New project for long time Media Portal user (1 Viewer)

Creamfilling

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November 12, 2010
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So a few years ago, I helped a friend research and complete an Ambilight system for his theater. Unfortunately, at that time there was no support for the project via Media Portal (he had to use Media Player Classic) for his lights to work. Due to this, I really never pursued this for my system.

However, now that I see that Media Portal somewhat has support for this (via AtmoWin and AtmoLight), I am going to jump into this and try to do a project for my system.

Unfortunately, I have some confusion on what I can buy that will work and what will not work.

First, let me state what my setup will be

Stand Alone HTPC running Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit and Media Portal 1.11 (maybe 1.12 Pre.. will have to check when I get home). I only use Media Portal for Movies and I store the Blu-Rays in mkv format that I run right from Media Portal with Moving Pictures. (no calling out PowerDVD or anything like that)

So, that being said, here are my questions

1. Should I have any problems with MP + AtmoWin + AtmoLight on Win7 if I am pushing 100-150 Lights? I read on here about Windows 8 being better, but I really really do not want to install that piece of garbage on my HTPC. However, obviously the quality of the movie playback is most important

2. The reason I am not sure of how many lights I will be using is because at the moment I am not sure if I am going to use a String of lights or Strips of lights. Also in the future I may be moving this setup from my 60" tv up to the 80" tv. That being said, here are the lights that I am looking at. (Will all of these work? I question because I know that WS2801 is mentioned a lot and not all of these are WS2801... I am not sure how important that is)

I would buy 2 of these
http://www.ledlightinghut.com/12mm-ws2801-led-pixels-dc5v-input-ip68-50pcs-a-string.html

or 5 Meters of these
http://www.ledlightinghut.com/lpd8806-digital-led-strip.html

or 5 Meters of these
http://www.ledlightinghut.com/ws2801ic-digital-rgb-led-strip.html

Another thing to think about is if I move up to the bigger TV later, I would have to add another meter of LED strip, but I could just spread out the string a bit more without having to buy more. The only thing I do not like about the strings is how much harder it is to mount them compared to the strips.

3. Arduino or Sedu controller - I know he used an Arduino controller, but I read that a Sedu controller is made specifically for this type of project. Any cons to using a Sedu?

I apologize for the newbie questions but the last thing I want to do is to spend $100+ on LEDs only to find out that I bought the wrong thing or that this will not work well on my system as I plan to run it. I also know that a lot of you have gone through the ups and downs of a project and may have some good advice from your own experience.

Thank you very much in advance
 
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Lightning303

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  • September 12, 2009
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    1. Should I have any problems with MP + AtmoWin + AtmoLight on Win7 if I am pushing 100-150 Lights? I read on here about Windows 8 being better, but I really really do not want to install that piece of garbage on my HTPC. However, obviously the quality of the movie playback is most important
    The "Windows 8 is better" part is specific to AtmoWins performance in gathering the screen captures. However with AtmoLight, AtmoWin does not have to do this task, but AtmoLight gets these captures directly from MediaPortal. So there should be no problem. Only when you want to use your Ambilight without MediaPortal, Win8 will give you a huge improvement. Or, of course if you would to decide not to use AtmoLight.
    100-150 leds should also be no problem.


    2. The reason I am not sure of how many lights I will be using is because at the moment I am not sure if I am going to use a String of lights or Strips of lights. Also in the future I may be moving this setup from my 60" tv up to the 80" tv. That being said, here are the lights that I am looking at. (Will all of these work? I question because I know that WS2801 is mentioned a lot and not all of these are WS2801... I am not sure how important that is)

    I would buy 2 of these
    http://www.ledlightinghut.com/12mm-ws2801-led-pixels-dc5v-input-ip68-50pcs-a-string.html

    or 5 Meters of these
    http://www.ledlightinghut.com/lpd8806-digital-led-strip.html

    or 5 Meters of these
    http://www.ledlightinghut.com/ws2801ic-digital-rgb-led-strip.html
    Which leds work, and which wont depends on the controller you want to use. If you want to use an arduino with the FastLED library, then all the standards that are supported by that library will work. https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/wiki/Overview#chipsets
    In this case all the leds you linked would work.
    As a side note, many people are using WS2812B (cheaper) nowadays and not the older WS2801.


    Another thing to think about is if I move up to the bigger TV later, I would have to add another meter of LED strip, but I could just spread out the string a bit more without having to buy more. The only thing I do not like about the strings is how much harder it is to mount them compared to the strips.
    Thats true ;).


    3. Arduino or Sedu controller - I know he used an Arduino controller, but I read that a Sedu controller is made specifically for this type of project. Any cons to using a Sedu?
    The SEDU is pretty much an arduino/atmega chip aswell, it just comes ready to use and in a nice package. In my experience its a bit easier to got it working with the SEDU, however the v2 is limited to WS2801 and the v3 is limited to WS2801 and WS2812B. As mentioned above, the arduino with FastLED supports lots of formats. Its open source and you can add features or change them yourself, if you so desire.
     

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