What are PC solutions for controlling audio and video in a "home-run"
wired new home?  I don't want to buy the expensive Crestron or Eschent
systems.  I want to have a PC interface to control multiple music and
video zones, but am concerned about the bad reviews of Microsoft Media
Center software.  My ideal system allows me to easily download music
and video and have output to multiple rooms at the same time.  The
ideal system helps me organize my media files and can connect to my
centrally wired amplifier/sound system and my existing TVs.

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Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 09 Jan 2004 12:47 PST

swiggins -

I'm assuming you're looking to spend basically a few hundred dollars
to achieve this, correct?  If so, from what I can tell in my talking
to home automation aficionados and people in the industry, there
doesn't appear to be an off-the-shelf, "click and go,"
hardware/software combo package to achieve what you're looking to do
in that price range.  There does appear a way to do it, but it will
require a little bit of "rigging" with multiple sound cards.  Should I
investigate that for you?

jbf

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Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 13 Jan 2004 14:44 PST

Through some more investigating, I've come upon an affordable,
off-the-shelf solution for distributing audio through the PC to
multiple rooms of the house.  It's about $1700 or so, and through its
hardware/software combo setup, it will essentially send 8 stereo or 16
mono independent line out feeds from your PC to your amplifier.  I
believe this is what you're looking for on the audio side?

As for video, are you looking for a similar option for the same PC? 
For example, you want a central PC sending 4 separate songs to 4
different rooms of the house (via what I've described above), and the
same PC sending 3 or 4 separate video streams (with audio?) to the
same or different rooms?  I need a little clarification as to exactly
what you're trying to achieve.

Thanks,

jbf

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Clarification of Question by swiggins-ga on 14 Jan 2004 07:03 PST

Thanks for the response.  I have just figured out that "Post
Clarification" is how I get to you. I was a little "dense" on figuring
that out!  Sorry for the delay.

Sounds like your solution is very close to what I'm looking for.  I am
not price sensitive on components and software.  I simply want to use
a PC for this purpose, rather than the high end whole house
hardware/software solutions from Crescent or Eschent.

As for my audio needs, I want to be able to sit at my computer,
download music and be able to have that music available throughout the
house.  Ideally, the software allows me to play two or more
songs/playlists simultaneously, each song feeding a separate amplifier
and "zone" within my house.  I have teeagers and we all share a
central hard drive now, using a wireless network.  If the audio
capabilities can also connect to satellite radio, that would be great.

As for video, ideally I want what you described in your question: a
central PC sending 4 separate songs to 4 different rooms of the house
(via what I've described above), and the same PC sending 3 or 4
separate video streams (with audio?) to the same or different rooms. 
At a minimum, I want to be able to download video files and send them
to a single television.

Let me know if you need more clarification

Hello swiggins -

A very interesting question to research!  If you choose to rate this
answer, please ask for any necessary clarification you may require
before doing so.  Thank you for your understanding.

There are a couple options for the audio side of things:

The first is an offering from Digigram (www.digigram.com)

Their audio Manager software, which as a street price of about $500
allows you to do multiple streams of audio.  This interfaces into
their Mixart PCI card (street price of about $1200-$1300), which sends
8 channels of stereo sound (8 stereo zones) or 16 channels of mono
sound (16 zones).

This setup would result in up to 8 or 16 channels of actual line level
audio coming from your computer, which you can then wire into one or
more amplifiers as you see fit.

These products can be seen here:

Audio Manager
http://www.digigram.com/products/getinfo.htm?prod_key=11550

Mixart
http://www.digigram.com/products/getinfo.htm?prod_key=11000


Contact Digigram for more information:
877-820-9184 - James

These products are available through various dealers,
www.audiomidi.com being one of them.

---

The second option is significantly more expensive, but could possibly
be more robust in a networked situation ($3000+) -- although it adds
another external hardware component.  It's called the One Home Tab,
and it's from a company called "Home Logic" (www.homelogic.com):

"The OneHome Audio Tab provides a simple and powerful interface to
manage and play all of your music and your favorite Internet radio
stations, in a single zone, or in a full-fledged, whole house audio
system."

