It's That Time of Year Again! And More!

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It's That Time of Year Again! And More!

Postby yankee495 » Dec 18th, '16, 13:25

Hello everyone,

It's that time of year again, upgrade season! :D And More! ;)

Unless something breaks I try not to buy anything computer related until the week before Black Friday because without a doubt that is when we have the best prices in the US. One year I built this computer and saved a bundle and the next year I picked up some SSD's for slightly under half price. This year I needed hard drives.

I'm always a couple of steps behind many other people because I never buy the newest biggest models. I'm not a huge movie and music downloader so I don't need tons of space, but I never throw anything away so I do have growing space needs. My wife is the movie buff so when she gets a new movie I copy it to the HD so we don't have to use the physical disc, that keeps them like new too.

We also have a growing computer population in our house so I set up a nice Gigabit wired network. Last year I got a great deal on a Shuttle SH67H3 XPC for my ham radio room and I liked it so much that I got one for my wife to replace her aging, non-up-gradable laptop. They're running i3-2100 CPU's that have hyper-threading with 8GB RAM. With a good 240GB SSD they're pretty snappy. She absolutely loves it compared to her 6 year old laptop. She's been using Mageia for about a year and a half and she loves it too. I didn't know how well that would go over but since she wasn't a technical Windows user she doesn't get too technical with Mageia either and it just works. She does her updates etc and I pretty much haven't had to work on it since she started using it.

With Windows it seemed like it was always something, mostly minor stuff and of course as the registry grew it slowed down more and more as time went by. She a got a virus once and I forget what else but I had to fix it a couple or three times. About the only thing I have to do now is show her something, usually just explaining that it's in there when she ask me about a program to do something. She ask me about some card games and I told her they're in there.

The wired network all started with a $38 Chinese satellite receiver that does SAT>IP (or SAT to IP). I have a big satellite dish that I've had for years and some guys were telling me how nice this receiver was and it was so cheap I thought why not? They didn't use SAT>IP but when I spotted SAT>IP in the menu I started planning the network. I picked up some nice used 8 port manageable switches, some with PoE and a 450 Mbps access point and we have a whole new network.

This receiver will record too, directly to my hard drive while I'm watching it so my video library is going to grow. As I said I never buy the newest most expensive drives, I wait and pick up the smaller ones when the price comes down. Over the years I've went from a 750GB to a 1TB, then a 2TB, and now I bought three 3TB Toshiba drives. When I went from the 750 to the 1TB I used the 750 for backup and put it in an eSATA external case where I could turn it off so it has a lot of life left in it. I did the same thing when I got the 2TB, the 1TB became an eSATA external backup that was powered off most of the time.

My 1TB and 2TB drives are Toshiba/Hitachi and they all are still working great. Toshiba bought part of Hitachi's drive line from Western Digital I think, I forget the details but my 1TB and 2TB drives say Toshiba and Hitachi on them. These 3TB drives don't say Hitachi anymore but they look just like them and I'm betting they're the same inside. I originally bought two of them for $70 each but they were such a good deal I picked up another one for $75 a week later. They haven't been below $85 before that, not that I know of.

I added a couple of eSATA ports to an old small form factor HP that I have and set it up as a file server. It's going to have a 3TB drive on it with everything we want to share or access daily. I'm going to have one on my main desktop to use and edit commercials out of the things I record etc. The other 3TB is going to be a backup that's turned off most of the time. I'm using luckyBackup and Rsync to sync the server with my drive on my main desktop. The small HP uses a lot less power etc so I can leave it on while my desktop sleeps. I'm just learning all of this networking and syncing stuff so I'm not sure that's how I'm going to sync it in the future but it works for now.

It's been a good year for learning Linux because I had shoulder surgery and invested a little time into figuring things out that I didn't understand. I really learned a lot about networking because I originally set up a HP 5120-48G-PoE+ EI Switch but I couldn't stand the fans! Yep, I got a deal on that monster switch that I couldn't pass up and I spent a couple of weeks learning all about it. I leaned about VLANS, NAGIOS monitoring and all kinds of things but I couldn't stand the fans, not even with it in the other room in a cabinet. After all of that I decided to sell it and get a couple of smaller (quiet) switches. Besides, the big switch used too much power for what I need but it was fun learning about it.

I even learned about phpBB3 because of the Chinese company that built my satellite receiver, remember it? Well they set up a support forum using phpBB3 and couldn't figure it out so I installed LAMP and phpBB3, the whole show so I could figure it out and help them. Before I figured it all out they pretty much had theirs functional but they still sent me a free S905X Media Box for what I did help them with. It's really nice and fits right in on my network. I can hook it to a TV with no satellite receiver and watch satellite or anything shared on the network.

