OT(ish): Whole house movies (and a possible project)

["Graham Howe" <graham@xxxxxxx>]

Recently I have had conversations with a couple of guys here about how
we would like to control movie viewing. The consensus seemed to be some
sort of front-end application that could scroll through a database of
movie information and would, at the click of a button or press of a
finger, play the selected movie.

Now there are various elements that need to be in place for this
particular scenario to work in your home, here are the ones I can think
of but there may be others:

1. Films need to be located 'centrally' in/on a source that is capable
of responding to a command to select and play the movie. There seem to
be two options for this at present, the first is a multi-dvd player
(Kenwood have a nice one that I am considering) and the second is films
'ripped' to a hard disk on a computer of some sort.

2. Method of delivering video and audio from the source to the
screen(s)
and amp(s)/speakers. There are several options here depending upon the
quality required, distances involved, physical obstacles, other
obstacles (e.g. WAF) and so on. The choice is probably between wireless
(Giga video sort of stuff), RF distribution, normal 'AV' distribution
(scart, interconnects, speaker wire etc) and CAT5 based distribution
(either
through KAT5-type products or computer to computer networking).

3. Method of delivering commands to the source from the viewing
location. Again there are a few options here, but the roughly fall
between direct IR, IR via RF, IR via cable, control via computer
network
(wired or wireless) including items such as HomeVision.

4. A database of all movies stored at the source. This could in it's
simplest form just be a list of titles, but could well extend to cover
'disc' details such as layers, audio format, cast information, film
synopsis and so on and so on. The database could be held locally on a
computer or access remotely via the internet. The database could be
part
of
a commercial product, a 'free/shareware' product or home built.

5. A front-end to the database that allows browsing/searching through
the database, selection of a film and the commands to be sent to the
source to play the film. Additionally there may be features such as
reporting (to produce a film guide for visitors maybe) and data
maintenance screens for updating the database.

6. Some remote control 'platform' that presents the front-end to the
user and accepts input from them. This could be a standard remote
control, an advanced remote (such as Pronto), a PDA device (iPAQ, ePOD
etc), a laptop or larger PC and other bespoke devices such as touch
screens, physical buttons and so on.

Bearing in mind that there are a large number of possible variants in
the combination of all of these elements, I then started thinking about
what particular 'set' I would like to implement. So, as a 'starter for
ten', here is my 'ideal design':

1. Source: DVD multi-changer capable of receiving PC and IR commands.
Initially I was favouring the 'ripped to disk' approach as disk space
is
so cheap and it would follow on from my approach to music (all CDs now
ripped to MP3s on the server). However, I just couldn't imagine sitting
down and ripping 200 DVDs, it is the time that would take that put me
off. The Kenwood 400 DVD changer is only 500 quid and my time is worth
more than
that. There is also a slight concern I had about the stress that my
server or LAN might be under with big video files flying around, though
that is probably an unnecessary concern.

2. Method of distributing AV: KAT5 (with some possibility of RF or
normal AV cabling to certain locations). This is the easiest solution
for me, my house has thick stone walls so wireless just doesn't work.
Last year I put 88 CAT5 ports around the house and so I can plug KAT5
in
anywhere.

3. Method of delivering commands to source: This has made me pause for
thought a bit. I have decided that the choice will come down to IR over
CAT5 and control over a computer network (probably involving
HomeVision). Again the size of the house and the probable location of
the source relative to the viewing location means that a wired solution
(for the bulk of the journey) is the best approach for me and therefore
CAT5 is the preferred medium. The final choice (though both options may
remain) will probably come down to what is decided for 5 and 6.

