I'm looking at using something like the Dell Studio One 19 All-In-One with touchscreen in the kitchen. It should have enough horsepower to play DVDs and streaming video plus handle the touchscreen controls. The only thing I saw that was a negative for this unit was that it didn't have any IR control built-in so some type of USB add-on would be needed to control DVD/video playback via IR.
Systems Integration Advise needed
- Thread starter kmitchell
- Start date
I'm looking at using something like the Dell Studio One 19 All-In-One with touchscreen in the kitchen. It should have enough horsepower to play DVDs and streaming video plus handle the touchscreen controls. The only thing I saw that was a negative for this unit was that it didn't have any IR control built-in so some type of USB add-on would be needed to control DVD/video playback via IR.
I think something like that would work just fine. The main reason I suggested using something like SageTV is the fact that you can have all the tuners and related equipment installed on another machine on the network. The Sage Server would simply stream the material to the touchscreen for viewing. This simply makes the installation less complicated.
Sage even has a plug in specifically designed to provide a slightly tweaked interface that is designed with a touch screen in mind. The original interface is designed with a mouse or remote in mind. The changes are subtle in nature, but seem to make using a touchscreen a little more enjoyable.
As far as IR is concerned, you could add something like a USB-UIRT to the computer directly. The only problem is that those types of IR receivers are a little big (the MCE receiver is even bigger). Another option would be to use a IR receiver from a Xantech or similar system. These come in much smaller sizes, but need to be tied into a larger IR system. If you are planning on having IR control in other rooms of the house, then adding another receiver for the touch screen shouldn't be that big of a deal. I know the CQC software has a driver written for SageTV, so once you get those IR signals into the computer, you can fully control the Sage player using the computer. Hopefully your automation software choice would have something similar.
Sage even has a plug in specifically designed to provide a slightly tweaked interface that is designed with a touch screen in mind. The original interface is designed with a mouse or remote in mind. The changes are subtle in nature, but seem to make using a touchscreen a little more enjoyable.
As far as IR is concerned, you could add something like a USB-UIRT to the computer directly. The only problem is that those types of IR receivers are a little big (the MCE receiver is even bigger). Another option would be to use a IR receiver from a Xantech or similar system. These come in much smaller sizes, but need to be tied into a larger IR system. If you are planning on having IR control in other rooms of the house, then adding another receiver for the touch screen shouldn't be that big of a deal. I know the CQC software has a driver written for SageTV, so once you get those IR signals into the computer, you can fully control the Sage player using the computer. Hopefully your automation software choice would have something similar.
BioSehnsucht
Member
For phone and possibly intercom (if you use the phones for intercom) you might consider going with an Asterisk ( I can't post links yet, was going to, just google it ) controlled phone system. You can use VoIP phones or use VoIP to POTS bridge devices, but Asterisk itself is free and you can do some really powerful things. Apparently it may be currently broken but there's a module for routing phone calls to the nearest phone extension based on the location of a given person's Bluetooth enabled phone (depends on software installed on PCs around the place that will collectively determine which is closest based on signal timing and such). There's also other modules for using BT enabled phones as extensions or phone lines. Set up as many virtual extensions and menus and prompts and whatever you want, have music on hold, etc. You can have the voice mail boxes routed to email as attachment and other fun stuff. And you can use xPL to interface Asterisk into HA systems, so you can dial specific extensions to turn things on and off (and even when away from home by dialing into your Asterisk powered 'PBX'). You can even get a SIP-powered 800# piped in over the Internet to your Asterisk system and have no direct POTS connection to the world. You don't even need to connect it to a physical phone VoIP or otherwise, you can use software on your computer too. Potentially if you have a touch screen interface that runs an OS you can install stuff on (as opposed to being locked down to whatever shipped on it) then you could install VoIP software and use that to talk to the Asterisk system as an intercom, in addition to any physical phones you want.
Once I'm in a house of my own I plan to set up Asterisk and integrate it with whatever HA setup I install.
Once I'm in a house of my own I plan to set up Asterisk and integrate it with whatever HA setup I install.
