why are the requirements so high?!?! (2 Viewers)

[Anonymous]

I agree

Huh? Then, who i am?

greets

 

[jdiffend]

Re: specs and comments

Xenon

The digital picture frames sound cool. Just remember that once they optimize MP it still might work even if they don't officially support that slow of a system. I'd like to see the pics... post a link to the web page when it's ready.

I wish I had grabbed my friends old laptop when he threw it out (he hit it and crashed the hard drive). It might have made a good digital picture frame system. Sadly, I wasn't there when he tossed it. I guess I'll have to look around for an old laptop to make a digital medea frame for the kitchen.
BTW, it sounds like you have the same eMachines laptop he replaced the dead one with. Very nice.

I share an 802.11G network with a couple other people and we have files spread out over 6 machines (and counting). One person is a music and photo buff, one is into movies and I do a little of all of the above.

We (or should I say I since I'm doing all the work) just started setting up MP machines for each of us with all our files shared. We should eventually be able to record at least 6 TV shows at once. Any one of us can watch each others recorded TV, access our combined CD collections as MP3s and our combined DVD collections as Xvid movies. It's neat but we'll need a faster network once they get the hang of the system.

I wish someone would introduce a PreN wireless router with Gigabit ethernet and built in media server support with external USB drives. I can find each feature on a different wireless router but not all on one.

 

[xenon2000]

I agree

Huh? Then, who i am?

greets

I = Xenon2000

 

[xenon2000]

Re: specs and comments

Xenon

The digital picture frames sound cool. Just remember that once they optimize MP it still might work even if they don't officially support that slow of a system. I'd like to see the pics... post a link to the web page when it's ready.

I wish I had grabbed my friends old laptop when he threw it out (he hit it and crashed the hard drive). It might have made a good digital picture frame system. Sadly, I wasn't there when he tossed it. I guess I'll have to look around for an old laptop to make a digital medea frame for the kitchen.
BTW, it sounds like you have the same eMachines laptop he replaced the dead one with. Very nice.

I share an 802.11G network with a couple other people and we have files spread out over 6 machines (and counting). One person is a music and photo buff, one is into movies and I do a little of all of the above.

We (or should I say I since I'm doing all the work) just started setting up MP machines for each of us with all our files shared. We should eventually be able to record at least 6 TV shows at once. Any one of us can watch each others recorded TV, access our combined CD collections as MP3s and our combined DVD collections as Xvid movies. It's neat but we'll need a faster network once they get the hang of the system.

I wish someone would introduce a PreN wireless router with Gigabit ethernet and built in media server support with external USB drives. I can find each feature on a different wireless router but not all on one.

I will definately post a link and image. I will post a link to the image here shortly. And will work on completely the page too.

The eMachines laptop is awesome. Way better $999 than anything else I have seen. Too bad eMachines no longer has a $999 priced laptop anymore... or at least last time I checked.

I will definately watch the progress of MP, as I will continue to use it on my PVR TV setup. And will try a future version on the frame again too.

The digital frame has been great to have. We hang a lot of pictures in our house. Probably since I am married and have our first kid now. So I thought it would be fun to have a changing art frame. Too an old laptop and found that it ran fast enough to do way more than pictures and so the project began. I think it's an awesome use of an old laptop, and it's dead quiet too.

Would be nice to see some complete PreN product like you talk about. Though probably some time before something that complete comes out.

Though at least a PreN wireless router with GigaBit switch should come out soon. That would be the obvious seller for them. Though hopefully more thought is put into low cost hardware media servers in the near future.

 

[tfurr0ws]

MP rocks, but is much slower than commercial counterparts

MP is a very nice open-source project... very cool, very active development, lots of functionality and the promise of lots more.

That said, I must agree that it is SLOW compared to commercial options I've used. Whether you have a 500mhz or 1ghz computer doesn't matter... neither one is an excuse for an application to use excessive resources.

"I have $1000, so I'm going to spend $999!"
"I have $1000, but I'm going to spend as little as possible and use the rest for other things!"

