[clue-tech] Linux MCE

[Michael J. Hammel]

On Tue, 2009-09-15 at 15:53 -0600, Michael Mikelson wrote:
> I have these DVR cards I got off ebay, the 4 for $35 or something like
> that.  Problem is that they claim to come with drivers, but really
> don't.  There's a mini disc allegedly having Windows drivers on it,
> but I'd not gotten them to work, and I'm an MCSE...from 10 ears
> ago....but still.  
> 
> I don't know Linux all that well, as I'm a Project Manager now, not a
> techie.  I got the following info from the seller, claiming that this
> patch against kernel will work.  www.ap-accessgrid.org/linux/ivc.html

We'll, we're way past 2.6.0-test3 so I'd say these patches are already
in current kernels, though I haven't verified that.

The bt878 doesn't do hardware mpeg encoding or decoding so you'll
definitely need some CPU horsepower to record with these boards.

> I don't know how to patch a kernel.  I don't know how to install a
> bttv module.  

bttv is probably already available for your Linux distro.  I don't use
LinuxMCE but since bttv usage is *very* common its very likely to
already be available as a loadable module.

If the module is not already loaded (try "lsmod | grep bttv") after boot
them you may need to configure it to load via /etc/modprobe.conf.

> I'm hoping someone here might be able to help me on this, please?  I
> want to learn, more than anything else.  

Good for you!  That's actually one of the reasons I do Linux.  I always
want to know WHY something works, not just make it work.  Well, not
always.  But mostly.  :-)

> I'm also reading that LinuxMCE won't work in a virtual environment.  I
> have two of those pc's and I want to find a way to make one run
> virtually.  I'm not opposed to dedicating a box to Linux MCE, but if I
> could run VM's on top of LinuxMCE so I could run some other VM's on
> the same boxes, it's be a great use of the hardware, is my thought.
> Just trying to make the most of the boxes, of course!

A quadcore could run LinuxMCE natively (non-vm) and then you could run a
couple of Linux VMs next to it.  You'll run into CPU load issues
(possibly) if trying to record from all 4 inputs at once *AND* running
the VMs because of the need to convert the analog data into some
meaningful video format.  Recording from one input and running a VM at
the same time shouldn't be a major problem, depending on how the VM is
configured.

I run a MythTV client (not the server) on my quad-core at home along
side doing lots of other work, including running VMs.  My MythTV server
is a single core AMD64 with a Hauppauge PVR-150 and a Hauppauge HVR-1600
(dual inputs - one analog, one digital).

I've never tried to run the server or client under a VM, however.

> So, if anyone is interested, this is the project I'll be bringing
> Saturday.  

I can't be there - will be out of town.  But best of luck getting it
running.

-- 
Michael J. Hammel                                    Principal Software Engineer
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org                           http://graphics-muse.org
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