LinuxMCE - Wow!

123

123

Senior Member
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Screenshots

If you haven't heard of LinuxMCE, it is well worth your time to become acquainted with this open-source effort to tie together home-theatre, home automation, alarm systems, and telephone voicemail.

LinuxMCE's new promotional video demonstrates an impressive degree of integration and sophistication for a V1.0 product. I especially enjoyed the last few minutes showing how, by pressing the RF remote's "follow-me" button, media streamed to one station switches to whatever room you enter. It was followed by a demonstration of how it integrates with an alarm panel; warning messages are flashed on all stations when security is breached.

Even if you have no desire to try LinuxMCE, it is worth familiarizing yourself with its capabilities; it can serve to inspire you to emulate its features using your own HA equipment.

PS Wasn't sure where to post this message ... it encompasses Cocoontech's three major forums: Home Automation, Home Security, and Home Theatre.
 
123 said:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Screenshots

If you haven't heard of LinuxMCE, it is well worth your time to become acquainted with this open-source effort to tie together home-theatre, home automation, alarm systems, and telephone voicemail.

LinuxMCE's new promotional video demonstrates an impressive degree of integration and sophistication for a V1.0 product. I especially enjoyed the last few minutes showing how, by pressing the RF remote's "follow-me" button, media streamed to one station switches to whatever room you enter. It was followed by a demonstration of how it integrates with an alarm panel; warning messages are flashed on all stations when security is breached.

Even if you have no desire to try LinuxMCE, it is worth familiarizing yourself with its capabilities; it can serve to inspire you to emulate its features using your own HA equipment.

PS Wasn't sure where to post this message ... it encompasses Cocoontech's three major forums: Home Automation, Home Security, and Home Theatre.
Click to expand...


I thought it was very cool as well. The flexibility is very convenient. I am wondering if it can be integrated into the UPB protocol?
 
Anything can be done really. It's based on MythTV, and while it really is an awesome application, it is not ready to replace MCE, unless you can buy it as 1 solution so they can guarantee there won't be any hardware problems.
 
Dan (electron) said:
. . . It's based on MythTV . . .
Click to expand...
It is also based on PlutoHome, kind of a software graft of the two. UPB should be supported.

However, the initial release was a big disappointment. Most people, including myself, could not get it to install. The general consensus was "not-ready".

There is a few threads about it on the AVS forum.
 
rocco said:
Dan (electron) said:
. . . It's based on MythTV . . .
Click to expand...
It is also based on PlutoHome, kind of a software graft of the two. UPB should be supported.

However, the initial release was a big disappointment. Most people, including myself, could not get it to install. The general consensus was "not-ready".

There is a few threads about it on the AVS forum.
Click to expand...

Wow. Boy, it would be nice when this works! Is this a homeseer killer? :)
 
rocco said:
Dan (electron) said:
. . . It's based on MythTV . . .
Click to expand...
It is also based on PlutoHome, kind of a software graft of the two. UPB should be supported.

However, the initial release was a big disappointment. Most people, including myself, could not get it to install. The general consensus was "not-ready".

There is a few threads about it on the AVS forum.
Click to expand...

If there is direct ELK support (like PowerHome), this is the ideal solution that should be more stable (since it's Linux). I'm very interested on playing with this in the lab.

-=*Sharby*=-
 
I'm using it now to watch some TV (Broadcast HDTV) and watching a movie on a second display. It all works. The first release was not ready (Even Microsoft has that problem) but the sexond one now called 0704 to match the Ubuntu that it runs on, is pretty stable. Installation takes around an hour with the DVD and 2 or so with the 3 CD install (one is Ubuntu and the onter two are the program). The time to set up the rest of your stuff depends on what and how much you have. I don't know if UPB is supported. Insteon isn't yet but Zwave and RadioRa are I believe.

As for hardware support, its limited to that which is supported under Linux plus a few. However if you look at Windows home server there are similar constraints relating to Windows Server 2003, and not a lot of hardware is supported with that either.

The forums will give you an insight into what is supported. Or you can but the main system from these guys ready to use: Fiire.com or just the cool gyro remote ($150) that comes with a copy of the program.
 
I was quite excited to read about this product and even more interested after watching the video. I am leaning towards giving it a try. Is there anyone on this board who is using this product? Does anyone know what the specs are for a thin client? I searched the wiki pretty good and couldn't find the answer.

Also to answer Sharby's question, the wiki says it does not yet support ELK. It does however support DSC and Caddx.

TIA,

Rod
 
rrockoff said:
...
Does anyone know what the specs are for a thin client?
...
Click to expand...

I was also intrigued by the demo video's description of a 1" thick, low-power, thin client. The Fiire Station comes in three different form factors ranging from $499 to $899 for the 1" thick unit (http://fiire.com/fiire-station.php). The LinuxMCE forums have a thread about the Fiire Station's internals (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=2063.msg9463#msg9463).
 
It doesn't take much to build a tiny 'player' appliance. I believe you can even run the MythTV client from CD, not requiring a HD at all (so you could use a CF card as well to make it fast and quiet).
 
This is driving me nuts. I'm down for a few months with a knee replacement and was looking around, beforehand, for a project to work on. I recently switched one box to linux to mess around with.

I looked at tons of potential projects, one of which was linuxmce, and skipped over it. Now for the life of me I can't remember why. LOL

Opted for mythbuntu instead, but man.......why the heck did I pass on linuxMCE?

I can see it now.... spending tons of time to find out why and not working on the project I chose...... :blink:
 
took a look at them about a year ago when i first came across the video.

1. it's free. can't beat that.
2. support is tough. via their forum and the majority of key players on there are belligerent and egotistical to the point where you just don't bother asking after awhile. any serious question and they all gang up and flame you to hell.
3. zwave - originally plutohome but a total rewrite now by a guy named Hari. he is probably the most friendly out of the devs and has gotten the protocol down well.
4. lot of bitterness by the devs. the project has been ripped apart a couple of times, first by Fiire and now a second time by the guy who did plutohome initially. he ported it into micasaverde. needless to say the hardcore devs were not happy at all about this. they had to redo portions of the trunk.

if you can get it running from the initial install then you are good to go. if not then it can be a real headache. pay attention to the suggested hardware.
 
That was prob it then....... MAJOR HEADACHE. Started it this morning and said to heck with that. Going back to messing with MYTHTV....which is really what it is anyway. Only thing I liked about MCE was the automation. I'll get that squared away myself.
 
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