And wouldn't you know it...I have everything all set up and running good and here comes 4k! Wow! The media box does 4k, though I think it just decodes it, not natively displays it, but I could be wrong on that. We're going to need more horsepower, bigger hard drives, more RAM, faster networks and dual layer Blu-rays! :lol:

I said, it's that time of year again...and more. It's about this time of year that I usually stop in and have a question and just to say hello to everyone. When I got my SSD's I stopped by to ask a question or two then came back and posted what I had learned about testing TRIM etc. All of my newer SSD's are OCZ's and they're made by Toshiba too. The best part is they're 100% Linux compatible with diagnostic and firmware upgrade utilities that run on Linux. They won't turn you away if you have a question and you run Linux. They do have some new models out that do not have Linux software so check them before you buy one, I haven't kept up. The AMD Radeon SSD's are or were made by OCZ and had Linux software too, I got one for my wife last Christmas. I'm very happy with all of mine, just check their support site before you buy one.

I have an old Dell that I've put together for my granddaughter/grandson and they're going to be using Mageia. I put a 120GB SSD in it and I think I'll put the 750GB in it because it probably has the lowest hours on it, not sure, but it should last them a good while until I can see where they go with it. They have a little Windows experience, very very little, but they're young so maybe they'll learn the right way the first time! ;) I was supposed to have done it a long time ago but with that shoulder surgery and everything I didn't get to it. Talk about behind, once I healed up a little I had plenty to do.

So anyway, I want to thank everyone on the Mageia team for such a fine distro. It's really came a long ways and I've had very little trouble with it. The one serious problem I had turned out to be hardware related, I think. I posted about it, my Lite-on DVD drive would refuse to see the Mageia DVD and identified it as a music CD. I did a lot of testing, on multiple computers, with Mageia 4 and 5, with more than one Lite-on model, and they all did it, even on a fresh Mageia 5 install. Changing brands of DVD drive fixed it every single time and installing a Lite-on drive caused it every single time. I worked on that for a couple of years off and on. I know it sounds crazy but it's the truth, I posted all of the info and testing output etc, and I can repeat it.

So happy holidays to everyone at Mageia and the users too! I don't stop in as much as I should and 2016 has been one of those years that I don't want to repeat anytime soon, besides learning. I didn't aim for this to be so long, it's 4:30 AM here and I'm up with this shoulder. It's still sore enough to wake me up at times and I think this cold weather is causing it to ache. It's 3 degrees here, yep, we have 3 of them (3F)! When I woke up I went and read all about Blu-ray support or a couple of hours. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get 100% reliable Blu-ray burning working. I read that it is working but I haven't tried it yet. A while back, several months ago, I made 3 or 4 coasters and quit and I do know how to burn a disc, been doing it since 8x CD burners or so, pretty far back there (my first one was an 8x CD only).

If anyone has any questions about OCZ SSD's, the software, SAT>IP, networking or anything I said I'll be glad to help you if I can. SAT>IP is supposed to be the new thing coming. They already have LNB's (the feedhorn on the dish) that you plug a network cable into, no traditional satellite receiver needed. It all streams in on an Ethernet cable, no joke, but it's not cheap, no joke! You just plug the network cable into a switch/router or even a Smart TV and you have streaming video, 4k too! There is no traditional tuner inside the house, it's built into the LNB and then it's encoded and streamed from there. I read that this is expected to be wide spread in just a few short years, not many. You'll be able to plug your satellite dish into your router and stream to your phones, tablets, computers, TV or hotel room if you're on a trip. Awesome stuff!

My receiver just does one channel at a time but you can change the channel and it even moves the dish from the device you're streaming to, already really nice technology. Anyway, I'm going to try and sleep a bit and happy holidays again! I hope all is well with everyone and that you had a good year, at least one that wasn't too bad. I will be up just a little while so I'm going to go read the forums a little bit until I'm good and sleepy which will be about time to get up, wonderful! ;)
There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary & those who don't.
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yankee495
 
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Re: It's That Time of Year Again! And More!

Postby AstorBG » Dec 18th, '16, 16:47

Yes, it is that time of the year! Happy holidays to u also! Nice post lol
Mageia 5.1, KDE4, x86_64
Mageia 8, Plasma, x86_64
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Re: It's That Time of Year Again! And More!

