Instead of waiting for the DVD drive to show up, which according to Purolator, it left Vancouver on the 19th of May and still isn’t here yet. I gave up on that and am installing Ubuntu 11.04 from USB to the PC. I started with a live boot, then just decieded to install it anyways. I can always format it after right?

I’m having some trouble with the TV in issue. After discussion and searching online, I discovered that because 95% of North American Cable companies encrypt the HD signal I will have to run it into a card from the cable box 🙁 which sucks. To make the even more fun, you have to use the composite input and not HDMI. Here is really only one card out there that does this and does it well, but is yet to support Windows Media Player. That card is the Hauppauge Colossus card. It runs right now 145$ CAN on newegg.ca. So I will have to input from my cable box into the pc to the tv just to watch HD tv that I record. Now my only question is can my cable box output to both the TV and the PC at the same time? And can they be different stations. I guess I will have to call Videotron this week and ask.

Also I will have to test the wireless keyboard and mouse in Ubuntu too. Not sure if they will work because they are windows only on the box. But Linux has come a long ways since when I started with redhat 5.2 14 years ago. Man that makes me feel old. Most windows only usb stuff still works with linux. Everything else in the case worked out of the box, the video card, the wireless card, so that makes me happy. I disabled the onboard video this time to same me the ram head space that requires because I got a HDMI out card exactly for that reason. I need to be able to drive 1080i 48″ Sony HDTV. As much as I am sure the on board would of been able to handle it, just to be sure install a good video card.

Going to install xbmc and take the PC from the test bench to the living room and see how it fairs. Will post updates this week.

Cheers,

Drew

sysadmin@alawrence.net