Newy's Blog » New toys

mythtv and vdpau is truely amazing

james — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:45:24 +0000

Finally have the new nano itx motherboard running. Ubuntu Jaunty with the latest nvidia .run installer. Playing a 720p hd source from our qam source. Right now cpu usage for mythfrontend is only about 19 -20%. system load is right around .44. Amazing that an atom based motherboard could handle playback like this. I am going to try windows 7 media center and xbox media center on it and see how those perform also. So far I am sold. I may invest in another one of these.

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 28
model name      : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 230   @ 1.60GHz
stepping        : 2
cpu MHz         : 1600.139
cache size      : 512 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 1
apicid          : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov p                             at clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arc                             h_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm la                             hf_lm
bogomips        : 3200.27
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 32 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 28
model name      : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 230   @ 1.60GHz
stepping        : 2
cpu MHz         : 1600.139
cache size      : 512 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 1
apicid          : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov p                             at clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arc                             h_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm la                             hf_lm
bogomips        : 3200.01
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 32 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

Ordered new motherboard

james — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:50:45 +0000

I finally ordered the rest of the parts to put together a very small and power efficient pc. I plan to eventually put it in the living room as a mythfrontend. It should work out great once mythtv 0.22 is released. I have been running a test backend for a few months and it seems to be doing just great.

Next part will be a hauppauge hd-pvr.

For now I will be using the M350 for a case. The ZOTAC IONITX-C-U Intel Atom N230 Mini ITX ION for the motherboard. Some memory that I had from another system and the a 8 gig usb thumb drive for the operating system. I will probably just end up pxe booting it from my masterbackend eventually.

Hardware was delievered and is working great

james — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:14:00 +0000

When I got home with Emma on Friday we went down to get the garbage containers and mail. As we were getting ready to head up to the house after getting the mail, the UPS driver was honking coming down the street. He had two boxes for us. Some clothes for Emma that Jen had ordered and the case and power supply I had ordered. That night after Emma went to bed I hooked up the picopsu to the mythfrontend in our bedroom. I was a little bit worried about the ratings on the power supply and what the box required to run. Sure enough it powered up and the only sound we hear now is the cpu fan and a case fan. I do not know if I will replace those eventually or just let them be. My plan it so get a nano itx motherboard that is atom based and put that in the new case I just got Friday. Eventually I want to have very small, power efficient frontends. Two of those for frontends and I should be set. The only other item I would like to get later this year would be a HD-PVR so we can record hd stuff off our our cable box. I would love to record shows from the history channel and also discovery channel. Eventually we should be getting SyFy in hd also. The HD-PVR would allow me to use firewire to change channels on our cable box and then grab that signal via component outputs from the cable box.

A few new pc items

james — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:31:14 +0000

I have been thinking and eying a few new pc parts for a long time. I would really like to build two new frontends that are much more power efficient. I am hoping I will see a huge difference in my monthly power bill. Over the weekend I purchased a few parts in my long list of items I want to get eventually. First was a new power supply. Since the new floors have been put in, the myth frontend that is in the bedroom seems very noisy. Normally I would just replace the problem part. Well in this case, I decided to try a new power supply instead of trying to replace a fan in the special power supply in the case. I have always wanted picoPSU. Well I will have one later this week. This power supply is pretty amazing. Very efficient and very small. I hope it does everything I need it to. From what I can tell, this power supply should work perfectly for any of my energy efficient amd based frontend motherboard and cpu’s. If it does not, then I will just have to move forward with the last part of my list. The second item I got is a new M350 Mini-ITX case. This case is very small. So small, I got screws so you can mount it to the back of a flat panel display. The last item ( I have not purchased) yet is an atom based motherboard. Right now I am looking at a ZOTAC IONITX-C-U Intel Atom N230 Mini ITX ION. That should be just plenty. I had looked at the dual core version, but from what I have read, it is not needed when using vdpau.

Eye-fi card is very nice

james — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:57:33 +0000

I did end up getting a 2 gig Eye-fi card. Was very easy to get setup on my laptop. You do have to have a windows pc at this time, in order to configure it and getting it uploading. I have seen a few programs for linux but have not messed with them yet. The only problem I have is if I take a bunch of pictures it takes awhile for them to get uploaded and synced. The xsi pictures are 3 to 5 meg normally. That adds up fast and our network connection is only 512k. I have it setup right now to put it on our picasa site. I am still playing around with private or public for the albums. So far the card has been great. I need to get one more new access point. We just replaced our old wrt-54g with an asus 520gu. The new access point has much better signal. I think I am going to either get another one like that or a N based access point and remove the old dell truemobile ones also. The only other thing that will probably come in handy is a spare battery for the xsi. I think that battery is going to drain a lot faster now with this method of uploading. I set the timeout to 15 minutes instead of 2 minutes. If you know of a place that has great prices for the xsi battery please let me know.

