So, I'm going to lose my job in the future. I don't know exactly when, but I've already met the people who will be taking over for me. Suffice it to say, I'm not super happy about that. It's been a rough ride, and this morning was particularly difficult, right from getting out of bed.
I didn't go to the gym, which probably would have been a good idea. I didn't talk to my wife either, which would have been a good idea also. I finally spoke as we were eating "breakfast". She gave me a little pep talk, and we made some egregious jokes about getting calls and hoping for jobs and I felt better. I just wanted to take some time to write down how I felt, and let anyone who actually follows my life on this blog know that my wife loves and supports me, even when I don't have my attitude adjusted correctly.
Thanks Holly, I love you!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Media Center with Windows 7 and Xbox 360 extenders
I've settled on using Windows 7 Media Center with Xbox 360 machines as extenders for our TV/Movie platform at home. We're using basic cable (which makes our Internet from Comcast cheaper) and over-the-air broadcast programming. I have a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz machine in an Antec Minuet 350 case with 1 GB of RAM, a 750 GB hard drive and an ViXS PureTV-U TV Tuner which apparently was a great deal that I picked up from a local computer store, because of it's low profile bracket and low price ($30).
I should get another tuner, but it's working reasonably well now, and I really shouldn't mess with it. I am using the wireless adapters for Xbox 360, but the signal just isn't reliable enough, so I ran a wire out the window, down the side of the house, and down to the system in the living room, and it improved the Media Center extender experience considerably. Looks like I'm going to have to wire the house up. Wireless-G just isn't going to cut it. My kids are pretty sensitive to the movie or show stopping or stuttering.
I have two Hauppauge HVR-1250 tuners that are PCIe, work in Linux, and have low profile brackets, but they acted funny (meaning they weren't detected) in Windows when I used them in the PCIe slots on my BIOSTAR P4M900-M4 motherboard. I'm a little sore over that, especially since I got a motherboard to work with my old Athlon 3000+ socket 939 board that had two PCIe slots. Oh well, the Myth TV linux box may yet live. I always need a "development environment" to use, and not mess with the stuff that works.
I'm currently not using the "production" box with a TV at all, and letting the extenders do all the display work. Ideally, I'd just buy more extenders when I need a TV somewhere else, that's cheaper than a PC with enough oomph to do HDTV and stuff, and the box does a great job of storing movies ripped from DVD, and recording TV. I suppose finding a low-profile PCIe video card and hooking up a monitor wouldn't be a bad idea.
As far as ripping movies goes. AnyDVD seems to be the only real solution that works for decrypting on "everything". Handbrake does a reasonably great job of smashing movies into h.264 encoded files to be served up. I really wish there were something on Linux that could compare for decrypting and ripping, but I guess if I'm going to pay for the software, I should expect the operating system to cost me something too. I'm content to run Windows on my main box for games, and I can just do the ripping and encoding there too, and them move them to the Media Center box over the network. The Media Center box does have an eSATA port though... very nice. I guess getting that Antec Minuet 350 wasn't such a bad move after all.
So, that leaves me with a few Athlon XP machines, and an Athlon 64 machine, with Geforce 4 MX video cards, and not too many storage devices. I think that will have to be the Myth TV project that I'll work on in my spare time. I can't imagine it working any better than what I've got with Windows 7, other than being a bit more flexible, I guess, and "Free". "Working" is better than free though.
I should get another tuner, but it's working reasonably well now, and I really shouldn't mess with it. I am using the wireless adapters for Xbox 360, but the signal just isn't reliable enough, so I ran a wire out the window, down the side of the house, and down to the system in the living room, and it improved the Media Center extender experience considerably. Looks like I'm going to have to wire the house up. Wireless-G just isn't going to cut it. My kids are pretty sensitive to the movie or show stopping or stuttering.
I have two Hauppauge HVR-1250 tuners that are PCIe, work in Linux, and have low profile brackets, but they acted funny (meaning they weren't detected) in Windows when I used them in the PCIe slots on my BIOSTAR P4M900-M4 motherboard. I'm a little sore over that, especially since I got a motherboard to work with my old Athlon 3000+ socket 939 board that had two PCIe slots. Oh well, the Myth TV linux box may yet live. I always need a "development environment" to use, and not mess with the stuff that works.
I'm currently not using the "production" box with a TV at all, and letting the extenders do all the display work. Ideally, I'd just buy more extenders when I need a TV somewhere else, that's cheaper than a PC with enough oomph to do HDTV and stuff, and the box does a great job of storing movies ripped from DVD, and recording TV. I suppose finding a low-profile PCIe video card and hooking up a monitor wouldn't be a bad idea.
As far as ripping movies goes. AnyDVD seems to be the only real solution that works for decrypting on "everything". Handbrake does a reasonably great job of smashing movies into h.264 encoded files to be served up. I really wish there were something on Linux that could compare for decrypting and ripping, but I guess if I'm going to pay for the software, I should expect the operating system to cost me something too. I'm content to run Windows on my main box for games, and I can just do the ripping and encoding there too, and them move them to the Media Center box over the network. The Media Center box does have an eSATA port though... very nice. I guess getting that Antec Minuet 350 wasn't such a bad move after all.
So, that leaves me with a few Athlon XP machines, and an Athlon 64 machine, with Geforce 4 MX video cards, and not too many storage devices. I think that will have to be the Myth TV project that I'll work on in my spare time. I can't imagine it working any better than what I've got with Windows 7, other than being a bit more flexible, I guess, and "Free". "Working" is better than free though.
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