xlobby and little short of home theater niravana

[musicthebee]

Hello Steven

I have just setup Xlobby on my laptop and simpad and both work great albeit some minor issues. I think overall one could achieve a "home theater nirvana" with xlobby esecially with its enarmous extensibility by way of girder events, USB-UIRT etc. My big problem right now is the slow response on both my P4 laptop and the WinCE simpad. I dont think its the processor/network issue. Any idea as to what could be causing this? Also do you plan to take this up in the near future? Since lot of people have this ckind of client setup, I think it would be a great help ....

Thanks

[Aaron]

No offense but you may want to read (a lot) more on the forum before you post.

There is no speed issue known on the PC and the SimPad issue is documented (by myself) no less then twice, once in detail only 2 days ago.

If you are having problems on your PC you need to do much more then say it is slow to get help. You need full disclosure on what you are running (OS versions, XL version, XL skin, etc) and some concrete examples of the "issue" you are seeing.

XL is a fantastic software... you are correct. I have plans to make it a key part of my entire home automation and home theater.

regards

[musicthebee]

No offense. I have read through the forums and I know your posts. I am trying to decide on what would be a good client side device (tablet pc with windows xp, ppc or simpad/fujitsu lt) and hence I am trying to evaluate different hardwares.

I have a windows Xp notebook and I am running the thin client with Baddabings skin. I am using the 802.11g wireless and I see around 5 sec delay between button press and screen refresh. I have tried playing with the refresh timings but still no use. I get little more slow response on Simpad. I was going to buy a tablet pc if the performance is better on my notebook. The reason for my post is I wanted to check if this is the behaviour everybody is getting out of P4 notebook in thin client mode, if not am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

[hjackson]

musicthebee, that is a very slow response. Is the laptop the server and the Simpad the client, or are you using both the laptop and Simpad as a client? I used to have a very slow response with the HeavyMetal server/client between my P4 HTPC and my touchscreen Progear client. The PPC client was nice and fast, as well, the default skin server/client speed was also fast. My HTPC had a 1280x720 resolution and my Progear has a 1024x768 res. Though I can't remember which was the biggest factor in improving the client/server speed, I had significant improvement after
1) I moved my wifi Access Point (802.11b)
2) changed the resolution of the client skin to 1024x768 (while keeping the server skin resloution at 1280x768)
The more I think about it though, the more it seems to me that the main hold up is Xlobby slowing down when converting the server resolution to the client's resolution. This would explain why the ppc with it's custom client resolution, and the default skin (which is natively in the same resolution as the CLIENT, not the server) works faster.
As an experiment, try the default skin. As well, change the server skin resolution to that of the client (I believe the Simpad is 800x600 and I assume your server is higher)
Good luck!

hjackson

[Aaron]

hjackson is correct on the screen resolution...

I briefly explain it here:
http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2419

[Naylia]

Currently all my clients are using the ppc screens from Jowaldos' skin as remotes, to control the stereo/home theater system in my apt. My HTPC is connected to the network via a Wireless-B connection. My desktop is wired to the router. Pressing a button here is quick/minor delay(1/2 second). Using my pocketpc with a wireless-B card I have about a full "one mississippi" delay (sometimes 2 secs if it's a bad day with the AP). I suppose part of this would be the minimal amount of data sent and that there is no resizing of the screen. I'm hoping to replace the access point with a wireless-G and try to minimize as much as possible.

[musicthebee]

Thanks guys for the replies and I really appreciate your help.

Both my simpad and the laptop are clients to my HTPC which is connected to my Pioneer Elite HDTV and runs at 960X540. Thus my server Xlobby runs at that resolution. MY laptop client is running at 1024X768 and my simpad is running at 800X600 and I see quite a big delay both on simpad and the laptop client. I will try playing with the resolution (which may mean that I may not be able to use the server screens at all). I guess I can start Xlobby in 1024x768 on the server in the minimized window mode.

