Forgive my ignorance as I have a lot of basic research to do but any pointers would be greatly appreciated. I will list the things I know I want here and might link to another page with design elements once I know what I will have. We should be in our new place in 1 year so there is lots of time to dream.
General Stuff:
- The whole system must be silent. Machine noise that is so soothing to me, drives my wife crazy. Actually crazy, she on more than one occasion has threatened to throw her laptop off the balcony if the fan does not shut up. I have seen cabinets that have a kind of mesh across the front so you don't see all blinky lights but not sure what to put all this gear in so that it will be quiet.
- Wireless Network - not much more to say here just that I will need to plan for full coverage. I do wonder if I should run some cable drops in select rooms.
- Remote access to the internal network, ftp(?), a web server
- Some type of network appliance to hold files, music, pictures, video etc. It should be accessible from the whole house. TV, stereo, computers etc. should play all forms of media
- For music I like the Itunes streaming concept. It lets me manage it all from one place but I would really like to see some nice DRM killer. Its my music...I paid for it.
- I have given in to the fact that I will have to have some kind of "server room" or wire closet. I plan to just mount some cabinets in the garage.
Living Room:
HDTV (I don't know what plasma/HD etc. is at all and size is TBD)
DirecTV
Tivo
XBOX
Music System (accessing CD, DVD and network based music)
Minimum remotes
Kids/Game Room:
Is HDTV required here? Do the gaming platforms care about this?
DirecTV
Tivo
XBOX (maybe 2 in here if I can fit 2 TVs)
Music System (accessing CD, DVD and network based music)
Kitchen:
TV
Tivo
Music System (accessing CD, DVD and network based music)
Bedrooms:
drops for all the TV stuff in the Master Bedroom
Music System (accessing CD, DVD and network based music)
Outside:
Music System (accessing CD, DVD and network based music)
PDA based control?
1 comment:
The TV depends on what you want Plasma/LCD picture isn't as good (in my opinion) and the life is shorter. DLPs are the way to go now, in my opinion, they are not quite as flat as the plasma, but have better picture and longer life. Cheaper too. Also, plasmas look awesome if they are mounted on the wall and have all the cables, etc hidden. A lot of people don't and it looks horrible. DirecTV is way behind on HD.. They came out with the DirecTV HD Tivo about 6 months ago and it is $1000. There are only a few HD channels now, but that is supposed to change in the next year or so. Of course, the Sunday Ticket is in HD right now and is a given. Prob all this stuff is worth that alone.
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