Howto setup a dd-wrt router for IPTV to use your STB and HTPC at the same time!

A few months back I already discussed on a forum the possibility to use a linux based router to be able to use your Amino STB and htpc at the same time. This weekend I finally had some time to play around with dd-wrt, and within a hour or two, I already got it working. The main problem was the DHCP request to the IPTV Network. When using a windows htpc, you must let the STB to the DHCP request, and then spoof the MAC address, and copy the ip of the STB to your windows network configuration. But when […]

I need a new videocard for playing hd recordings on my HTPC

Since a few weeks, I can record tv programs in HD quality (1080i), but unfortunately my htpc isn’t powerfull enough to play these HD recordings. I currently have a nVidia GeForce 7300LE video card. Which is good enough for SD quality video’s but not for HD. So I ordered online the XFX nVidia GeForce GT 220. This card supports VDPAU, which should let me play video’s in HD quality with only 5-10% CPU load. MythTV also has support for VDPAU. The card also has a HDMI output, so I can really watch the recordings in HD quality with 5.1 sound […]

Hmmm. Fiber modem still limited to 100mbit/sec in stead of 1gbit/sec

Just did a small test running 4 HD streams and 1 SD stream on the IPTV vlan of the fiber modem. (total of 60mbit/sec). Then I ran a speedtest on the internet vlan (50mbit/50mbit). The speedtest showed me a downloadspeed of 46.91 mbit/sec and a upload speed of 52.15mbit/sec. So that looks good. But I also saw that the load on the networkcard connected to the iptv vlan dropped from 60mbit/sec to 47.9mbit/sec, and giving me some hickups and block artefacts in the recorded video. I was told that the iptv vlan had a higher priority, but it appears that […]

Recording multiple HD streams from XMS IPTV with mythtv

Yesterday I played a bit more with recording hd streams in mythtv. The last time I tried, I added 7 iptv tuners in mythtv, and start recording SD streams. All went well for the first 5 streams, the 6th recording stayed black in mythtv. When I stopped recording one of the 5 active streams, the 6th recording suddenly started. So my guess is that in the iptv network there must be some kind of limitation of max. 5 iptv streams. A week ago the local fiber company announced that the ftth network in our town is upgraded to the fastest […]

Recording up to 5 IPTV steams on my PC using MythTV

Yes… Mesa Happy (think Jar-Jar from star wars…) I just managed to setup my mythtv media pc with the new iprecorder functionality to record up to *5* streams of iptv receiving from our local fiber optic tv supplier (XMS). Time for a little party 🙂 Since a few months I have a fiber optic connection to my home, the so called Zeewolde op Glasvezel project. The fiber optic is brought all the way into the house and connected to a Genexis modem. This modem seems to have one fiber optic entering the case from the bottom. But this actually consist […]

Google SketchUp is cool and easy!

I’ve played a bit with SketchUp a few years back, right after Google introduced it. I found it was (then) difficult to create a simple house in 3D. Now my company is moving to a new building (which is being built at this moment), it was time to have another look at SketchUp and see if I can make a 3D model of the building, which can be placed in Google Earth.

All my HTPC Hardware has arrived

Finally all my ordered hardware is arrived at home. Salland had some issues delivering the htpc case, so after the tirth time they changed the estimated delivery date, I cancelled the case and ordered it at CSV Direct. They didn’t have the VC7001SNS, but they ship the VC7000SNS including the media lab. This all together makes it almost the same as the VC7001SNS, but without the extra little buttons on the front panel (like play, stop, next, +, – etc..) But I don’t think I would have used them very often, so it’s ok. Now that I have all the […]

Finally, a mobile device with an Esc key for vim

Giga-byte is showing a new device on their website with the status ‘Coming Soon’. This is Linux-based MID (Mobile Internet Device) with a qwerty keyboard, Including an Esc key!! So finally, it’s possible to ssh to a linux box and vim from almost anywhere on the planet (as long as there is  Wifi, GPRS or UMTS/HSDPA). This is really a very neat device. It’s a bit bigger than the average smartphone, but still small enough to be very portable. (15,2 x 8 x 2,25 cm, 340g). It has a intel atom chip running at 800Mhz, 512MByte of memory and a […]

HTPC upgrade needed

I’ve been using Mythtv for about 4 years now. And the motherboard is showing some failures now and then (rebooting in stead of shutdown), the disks are a bit full and playback of hdtv is not smooth.

So time for a new one!

CentOS 5 Installation on remote machine

In the datacentre I have a Fedora 7 machine with IPMI capabilities. But I have to replace it with CentOS 5. Hmm. I don’t really want to burn CentOS to a DVD, drive (aprox. 1 hour) to the data centre to reboot the server, place the CentOS installation DVD, run the installation, and drive back to the office. Because all other administration can be done remote through ssh. So after some searching on the internet, I found a way to do a remote installation. Thnx for the guys which placed their info online! Hampus and Karanbir Singh So how to start? The […]