[clue] clue Digest, Vol 18, Issue 10

Mon Jul 9 12:35:56 MDT 2012

I once had the wild hair to build an HTPC using linux and I assembled an
AMD FM1 with a BDROM to do so.  Getting the hardware to work in linux was
easy except that I was never able to get the open blu-ray codec to work.
For reference: http://www.videolan.org/developers/libbluray.html

If I had the gift of hindsight, I would never have wasted the time building
that system.  I was much better off when I chose to place the media on a
NAS mount, install TVersity on an existing linux desktop that was doing
nothing and stream to an apple TV connected to the TV.  You will end up
with less hardware near your TV and you will spend a lot less time
wondering why xyz program won't play abc media.  I do love working with
linux but typically when I choose to watch TV it's at a time when I want to
spend no mental energy.  My $.02.

On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 12:00 PM, <clue-request at cluedenver.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. Re: HTPC systems? (nick pitlosh)
>    2. Re: HTPC systems? (nick pitlosh)
>    3. Re: HTPC systems? (Michael J. Hammel)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 12:06:30 -0600
> From: nick pitlosh <nickpitlosh at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [clue] HTPC systems?
> To: "CLUE's mailing list" <clue at cluedenver.org>
> Message-ID:
>         <CA+wiCrhW7kv3CKqjmKPvuip67zcmH=
> wkkoq4dh5q5sRE8ge4Nw at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Look up pxe, ltsp, VMware unity, use myth. Storage is the most important
> aspect of this and there are quite a few people that misunderstand load and
> io operation wait time. Get small ssds and raid them together to resolve
> that. Using a ram disk for buffer is also an excellent idea.
>
> Back that up with large disks on a nice multichannel Sata card and use port
> multipliers until the Sata channels are completely saturated. On Sata 3,
> you can expect each channel to need 5 to ten spindle disks to saturate the
> link. Transfer on ssds is exceptional but expensive, expect a newer ssd to
> be around 3 times faster in throughput, but 2 to 3 orders of magnitude
> faster in terms of random io. Ram is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude faster than
> that.
>
> That's my 2 cents and I wish you patience and clarity. Don't be a fanboy.
>
> Nick
>
> On Sunday, July 8, 2012, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
>
> > Thanks for all the feedback guys. Now I have some food for thought.
> >
> > As for gaming - what sort of hardware do others use for a game
> controller?
> >
> > What about TV style remotes?
> >
> > Are game controllers and TV remotes hard to set up with Linux?
> >
> > Another hardware question: do remote keyboards tend to play well with
> > Linux these days?
> >
> >
> > As for how I intended to play video files - locally or not - I was
> > hoping to find a machine that was as quiet as possible for HTPC, so
> > probably it would be playing them over network, either by mounting
> > Samba, NFS (or sshfs?) or streaming via DLNA.
> > _______________________________________________
> > clue mailing list: clue at cluedenver.org <javascript:;>
> > For information, account preferences, or to unsubscribe see:
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> ------------------------------
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> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 12:54:06 -0600
> From: nick pitlosh <nickpitlosh at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [clue] HTPC systems?
> To: "CLUE's mailing list" <clue at cluedenver.org>
> Message-ID:
>         <
> CA+wiCrjfwmCRUMWH5V63h4iW3kbgmCQR1QHDQ7KnzshpYds7DQ at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> One other thing, Linux hardware compatibility is really good. But crazy
> drivers and goofy software bundles are never a good idea on any system.
>
> What is in a 300mb audio driver or a 90mb webcam app? Mind control, that's
> what.
>
> On Sunday, July 8, 2012, nick pitlosh wrote:
>
> > Look up pxe, ltsp, VMware unity, use myth. Storage is the most important
> > aspect of this and there are quite a few people that misunderstand load
> and
> > io operation wait time. Get small ssds and raid them together to resolve
> > that. Using a ram disk for buffer is also an excellent idea.
> >
> > Back that up with large disks on a nice multichannel Sata card and use
> > port multipliers until the Sata channels are completely saturated. On
