Yet another reason why I love Linux

[ZetaVu]

And continue to be saddened that SS is not doing anything to interact with it. I just built a new desktop system, new Gigabyte mobo, processor, memory, video card. I rearranged my drives of various computers and picked up two new ones. I had to of course install xp from scratch on the new system, not too bad, about 6 hours to get all my programs installed and tweaked the way I wanted it.

I also had ubuntu on one of the drives I moved over from my old computer, setup for onboard video, Foxconn MB, older socket, memory etc. I was starting to think about reinstalling ubuntu as soon as 9.04 came out and I figured, what the hell, lets just boot to that drive.

Booted up in about 30 seconds. About as fast as the xp install that took 6 hours of work. Fully loaded and functional, I couldn't feakin believe it. Tonight for kicks I'm going to try and boot into the Windows 7 partition I had on that drive, just to see what happens. People, there is a right way and a shitty way to do things, and this is definitely the right way to make an OS work. Pull a hard drive from one computer, put it on another, everything works.

I don't care what anyone says, that just has to be the future.

[ZetaVu]

Well, tried windows 7 on my new computer (the one I installed on my old computer), it spent about 3 minutes downloading and installing necessary driver, had to reboot but it's up and functional. I assume this is because its still a beta, unless I had the corporate version I'd never be able to do this (at least not without reregistering it). Quite impressive nonetheless. With xp I'd either have to repair the install or start from scratch.

[DIYGuy]

Amen to that!

I've programmed mainly under *NIX environments my entire career and am utterly convinced nothing beats them for dependability, performance, etc. At home, Linux is on three of our five active computers, and that would increase by one if BTV were ported. This trend started when a Vista upgrade killed our laptop - Linux does a great job of not rendering "old" hardware obsolete.

Another joy was reading through Linux forums while the Conficker hysteria was in full swing. A favorite statement went something like this - "the only reason to install A/V software on Linux is if it being used as a mail server for Windows clients".

[blaze818]

wow thats great, i was thinking about putting ubuntu on one of my older laptops that struggles with XP, especially Boxee. i guess i just need to now!

[ZetaVu]

Actually on a side note, both my linux machines are on ubuntu 8.1, one using Ubuntu Studio the other just ubuntu but tweaked with what I like about Studio. The Ubuntu Studio build also has mthtv loaded on it but I haven't played with it yet. I was hoping to try and figure out a way to have it behave like link, or replace vlc in placeshifting. I'm holding off on another try at link on wine until 9.04 comes out (assuming all the buigs are sorted out with the new ext4 file system)

I've also tried the Sage placeshifter on windows and ubunu. I was finally able to get it working on windows, but quality was poor. Playing files on network were no better than accessing the files on my server as a network drive (choppy, wavy edges) and if I set the intelligent stream then big files got very pixelated. Though ubuntu I could not get placeshifter to connect, tried two machines. I might be able to get it to connect, but so far it does not look like a promising substitute for link (or their client, which is not available for linux either).

And of course SS has not responded let alone addressed the issue with using vlc in placeshifter. I can play most recordings (even h.264) using btv placeshifter and vlc in ubuntu (or windows) but two networks have no audio as a result of either streamsnip or something changed in 4.9. In 4.8 recordings these channels are fine, but 4.8 doesn't have placeshifting.

I would normally be optimistic that SS would fix this, but so far the only response I've gotten is Kilrsat telling me this couldn't happen, then utter silence when I proved it was happening and uploaded the test files that showed that.

Sigh, Easter morning and already I'm bitching.

[rugby]

I replaced the motherboard and CPU in my Vista HTPC. Guess what? Nothing worked after wards. I use BTV for TV, My Movies for DVD library, and Arcsoft TMT for Blu-Ray. I got nothing but BDA errors when I put the new motherboard & CPU in. I literally had to reinstall Vista and all software and reconfigure everything from scratch.

I friggin' hate Windows.

[ZetaVu]

I was amazed that I could do it with WIndows 7 beta, again, took several minutes and a reboot for it to take care of itself, I'm curious if this is just a feaure of the beta or whether it makes it into the commercial app. A lot of Windows 7 is still useless fludd in my opinion but this is definitely a step forward.

[RiderFan]

The part of Linux I like the best was the 3+ hours I spent trying to upgrade flash on my daughters EEEPC, so thet her games on her browser would work. I finally solved the problem by nlite(ing) Windows XP on it. Now her Linux PC has never worked so well.

[ZetaVu]

Well, I've had plenty of those. Video playback still doesn't use all the available hardware acceleration. Network drives can be a task sometimes. And I had to create a full cheatsheet to do what would be painfully simple things in windows. That's why I'm on XP now and working my way toward linux. Every year the ubuntu installs get simpler and functions get closer to what can be done in xp. Every year I get more experienced, eventually we'll meet up and I'll be able to make a build that does everything I want regardless of where I put it. Then it will be a serious threat and eventually take over the desktop. Until then...

[crush157]

Well, to bring this old topic back to life, I am now Windows free for 4 months. Sorry to let Snapstream go, but MythTV has been so rock solid for recording and I don't need to bother with Bill's Legacy OS.

FWIW, I don't use the MythTV screen for the 10 foot interface. Every 10ft is an XBMC install. Mostly on XBOX 1's. But since XBMC runs on linux (as well as window$s) it is awesome. I have Music, TV recordings, DVD, Pictures and many other scripts available as well. Consolidated server recording and management and then distribution to any TV. Life is easy.

[merrypig]

Does mythtv/xbmc support captions out of curiosity?

[Darkk]

Originally Posted by merrypig

Does mythtv/xbmc support captions out of curiosity?

Yes I am too curious about that. Especially for HD-Homerun Stuff.

[crush157]

I don't know if xbmc supports them or not. I know mythtv does support them. You could look at xbmc.org for the info.