Hey Scott it exists almost, LinuxMCE does most of that, it even has a feature where you can tell it to 'follow you' then it automatically routes whatever you're watching to the TV nearest the remote you're using. (Obviously you have to take the remote with you). It does home automation (so lights etc).

If you're not averse to mix'n'matching stuff I'm sure you could install some packages to finish the home automation stuff in it, since it's just Ubuntu with extra stuff.

There's even pre-build boxes you can buy with LinuxMCE on them, and specialized behind your LCD TV remote boxes (you have one main server with all the storage and TV capture stuff, then smaller ones that just display stuff)

Re: Mirek2
I had bought and downloaded some movies and t.v. shows from iTunes. Due to windows reassigning my external drives different letters (yes, I do have a problem with how windows works) I accidentally deleted some of them. I then tried to automatically re-download them, no go as they were marked as having been downloaded. I then went thru customer support and was told, in no uncertain terms, that the license agreement allows only one download and it was my job to insure that I had a backup copy, and that there was no way apple was going to help me.
In regards to the 5th gen vs classic iPod. I had a 30gig classic that played the above mentioned items on my Memorex iFlip. As an OTR Trucker, I found this to be much easier than lugging a ton of CD's around. The 30gig died, so I purchased an 80gig classic. Audio wise it worked great, but it would not play video on my iFlip. Took it to an Apple Genius at an Apple Store. He explained what Apple had changed, that they had eliminated one of the video outputs and some other internal changes to make the interfaces similar to the new iPod touch. This was a similar change to when they moved the audio jack and eliminated the power point for my RF audio adapter.

why. who cares. it wil ltake more time than its worth

I tend to agree with gargamel9. We want all that functionality (maybe???) but on distributed equipment so there is always a path to a pseudo redundant device that does what is needed. As chips become cheaper than sand, the cost of redundancy is inconsequential.

To quote my father, "I need to own three cars so I can always have one running to go to the store to buy parts to fix the ones that aren't."

http://plutohome.com/

Dave,

Sorry, the reference to CableCards being the only "legal" way to retrieve cable channels is in ref to torrents, not standard tuner cards. A standard tuner card can only get off the air channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc) The "premium" channels are scrambled and not available with standard tuners. (Drat) The CableCard was the "solution" provided to us by congress so that we can have Tivo or other solutions without being locked into our cable company's box rental.

As for the Linux solution; even the Windows solution requires some (lots?) of configuration. That's why *I* came to the concusion that there isn't a specific product out there, but a collection of products that the knoweldgeable consumer (Read: me, you, Scott, and other techs) could put together.

DO people really want that kind of integration? Or is it just novelty lunacy? As products get more unreliable and defective each day I for one would be terrified of having a single system that operates all those things. Just imagine the bills for repairs, and each time a part goes down the whole system becomes inoperative.

Take also into account that the cost of whole systems are always way higher than it parts sold separately(already sky high). There is a cool home system by sunfire which is only suitable for VPs that recieve government funds (the price is pure madness IMHO). I did check the specs and basically you could get each of those things separately and combine them for much less than half the price of the system, so it is basically worth only for uninformed consumers that prefer spending obscene amounts of money instead of doing a bit of research.

I dont even rely on all in one remotes(I have 3 or 4 at home). The sound great, but in practice they work way worse than the alternative of having 5 remotes to operate the home cinema system. Electronics at home should be kept at the absolute minimum IMHO. They brake down easily, consume insane amounts of energy and money in repairs, which brings along a lot of stress and thats precisely not the point of all electronics in the first place.

JamesWjRose:

You (and Scott) are correct that there does not appear to be an 'off the shelf' product that a consumer can purchase and install in order to achieve the desired results. However, buying a 'bare metal' home theater PC and subsequently installing Kubuntu is now quite easy for the average consumer, but I readily admit that the configuration of LinuxMCE may be problematic for the average consumer. The requirements (electrician, expensive parts, etc.) of home automation (lighting, security, etc.) are likely quite beyond the average consumer.