Thinking about getting an eye-fi card

james — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:40:30 +0000

After reading how Alex King liked the card. I am thinking about getting one for our Canon xsi. I had looked at them a long time ago and thought it was kind of expensive for what it did. But now that I have a daughter and do not seem to get time to upload any of the pictures anymore. I am thinking this is a great option. I would love it if it operates as I expect. Take the picture and a few minutes later it is up on our gallery already, and also downloaded to a pc at our house. The media card has never left the camera. Just have to get another battery for the camera as I assume it will eat up a little more battery with this card. If there were software for linux that would be awesome. There may be an easy way for me to get the images down to my ubuntu server automatically but I would not know as you can’t really do anything demo or testing wise until you have the card. If you could see the options before you buy a card that would be awesome. I was thinking about waiting until the 4 gig cards are available but I may just go ahead and get a 2 gig card so I can start using it. It will be nice to not have to remove the card and upload. We can then think about getting digital picture frames or a screen saver for the grand parents so they can see the new images immediately when they are updated.

New cell phone service

james — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:01:48 +0000

Well everything worked out at the sprint store yesterday. I have the new Touch Pro. After sitting and waiting for a bit and then starting the activation process. I find that someone else was using my ssn in the sprint system. After talking to fraud prevention they corrected a typo on the other account and I was able to get the new phone activated and I was out the door. The phone is pretty nice. Still learning about it. It gets a bit warm when using it. Still a bit worried about battery on it but time will tell. I have already had problems with the new account. Notice I was some lady when I called from my cell phone. That tells me it was a reused number. Well I got a call this morning for that lady. Not good. Called sprint and find out it is a reused number. I have a new number now and they tell me it has never been used before. I will find out if that is true. Hopefully not calls for other people anytime soon. Now to clean up my contacts. About 175, can get that number down I am sure. Already tried calling Jen my brother and parents by saying call persons name and it calls, that is pretty cool. Now to figure out the battery usage and if it will be enough and if I want to get a bluetooth microphone. I am happy with it so far.

Looking at getting new cell service

james — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:51:58 +0000

I am currently using a company provided phone. Due to my job changing I am probably going to be giving this phone back and just getting my own cell phone. At the same time my very old pda died over a year ago so I am looking at windows mobile phones. They are not cheap, well some are not bad and others are very expensive. You know me. I realy like my toys. After rebates and what not I think the phone I am going for is really not a bad deal. That is if it does what it says it can do. I am hoping in the next week to get the new HTC Touch Pro. I am almost positive I will be going with sprint service. The phone could be bought from Best Buy right now for about oh $780. If that was the only option I am sure I would be happy with the $99 Motorola Q 9c offered by sprint right now. It sounds like they are phasing the 9c out though. So the Touch Pro is very new, at least to sprint. You can order through Telesales right now. Problem is I would have to pay shipping and activation to go that route. It sounds like stores and the online store should have the phone on or around Nov. 2nd. I may just wait to order that way. I have to find out if there are going to be new rebates or anything. Right now there the phone should go for $599. There is a $200 instant rebate if you sign up for a dataplan service (was going to go with the simply everything plan as I should not get any extra charges using that plan) and also another $100 mailin rebate if you keep service on the phone for over 30 days. That puts the phone at $299 after all rebates are applied. There is currently a $50 invoice credit if you purchase the phone online. Not a bad deal when you see what this phone can do. I just have to see what rebates will be around and when and where the phone will be available and when and try to get the best deal. Hopefully I will have a new phone in another week.

Update: I may have a phone later today. After calling sprint (they call it TeleSales) the person today said the phones will be available sunday morning, call back then. He was very helpful. Strange thing is the girl I talked to from Telesales yesterday said I could order yesterday. Oh well, pretty sure I do not want to go that route anyway. Called the local sprint store and have setup an appointment for lunch today. They said they have phones in stock and she took my name so she is holding one for me. $399 after instant rebates, another $100 rebate. Said she will work on getting activation taken care of (said she could not wave activation but could take the activation cost out of the phone price) I will also ask about the other $50 credit I can get if I buy online. So after my lunch break today I may have a new phone.

New GPS

james — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:38:43 +0000

Last week I ordered a new gps. Thanks to Fedex Home I did not get it until late on saturday. Can you tell I hate fedex home. They come about noon everyday during the week. Don’t deliver because they need signiture. Then saturday they don’t come till about 2:30pm. Remember to always use ups. At least you can go pick up the package once you see they left a tag. fedex home does not allow you to do that until the 3rd attempt. Thankfully they started trying to deliver on thursday.

Anyway, I ended up getting the Mio C230 from amazon for $139 shipped. This unit is easily unlocked. I bought a 2 gig sd card and loaded up the files from that site and everything was unlocked. To easy. I now have many more poi and a few more things like speed cam locations and what not. Now to look into what it will cost to get upadated maps on the unit and also a mount for the car. Very slick unit and just the little bit of playing around that we have done. This unit looks like it will be perfect for what we need.

How to upgrade a netgear FS728TS

james — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:08:54 +0000

I just got a netgear FS728TS from ebay and it had what looked to be the original boot code and firmware on it. You can get firmware from netgears site. The only problem is it mentions something called Smart Wizard. Since my switch was a refurb I did not get the cd that has the Netgear Smart Wizard program on it. Well after googling a bit I found a few sites. One wanted to charge you a few bucks via paypal. I almost did that but then found the smartwizard20505.zip file on another site and it was a direct link to the netgear ftp server. That was the winner. I downloaded all of the firmware files short of the beta one. Unzipped and read the files. I installed the windows program from netgear. It found the router and I started the upgrade process. I upgraded one firmware version at a time. After the inital upgrade took it said to upgrade the boot code so I did that before I applied the next two versions of firmware. Not sure if I had to go through the process I did but I did not want to toast this switch. It is upgraded now and working great.