[clue] clue Digest, Vol 18, Issue 10

Mon Jul 9 12:51:59 MDT 2012

Please refrain from responding to the digest.

On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 12:35 PM, Paul B <witchbutter at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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:
>>
>>    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:
>> > http://cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue
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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>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>
>> 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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>> ------------------------------
>>
>> 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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Bumper Sticker: Jesus loves you... but everyone else thinks you are an
>> asshole.
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
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>> End of clue Digest, Vol 18, Issue 10
>> ************************************
>
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