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PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:58 am 
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1.5TB storage
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Update.

Its been about a month so far of "try something, break the system, re-install." I'm down to a stable build as of the last two weeks.

What I have working:
    Mythtv with a hauppauge HD-PVR, channel changing over firewire connected to my set top box (QIP-7100) w/ verizon fios. The 6200ch script for Linux that everyone talks about was my only solution to this. One hour of 1080i programming with dolby surround takes around 3.8 gb of a 2 terabyte drive.
    MythWeb - where i can program my recordings over the internet.
    Network connection to the Windows Home server works fine over a gigabbit connection.
    XBMC with full (true) surround sound (AC3 passthrough) and simulated surround sound with AAC sources (so I copy the l/r channels to all 6 channels of the home theater). Menu sounds and movie audio all work flawlessly together.
    A logitech harmony one programmed to a MCE remote mostly works (see below) in both MythTV and XBMC

Surprises along the way:
    had to remove pulseaudio from the ubuntu build. There was no other way I could get everything working. Not a big deal - but when you work in Alsa - you need to work in the terminal to make your sound configurations. There is no other way.
    Had a kernal update come through last week and it broke the drivers for the hauppage hd-pvr and the alsa sound configuration. Again - no big deal - since I knew how to fix those two items from the mistakes I made along the way.
    The HTPC was running very hot - getting over 100 degrees C at times (causing an emergency shutdown). The processor max temp reached was probably 80 degrees c. Two processes were running that caused the CPU to load up to 100% in one or two cores. First was some process that runs - by default - in ubuntu. It was either the user migration, SSO, SSH, or remote desktop. The second process that was taxing the CPU was the mythcommflag process (which detects commercials in your programs and tries to flag them to be removed from the recording). Killing these two processes brought my temps back down to around 50 degrees C for the CPU (and low load on the core i7-950.
    I also modified my home theater furniture to remove the back panel from behind the HTPC to allow for some better air flow to keep things cool.
    The stock CPU cooler from intel is noisy when run at maximum. I can barely hear it now - but I can still hear it. I may be shopping for a low profile quiet cooler.

Whats still in progress:
    Getting the remote to work fully in mythtv and xbmc. MythTV relies on lirc to properly map the usb events that occur from the remote to program functions. XBMC does too - to some extent. The play, pause, stop , skip, and reverse buttons all work in XBMC but not in mythtv. I found out that the remote I programmed and the USB IR dongle I'm using has two events mapped two it. Event4 - which all works in mythtv - has the numbers (0-9, *, channel up, channel down). Event5 has the play, pause, stop, etc commands. I need to find a way to configure lirc to send these two events to MythTV while maintaining the same functionality in XBMC.

Its been no easy task getting to this point. I've learned alot about linux along the way. some of the surprises are concerning to say the least. When going open source - your at the whim of some programmers who don't always use the best coding practices. Having any CPU run up to 100% load is unacceptable. Have a core i7-950 do this is unthinkable. That thing has alot of horsepower to be taxed like this.
Having to re-build drivers when kernal updates come through is also concerning. I accept this though - as what I've built and put together isn't something you can go to a store and buy - so support for all the little pieces (Hauppage HD-PVR, Sound over HDMI on a GEForce GT 430 fermi) is a price I'm going to have to pay. Ubuntu's not meant to be a platform for self-built DVR's or HTPCs - but it does work with some tweaking.


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