It's essentially a central controller that acts as the distribution
point by networking into all of your computers.  See it here:

http://www.homelogic.com/audio.html

"The OneHome audio solution delivers a clean and powerful interface
for managing and controlling existing media such as tapes, CDs and
radio, in addition to the support for digital music players and
Internet radio.

By storing your music collection in a central location, you can
quickly and easily browse your entire music collection, finding those
old favorites that have been languishing in the back of the drawer.

And, since the OneHome system does not replace your existing players,
you can always control any of the music players at their control
panel, giving you the freedom to choose what is most convenient."

Contact Joe Loudner for more information:

Joe Loudner
781-718-5727

He can set you up with a web-based demonstration so you can see how
the interface works.


***************************************


For video, there's a solution called "MediaEdge" by a company called
Canopus (pronounced Canópus).  It allows you to distribute disparate
video (with audio) signals to various TV sources.  The starter kit (2
zones) runs in the $2800+ range, and goes up about $800 per zone
thereafter (essentially unlimited zones).

Here are the links:

Media Edge 
http://www.canopus.us/us/products/mediaedge/pt_mediaedge.asp#key_benefits
http://www.canopus.us/US/products/MediaEdge/pm_mediaedge.asp


How it works: you'd have one of the ethernet-fed Media Edge STB (set
top box) hardware units connected to each of your TV's.  There'd be
one ethernet cable from your central PC going to a central switcher
that would feed the STB's.  You'd have your central scheduling server
running the SVS Scheduling Software which would control what is
displayed on the various TV's.  The MediaEdge software must run on
Windows 2000 Server.  It is a web-based interface
(http://www.canopus.us/US/products/mediaEdge/pa_mediaedge.asp#s1), so
you could effectively control it from any PC on the network.  You
could buy a cheap $300 PC to run Win 2000 Server if you don't want to
run it on your existing computer, or you could have a partition that
you could boot to.

The MediaEdge software sends MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 video to the STB, but
they have a piece of software called ProCoder which allows you to
convert numerous formats to MPEG:

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/procoder_express/pm_procoder_express.asp

For more information on this product, please contact Ray at Canopus:

Ray (available next week)
408-954-4211

Available from B&H:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

---

Optibase is another option, but I believe they are considerably more
expensive (according to Ray at Canopus, $15,000+ ).

Optibase
http://www.optibase.com/html/products/lobby_product.html

---

A UK company called Kat5 might have more of a DIY solution to
one-to-one video, or possibly one-to-many.

http://www.kat5.tv/index1.html

For a basic PC to TV solution:

WinTV
http://www.hauppauge.com/

This site indexes various "PC-to-TV" one-to-one options:
http://ruel.net/pc/tv.tuner.converter.htm


***************************************


Other home automation links I came upon:

Whole House Audio tutorial
http://www.hometech.com/learn/audio.html

HAL2000
$335.99
http://store.yahoo.com/asihome/halvoicconho.html

Elan
www.elanhomesystems.com

Pragmatic Communications Systems, Inc. 
www.wireless-experts.com

Vaux Electronics
www.vauxelectronics.com


Search strategy:
"A/V distribution" automation
"home automation" PC audio video
"multizone audio"
"multizone video"
"multi-zone audio/video"
"multi-stream" audio OR video
"multiple stream" audio OR video
{talked with various retailers/manufacturers/aficionados}

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Clarification of Answer by jbf777-ga on 15 Jan 2004 19:53 PST

Here's another straightforward one-stream solution:

http://www.vpi.us/vga-converter.html

For the audio distribution under PC control, you could also consider
new Clipsal C-Bus multi-room audio products and HomeGate PC software.
You can find more details at http://www.cleverhome.com.au and other
useful links at http://www.homeautomationaustralia.com.