Molten Networks

When you get everything working well, espresso can reward you!

Quinn requested some pics, so here we go! May not want to view if you have a heart condition, hangnail, or other serious medical condition. Keep pets and small children away. (This is so scary, it broke the blog!)

Display:

Outside:

Inside:

Close-up:

This is from the MythTV mailing list. If you’ve ripped a DVD as “perfect”, and want to remove audio tracks, except for English, here is the procedure:

Step 1. Dump the Audio: mplayer name.vob -dumpaudio -dumpfile audio.ac3 -benchmark -vo null -aid 128

Step 2. Dump the Video: mplayer -ao null name.vob -dumpvideo -dumpfile name.mp2 -benchmark

Step 3. Combine the two: mplex -f8 -o newname.vob /path_to/name.mp2 /path_to/audio.ac3

Many thanks to those on the list who fixed this problem! Thread can be found here.

Espresso? On a tech blog? (exactly what do you think the geek subspecies uses for fuel?)

I have had several espresso machines through the years, including a Braun and a Mr. Coffee. Recently, I have acquired an ECM Giotto.

I had no idea what an espresso machine really was until now.

If you’re looking for a machine, surf over to CoffeeGeek. Lots of reviews, good information.

Boiler / Heat Exchanger machines are a huge step up from the steam-pressure driven machines. The endless volume of steam makes milk frothing a snap. A good grinder is a must, and I would recommend a knockbox to go with a machine like this.

Supposedly a plumb-in kit exists for the Giotto, but I haven’t been very far down that road. At this point, filling the reservoir is my only gripe with this machine. The Engadget guys did a number on their Giotto!

The bean plays an important part in all this, as well. This is the trial-and-error portion of espresso. If you’re not getting the results you want from your espresso machine, try some different beans, or grind them differently.

I get my syrups and stuff from Barista Pro Shop. Great service, fast delivery.

Off in search of the perfect crema! (A bit of discussion is here, here, here, and here)

Looking like it’s going to be a VIA EPIA, likely the CN13000G or SP13000.

Well, maybe not. Looking on MiniMyth, there is talk about an A8N-VM/Athlon64 3200+, and that’s cheaper than the EPIA. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

The CN uses the new CN700 video chipset, but there is an uncomfortable level of talk about unsupported features, namely MPEG2 decoding. The SP uses the CN400, lots of support talk with OpenChrome.

Add a half gig of RAM, a 250 GB HD and we’re just about in business.

A good howto on this configuration is here.

This MythTV installation will be a bit different. This will be a frontend-only machine, connected to the existing backend. Also, it will be connected to a TV through a JVC Receiver S-Video and S/PDIF.

The foundation is an AsusA7V8X-X. Processor is an AMD Athlon 1Ghz, 512 MB RAM, an AGP8 ATI 128 MB video card, exact model I don’t remember. Storage is 2 250GB HD. The only display is a 17″ LCD. The card has S-Video out, but this has not been tested. TV hardware is a Hauppauge PVR150MCE. Sound comes through the onboard sound and a 5.1 PC speaker system.

Operating system is Debian. I did a net install, then ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to get the latest packages, just in case.

“apt-get install” and “apt-get search” are your friends. With this, install mysql, lirc, ivtv, and MythTV.

Lirc was my first big issue - the package didn’t have the MCE_USB module, so I had to grab the source and build it. Testing with irw helps you know if it’s working, at least from an IR perspective. You’ll need to work on the keypress profiles so the remote will actually do something.

Next issue was sound - arts was just killing the processor. Installed ALSA, fixed that issue, but no 5.1. Lots of rebuilding and mixer tweaking later, it’s going. The speaker-test utility is a big help troubleshooting this sort of issue, it can send a test tone to each speaker in sequence.

At this point, Myth is up and running, Interface works, remote works. Installed packages for DVD support, along with MythDVD. DVD playing works, but ripping doesn’t. Several rounds with MTD later, it would at least attempt to rip. I was trying to do ISO rips, but learned from the Myth mailing list that any read errors will cause those to fail. Perfect has worked perfectly.

This caused me to add the second 250GB HD - the first one filled up with Rips.

To-do list, no particular order:

• Test S-Video Out
• Upgrade to Myth .20
• Frontend machine for living room
• Frontend machine for bedroom
• Frontend machine for hobby room
• RAID NAS

I’m Al.

A little introduction is in order, I’m a data/voice network geek, primarily with Cisco products. I’ve also managed my fair share of Windows machines, touched a Solaris box a few times, and spend my free time on Linux (Debian) and MythTV.

Some links:

Allen’s Blog: http://allenspruill.spaces.live.com/
Tech Recipes: http://www.tech-recipes.com
Cisco Systems: http://www.cisco.com
Debian: http://www.debian.org
MythTV: http://www.mythtv.org
The University of Alabama: http://www.ua.edu
UA Business: http://www.cba.ua.edu