NetRemote Version 2 beta

[jeffx]

It seems like it's been forever since an updated version of Netremote has been released. NetRemote 2 beta is now available for download.

There does not appear to be an upgrade discount from version 1.x

http://www.promixis.com/downloads.php

 

[jeffx]

Has anyone switched over to Netremote v2? Is it worth the $80 to upgrade from version 1.x? What are the benfits of upgrading? I'm definitely not happy that I purchased netremote, with no updates for over 6 months and the first update that came out costs more than my original purchase price.

Or would I be better off spending the money on Mainlobby--and will mainlobby interface directly with JRMC?

 

[Steve]

IMHO the fastest growing/improving product at the moment is CQC.

 

[DavidL]

jeffx, MainLobby (MusicLobby) has the best integration with JRMC on the market. MusicLobby3 is now done and we are putting it up on the Cinemaronline.com website shortly. It will ship standard with support for one JRMC server with up to 3 zones. Additional server support and additional number of zones are upgrade choices, if you setup grows that big. You can view from any MainLobby client what each zone is playing. With the new MLServer 3, you can also do automation of the JRMC player shutting off music at certain zones at certain times of day or for certain durations of time (how bout a neat programmable alarm clock w/ your bedroom audio zone?).

BTW - Steve - you ain't seen nuthin yet! :lol:

 

[jeffx]

I agree about CQC. I am still using HAL2000 for automation and Netremote for Whole House Audio for a few reasons:

1. HAL - Built in support for my affordable alarm system (Honeywell Vista 128BP). This alarm panel is also support by all major alarm monitoring companies.

2. HAL - Natural voice recognition control and touchtone control via house phones.

3. HAL - Very easy to use user interface.

4. Netremote - works great with JRMC.

Does anyone know of a plugin to control HAL via Netremote or Netremote via HAL? This would make this combination perfect for me.

 

[DavidL]

jeffx, since there is a MainLobby plugin for HAL, then HAL can interact with JRMC via that connection.

 

[jeffx]

jeffx, MainLobby (MusicLobby) has the best integration with JRMC on the market. MusicLobby3 is now done and we are putting it up on the Cinemaronline.com website shortly. It will ship standard with support for one JRMC server with up to 3 zones. Additional server support and additional number of zones are upgrade choices, if you setup grows that big. You can view from any MainLobby client what each zone is playing. With the new MLServer 3, you can also do automation of the JRMC player shutting off music at certain zones at certain times of day or for certain durations of time (how bout a neat programmable alarm clock w/ your bedroom audio zone?).

BTW - Steve - you ain't seen nuthin yet! :lol:

That definitely makes ML3 a lot more tempting, especially considering that I can integrate it with HAL2000.

Any Cocoontech special package pricing for ML3 for both PC an Pocket PC with everything else I would need to control instances of JRMC on multiple computers and integration with HAL2000?

Right now I have 6 zones of audio controlled by 3 separate computers (main Audio PC with 4 zones, bedroom PC with 1 zone, Family room PC with 1 zone).

Also, do I need additional special editing software to create my own basic interfaces with ML3?

 

[DavidL]

no special editing tools needed. The MainLobby Designer is part of the MainLobby Client application. If you want to build your own graphics, then photoshop is handy, but definately not needed.

 

[jeffx]

I'm really starting to drool over ML the more deeply I look into it but I have a few more questions before I purchase:

1. When will ML3 be available for purchase/download? Is the price staying the same?

2. I see that there is Main Lobby, Music Lobby and Music Lobby PPC. Where is Main Lobby PPC or does Main Lobby include a PPC Client interface? I want the PPC interface to be able to control both my Automation (HAL2000) and my Audio (JRMC11), not just audio.

3. I can't seem to find information about what the additional cost would be for more than 3 music zones? I would need 6 zones total (for now) accross 3 PC's.

I have the following package in my cart, but I want to confirm that this package will give me PPC control of my Automation:

PPC Package Deal 2!
MusicLobby (Win Ver)
MainLobby 2
MusicLobby PPC
Price: US $134.99

Thanks!

** Funny that this thread on Netremote has become about me purchasing ML Maybe the folks from Proximis should monitor this forum more closely.

 

[DavidL]

jeffx, there is no MainLobby PPC just yet. A proof of concept was done succesfully, but more work is needed to make it a production solution. The issue is that today the Design environment is in the RunTime client side of MainLobby. This is a lot of stuff that won't run well on the PPC due to it's small memory, processor, etc. The work is to seperate design from runtime and that's quite a bit. What others have done is to run an RDP session on the PocketPC viewing a MainLobby full scene on a standard PC. BraveSirRobbin has recently posted a few times how he is doing that succesfully.

PocketPCs are nice but in my opinion are a bit small for full HA as you can't put much function or viewing on each scene. The Samsung UMPC is the ticket. 7 inch scene and runs full MainLobby great! Cinemar has stock on these and is loading a full MainLobby Suite load on them so that they work out of the box with our new Server line. Details soon.

 

[jeffx]

Undecided once again now that I have found out that the price of ML3/MLS3 is jumping from a reasonable $60 up to $200--with no further bug/fix support for ML 2.x. At $60, it was in the same ballpark as Netremote but not at $200.

 

[Ripper99]

jeffx I would strongly consider you also look at CQC, I switched to them after using Mainlobby for 9 months without a single update to the core product, many dates were mentioned but never did I see any of them met..As far as I know ML3 is in beta at this time but I would go read the forums and see for yourself before considering purchase.

As for Musiclobby 3... posts were made on the Cinemar forums last year it was coming soon, then early in the year at the EHX it was supposed to come out weeks later or should I say "very soon" or maybe "in the near future" , it is now many months past when most people expected it to be released and I'd be surprised if an actual stable release for Musiclobby 3 is out in the next 60 days.

One of the main reasons I switched to CQC was for the support I was seeing given on their forums and as well members are *constantly* updating by Dean about the status of CQC and given reasonable timeframe...as for updates I would say CQC has had at least 10 major updates I have seen since I switched over and many of them included features I asked for.

Another thing you may also wish to consider is the cost of plugins, CQC has approx. 100 free drivers/plugins for a variety of hardware..on the otherhand you will have to pay for plugins from Cinemar for things such as the Russound CAV.

To see screen captures of some of the stuff I have done with CQC click the link under this post, I drew all of these templates but the graphics are *free* to anybody that needs them...most CQC users share their templates and images and no graphics are sold by CQC...the quality of the donated graphics is as good or better than graphics sold by others.

 

[jeffx]

CQC does not list Insteon or VR as supported features and those are "must have" for me. I just found that ML has a WGL W800RF driver also (HAL2000 does not support the W800RF), so I'm getting past my sticker shock and purchasing Main Lobby.