iPod Approach to Whole House Audio

[upstatemike]

I have 1 word. SONOS

Sorry, I just don't buy it. If you are going to drag a big clumsy SONOS remote around the house, you might as well drag around an iPod.

 

[DavidL]

Well, iPort is providing a docking station for development, so it is only a matter of time. Looks like the iPod docks into the iPort and the iPod controls are then disabled. The iPort talks to the iTunes app to synch up music between the PC and the iPod. The MLServer plugin will allow for 2 way control over the iPod to play the iPod music over the whole house audio system, or a particular zone.

My guess is that we will integrate the iPort with MusicLobby UI and server capability. Will round out MusicLobby the next notch.

And it will be a whole lot cheaper than a Crestron system approach. And a whole lot more than a Mitch cable approach.

 

[Ripper99]

And it will be a whole lot cheaper than a Crestron system approach. And a whole lot more than a Mitch cable approach.

A whole lot more than a Mitch cable? Actually if you had the cable and knew of the amount of commands available then perhaps you could say that...but seeing how you have neither I'd say your statement is innacurate until you do a bit more reasearch on this like I have.

I know what I'm talking about and I'm already controlling the ipod with quite a few features considering it only cost me $30...if my driver was 2-way I would be using about 97% of the same commands as the Iport and it would once again only cost $30, while the command structure differs the actual commands are pretty well the same and this info can be found on the Internet..the Iport commands only differ because they talk to their own chip in the dock.

As I mentioned the cable was a solution that was one way and works fine for my needs, while the Iport does have a few more features the price is $400 to $700 for the docks depending on the model..add the cost of the plugins you sell on top and your looking at almost $1000...personally I wouldn't call that cheap option to control the ipod.

As for the Crestron costs I believe their dock is $1249..thats expected from Crestron.

Homeseer also offers an Ipod plugin for less than $100 that will control Itunes, I imagine the Mainlobby plugin might have a few extra features but don't forget it will require the $400-700 dock on top of any plugin costs..probably would be cheaper just to use the mlhs plugin and their ipod plugin and not need to buy a $700 dock.

If a person can program you can also download the free SDK from Apple to interface with Itunes.

 

[DavidL]

"A whole lot more than a Mitch cable? Actually if you had the cable and knew of the amount of commands available then perhaps you could say that...but seeing how you have neither I'd say your statement is innacurate until you do a bit more reasearch on this like I have."

You assume I meant capability. In the context of the prior sentance I was speaking of price. Which was in response to your prior post.
So quick to Rip :angry:

BTW, I can't think of one Dealer that would market a cable type solution like what Mitch has created for the DIY market. That's not a knock on Mitch. I have bought a couple of his products in the past. A dealer wants a polished product like a iPort. That is why several have contacted Cinemar to create this plugin.

 

[Ripper99]

A dealer wants a polished product like a iPort. That is why several have contacted Cinemar to create this plugin.

Well there is a difference between dealers and end users of course(both of which use your product)..the markup on solutions is one of them.

I simply was offering a cheap solution for the end user and not a $400-$700 solution that didn't offer much more than the cable that cost $30.

Many users here I think appreciate cheaper alternatives that accomplish the same features for considerably less, while maybe not as *polished* they do work as well as the expensive solutions, I simply offered the information to achieve virtually the same control for a much cheaper cost.

While maybe not as polished this works in my situation and gets the job done and is a solution that actually is *working* today that end users can actually use without having to spend much money on a fancy dock or wait for an actual plugin to be developed...with the $30 cable and debugging software it's possible to write your own driver for any HA software for virtually nothing like I have, might not be pretty but I can say it is *working* and works well for what it cost.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

A dealer wants a polished product like a iPort. That is why several have contacted Cinemar to create this plugin.

Channel Vision also makes an iBus iPod wall dock for ABUS and a iPOD Wall Dock for Distributed A/V.

 

[DavidL]

Martin, Yes, but they are not at the same level (or price) of the iPort (right?). iPort is RS232 and bidirectional. Also, iPort also handles video iPods as well. Not sure if both of the Channel Visions do? Also, isn't the channel vision solution proprietary with their rest of ABus system? I see at least one of the CV systems is IR based?
Not sure how the CV solution would integrate with a MainLobby touchscreen UI without bidirectional data flow.