Btw, whats the advantage of having the ppc screens on the local simpad client (for example Baddabing's skin is now on my simpad at //xlobby/skins/HeavyMetal).

Thanks

[Naylia]

Warning...stream of conciousness....PPC screens load pretty fast. PPC screens are in the same resolution as the PPC. If viewed at higher resolution one just sees black space. Server screens are at high resolution. Server screens are at higher resolution than the client. Therefore server screens need to be resized down in realtime to fit on client screen. This takes time. Your HTPC is also running in widescreen mode, viewing widescreen on your 4:3 clients probably is not cool either. What if...you developed screens at the resolution of your clients. I would suggest 800x600 and call all the screens client... such as clientmenu, clientmusic, clientweather, client5dayforecast and such. This would give you a widescreen image on your HDTV, and would also send smaller images to your clients which already are using the resolution of the screens they are recieving. I think there was a thread recently about doing 4:3 skins for clients of a 16:9 server.

So what do people think. It's time consuming...will it solve the problem though?

The simpad may certaintly want a fullscreen 800x600 screen, but for your laptop you may find the ppc screens enough. I just put them in a window so that I can minimize maximize when I want to change a cd or turn up the volume.

[Naylia]

there is already an update that had 4:3 skins added to the 16x9 skins here..


http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2390

[hjackson]

" MY laptop client is running at 1024X768 and my simpad is running at 800X600 and I see quite a big delay both on simpad and the laptop client. I will try playing with the resolution (which may mean that I may not be able to use the server screens at all). I guess I can start Xlobby in 1024x768 on the server in the minimized window mode."
Musicthebee, you don't have to touch your server skin at all. You need to create a separate skin for each client. Your laptop skin will be 1024x768 and your Simpad skin will be 800x600. You should add a prefix to each skin to distinguish them (ie simmenu, lapmenu, simmovies, lapmovies) You will also need to change the names of the goto commands accordingly. Your new client skins should be added to the "skins" folder in your server PC. As well, the new goto commands will also have to be configured/added in the server's "eventgroups" folder. For each client, in the "servers" text file, make sure you have the appropriate start screen (ie. in the Simpads "servers" text file the startscreen should be "simmenu")
The easiest way to convert your skins for the simpad will be to change yourlaptop's res to 800x600, then arrange your buttons as you need. Rename your skins and then transfer it over to your server's HeavyMetal skins folder. Then switch back the laptop's resolution to 1024x768 and configure the laptop's client skin.
Let us know if you're confused! Best of luck.

hjackson

[Aaron]

If I remeber correctly....

One of the configs I tested:
Server in 800x600 resolution
SimPad with the same skin screens as the server (also 800x600)

The latency was the same as if the server/SimPad had different resolution. I was thinking the latency was the combined cause of the transmision of a refresh over 802.11b and then the rendering on the SimPad.

I'm interested to see you either of you get different results.

[musicthebee]

Thanks hjackson for the tip on the screen.

Here are the initial results:

Running the server at 800x600 resolution and the simpad, notepad clients at 800x600 resolution. The time lags are as follows:

On the notepad client - to start the client it takes 18 seconds and transition from the click of the button to the new screen takes around 5 seconds

On Simpad client - to start the client takes around 27 seconds and transition from the click of the button to the new screen takes around 10 seconds.

I took the button down and button enter images as suggested in the other thread and the timings I posted are without these images and it still looks kind of slow on my notebook. Any ideas please?

Thanks

[Naylia]

On the notepad client - to start the client it takes 18 seconds and transition from the click of the button to the new screen takes around 5 seconds

On Simpad client - to start the client takes around 27 seconds and transition from the click of the button to the new screen takes around 10 seconds.

Damn!...

[Hiller]

How much memory do you have in the server? People have also noticed that server memory has an impact on client speed.

Steve

[musicthebee]

I have 256 mb on the server. btw, thanks to Naylia for the tips on the screen

thanks