Linux HTPC in use

So I've been using Linux in my HTPC for 2 months now. All I can say is, I love it. Some features aren't as pleasant to use as they were in GB-PVR, but overall the experience is nice. New functionality that I really like is having a separate workspace that I can access through VNC.

I ended up using Ubuntu server edition as the base. The main front-end is MMS (My Media System). TV side get's handled with VDR and Xineliboutput-plugin. All and all the system is very stable and solid. There were some issues with the video quality, mainly due to deinterlacing. That issue got solved after 2 weeks of trial and error. Now the video is perfectly smooth and fluid.

Switching to Firefox 3

So, I switched to Firefox 3 RC 1. From the tests I've done it seems stable enough. In fact, it's more stable than Firefox 2 which keeps crashing quite often. There were few add-ons that didn't work right out of the box. Some did have a working development version available, others needed manual tweaking.

1. Open Firefox add-on (.xpi file) in 7-zip (or similar).
2. Select install.rdf file.
3. Press F4 or click File-->Edit
4. Change the value in em:maxVersion to 3.0.
5. Save and Close.
6. Click OK to update the XPI file. Close 7-zip.
7. Double click to install the add-on.
8. Hope that everything works fine.

Obviously this doesn't work for all add-ons since only the maximum Firefox version number is changed. But if there isn't a working version available, it's worth a try.

Hacking Wiimote

Here's a nice presentation from Johnny Lee. You might have seen his previous video about head tracking in YouTube. I really like this type of 3D technique and look forward in trying it myself. I don't have Wii remote but I do have a cheap hacked IR webcam which can be used instead. I think this might be the only 3D technique that could hit big in the games market.

"SVN is the most pointless project ever started"

I just watched this interesting video. Linus Torvalds talks about Git. I've heard about Git before but never used it nor read about it in detail. Git is a version control system like CVS and SVN. Although I guess I shouldn't mention those two in same sentence as Git since Linus hates CVS with a passion. Currently I'm using SVN to handle versions and I've been happy with it so far. But Git did sound interesting so I'll have to try it out.

Git - Fast Version Control System
http://git.or.cz/

Switching to Linux based HTPC

What would I do without my HTPC. I have had a computer hooked to my TV for the past 10 years. At first, I mainly used it as a DVD player. Now it's the only source of video. Last year the analog TV signal stopped here in Finland. Ever since then, the HTPC has been the only way I can watch TV since I don't have a set-top box nor a TV that can receive digital signal. Because I'm really addicted to TV, starting a project like this wasn't something I was looking forward as it meant I couldn't get my daily dosage.

Anyway, last weekend I made the decision to try Linux as a base for HTPC. I'm not that experienced with Linux so there was lot to learn. At the moment I'm using Ubuntu but might switch to Debian later. First thing I did was to install SSH server and Synergy. That way I could use my work system to work with Linux.

I have Hauppauge HRV-1100  DVB-T card and it worked right out of the box in Ubuntu (7.10). My motherboard has Nvidia's SoundStorm in it which I got to work by following these instructions. I tried MythTV at first but quickly moved to VDR. I think it's really the only choice if you are looking for a serious DVR solution. It handles transponders properly which means one can watch and record many channels (from a transponder) at the same time with one card. Setting VDR up can be little tricky but once you get to know with it, it's pretty simple. At first I was using packages from e-tobi by following these directions. But since I had some troubles with few plugins, I now compile everything myself.

All was looking good and things were moving along nicely... until!

After days of tweaking I was getting nice and solid picture. However, there was some still unknown issue that made VDR (vdr-sxfe to be precise) respond slowly when used in TV. In monitor it worked fine. I tried pretty much all different combination of settings to make it work. No luck. I also tried different graphics cards which ended in disaster. Being stupid and careless I didn't shutdown the power supply when I removed one card. I've never had any problems when doing so but this time I had to turn the card in an angle which short circuited few pins and that fried the motherboard.

So, now I'm waiting for a replacement motherboard. In the meanwhile I'm using an old board with Duron 800MHz processor. On a brighter note, this gave me the opportunity to clean the case. It was filled with dust and cat hair.

CatchColor

Here's a nice little app that let's you pick color from the screen. It's very useful when creating web pages. The author also has other nice little apps.

CatchColor
http://www.dr-hoiby.com/CatchColor/index.php

Robot dog

Just found this video from Boing Boing. It's a video showing a quadruped robot with an amazing balancing skill. I've seen this robot before but this new video just blew my mind.

More Info about the robot
http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog

No more Vista!

About month ago I bought a new laptop, Acer 5520. It came with Vista Home Premium and I've been using it until last weekend I finally had enough. All and all the Vista experience was negative. I had lot's of issues with the wireless connection and usually after resuming from hibernation, Vista was not able to find web site addresses anymore (tweaked a lot with DNS settings but there was no fix). The most serious issues had to do with power management. Sometimes the laptop wouldn't shutdown when powering off or hibernating, only choice was to cut the power by force. Putting the laptop to sleep ended in blue screen of death.

There really wasn't any reason I could think of why I should use Vista instead of XP. Only difference (in my needs) is that Vista looks "better". Other than that there isn't anything new, just more heavier OS. So now I'm using XP and everything works like a charm. I am however tempted to try Linux and after I read an interesting article from lifehacker, I might just do that.

Windows XP drivers for Acer 5520
http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/AcerDrivers/Aspire%205520.pdf

Run Windows apps seamlessly inside linux
http://lifehacker.com/367714/run-windows-apps-seamlessly-inside-linux

New Blog is open!

So here it is, new blog. I though I'd open new blog outside cubicreality.com. Every once in a while, I come across with some "interesting" information that might be worth sharing or just archived for my own use. That's the motivation for this blog.

Anyway, I'll still have to tweak these graphics a bit but you'll get an idea on how it will look.