Would you please clarify your comment, "At this moment in time, the legal only solution to this issue is CableCards?" The implication of your comment is that tuner cards are illegal. While I am not a legal expert, such an implication seems improbable at best. I assume that you are referring to the idea that 'distribution' of a broadcast signal for remote viewing across a local area network (LAN) or the Internet may be illegal, but I am unaware of a CableCard being any more or less suited to such than a tuner card. Even if my assumption is correct, the idea seems unlikely, given the preponderance of commercial solutions such as Slingbox. However, who knows what the Content Gods are likely to pursue with the weapon that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) has become?

Dave

Sabletek/Dave,

You are correct, CableCards have no gained wide (any?!) acceptance. While I am primarily a Windows person, I do agree that CableCards or similar technology that would allow users to view the cable signals (HBO, Comedy Central, USA, SciFi, etc) with their computers or some such device (ala Tivo)

At this moment in time, the legal only solution to this issue is CableCards. (boo, hiss)

Because of this, and several other issue I wrote the second comment as I believe I had a better understanding of Scott's question (again, I BELIEVE I understand better... who knows what the reality is, but I digress. There really isn't *A* product that can be purchased. But people like you and me can configure exiting products to get what we want. The difference is symantics (and costs) But I wanted to acknowledge your statement that there are alternatives to what MS sells.

Sincerely,
James Rose
New York City

Phew, I had articulated almost same feeling though my article < http://pjmtechspeak.blogspot.com > has 0 comments :-) (no readers) and I write poor English (non native). But it feels great that someone else in the blog echo system has thought out the same and it helps even more that the person is Scott -the famous one-, and my favourite blogger. One more quality may be we share is that it will be none of us (at least I am sure about myself) who will actually fill all the details and make this thing work or put the money in the company trying to do the same ;-)

sabletek,

It's going to continue to require an advanced technician, but the expensive interconnect hardware isn't quite there. AMX, for example, interfaces with thermostats just like any programmable thermostat would, interfaces with gates, fireplaces, screens, shutters, and drapes via simple relay circuits, and interfaces with pool systems, security systems, lighting, and many other things via RS232, a standard protocol that just requires a single serial connection.

There's also a huge movement towards Ethernet control. Switchers, Mixers, Media Servers are all offering ethernet connections so they just live on your network and can be controlled from a networked AMX master over the LAN.

Of course, the AMX equipment itself is prohibitively expensive, but it's a control system that doesn't need any other parts to go between it and the manufacturer's equipment.

J

Scott,

Another poster (JamesWjRose) noted that LinuxMCE does not support CableCards. I would not consider such to be very relevant, as CableCard has failed to achieve market acceptance since inception, and there is a large number of TV tuner cards that are supported by LinuxMCE. Reference the 'Issues' section of the CableCard listing on Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CableCARD ).

The single greatest issue I see with any home server solution is that even if the computer hardware, software, and digital media (audio, video, and photographs, including a media / data back up solution and an uninterruptible power supply solution) work perfectly (accessing multiple and disparate media types simultaneously from different locations in the home, etc.), integrating a security and lighting control system is still likely to require the skills and services of a professional electrician, as well as expensive interconnect hardware. If you are aware of cost effective and reliable interconnect hardware solutions for security and lighting control systems, please let us know!

Dave

Before we go to a whole-house universal system I'd like to see a change to wireless everything first. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sick to DEATH of having to crawl behind the armoire, juggle 7 pieces of equipment, and fight with 7,000 wires and connections which have to be fiddled with for a minimum of three hours to hook up any new piece of equipment. I know that there's at least one wireless system available (from Bose) but think this should all be completely standard and basic across the board. What we need is a simple, cost-effective piece of equipment to facilitate this. Or am I completely behind the times and this is available at Best Buy for $10???

Scott,

It already exists on the commercial market http://www.dlna.org/home

The good people at Microsoft, Sony, Intel, Panasonic, Cisco, Nokia, Sharp, Ericsson, Toshiba and a bunch of others have got together to claim your prize. They have formed the Digital Living Network Alliance, which is a bunch of compatible storage and display devices linked arounf a central NAS to provide media through a home network.

The Activity section of their products page http://www.dlna.org/products/ almost exactly mirrors your requirements:
"Store music on one device [specifically the NAS] and play it on another networked device."
"Store videos on one device and watch them on another networked device."

