Re: Re: Media Servers

[Bruno Prior <bruno@xxxxxxx>]

Andy Laurence wrote:
> I have a couple of points to raise about this.  Firstly, how wou= ld
> you control these boxes?  A simple UI is key to a good system.
There is a big difference between the UI required for a machine designed to be controlled from directly in front on a flat surface, and one
designed to be controlled from a distance. From my experience, I would
say it is hopeless trying to build a UI interface for remote operation
that still relies on use of a pointer. Having bigger fonts and buttons
is not the solution. I have never come across a pointing device that is
really practical if you are not sitting at a desk. You need the
interface to be controllable by button presses on a remote control,
possibly allowing for additional use of keyboard where text is required.
I would have thought that it should be possible to configure something
like lirc/irexec/irpty/irxevent to control browsers like Opera that
accept a wide range of keystroke commands. Then you need to design a web interface that is easy to navigate by a series of keystrokes.
Alternatively, there is a perl module for lirc, so you could build a GUI using perl/Tk or some other perl GUI module. But a browser interface
would be simpler. You might be able to adapt something like OEone HomeBase.=

Come to think of it, Misterhouse can be controlled via an IRMan, so you
could run a proxy copy of Misterhouse on each machine and setup your
interface through that. This would then also give you the option to use
voice control, if you can setup a microphone that can pick up your voice >from video). Of course, I have no idea about the details that would be
involved to do any of this. ;-)

> Secondly, you'll need a pretty hot machine for each source to encode<= BR> > on the fly.  Not only will this cost a few quid, but it'll eat > electricity.  You will have 250w used by each encoder, plus at l= east
> 100w for each display device.  For 5 TVs and 4 inputs, that's 1.= 5kW
> constantly in use.  Off peak for me is about 4p/kwh, so that's > 6p/hour all the time, or about =A3525 a year.  Bear in mind that= 's at
> an off-peak rate...

It seems to me that you only need a "pretty hot machine" for game= s. For
anything else, a bog standard machine would do. Yes, software MPEG
encoding would need a more powerful machine, but you could avoid that
with a hardware MPEG card.

But assuming one would go for a more powerful machine for the gaming
capability, one can envisage ways of controlling it so it is not always
on. Most motherboards and networks support Wake-on-LAN nowadays. A
multimedia network would almost certainly have at least one always-on
server. If that server runs home automation software and you have a PIR
in each room where you have a computer, the server can be configured to
send a Wake-on-LAN signal to the appropriate computer whenever it
receives an occupancy signal from the PIR.

Turning the machine on when someone enters a room should be relatively
straightforward. Given the inadequacies of PIRs for monitoring
occupancy, turning the machine off when someone leaves may be a little
more complex. If it is impractical to use a PIR to detect when a room is emptied, it may be necessary to rely on a manual system. Perhaps a
switch at each room exit which can send an X-10 or C-Bus or whatever
code that triggers (a) all lights off, and (b) computer and other
controlled hardware shutdown. The actual mechanism to shutdown the
computer would be relatively simple on a linux-based network. It might
be more difficult using Windows.

Does this sound practical?

Cheers,

Bruno Prior

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