Postby Lebarhon » Dec 18th, '16, 20:04

Hi yankee495
Thanks a lot for your nice encouragements.
yankee495 wrote: The wired network all started with a $38 Chinese satellite receiver that does SAT>IP (or SAT to IP). I have a big satellite dish that I've had for years and some guys were telling me how nice this receiver was and it was so cheap I thought why not? They didn't use SAT>IP but when I spotted SAT>IP in the menu I started planning the network. I picked up some nice used 8 port manageable switches, some with PoE and a 450 Mbps access point and we have a whole new network.

This receiver will record too, directly to my hard drive while I'm watching it so my video library is going to grow. As I said I never buy the newest most expensive drives, I wait and pick up the smaller ones when the price comes down. Over the years I've went from a 750GB to a 1TB, then a 2TB, and now I bought three 3TB Toshiba drives. When I went from the 750 to the 1TB I used the 750 for backup and put it in an eSATA external case where I could turn it off so it has a lot of life left in it. I did the same thing when I got the 2TB, the 1TB became an eSATA external backup that was powered off most of the time.

If anyone has any questions about OCZ SSD's, the software, SAT>IP, networking or anything I said I'll be glad to help you if I can. SAT>IP is supposed to be the new thing coming. They already have LNB's (the feedhorn on the dish) that you plug a network cable into, no traditional satellite receiver needed. It all streams in on an Ethernet cable, no joke, but it's not cheap, no joke! You just plug the network cable into a switch/router or even a Smart TV and you have streaming video, 4k too! There is no traditional tuner inside the house, it's built into the LNB and then it's encoded and streamed from there. I read that this is expected to be wide spread in just a few short years, not many. You'll be able to plug your satellite dish into your router and stream to your phones, tablets, computers, TV or hotel room if you're on a trip. Awesome stuff!


You are perhaps the skilled man we are looking for for a long time. If you have a look on our documentation here:
http://docteam.mageia.nl/en/MCC/content/drakconnect.html#d4e1681
You can see the section about "A new Satellite connection (DVB)" is empty.
If you have time and pleasure to write it, feel free to send us all your knowledge of the subject with text, photos, screenshots... Use the mean you prefer: attached file here,wiki, ml doc-discuss, ...
Thanks a lot
Lebarhon
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Re: It's That Time of Year Again! And More!

Postby yankee495 » Dec 18th, '16, 23:47

Hello Lebarhon,

I do wish I could help you but I'm sorry to say I don't think SAT>IP is the same as what you're trying to do. I think you're talking about a data connection through a DVB card?

The SAT>IP protocol is used with a UPnP aware player such as VLC. I'm still learning about this myself and so far VLC is the only player I've found that works pretty well on Mageia. You must install the UPnP plug-in for VLC (vlc-plugin-upnp​), then you click on UPnP under Local Network on the Playlist and you'll get a list of available channels. The channels must be in your favorites list on the satellite receiver to be available in VLC.

Once you have established the connection you just click the record button and it'll record directly to your hard drive. It didn't work very well on my wifi so I set up a subnet with a Gigabit Mikrotik router and EnGenius PoE switch and it's perfect on the wired network. I haven't experimented with codecs while recording etc. It records to a .ts file and then I can use Handbrake for any conversion.

My receiver is a set top box, not an internal DVB card but I understand they do have DVB cards that will do SAT>IP and internet. I've been wanting to get a DVB-S2 card but they're fairly expensive. The reason I was thinking about a DVB card was because the receivers are generally fairly buggy and have a lot of limitations but this new receiver is a fine little box with tons of features that work.

I am a member on a few satellite forums and I'll ask the guys if any of them use Mageia but I don't think they do. It's well known that I run Mageia and nobody has spoken up so far though a couple do use other distros and several have DVB cards. It seems Europe and Asia are way ahead of the US in FTA satellite TV because of the proprietary commercial systems that are heavily promoted and the corporate suppression of any competing systems, especially free ones. Europe has a service called Freesat though I don't know much about it other than it's free.

Here is more information on SAT>IP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sat-IP

http://www.satip.info
There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary & those who don't.
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yankee495
 
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Location: Carthage, Mo. USA

Re: It's That Time of Year Again! And More!

Postby Lebarhon » Dec 19th, '16, 11:03

Hello,
Thanks a lot for your answer.
I understand SAT>IP is a new technology that has nothing to do with DVB but having a lot of advantages the most important being the reuse of an existing LAN and a low cost. So, I think your knowledge and experience is worth a Wiki page, if you feel like writing it, of course. As you can see, we have nothing about that:
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Documentation

Lebarhon
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