent light at the bottom of the stairs 15 minutes before dawn, and turn it off at 1am.

I pulled the batteries out of the unit and left it unplugged and disconnected from the computer for about 16 hours but it didn't erase the memory. Fortunately, I still had my MythBuntu system loaded on the internal drive so I booted off the hard drive and used a heyu erase command which erased the eprom!

So now I just went to the LMCE admin web page and added a timed event to flip on the garage lights at 9pm ET and the basement accent light at the bottom of the stairs at 9pm. I then add an event to shut off the garage lights at 11pm and the basement accent light at 1:30am.

In development

• D-LINK DSM 320 Media Lounge

I have two of these left over from before I started tinkering with HTPC's. Under LMCE 7.10B4 the uPnp server software didn't talk to the Dlink's at all.

Using LMCE 7.10RC2, the newer uPnp server works fine! When I search for network servers, I see the core uPnp and the mythtv uPnp and I can switch between them depending on the content I desire. This is very handy for occasions when one of the computers are down, as you could put the Dlink in there while you're working on equipment.

In my basement office, I have one connected to my TV. It plays pretty good, but it does studder and pause regularly, making it ok for occasional use.

• Another Via MB based MD - $155.00 CDN

This basically replaced the DLink and I'm running MythBuntu 7.10 on the local HD which talks to the LMCE Core. Just like the master bedroom, I mounted my media drive in the core and have access to our media collection and the MythTV portion works fine. I connected one of my now un-used MCE IR dongles and grabbed the extra remote from the basement.

I did manage to load the VIA Unichrome video drivers on this box but the SVideo Output would not work at all in the windows environment, and even with the LCD monitor connected I was unable to view TV or Movies, even with UI1. I'll wait for better via video drivers and try again, but for now, mixing MythBuntu 7.10 and LMCE seems to be great.

Processor VIA C3® Nehemiah 1GHZ Chipset VIA CLE266 North Bridge VT8235M South Bridge System Memory 512MB DDR266 HDD 40 GB VGA Integrated VIA Unichrome™ AGP graphics with MPEG-2 Accelerator Expansion Slots 1 PCI Onboard IDE 2 X UltraDMA 133/100/66 Connector Onboard Floppy 1 x FDD Connector Onboard LAN VIA VT6103 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PHY Onboard Audio VIA VT1616 6 channel AC'97 Codec Onboard TV Out VIA VT1622M TV out Onboard 1394 VIA VT6307S IEEE 1394 Firewire

Back Panel I/O 1 PS2 mouse port 1 PS2 keyboard port 1 Parallel port 1 RJ-45 LAN port 1 Serial port 2 USB 2.0 ports 1 VGA port 1 RCA port (SPDIF or TV out) 1 S-Video port 3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in and mic-in; can be switched to 6 channel output

Front Panel I/O 2 USB 2.0 ports 1 1394 port 2 Audio jacks: line-out and mic-in

Media Director

MEDIA DIRECTOR -- March 2008 -- WORKS!

• $169.99 -> AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ Socket AM2
• AMD Original AM2 CPU Fan
• ECS nVidia GeForce6100-SM-M Motherboard
• 1GB DDR II 667 Memory 240 Pin (Kingston)
• nVidia GeForce 6100 2D/3D Graphic Engine, up to 256MB Memory (disabled in favour on PCIe Video card)
• Realtek ALC660 6-channel HD Audio
• Onboard 10/100 Network Card (connected to Gigabit Ethernet Switch)
• 6 USB 2.0 Port, 1 Parallel, 1 Serial
• 1285 Deluxe Black Tower Case
• 450 Watt Power Supply
• $121.99 -> Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-150 MCE BNDL MPEG2 w/REMOTE
• $ 39.99 -> Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 (keyboard/mouse)
• $ 54.99 -> EVGA GeForce 73000 GT 256MB (will take up to 512MB) PCIe
• $ 7.50 -> CPU Case Slot Fan (to further cool the video card)
• $ 29.99 -> Sony DRU190A 20X DVD Burner, IDE
• $ 58.83 -> USB-UIRT
• $ 69.59 -> Gyration Motion Sensing Remote Control (GYR3101US)
• X10 CM11A controller is on this box. It reaches every light from this location.
• $ 80.00 -> Powerhouse 550T UPS
• $979.46 -> Olevia 242-T11 42" LCD HD TV

This is my living-room MD.

The CPU was in the left cupboard, but when I added the LCD TV in July 08, it now sits behind the TV. There is an IDE 500GB HD in this box that was there when I was running MythBuntu. I've left it there, and I assume LMCE is using the swap space. Since I have 2x500GB in the core, I have chosen not to include the disk space in the mix for now.

It is connected to a Olevia 42" LCD TV via Component cable (red/blue/green) in from the nVidia 7300 TV out. I have a LG Surround System here for audio (Left/Right RCA sound out from MD goes to AV-1 Input). I have a Bell ExpressVU 2700 Dish Receiver connected to the PVR-150 via SVideo and Left/Right RCA sound jacks. The USB-UIRT is controlling the Dish, TV and Stereo. One IR dongle is stuck to the front of the LG Stereo, and it just blasts the IR which reaches the Dish and TV.

