Linuxmce Hacks and Tips

Thanks to chriss all LinuxMCE users can retrieve metadata now not from Amazon only but from IMDB as well. There are two patches: 1 and 2 in the Track which add additional button to the web admin interface and needed logic to get and store info. To communicate with IMDB it uses IMDB PHP library.

In my mind IMDB is more suitable place to get movies or TV shows info then Amazon. Also it gives more reliable rating.

As you may know LinuxMCE offers a cool Screen Saver for the media directors. It takes pictures from Flickr and show them on the screen with amusing effects. But for me (ad I suppose many of you) it’d be much netter to display my own photos instead of of shots of Flickr folks. Thanks to LinuxMCE community there is a way to do that. Just follow by instructions from the wiki article “Use my own pictures in the Screen Saver”. It needs a bit manual work. But as results you’ll able to admire your favourite photos.

If you’re not satisfy with fonts of subtitles you can install new ones and tell Xine use them instead of defaults. Basically, embedded into LinuxMCE Xine lookups fonts in the directory /opt/libxine/share/xine/libxine1/fonts. Put new fonts there and edit Xine config file /etc/pluto/xine.conf as follows:
subtitles.separate.font:<name of the installed font>
As example, you can use that:
subtitles.separate.font:sans
Additionally, you can specify your own encoding:
subtitles.separate.src_encoding:iso-8859-1
Just replace iso-8859-1 by desired value.

To activate a function ‘Follow-Me’ to transfer media from one room to another usually is used mobile phone via Bluetooth or geek remote FiireChief. But you can avail oneself of that feature without those equipment. Start playing some movie in the room where you’re now. Then go to media floorplan page and click by letter ‘F’. It should change its color to red. After that on the Orbiter choose desired room where you’re going to move. Note, that room should have a configured media director (MD)! The media will be transferred to that room immediately. So, when you rich it you continue watch your favorite show.

To play encrypted DVD you may use libdvdcss which offers accessing to the DVD content without having to bother about the decryption. Check if that library is already installed:

dpkg -l libdvdcss

If not just install it using apt-get

apt-get install libdvdcss

LinuxMCE allows to archive your DVD collection to the hard drive. It stores DVD as ISO but with extension .dvd. Just insert DVD and start play it. After that activate on-screen remote control by pressing any button on your psychical remote control. Press button ‘Copy DVD’. Or another way is go to ‘Manage Media’ and chose option ‘Rip’.

Moreover, LinuxMCE includes an utility to retrieve information about DVD from CDDB database (IMHO it’d be more efficient to use IMDB) – id-my-disc. If you didn’t install it just run that command:

apt-get install id-my-disc

If by some reason you DVD is not found in the CDDB you may just type desired name directly from the Orbiter. After storing DVD on the hard drive you’ll able to watch it on any media directors in you house. There is also possibility to store DVD in public area or your private space. Unfortunately, LinuxMCE doesn’t have built-in tool to burn DVD. But you can easily use K3b to burn stored DVD ISO back to DVD.