Failure is the Key to Success

When I first built the system, I had a problem with an annoying blue line above the picture during playback.

I searched for the problem and found a command to change the colour of the line to black, xvattr -a XV_COLORKEY -v 0

I added this to one of the mythtv startup files, but during one of the updates it got replaced. So we have been living with this annoying blue line for longer than we should have. I have been asked a few times to fix it and haven’t got around to it, oops sorry Jo.

Anyway, using the suggestion here http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/NVidiaProprietaryDriver, I have added it to the X11 configuration and now the problem has gone away again.

Tags:Mythtv

Mum was away over Christmas, so I recorded a couple of programs for her.

This then provided the next challenge with Mythtv, how to get a recording onto a DVD in a playable format. Mythtv has an archive utility, so here’s what I did.

On the main menu, select Optical Discs, Archive files. The first time I selected Create Archive – this isn’t the option I wanted, what this does is copy the recording to DVD, rather than create a playable DVD. Anyway, select Create DVD and then choose the type of media, I used DVD+/-RW and selected to burn to DVD and force overwrite DVD-RW.

Next you select the theme for the DVD menus, I used the first one, G.A.N.T. Animated.

Continue reading » Mythtv – Saving recordings to DVD

Tags:Mythtv

My DVD recorder that I have had for about 3 and a half years has been causing us a few problems when recording Freeview channels. We were getting breakthrough on the audio from the cable connection on the other Scart socket. This would get very distracting when watching a recording as there was this quiet, audible echo of another soundtrack.

A few months ago we picked up a usb TV tuner at Costco and that got me thinking about a PC based solution for the problem. About 9 years ago when we first attached a PC to our HiFi system, it was a very low specification and although we had a TV tuner card, the PC wasn’t powerful enough to record anything usable. As time went on, the PC has been replaced a few times and about 5 years ago we installed a piece of software called Meedio that we used to manage/play our video and audio files. There was also Meedio TV to record from TV, but we never explored it as the PC was still fairly low spec. At the time we chose Meedio, I had been aware of a Linux based program called Mythtv, but due to the fact that the PC was low spec and I was more familiar with Windows, this was discounted.

Roll forward to this year and I explored the options again. This time Mythtv sounded worth investigating, so I downloaded a copy of Mythbuntu, this is a Ubuntu Linux operating system bundled with Mythtv. I am currently using Ubuntu on a PC providing filtered internet access for the kids, so was more familiar with this than any other distribution. Using a 120GB disc in the old Dell desktop we replaced 18 months ago, I installed Mythbuntu and started trying it out. In the past few years Linux installations have become a breeze. My first installation was Slackware 2 back in 1995, and that was a command line experience that was challenging. Now, you just put the CD in and get lead through the install just like a Windows operating system installation. Anyway, after less than 30 minutes, I had the operating system installed, Mythtbuntu configured with my usb TV tuner and the first TV programs recording. I set the program guide to pick up from the cable guide and that gave me a few days available programming.

Continue reading » Replacing my DVD recorder

Tags:Mythbuntu,Mythtv

I was looking on the VirginMedia website to find the cost of adding Caller ID to my telephone line and noticed that the prices they were quoting for 10MB broadband were £12.50, half the price I was paying.

So I rang them up and renegotiated my package. I have upgraded my broadband to a 20MB connection, removed the sports channels, added Caller ID and am still £15 a month better off.

I had to enter into a new 12 month contract with VirginMedia, that’s not a problem, I’ve been with them (and NTL before them) for over 10 years. The moral of this story is not to assume that you are on the best deal available, ring up and let them work out the best package for you.

I thought I’d check out my connection. The image above is my 10MB connection just after I got off the phone. It took overnight for the Caller ID to be added and a day and a half for the broadband and TV changes. Below is my new 20MB connection.

Quite a way off of the doubling I was expecting, but maybe Saturday’s a bad day to test.

Tags:broadband,virginmedia

If you’re not an IT person supporting printers using HP Web JetAdmin software, tune out now.

What, you’re still reading. I am surprised!

OK, here is some background. HP Web JetAdmin is software that monitors network attached printers and provides alerts when certain conditions are met. For example, if the toner is low or there is a paper jam, it can alert you, allowing you to be proactive with support. It means that you can purchase toners when alerted rather than holding a large stock or being caught on the hop when all the colour printers are out and no-one has mentioned it until 5 minutes before a critical print job.

Anyway, we had been using this software for some years at work without any problems. You would just get the alert email with a summary of the issue and a link allowing you to open the admin interface in a web browser. Recently, we had some major network changes which resulted in the IP addresses being changed for all our network devices (including computers and printers). After the changes, and rediscovering the new printers (some of their details changed as well), the Web JetAdmin software continued to work as before. Unfortunately, this also included the link to open the admin interface. It was still using the old IP address which was no longer valid.

After ‘googling’ for the solution without luck, I tried several approaches, some of which got me into a bit of a mess with the database. In the end I got the software re-installed, only to find it was still hooked into the old database and the old information.

Continue reading » Changing the IP address of a HP Web JetAdmin installation

Tags:changing ip address,web jetadmin

Over Christmas, the main hard disc on our 5.5 year old Dell mini tower failed, causing us to replace the computer with a new one. We could have replaced the disc, but we had had other components in it fail in the past year, so its time was up. We didn’t really loose any data, as the majority was already stored on our server and backed up regularly. What was more of a problem was the assortment of programs that had been installed and configured over the years. The thought of having to re-install and reconfigure these wasn’t something I was looking forward to, especially if I had to change the operating system to Windows Vista, from Windows XP. Some of the programs would need upgrading to run on Vista and the cost would be prohibitive.

Dell do a range of computers for Small Business, called Vostro which are very well specified and which also offered the option to ‘downgrade’ from Vista to XP for £10. This seemed a very good solution to me. We specified a Vostro 220 mini tower system with a dual output graphics card to match the functionality we already had. This also became the point at which we changed from a pair of 17″ CRT monitors to a pair of 19″ widescreen TFT monitors. The thought was to re-arrange our desk to minimise the items on it. To accomplish this we bought a Belkin OmniView Pro2 KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch which would allow us to run both the new computer and Jo’s laptop sharing one of the screens and the other screen only attached to the new system.

When the system arrived, I was in for a surprise with the dual outputs on the graphics card. I was expecting a pair of DVI (white digital connector on the left) outputs. I should have checked the specifications of the ATI Radeon HD 3650 card that Dell provided more carefully. It had one DVI output (which I promptly had to convert back to VGA to attach to the KVM switch) and a Display Port and HDMI output. I had to get a HDMI to DVI cable to attach the second monitor.
Continue reading » Enabling RAID 1 on a Dell Vostro 220

Tags:intel matrix storage console,raid,raid 1,vostro 220