RE: Can anyone get the connected home right?

["Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Phil -
>
> brilliant, many thanks ... have to say, I am coming around to the
> idea of such a system ... previously, it seemed to me there was
> nothing wrong with DVDs in a book-case & a home-cinema ... now I
> understand what you're after & we're aiming for something much
more
> multi-media & multi-screen & about the house

Why do you say that? The whole point of my DVDs going onto the server was
that then they could be played at any time in any room of the house and by
anyone that was in the house ... that was the whole purpose of the
exercise.
I had a DVD changer which was piped around the house and was excellent for
use by one person but it couldn't play more than one disc at a time
(obviously) so it wasn't suitable for multiple people in one property.

If "they" (i.e. someone) was able to produce a DVD player with
good built-in
audio and video processing and amplification, built in TV and radio tuner,
proper PVR functionality, streamed media playback, the ability to rip discs
to the network etc. then (ignoring price) I'd definitely be interested but
since almost every consumer electronics item out there nowadays that is
more
intelligent than a kettle seems to have firmware issues of some kind then
the chances of all that actually working properly is minimal bordering on
none-existent. :-D

> ... not least because we
> seldom can agree on what to watch, and having a separate room for
> watching seems less & less appropriate ...

Yup - same here ... I rarely get to watch TV through the AV amp downstairs
as Jo is usually watching her soaps and (un)reality TV cr*p so I either end
up watching films in bed, in the "computer room" or in the bath
on the
laptop.

> 'quite like the fast reader for DVDs that Kaliedescape seem to
> include ...

The ripstation is a great idea but not unique to Kaleidescape ... I like
that they've made the room players now able to rip to the server which is
going to make adding new DVDs over time quite convenient. At the moment my
"new" PC (Athlon X64 4000, 2Gb DDR, 250Gb SATA, DVD+/-RW and
Windows Vista
Business) seems to be ripping DVDs in about 5-8 minutes going by the last
batch that I did on Thursday.

Phil