Running three (or more) concurrent video streams would seem to be only limited by your server/network speed.

One thing I sort of glossed over.

The reason you're having a problem with the iTunes is a limitation built into the iTunes software. It can only play one song at a time, and you can't run more than one instance of it on a computer at once. Therefore, the only way each room could have it's own song from iTunes is to have multiple computers. This is not a limitation of innovative people, or any indication that people aren't interested in what you're describing, just a limitation of the iTunes software itself.

Also, iTunes has a known issue (that has been reported as a bug since . . 2004? somewhere around there with no response) where you can't change the Airport express outputs via any remote control method. You can change songs, volume, lots of other stuff via the API or via keyboard shortcuts, but iTunes does not allow you to switch which rooms you are outputting to via any method other than using your mouse to do it. Glossing over the fact that this is an obvious accessibility issue (what about people who don't use mice?), this hamstrings attempts to automate music flow through a house.

If you truly want this system to work, I'd look into a system other than iTunes for your playback, and use a sync service of some sort to synchronize your iTunes library to it. That way you'd only ever have to add your music to one library (iTunes, ReQuest, Kaleidoscape, SageTV, etc) and it would be accessible everywhere.

J

It already exists.

www.amx.com

AMX is a complete home control system that can be programmed to do whatever you want. To answer your two specific questions:

1) You can do this two ways.
a) SageTV or something similar can be integrated. This is a centrally located computer that serves as your DVR, and then has HD Media Extenders located in each room. Each extender controls it's own content, but it all pulls from the same source. You can have as many extenders as you want watching as many different programs as you want, and the AMX Control system can control them all. Each room would have it's own touchpanel or remote and you could access the same data everywhere
b) You have a matrix switcher located in a central location, and multiple DVRs. Each person in the house would have their own DVR, and every room could access any DVR. From the touchpanel, you choose your personal DVR, and then you can play whatever you want, while in a different room, someone else could do the same thing with their DVR.

SageTV would be closer to what you described, the multiple DVR solution is more common because Sage requires a little more knowledge on a day to day basis, while the DVR solution just runs once it is setup.

2) By requiring iTunes, you're being incredibly picky here. If you truly want iTunes, you'd have to set up multiple computers running iTunes. You could set each computer up to sync to the others, and from a user standpoint, you'd never know exactly which computer you were listening to in a room, but you could have as many different songs going in as many different rooms as you wanted.

If you're willing to get away from Mr. Jobs lock on the digital music industry, you can look into ReQuest Audio or Kaleidoscape. Both companies make wonderful media servers that allow you to select your song from a database via an AMX touchpanel and play it in any room in the house. Someone else could do the same thing and choose an entirely different song, without affecting you.

Kaleidoscape also has several other fun functions. For example, if you have multiple homes, Kaleidoscape will sync between the homes, so any DVD you load into the system in your California house will be available for viewing in your New York condo.

---------

In addition, AMX can be programmed to control heating, lighting, your pool, fireplaces, alarm systems, security cameras, entry systems (doorbells with cameras attached), entry gates, etc. You can also include RFID control with it so that things happen based on proximity (your music could follow you from room to room, if you had an RFID chip in your wallet, for example, or the lights could turn on when your car turned in the driveway and turn off when it left). These systems DO live on your home network, and can access the internet to receive information about weather and other such nonsense. In one instance, I actually downloaded weather data from the internet, and on cloudy and partly cloudy days, I opened the blinds, and on sunny days I automatically closed the shades to prevent glare on the television.

The downside is that these systems require advanced programming knowledge to set up, and generally require a service contract should something go wrong. Also, they're prohibitively expensive for the average consumer. A whole home system like you're currently describing could run in the $400K to $500K range without too much trouble, once you've paid for equipment, programming, and installation. On the plus side, every single job is custom to exactly what you want.

If you want to know anything more about this system, or I left any important details out, my email address is jeffmcaleer at bellsouth period net. Feel free to hit me up for clarification.

J

"It's too late for broccoli"
Scott, what does this mean?

Hey Scott you should make a widget for the Itouch/ Iphone and maybe get it Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) and the Get Fuzzy dude to do the same thing I know I would pay $30 for just yours and probaly another 30 for the other two each