Sage House

[akenis]

Still looking for ideas to use Sage/MVP as a new home distributed entertainment center. I'd like to combine the MVP, a mini LCD and powered speakers to make a wall mount Sage TV for use in maybe the kitchen, bathroom, screen porch, workshop...anywhere I run a Cat5 cable. How about Sage TV on the refrigerator or behind the mirror in the bathroom?

If the MVP price comes down a bit, I'm guessing this fully enclosed, wall-mount Sage TV could be built for around $250...well below the $$$ that could be spent on a standard whole-home audio/video distribution system.

Here's another possibility for a home automation plugin for MCE




Any ideas on resources to make this work? LCD's, enclosures, speakers? Could the MVP be set up to be used with a touchscreen LCD? The shs forum talks about hacks to add digital output (they just solder the connecter to the board. They say it sounds better than the "crappy" D/A converters on the MVP). There's also a thread on adding serial support.

Lots of LCD here: http://lcdtft.com. What resolutions would be required?

Anyone do any legwork for this kind of set-up?

[natesneat2000]

It's a great idea, but I think we'll need something more than the MediaMVP to make it work. You're buying LCDs, so you'll probably want higher resolution. I highly doubt it could support a touchscreen; no one will even give me a definite answer as to if it can be trained o a different remote.
Unless, of course, we have a hardware modding expert, but still... the disadvantaaages of the MVP are there, and perhaps we need and alternative.
Other than that, great idea! I just moved in a new house, and it's crazy how many totally independent systems there are--timers for water pump and softener, thermostat, alarm, sprinkler and (we all have'em) light switches.

[Menehune]

Maybe an X-10 setup and the X-10 server software running on the HTPC system$$$. Or an AMX system $$$$.

I don't think it can be done cheaply though, IIRC each x10 module is around $100 and a base AMX system is near $10,000 (master frame, one remote touch screen controller, software programming package).

[akenis]

There is a mod to add a serial port to the MVP and I think the touch screen drivers communicate through the port. But since the MVP is merely a client, it would have to send the commands back to the client running server machine.

The sage functionality would be fine with the included remote. Touch screen would be gravy.

The home automation display on the MCE system is set up to work with HAI automation system. If it's a plug-in for MCE, how hard would it be to make it work with Sage. I'm really interested in MCE, but I the extenders are 200+ and I think they're limited. Plus MCE only supports 2 tuners + an HD card. MCE is definitely going to be the 300 pound gorilla on the new environment. I imagine they'll be all kinds of plugins available.

What size LCD is good for viewing w/i say 5-6 feet? I'm going to do a search for enclosures to see if there's anything out there.

Andrew