Which mentality is better? MHZ=$ ? Ok, maybe not exactly, but I think you see the point.... the more resources NOT used by the core of MP, the more resources available for plugins, additions, other apps, etc!

Does MP have a paypal "Donate" option setup? Might help the contributors to work on optimization if they had some funds to motivate...

RE: "geez, mow some lawns and buy some better hardware!"... lol good to know that flippant, useless OT comments are allowed, they are rather amusing. Does anyone in here REALLY mow lawns for cash? Wouldn't it be easier to bum some $$ off mom?

 

[xenon2000]

Re: MP rocks, but is much slower than commercial counterpart

MP is a very nice open-source project... very cool, very active development, lots of functionality and the promise of lots more.

... neither one is an excuse for an application to use excessive resources.

.... the more resources NOT used by the core of MP, the more resources available for plugins, additions, other apps, etc!

Does MP have a paypal "Donate" option setup? Might help the contributors to work on optimization if they had some funds to motivate...

Good comment, I thought that I had also made the point clear that I would rather MP not take 30% idle CPU usage on an AMD Athlon 2000, so that other apps can run better at the same time. I am probably beating the point to a pulp now, but it's kinda sad that people think that being cheap is the only reason to use old hardware. Personally, I wish they still produced new 500Mhz hardware to use just for Media serving, etc. Since they could probably make the hardware for dirt cheap. Then I could justify a digital frame in everyroom.

Anyways, I only posted my long thread about my hardware and the cost of each to make the point that I spend money on the amount of power I need for each thing I do. It would be a waste for me to spend $1000 on a new laptop to just serve up images, music, and videos with wireless networking. It's obviously overkill for such simple tasks.

I must again end my post with thanks to the people who work on MP and for those who actively discuss it's future and current hurdles. It's an amazing opensource project and I love it. After about 1 year now, it's come a long ways and I look forward to still using it and seeing it's progress. The merging between PC, Media, and the common TV (CRT, Plasma, projection, and LCD) is only going to become more and more popular and affordable in the next 5 years. And MP has great potential because of this.

Thanks for the active discussion.

 

[samedney]

Xenon2000...

You didnt include the $60 per copy of Meedio!

Unlike MediaPortal, you actually have to pay the developers of Meedio - so your hardware cost saving isnt really as big as it first seems.

It seems like you have at least 4 systems currently, and possibly the additional frames you mentioned earlier - each requiring a $60 license?

Thats not cheap.

 

[xenon2000]

Xenon2000...

Unlike MediaPortal, you actually have to pay the developers of Meedio - so your hardware cost saving isnt really as big as it first seems.

It seems like you have at least 4 systems currently, and possibly the additional frames you mentioned earlier - each requiring a $60 license?

Thats not cheap.

Sorry, you are right, I missed that in my quote, just like I didn't mention the $200 cost for Windows XP Pro. Because we were all talking about the cost of hardware. And if you want to talk about savings. The savings of paying $60 cost per frame is huge compared to how much I would have to pay to buy hardware fast enough for FREE MP. I would then have to dump about $250-500 more per frame to even get MP to run fast enough.

You also must not have read all my posts, because I did mention that MP is great for opensource, but that it doesn't run as fast as Meedio that cost money and that is probably why they optimize it to run on more people's hardware.

But think about it. I either spend $60 for Meedio and run it on my plenty fast enough 500mhz digital frame(s) that cost me about $500 (in hardware) to build.

Or I get to use MP for free and it cost me $1000+ to buy a new laptop to rip apart to only use it for images, music and videos.

The cost savings are huge with buying Meedio for this specific application. Which is why I use MP on my fast PVR desktop box and why I use Meedio on my 500mhz digital frame. Because those are the logical solutions for each of my 2 very different applications of hardware.

But thanks for supporting the notion that Meedio runs the way it does because it cost money. If MP needs to have a payware version in order to improve it's resource requirements, then I am all for that. Maybe there should be MP Free for fast hardware and MP Pay for people that want a faster version of it. I would certainly pay $60 for an MP that was twice as fast, or should I say; required half the 1.4Ghz current requirements for non-PVR functions.

