I was looking in to setting up a media server / home control server and was lookign to see how others are doing this using house bot and Meedio essentials. I remmeber reading that this was goign to be implimented ina future release but havent seen anythign on this recently.
I mainly want to have multiple Pocket PCs connecting in at the same time via wireless network for the controllers. I want the server to control X10 items, play FM radio and MP3 playlists or songs. I am in the process of putting in speaker wire and impedence matching volume controls through the house to act as each sections volume control (instead of relying on volume control of PC).
I would also love to tie in a door chime or alert system in with this so when the front door opens it says front door, rear door etc or when someone rings the doorbell to have it chime in across the speakers.
Since I have access to PC hardware I dont want to get in to seperate devices or etc andl iek the idea of house bot / meedio essentials tie in.
The same server that will house meedio essentials will also be my file server for MP3, movies and pictures.
I have a lot of scattered thoughts and etc on this and looking for any advice or people with similar setups to help guide me (I've tried this and this didnt work but this did type of advice).
Meedio Essentials and Housebot as Media Server
I'm also researching implementing housebot into my meedio setup, but I've been discouraged by the lack of activity around the housebot forums. I didn't know about housebot before Meedio acquired it, nor do I know how active it's users were before the acquisition, but compared to the amount of Meedio Essentials activity that I've gotten used to since the myHTPC days, the Housebot option, even with the Essentials integration that has been promised, isn't looking really great.
I truely hope that once the 'integration plugin' (my name, not meedio's) is released, the activity around here will pickup. Housebot seems to be a truely great program, I just haven't been able to really get a feel for it because it's users aren't posting a whole lot. I get the impression that the average housebot user isn't the perpetual tweaker that the Essentials user is.
I recommended a gallery of sorts some time ago, and was told that it was in the works - but that was early fall of last year.
Scott has been pretty helpful, but a lot of the posts recently seem to be the 'can you do this?' type, and many have not gotten any responses - so I think there must be some sort of gag order around Meedio Inc, or else we'd get "soon", or "no" responses, and we aren't.
That rant aside - here's the best advice I can give at this point of my planning:
I have a solid Meedio box running, and am planning to add housebot and x10 to it. I've considered Zwave - but there aren't nearly the number of products available that use it. IE: I can't find doorbell ringers, and motion detectors.
AFAIK, you can have housebot tasks assigned to pause meedio when events trigger what you want.
edit: Housebot can support multiple PPC remotes, so you're fine here. It cannot however run multiple instances of the LOCAL software remote on the same computer. So you can't add a bunch of PCI video cards and touchscreen monitors to add interfaces.
I use JRMC to play MP3s and plan on using Netremote's music program to control it through a PPC. Housebot however can control winamp natively, so if you use winamp, you won't need netremote.
I'm looking for solutions to a multi-zone audio system and have been hitting walls. Exactly how are you planning yours? Maybe we can collaborate on a new solution.
That's all I have time to write now - gotta get back to work. I'll update this post at lunch.
I truely hope that once the 'integration plugin' (my name, not meedio's) is released, the activity around here will pickup. Housebot seems to be a truely great program, I just haven't been able to really get a feel for it because it's users aren't posting a whole lot. I get the impression that the average housebot user isn't the perpetual tweaker that the Essentials user is.
I recommended a gallery of sorts some time ago, and was told that it was in the works - but that was early fall of last year.
Scott has been pretty helpful, but a lot of the posts recently seem to be the 'can you do this?' type, and many have not gotten any responses - so I think there must be some sort of gag order around Meedio Inc, or else we'd get "soon", or "no" responses, and we aren't.
That rant aside - here's the best advice I can give at this point of my planning:
I have a solid Meedio box running, and am planning to add housebot and x10 to it. I've considered Zwave - but there aren't nearly the number of products available that use it. IE: I can't find doorbell ringers, and motion detectors.
AFAIK, you can have housebot tasks assigned to pause meedio when events trigger what you want.
edit: Housebot can support multiple PPC remotes, so you're fine here. It cannot however run multiple instances of the LOCAL software remote on the same computer. So you can't add a bunch of PCI video cards and touchscreen monitors to add interfaces.
I use JRMC to play MP3s and plan on using Netremote's music program to control it through a PPC. Housebot however can control winamp natively, so if you use winamp, you won't need netremote.
I'm looking for solutions to a multi-zone audio system and have been hitting walls. Exactly how are you planning yours? Maybe we can collaborate on a new solution.
That's all I have time to write now - gotta get back to work. I'll update this post at lunch.
Here Here, I to am desperate to combine Meedio Essentials and Meedio house bot, or to have good X10 and infrared flexible control added to Meedio Essentials to send to girder so we can control are homes as well as are Media. I also cant see why more people and Meedio inc. don't want that its clearly the house of the future today.
-
Steve Horn
- HouseBot Guru
- Posts: 757
- Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:10 pm
- Location: Pelham AL
Crashless, to answer your question about Housebot in the pre-Meedio days, there was a LOT of dialogue and stimulating ideas on the Cebotics forum. It was agreat place to exchange ideas, offer solutions, suggest enhancements to HB, test fixes, etc. I've been using HB for years and a big reason was the support that I got from Scott and the other users.
My impression/suspicion is that the Meedio guys (Scott included I suppose) are "dancin' as fast as they can" trying to put the two apps together as seamlessy as possible. Hence there hasn't been the level of ongoing support that some of us have become accustomed to.
fwiw,
My impression/suspicion is that the Meedio guys (Scott included I suppose) are "dancin' as fast as they can" trying to put the two apps together as seamlessy as possible. Hence there hasn't been the level of ongoing support that some of us have become accustomed to.
fwiw,
Steve
Thanks for the reply Steve. It's nice to get some background on Housebot in the pre-meedio days.
I am willing to bet a dollar that once this integration plugin gets released - in any form - the housebot sections of this board will go quite crazy.
As for THIS Meedio user, I just took advantage of the $20 savings on housebot. Even though I'm not going to have any X10 stuff for quite some time, at least now I can start messing around with ideas, and I saved $20 on a product that doesn't go on sale very often. If I'm gonna 'have' to buy it, might as well save some cash.
Anyways, I'll probably start posting my questions next week.
I am willing to bet a dollar that once this integration plugin gets released - in any form - the housebot sections of this board will go quite crazy.
As for THIS Meedio user, I just took advantage of the $20 savings on housebot. Even though I'm not going to have any X10 stuff for quite some time, at least now I can start messing around with ideas, and I saved $20 on a product that doesn't go on sale very often. If I'm gonna 'have' to buy it, might as well save some cash.
Anyways, I'll probably start posting my questions next week.