Looking for advice on automating new home

[dkotowski]

I'm building a home that will be done in September. I would really like to use a home media center to control my TVs and audio, a flat touch screen in the kitchen, a wireless network, and wireless speakers throughout the home.

I've done some reading on the subject, but I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to integrate everything. I'm hoping there is a manufacturer that has a package containing these components, or maybe at least I can find components that are compatible and have historically worked well together.

Here are a few specific questions I'd like some advice on:

1. I'm putting flat screens on the walls and have electrical outlets and cable outlets placed on the wall in the appropriate places. I don't know what to do about the cable boxes. A few of the TVs are located where it won't be possible to place a table or shelf below them to hold the cable box. Any ideas?

2. I would like to control my house (security, audio, internet access, etc.) using software on my television screen. Is this possible? Does anyone have experience with this method that could recommend or discourage this concept?

3. My automation only has to be effective for about 150 ft. What are the pros and cons between IR and radio waves in this situation?

I appreciate everyones input!

[TimH]

Re: Looking for advice on automating new home

Wow, a month to go. Exciting !

Do you have the opportunity to install any more cables, e.g. Cat5, speaker cable, etc.?

I presume when you talk about cable outlets & boxes you're talking about cable TV (NTL/Telewest)?

Does it have to be a Microsoft Media Centre? There are others such as MythTV (www.mythtv.org) and GBPVR (www.gbpvr.com)which do the same sort of thing. If you've got cable then the TV-Drive thingey looks pretty good for the PVR side of it, and it does hi-def too. You might also look at VideoLan (www.videolan.org)

I'm looking at Xlobby (www.xlobby.com) for my music distribution as it does multi-zone audio out. It can also handle all of your pictures, DVDs etc. and will support remote touchscreens etc.

My immediate suggestion for TV distribution is to use the KAT5 system, see www.kat5.tv. This is a means to distribute high quality A/V signals around the house over low-cost Cat5 cabling. It is not a "streaming" technology, however.
Using these units you can hide away the cable boxes in a convenient cupboard, remote from the screen, and use IR to control the box, going back down the same Cat5 cable that supplies the picture and sound :-)

Check with Katman over in the Kat5 forum on this site for compatibility with various cable boxes.

Putting computer outputs onto TVs hasn't worked too well, historically. If you're using a plasma or LCD with a high enough resolution then either the VGA or DVI output would be a better bet. Alternatively, a small touchscreen in the same room but used for control, with the TV used for "viewing" may be better.

I'm a "wires" man. Wireless has its place (laptops, PDAs, web tablets etc.), but if I were building a house then I'd go wired every time as the base case. If you have a number of PCs all running at the same time, they will all be competing for the same, limited throughput of your router/AP. You may have clear skies now, but as neighbours go wireless you soon find yourself competing over the same airwaves. Wireless video senders work on the same band a WiFi too, further congesting things.

Cable is cheap, and even gigabit ethernet switches are cheap now, Netgear do a 5 port 10/100/1000 switch for £23+vat.

For infra-red, check out the FiRM forum on this site. Frank has a very nice zoned IR system :-)

HTH,

Tim.

[dkotowski]

Re: Looking for advice on automating new home

Hey TimH!

Thanks for responding to my post. I'm so new to the Automated Home concept, that it's tough to decide where to begin.

The walls of my home are finished, so putting in wires would be time consuming. However, You bring up some points by mentioning the advantages of being "hard wired" vice IR or radio. I'm going to have to study my choices further to make the best decision.

When I asked about a media center, I mentioned Microsoft because I wasn't aware of any other options. Thanks for the links to other systems so I can compare them for the best fit.

I really appreciate your advice. There are so many options and features available that it is very confusing to a beginner!

Dan

[TimH]

Re: Looking for advice on automating new home

No problem :-)

The other bit of software I should've posted previously was MainLobby (http://www.cinemaronline.com/). It gets pretty good user feedback but it is chargable, whereas the previous software options are all free for personal use, IIRC.

Just keep us posted with your plans, and don't hesitate to post further questions.

Cheers,

Tim.