I will state again, it's cheaper for me to spend $60 on Meedio for 500mhz hardware for each frame, than it is for me to spend $250-500+ more for faster enough hardware to use MP Free.

Same with the windows XP Pro cost; if I really wanted to save more money, I would use Linux for free with MythTV for free.

And if (just saying if) Linux and MythTV for free required really fast hardware, then again I would save money with XP and Meedio.

 

[samedney]

I was just making a point about the savings really.

I dont really support the idea that what you pay is what you get. I think Meedio is behind MP in a few ways (if the demo version is anything to go by).

I also think though, that commercial priorities command development avenues in the non open-source world. Keeping the minimum spec down keeps the market open. You have to be realistic though. If they spend 6 months performance tuning, will the hardware they were striving to support still be commercially viable?

That said, the better the performance... generally the better the application!! I also have no doubt that MP will continue to improve much more consistantly than Meedio.

BTW. Is it possible to extend a laptops display ribbon cable? It would be nice to have a "frame" mounted on a wall, with the laptop hidden away in a cupboard. I always wanted Harry Potter style paintings...

 

[xenon2000]

I was just making a point about the savings really.

I dont really support the idea that what you pay is what you get. I think Meedio is behind MP in a few ways (if the demo version is anything to go by).

I also think though, that commercial priorities command development avenues in the non open-source world. Keeping the minimum spec down keeps the market open. You have to be realistic though. If they spend 6 months performance tuning, will the hardware they were striving to support still be commercially viable?

That said, the better the performance... generally the better the application!! I also have no doubt that MP will continue to improve much more consistantly than Meedio.

BTW. Is it possible to extend a laptops display ribbon cable? It would be nice to have a "frame" mounted on a wall, with the laptop hidden away in a cupboard. I always wanted Harry Potter style paintings...

http://lxsilver.com/other/frame/Digital_frame_v2.jpg

Here is a link to 2 pictures of my current frame. The entire laptop is inside that frame and is only about 1.75" deep from Screen surface to the back. About 2" deep from Frame face to back. Very thin.

I never said that Meedio was better than MP. I too agree that MP is ahead of the payware competion. All of them. Which is why I use it on my regular HTPC. But I have said this and will say it again. MP is takes a lot of power that is too much for my specific frame project. And that is too bad, because MP is better and has way more options and control. On top of being opensource. Unfortunately, it was more cost effective for me to use $60 Meedio on my frame instead of paying $250+ for different laptop hardware. I am sure one day as faster laptops become used and drop in price, that I will have a much faster frame that can afford beefier background or frondend applications like MP.

And I think that for my senario, my savings point is more valid. For my 3 main functions of music, images, and videos (no TV), it was cheaper to buy faster software with less features, than to buy faster hardware.

And I have already said (so you might want to read all my posts), that MP is moving in the right direction since HD content and HD displays are only going to get cheaper and more popular in the next 5 years. Which was first said by another poster and I replied in agreement to that comment. And also, I never asked that MP programmers should waste time on Supporting old hardware. But that they should figure out when in the process is a good time to think about optimazation. I would rather have a 4 ghz computer running MP with an idle CPU usage of 5% than the same 4ghz PC running an unoptimized (but still just as fast) MP with an idle CPU usage of 10-20%. Since right now it seems to take about 30%+ on 2ghz.

And I never said that Meedio was better than MP or that Meedio was progressing more or faster than MP. It is not. It just happens to be a Payware Media application that runs fast at 500mhz and gives me the simple music, slideshow, and video features I wanted on the frame.

And that is what sparked my interest to post and ask if there was any plans as MP progressed, to look at the optimazation of the code. And this will be at least the 3rd time that I agree that MP is moving in the right direction and is an awesome opensource project and I will continue to support it and use it on my HTPC.

Really, I wish people would read all my posts. I have repeated myself several times. I guess it's hard to do with a thread this long.

And I have also never suggested anything that was unrealistic.

As for the laptop ribbon cable, on the Compaq M700 Armada that I am using, it is bundled into a round shielded cable instead of a ribbon. It was like that from the factory. And that allowed me to flip the screen all the way around to make the frame.