Hi, guys, this is a great forum, I am glad I found it... My area of interest is Digital Home as such, but I am coming more from the Home Theater/HTPC side and am trying to bring me up to speed on the Home Automation front - this forum seems to be a great knowledgebase...
BACKGROUND
While architecting my Home Theater setup around HTPC/Media Player/Media Server based on Windows MCE software I am coming to a configuration when I would have
- a central Media Server in the wiring closet running 24/7 and
- have a Media Player or Media Extender (Linksys) connect to the TV accessing content on Media Server
- Home Office PC for internet movie/music downloads, home video/photos uploading from the camera and storing on the Media Server working as a Network Storage.
I described a bit more about this setup in my blog under: http://www.buildmediacenter.com/html/dh02.html
OPTIONS
Part of what I am struggling is to understand what options do I have to introduce a Touchscreen control for this setup:
A. I was initially thinking about hard mounted on the wall touchscreen, connected via VGA and USB (for touchsensor) to the Media Server in the wiring closet.
B. I also read in this forum about options to extend the distance from this touchscreen to the Media center through the KLM extender, still as a hard mounted option.
C. Than I read that a TablePC for $200 is another solution and supposedly most universal.
D. Touchscreen control from Philips or similar.
QUESTIONS
1. Is my understanding correct or there are other options?
2. I understand how A and B options can work - I originally thought to use MCE software and use the touchscreen for music selection. I also learned that I can use a stand alone or MCE integrated software like MusicLobby to control the music playback from the touchscreen (I don't think turning on TV to select music with a remote makes sense... ).
2.a I am struggling to see how options C and D work and what BENEFITS will they give me...
2.b Basically what kind of product could I use for Touchscreen in C and D
2.c What software would I use on the TabletPC and on the server and rough cost of that software...
2.d I am a bit concerned on the fact, that I would need to buy a home automation package for option C and D and will not be as flexible as with MCE and it's hundreds of free plugins, etc... So I am interested to know if people are happyly using option C (TabletPC) or D (Touchscreen remote control)...
Thanks,
Andy
BACKGROUND
While architecting my Home Theater setup around HTPC/Media Player/Media Server based on Windows MCE software I am coming to a configuration when I would have
- a central Media Server in the wiring closet running 24/7 and
- have a Media Player or Media Extender (Linksys) connect to the TV accessing content on Media Server
- Home Office PC for internet movie/music downloads, home video/photos uploading from the camera and storing on the Media Server working as a Network Storage.
I described a bit more about this setup in my blog under: http://www.buildmediacenter.com/html/dh02.html
OPTIONS
Part of what I am struggling is to understand what options do I have to introduce a Touchscreen control for this setup:
A. I was initially thinking about hard mounted on the wall touchscreen, connected via VGA and USB (for touchsensor) to the Media Server in the wiring closet.
B. I also read in this forum about options to extend the distance from this touchscreen to the Media center through the KLM extender, still as a hard mounted option.
C. Than I read that a TablePC for $200 is another solution and supposedly most universal.
D. Touchscreen control from Philips or similar.
QUESTIONS
1. Is my understanding correct or there are other options?
2. I understand how A and B options can work - I originally thought to use MCE software and use the touchscreen for music selection. I also learned that I can use a stand alone or MCE integrated software like MusicLobby to control the music playback from the touchscreen (I don't think turning on TV to select music with a remote makes sense... ).
2.a I am struggling to see how options C and D work and what BENEFITS will they give me...
2.b Basically what kind of product could I use for Touchscreen in C and D
2.c What software would I use on the TabletPC and on the server and rough cost of that software...
2.d I am a bit concerned on the fact, that I would need to buy a home automation package for option C and D and will not be as flexible as with MCE and it's hundreds of free plugins, etc... So I am interested to know if people are happyly using option C (TabletPC) or D (Touchscreen remote control)...
Thanks,
Andy
