Re: Home Intranets - was MP3 Whole House Audio

["paul gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

I can add a little more to the displaying of VGA on a TV dilemma...

I currently do this with my old laptop (an IBM Stinkpad), which has a
custom
connector for a video-out port (a tiny little 3pin plug), into which
connects a "dongle" with a breakout box on it which has both a
phono
(composite) and a mini-din (S-VHS) video out connectors. I have used both
of
these ports, and to be honest have been disappointed with the results. I
expected to see an improvement when I changed it from the composite to the
S-video connection, but in truth, I can't really tell any difference.

However, I was recently at Microsoft Tech-Ed in Amsterdam, where they had
TV's dotted around the conference centre, displaying output from a PC
somewhere (they all showed the same output, so it was obviously via a uhf
distribution net) - I noticed that the display quality on these was
considerably higher than I achieve at home, so I took a look round the back
of one to see how it was connected, and sure enough, despite a plethora of
connectors on the back, the ONLY signal wire going in to them was a co-ax
UHF lead... These were perfectly standard Philips domestic TV's (not
specialised monitors.) My assumption is that, being Philips TV's, they are
most likely 100Hz scan models, (which my current TV isn't). I'm guessing
that this may be the reason for the better image quality...

Can anyone else comment on this? - has anyone tried comparing the same PC's
TV out signal between a 50Hz and a 100Hz scan TV? (I'd prefer to know if
it's worth it before I rush out & buy one!)

Talking of new TV's I was planning to buy something rather special next
year
(waiting for the big plasmatrons to get a bit cheaper than £7K!!) and I had
been hoping to get either a big (42" plus) flatpanel widescreen job,
or
maybe a projector, but then in this month's T3 I spotted an ad for a
60"
(Yes, you read that right - 5 feet!) DLP screen, which among other things,
has a direct VGA connection, so it could plug straight in to a PC &
function
as a monitor, as well as all the usual things. It also has a touch screen
option, and a PIP option. This was advertised at £4995 (inc vat), which I
reckon I could _JUST_ (with a little bribery) get Wife to accept!! I don't
know how much the touch screen option would add to that cost, but wouldn't
that be a COOL thing!! - a 5 foot wide touchscreen!!

Only trouble is, it's made by some manufacturer I have NEVER heard of
(Davies multimedia or something like that) and I'm a bit wary of buying
very
expensive items without at least some confidence in the company I'm giving
all that cash to... Still, If I can research the product, and company a
little, (enough to get that confidence), I reckon I may well go for one of
these (or another very much like it) next year instead...

We'll see....

Paul Gordon.



>From: Keith Doxey <keith.doxey@xxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>To: "'ukha_d@xxxxxxx'" <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
>Subject: [ukha_d] Re: Home Intranets - was   MP3 Whole House Audio
>Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 22:52:19 +0100
>
>Hi Ray,
>
>I was mentioning my web databases to someone at work and when I
mentioned a
>"Recipe" database I was told I was a sad person :-((
>
>Admittedly the CD and Video databases are a higher priority, as is
getting
>some the material that I frequently use for reference scanned into
>electronic format and searchable.
>
>As you have said, it increases the wife acceptance factor if there is
>something to make her life easier. We have loads of cookery books in
the
>cupboard but there are only a few recipies in each one that ever get
used,
>and the one you want is always the last one you find. My wife also cuts
>articles out of magazines and puts them into a folder as well as
looking at
>recipies on teletext. Using a TV card I can get the text straight off
>teletext with no typing ;-))
>
>Once entered into a database with certain keywords in the relevant
fields
>you can look in the freezer or cupboard, find some ingredients and
search
>for a recipe that fits the bill. You can also search for a particular
type
>of cuisine etc.
>
>I havent done too much with Javascript yet but you can probably build a
>timer into a web page as well so that as you read the recipe and get to
the
>stage of "put in oven for 30 minutes" you click the button
and 30 minutes
>later a wav file plays to let you know the food is cooked and if you
dont
>cancel the timer then 15 minutes later.....
>
>J:/JukeboxM/Move/Fire_Brigade.MP3
>or
>J:/JukeboxD/Deep_Purple/Smoke_On_The_Water.MP3
>
>...starts to play over all the speakers in the house :-))
>
>Could possibly also be done with Active X to send Com Port messages to
>Homevision or whatever your HA system is built around.
>
>Add an address book database with all the details you would ever need,
>birthdays, anniversaries etc.
>
>Have your browser set up for your local intranet as the homepage with
icons
>for
>Home Control, Music, Video, Recipies, Addresses, Favourite Web Sites
etc.
>
>The biggest problem with a home intranet is the display used to show
the
>pages. If using a TV as the display medium 640x480 is best as this is
>approximately the same as a TV picture although a good TV might manage
>800x600. By choosing a suitable size font for YOUR INTRANET pages most
of
>the problems associated with using VGA to PAL converters can be
overcome.
>The full screen mode of Internet Explorer 5 is also a bonus as it
maximises
>the viewing area of the screen. Most windows programs these days seem
to
>take about 50% of a VGA screen just for the toolbars and stuff :-((
>
>This whole Automation/Intranet thing has so many possibilities, I just
wish
>I could spend a lot more time experimenting. As you said in your
message,
>maybe a modular HA/Intranet system could be developed by some of the
people
>on this list. Many of us have specialised skills in one or more of the
>required areas, hardware, software, design etc.
>
>Looking forward to hopefully meeting some of you soon
>
>Keith
>
>Keith Doxey
>http://www.btinternet.com/~krazy.keith
>Krazy Keith's World of DIY Home Automation
>
>  I'm a keen full
>time VB/Access/SQL server developer whose only problem with doing this
>sort of thing is time. I've not written any 'proper' web
>interfaces/applications yet but I'm keen to learn, and I believe
>VB/Access/ASP makes this easy.
>
>I can sell the idea to Kate (wife) if I incorporate recipe
functionality
>in the system too - we had the idea a while ago that if you could
>download loyalty card information detailing what you had bought, a web
>browser in the kitchen could suggest recipes... I've not kept up with
>Tescos, but I know that someone is doing something along similar lines
>using PalmPilots and barcode scanners.
>
>Maybe this would be a good topic for discussion at a mini-meeting - the
>project is potentially large enough in scope to justify being a modular
>ASP/Access development that a number of people could contribute to? A
>deadline in the form of a meeting might help focus my development
>efforts too...
>
>
>
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