[Lab Bench Online]
EiED Online>> Building A Multimedia Home Control Center, Part 1
William Wong
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ED Online ID #13330 |
August 21, 2006
The Smarthome Day/Night Wireless Camera and Receiver was the only one I could setup to automatically record. This was via the ATI card so the ability to record TV is lost during that time.
Summary The multimedia PC was easy to construct and it provides sufficient resources to handle PVR and TV support. It is also sufficient to handle basic web browsing and email tasks. The Logitech keyboard makes this relatively easy and I find myself just using the keypad for many features such as playing MP3 files. The small cursor pad on the keyboard and keypad is handy for selecting common applications without having to resort to the mouse. Of course, this still tends to clutter the overall area with remotes and keyboards but not much more than what already exists because of a DVD, VCR, and laser disc players.
The other main issue is determining what controls the display, the HDTV tuner, multimedia PC, etc. This tends to be obvious once you see what is on the screen but you still need to turn on the HDTV to see anything even if you leave the multimedia PC on all the time. Likewise, if the PC needs to display an alert then consider adding speakers to the PC instead of routing the information through the TV because you will not hear it or see a video alert if the HDTV is not setup properly.
On the software side, the lack of integration is the biggest problem. Each application area tends to be integrated nicely such as the ATI DTV support but switching to a web browser or email program usually means switching control devices and user interfaces. Still, it beats using a conventional PC and some things can be automatic. For example, plugging in a Compact Flash memory card or USB memory stick can fire up a file browser or download the contents to the hard disk.
The system has more potential and some of that will be explored in subsequent parts of this article including a look at SageTV for distributed control of the system. Right now, you need to be using the multimedia PC via one of the local input devices to do things like record a TV show.
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