4. The database of films: for me this has to be a 'rich' database. I
want lists of actors, screen/cover shots, synopsis, audio and other
parameters, in short at least everything that appears on the cover of
the original DVD. I have been looking around for this information and
one excellent source is DVDProfiler. It has a huge database that has
all
of this information for an enormous selection of films. It also has
some
nice browsing and maintenance software. However it is Region 1 biased,
so for example the cover shot for
'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' is completely different to mine.
There are also concerns that it might show region 1 where my disk is
region 2 and that therefore the source might receive the wrong command
(although region is auto detected on the Kenwood). Finally there is the
method of entering which DVDs are in your collection. This is done
(most
easily) through UPC number which appears in the bar code. However it is
not the full barcode, so rapid entry with a barcode scanner is not
possible. I am also pretty sure that UPC code is not unique.

5. The front end application: my preference here is for a web based
application that can easily port to different devices. The DVDProfiler
front end is very nice, but it is not web based, so you could not
easily
put it on a PDA for example. Also it has no facility for adding buttons
or links to fire off commands to the source. So in other words you can
browse through your collection but you can not instruct a film to play.
This is a fundamental requirement for me.

6. The control device: When I was first thinking about this I had
envisaged using a Pronto, but much as I love them, it just can't offer
enough functionality here. For a start it is not two way, so it can't
automatically show the latest collection in the database. Also it can't
easily show the extended information in the database and it doesn't
have
the ability to search based upon actor or some other criteria. So I am
now
favouring a bespoke application and for maximum portability I am
leaning
towards a web based front end. This means that my devices of choice
will
be laptops, PDAs, web tablets and so on.

Now this is where I am starting to think about a new group project. The
fact is that most of the stuff I have described above is easily
available today and many of us have some of it installed already. The
bit that doesn't really exist (at least to my requirements) is the
database and the front end application. Properly designed, these two
pieces of software could actually fit in and be used with any of the
source, cabling, device and command options. But there are a couple of
significant tasks to achieve.

One is the actual design and development of the software and database,
something that other individuals and companies appear to have tried but
have not got completely right. One reason for this is undoubtedly that
the majority of developers and users of this sort of software are based
in the US and so don't have to worry so much about regions and
packaging
variants and so on whereas we do. It is a fairly safe bet that a quick
straw poll within our group would turn up many instances of different
people owning the same film but for different regions. In fact it is in
this area that I suspect that the UPC number is vague, it appears that
different region versions of the same film may have the same UPC
number.
Another reason for the lack of control commands in these databases is
that they seem to have been developed by and for DVD collectors, hence
the large amount of trivia available in their databases. The focus
seems
more on collecting and reporting information about a film than actually
watching it. What I am looking for is primarily a control mechanism for
serving up movies, and I haven't found that yet. But, the database and
application design are not hugely difficult. If they are approached in
a
professional manner (and I know there are those on the list who do
database development and software development for a living) then it
should be quite straightforward to create the software.

The second significant task is the population of the database. The
databases I have seen out there (IMDB, DVDProfiler and others) are very
impressive, but as I have already explained, none of them would work
for
me or quite a few others on this list. So the only option is to
populate
our own database, and this is where the real power of this group could
make a difference. If we were to set up a database with a web front end
on a server on the internet and give everyone here access to populate
it, then I think we could build a great database in very little time.
The design would cater for duplicate UTP numbers and allow graphics to
be uploaded and we would decide which fields were mandatory and so on.
We could also design the database to have 'central' and 'local'
sections
so that an individual could take all the central data about a film
(copying it to their own server) but local information such as which
slot in the auto-changer it is located in, or a personal review, or the
name of the friend who has borrowed it, could be added to separate
'local' tables.

Right, I have written a lot here, and I did warn that it would be
rambling, but I would like to hear the views of others here. Would you
be interested in such an application? Would you be willing and able to
work on the development? Would you be willing and able to populate a
central database?

Just one final point, the Kenwood 400 disc player can be found here
http://www.techtronics.com/uk/shop/50-kenwood-dvf-j6050-multi-region-dvd
-player.html it has a huge list of features and I think is quite
reasonably priced. There is the option to get a discount for group buys
of 3 or 5 ;-)

Regards

Graham

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