RE: HomeVision or other?

["Kevin Hawkins" <lists@xxxxxxx>]

    I took a look at HV's current price and it does seem more expensive than I remember. The differential is quite significant now.

 

    You can compare the hardware features yourself I guess from the specs so here's some comments on the software side.

 

    The Ocelot is the brains behind the Leopard controller and is well produced and professional product (IMO). I use the Leopard and I am happy with it, but I find it awkward. A lot of my criticisms are to do with the specific capabilities of the Touch screen interface and the ongoing development of the product and hence don't apply to the Ocelot. Basically little appears to be happening in terms of new features but what you do have works well. The programming environment for the Ocelot is quite different to HomeVision - much more like a programming language and that may or may not be an advantage to you. I suggest you download the software which is available on the web site and try it and see what you think. It can be used without the Ocelot connected. In addition I suspect the amount of code space inside the Ocelot is much less than with HV and requires much more skill to code in a complex environment. There is a well supported mail list for this however. Homeseer supports Ocelot directly.

 

    HomeVision - which I use too - is my choice of HV controller. I find it easy to use and incredibly powerful, it has a busy mail list supporting it and Craig does an exemplary job. In fact he and Dan Hoehnen (ACE author) are my nominations for the best support Oscars. I find it much easier to add things quickly into HV and to understand things later on when I've forgotten why I did such and such. This allows for more ad hoc experimentation & less planning is required (but not recommended). The programming environment can also be downloaded from CSI's site and works without HV so have a look and see - it is a much more graphic environment. In addition the HomeVision application links up with ACE etc via DDE to provide a very tightly integrated solution. The ACE / Homeseer integration is much more of a programming interface (COM).

 

    In the USA there is also a product called HomeVision PC available which is lower cost - the main difference being it is a card sitting in a PC so it requires a permanently powered PC.

 

    My recommendation ?? HV every time but that's being a little insensitive to the now much larger price difference than I had expected, so you takes your choice I guess... If you will use TV display then the HV of course is a certain choice.

 

    A comparison of HV against JDS's Time Commander is quite enlightening and is available here http://www.csi3.com/hv_comp.htm.

 

    Kevin

[[K]] 

 -----Original Message-----
From: Andy Laurence [mailto:andylaurence@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 22 February 2002 16:46
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxxSubject: [ukha_d] Homevision or other?

> I
> suppose it'll be time for me to splash out on an HA controller of
> some
> description soon.  I've been looking around at the
> possibles.  I've seen
> this (http://www.letsautomate.com/10599.cfm?CFID=432&CFTOKEN=51078446)
> which
> seems to do quite a lot for not a lot of money.
>
> I'm after
> something which will do X10, IR and possibly control things via
> relays
> (no
> idea what yet).  Bear in mind that I run a server 24/7 at home,
> and
> have another which can do the same.  What would I be missing out on if
> I
> bought the above rather than HomeVision?  I know I'd lose the TV
> interface
> of HomeVision, but that doesn't bother me.  Are there
> other
> alternatives?
>
> Andy
> --
> PC-Based Multimedia System
> http://www.andylaurence.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/pcbmms
>
>
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