Comments and Experiences

Non Working core

Hybrid/Core -- March 2008 -- FAILED TERRIBLY! -- RETIRED

• Some parts have been moved to the new hybrid/core

• $ 34.91 -> Diablo X-Man Silver Gamer Case, Coolmax 400W V2.01 Power Supply
• $360.06 -> EVGA nForce 650i Ultra Socket 775 Motherboard
• EVGA GeForce 8400 GS, 512MB RAM, PCIe w/DVI-TV-OUT
• Samsung 18x DVD RW SH-S183L SATA LS OEM
• Seagate 250GB Serial ATA w/NCQ 7200/8MB/SATA-3G
• Crucial 1024MB PC5400 DDR2 667 MHZ (2 pieces, for 2GB RAM)
• Intel Pentium D 925 3Ghz DT 800FSB Socket 775
• Onboard 1 Gigabyte Network port
• $102.02 -> Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-150 MCE BNDL MPEG2 w/REMOTE (now in core)
• $ 79.99 -> WD Caviar 500GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G (now in core)
• $ 29.99 -> Sony DRU190A 20X DVD Burner EIDE
• $ 39.99 -> Logitech Cordless Desktop LX310 (keyboard/mouse) (now in core)
• $ 48.99 -> Gyration GO 2.4 Air Mouse, Refurbished
• $ 30.99 -> Linksys Etherfast 10/100 5-port Switch

Strangely enough, I let this network boot into a MD and it still produces problems. MythTV wouldn't work and if you left the box alone for a few hours when you came back it would be pretty well frozen. I did try a nVidia 7300GT PCIe video card with fan in this box using UI2 medium and UI2 high. Although it did work better, it would still randomly freeze, so I can't recommend the motherboard in this machine and I am selling it to recoup some of my money.

Other Non Working items

Items that didn't work:

• $ 9.99 -> Trendware 32 Bit 10/100/1000 Copper Gigabit PCI Network Card.

Car PC

• MINI ITX Media Center PC/Car PC FULLY LOADED -- March 2008 -- Ok as a MythTV 7.10 Frontend
• $210.00

This neat little machine was able to boot up into UI1 on 7.10RC2, and when I added the specific video drivers for the via video (which was quite easy actually), I could play back videos (with the occasional freeze, making it not so good) and TV playback had a green screen, picture off kilter, with lines through it. So basically... no good.

So I loaded MythBuntu 7.10 onto the internal drive and it is now talking to the LMCE core.

I did a NFS mount to my second "media" drive in the core, and mapped the video, audio, and pictures directories in mythtv to the LMCE core, and basically, this machine is working as it was before under MythBuntu 8.10, with some very minor exceptions.

For $210, this is actually a pretty decent little HTPC.

I did add a MCE Remote and IR Transceiver. The MCE Remote is one of the programmable remotes so I was able to teach it how to turn on the Hitachi 21" CRT TV and control the TV Volume! The video and sound are connected to the TV via A/V RCA type jacks (red, white, yellow).

This box is used in the master-bedroom.

• • Complete system with power adapter
• Via EPIA-SP 1GHZ with TV output
• 512MB DDR Memory
• 80GB Western Digital Scorpio HD
• LG DVD-ROM Slim
• 2 additional USB 2.0 ports (4 total)
• Dimensions: 12” x 10 ½” x 2”

Motherboard Specs:

• Model Name • VIA EPIA SP13000G
• VIA EPIA SP8000EG
• Processor • VIA C3™/ VIA Eden™ EBGA processor

• Chipset • VIA CN400 North Bridge

• VIA VT8237R-Series South Bridge

• System Memory • 1 DDR266/333/400 DIMM socket

• Up to 1GB memory size

• VGA • Integrated VIA UniChrome™ Pro AGP graphics with MPEG-2 decoder /MPEG-4 Accelerator

• Expansion Slots • 1 PCI

• Onboard IDE • 2 X UltraDMA 133/100 Connector

• Onboard Serial ATA • 2 SATA Connectors

• Onboard LAN • VIA VT6103 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PHY
• Onboard Audio • VIA VT1617A 6channel AC'97 codec
• Onboard TV Out • VIA VT1623M TV Encoder
• Onboard 1394 • VIA VT6307S IEEE 1394 Firewire
• Back Panel I/O • 1 PS2 mouse port
• 1 PS2 keyboard port
• 1 RJ-45 LAN port
• 1 Serial port
• 2 USB 2.0 ports
• 1 VGA port
• 1 PCA port (SPDIF or TV out)
• 1 S-video port
• 3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in and mic-in (Smart 5.1 Support)
• Onboard I/O Connectors • 3 USB connector for 6additional USB 2.0 ports
• 1 1394 connector for 1 1394 port
• 1 Serial port connector for a second com port
• 1 VIP connector
• 1 Front-panel audio connector (Mic-in and Line-out)
• 1 CD audio-in connector
• 1 FIR connector
• 1 CIR connector (Switchable for KB/MS)
• 1 LPT port connector
• 1 Wake-on-LAN connector
• 2 Fan connectors: CPU/Sys FAN
• 1 I2C connector
• 1 LVDS/TTL module connector (Optional)
• 1 +12V power connector
• ATX power connector

• BIOS • Award BIOS

• 4/8Mbit flash memory

• System Monitoring & Management • CPU voltage monitoring

• Wake-on-LAN, Keyboard Power-on, Timer Power-on
• System power management
• AC power failure recover
• Operating Temperature • 0~50°C
• Operating Humidity • 0% ~ 93% (relative humidity; non-condensing)
• Form Factor • Mini-ITX (6 layers)
• 17 cm x 17 cm

Notes

So, that's about $3,000.00 + CDN not including shipping, taxes, import fees, and mail-in rebates, and I did utilize some existing equipment like stereos and tv's.

I purchase a lot of my equipment from:

-tigerdirect, See [3]

-future shop, See [4]

-ebay stores like:

X10 Warehouse, See [5]

LU Computers, See [6]

Mayco Estore, See [7]

BTE Computers, See [8]