Plans for Home Entertainment System

Family Room

Item	Target year	Comments
HD-TV	Long term	Currently have 42" plasma but not true HDTV
Closed caption	3+	Currently have CC device but it frequently causes TV picture to become distorted
HD-DVR	?	Currently using ReplayTV, no HD recording. DNNA introducing TV card with ReplayTV software
Archive	<1	Currently over 1 TB of storage but need device with fan. Stardom Sohotank is good candidate, available from PC Pitstop ($129). Update: Bought it and it failed after 1 year + 4 months. I have now replaced it with a Buffalo TeraStation Pro II.
Backup of archive	3+	No backup. Need at least interim backup in short term--Media room PC?
Central library	?	Will this end up being the same as the Archive? Currently using media room PC
Region-free DVD player / recorder	?	Currently would prefer not to support BluRay and HD-DVD
Internet radio	?	Should be part of whole house streaming strategy
Security camera	?	Should be visible as part of HTPC set up, should be expandable to support additional cameras
Home automation	?	Should be integrated as part of HTPC
Streaming	?	Should be integrated as part of HTPC. Should each room have a PC? If each room has PC, this can replace ReplayTV unit
Place-shifting	?	For outside of house, is Slingbox the answer. For inside the house, a video streaming router...?
Internet surfing	?	Should be supported by HTPC
Remote	1	Should be able to support ReplayTV, also use to navigate PC. Gyroscopic mouse would be most intuitive for navigating

Dreams for Home Entertainment System

For many of my goals, I’ll probably take the “Disney” approach, which is to:

1. Dream it
2. Plan it
3. Criticize it (ie, become more realistic about it)

So first, I have to dream it.

• Family room
  • HD-TV, ability to view from back porch
  • Closed caption, support realtime translation to other languages (in particular Japanese)
  • HD-DVR, ability to archive to PC
  • Archive (at least 1.6 TB)
  • Backup of archive (another 1.6 TB)
  • Central library for video, photo, music
  • Region-free DVD player/recorder
  • Internet radio
  • Security camera
  • Home automation
  • Video/photo/audio streaming to any room / outdoors, separate control panel in each room
  • Place-shifting (both inside of house and outside of house)
  • Internet surfing, weather
  • Remote control with display, also can be used for surfing
• Media room
  • HD Projector, 16×9 native mode
  • Closed caption
  • Approximately 120” screen
  • Surround-sound
  • Golf simulator :)
  • Remote control with display, also can be used for surfing
• Game room
  • ???
• Bedroom and other rooms
  • Access to central library for video, photo, music
  • Comfortable position for viewing from bed
  • Home automation / security camera
  • Internet surfing
• Outdoors
  • Projector for projecting “drive-in” movie on garage door
  • Closed caption
  • Appropriate screen for projector (sheet?)
  • Outdoor sound system (speakers which look like old-time drive-in speakers)