[mythtv-users] Sony VAIO Media Changer...... GOOD News!!

[Will .]

>Will . wrote:
>
>>you can take discs out of the changer and it will remember what the movie 
>>name is etc. You get a section in the video browser for viewing your 
>>discs, I have a folder for the changer where you get the same view as if 
>>they were video files.
>
>Perfect.  This is exactly what I would want.  I am assuming I can just play 
>them from this menu as well.

Yes, when you select a video (where it points to a changer disc) the screen 
greys out and changer will load the appropriate disc and play it.

>
>>I have asked about adding support for the changer on mythdev but I've 
>>never had a reply. I really needed to get a dialog going before 
>>considering whether to ticket and submit the code. I've linked in code 
>>from MythVideo and MythCD into MythDVD to make it all work which is part 
>>of the reason I need the chat. I've not seem many people ask about support 
>>under Myth so maybe thats part of the reason why. Perhaps more people will 
>>be intersted in the future, it seems like a useful feature to me, 
>>especially for a media center.
>
>I am pretty excited about this product personally.  I would love to have 
>most/all of my DVDs available all the time.
>
>I would hope a dialog could be started in the devel list and gain interest 
>in this.  If myth will support it I will definitely buy one.
>
>I do have some questions.
>
>1) How does this work with a seperate frontend/backend solution?  I am 
>hoping it would be on my backend machine so the DVDs would somehow be 
>available to all frontends.  Is this the case?  I assume only one frontend 
>could access it at a time though.

I did give this some thought, it can all be done but I was really waiting on 
someone in myth-dev corresponding which never happened. At the moment 
without thinking about the 'best' approach I was thinking of doing all the 
changing using mtd (slightly inappropriate), this would mean that mtd would 
perform the correct locking on the device to make sure it wouldnt cause 
problems if 2 or more people wanted to share it. I even thought about having 
the same disc in 2 changers if it was required because it was a favourite or 
something. If a changer with multiple drives was available it would require 
a smarter locking system, although I think most people would opt for buying 
several vaio changers rather than 1 old fashioned multi drive changer off 
ebay or something.

At the moment the most appropriate method of locking for the vaio is 
probably going to have one operation occouring at any one time (essentially 
one frontend at a time). It might be nice if a disc was playing if you could 
still import/export though.

>
>2) Will this changer read dual or single layer disks that you write 
>yourself?

Yes, this changer has a dual layer writer so I would certainly hope so. I've 
not personally added any support for myth-archive, although I dont see why 
this wouldnt be possible.

>
>3) Are your patches available?

I was hopping to get the patches submitted and maintained as part of myth so 
it can all be looked after and finished off nicely. Part of the problem at 
the moment is that I've done everything in 0.19 as 0.20 wasnt available when 
I started and it requires additional sql tables and setup amongst other 
things. Some of the patching I've done also pertain's to unrelated things as 
well (and may require specific mythtv settings to work properly) and it may 
be a little difficult to seperate things out easily. The problem I have in 
distributing the patch is that it may essentially be difficult to do easily 
and require quite alot of explanation and trouble shooting (I dont remember 
everything I've done on my myth box). This is why I just wanted to do it 
once so it was available for everyone in a more standard form than having to 
try and take on all the patches I've done for my local myth. I run my box as 
a dedicated hardware box with overscan for tv out etc. as ideally I want my 
htpc to integrate as seamlessly as a dvd player etc. So I've tried to remove 
anything that gives it away as a PC as so far as I can.

Perhaps if a few people comment that they want this it will eventually gain 
some mommentum with the myth developers and I can submit it under a ticket 
at some point. At the moment I'm a little reluctant to try to distribute 
them individually as my time is very limmited and I dont have a central 
place to co-ordinate it all either. Although not yet a popular linux / myth 
item, it would seem to have generated a fair ammount of interest as an 
accesory for MCE especially for OEMs.

I'll wait to see what happens and try to do something appropriate. If I had 
more time I'd just create a sf.net project or something and dump it all 
there, anyway hopefully it can be submitted properly to the MythTv project 
as I think that's the propper way to go.

>
>Michael
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Hotmail is evolving – check out the new Windows Live Mail 
http://ideas.live.com