> Sata
> > 3, you can expect each channel to need 5 to ten spindle disks to saturate
> > the link. Transfer on ssds is exceptional but expensive, expect a newer
> ssd
> > to be around 3 times faster in throughput, but 2 to 3 orders of magnitude
> > faster in terms of random io. Ram is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude faster
> than
> > that.
> >
> > That's my 2 cents and I wish you patience and clarity. Don't be a fanboy.
> >
> > Nick
> >
> > On Sunday, July 8, 2012, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> >
> >> Thanks for all the feedback guys. Now I have some food for thought.
> >>
> >> As for gaming - what sort of hardware do others use for a game
> controller?
> >>
> >> What about TV style remotes?
> >>
> >> Are game controllers and TV remotes hard to set up with Linux?
> >>
> >> Another hardware question: do remote keyboards tend to play well with
> >> Linux these days?
> >>
> >>
> >> As for how I intended to play video files - locally or not - I was
> >> hoping to find a machine that was as quiet as possible for HTPC, so
> >> probably it would be playing them over network, either by mounting
> >> Samba, NFS (or sshfs?) or streaming via DLNA.
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> clue mailing list: clue at cluedenver.org
> >> For information, account preferences, or to unsubscribe see:
> >> http://cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue
> >>
> >
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> ------------------------------
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> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2012 18:03:15 -0600
> From: "Michael J. Hammel" <mjhammel at graphics-muse.org>
> Subject: Re: [clue] HTPC systems?
> To: clue at cluedenver.org
> Message-ID: <1341792195.31713.10.camel at galileo.gfxmuse.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> On Sun, 2012-07-08 at 11:04 -0600, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> > What about TV style remotes?
>
> It's much easier to control you HTPC with Linux running X using synergy.
> Synergy lets you use your laptop (or other mobile device running X) to
> control your HTPC across the network.  I just drag my mouse over to the
> HTPC and use my laptop keyboard to control the HTPC.  Maybe not as
> clever as a remote, but much easier for me since I always have my laptop
> while I sit in front of the TV.
>
> > Another hardware question: do remote keyboards tend to play well with
> > Linux these days?
>
> Synergy, yes.  Wireless RF, mostly.  I've had a little trouble with
> them.
>
> The only drawback to using Synergy is that if you launch Firefox and
> open a full screen Flash video session you have to leave the mouse on
> the remote system.  If you move it back to your laptop then the
> fullscreen reverts to its original size.  'Tis a lousy unconfigurable
> setting of Flash, methinks.  Hulu and XBMC do not have this issue.
>
> > As for how I intended to play video files - locally or not - I was
> > hoping to find a machine that was as quiet as possible for HTPC, so
> > probably it would be playing them over network, either by mounting
> > Samba, NFS (or sshfs?) or streaming via DLNA.
>
> NFS works fine with XBMC over 802.11g at my house.  I have occasional
> network drop outs - maybe when someone nearby is sparking up the
> microwave or similar.  In these cases it isn't NFS that's the problem,
> it's the wireless.
>
> As for quiet, try a BeagleBoard or PandaBoard.  No fans.  Quiet as a
> mouse.  But not necessarily as easy to install Linux or keep it up to
> date.  BeagleBoard has an Ubuntu release, but I don't use it.  Both can
> be powered by a wall-wart (re-no fans).
>
> But for dirt cheap hardware, you have to go AMD and a desktop
> motherboard, which means a power supply and fans.  So there is bound to
> be some noise.  How much depends a bit on how much you're willing to
> spend for higher end power supplies and CPU/Chassis fans.  In my case,
> the machine is a tower sitting behind a big flat screen that is, itself,
> in a big cubby-hole over the fireplace (which is never used).  So the
> sound of the computer is always drowned out by the audio from the TV and
> stereo.  Except in the rare occasion when a drive or fan starts to die
> and begins to squeal.
>
> --
> Michael J. Hammel
> mjhammel at graphics-muse.org / http://www.graphics-muse.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> End of clue Digest, Vol 18, Issue 10
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