HTPC/Network Media Player

[Aaron]

Hey Hope everyone had a good christmas!

Anyway....

At the moment I have an HTPC that has all of my music/films/tv shows on it. Its connected up to the TV and amp/speakers, and also to a 7\" touchscreen that is basically the remote. I have the OS (XP Pro running Meedio on top of it) installed on a small 8Gb internal hard drive and the media on a 200Gb external drive.

The HTPC is also connected up to the lights/heaters etc etc and is used to control all of them both on a timer set up and also via the touchscreen at one end of the room and and a small 13 device switch panel on the wall by the door.

Basically, its all just got massively complicated and bulky. I want to replace all of that with a decent (but cheapish) DVD/Divx player that can also read files off a network source. It needs to also be able to play MP3 files over a network and, if possible, be upgraded with new codecs/firmware etc.

I'll probably put the current HTPC in a cupboard out of the way to be used as a streaming media server and also to still control the lights. I'll probably get rid of the touch screen altogether.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to something that might meet those requirements? When I say cheapish, I mean less than £100 if possible - but the less, the better!! I've been looking around at reviews but the ones i've looked at all seem to have a less than glowing writeup.


And also, ive forgotten which ones i've read about

[Sean]

The problem i've had with these \"DivX\" players is in my experience they tend to have trouble with some of the Xvid operations like Qpel - which is annoying, because that's what most of my collection is in!

Not sure if that's changed, maybe people can help you out.

[Anonymous]

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[David]

[quote:bb4e1519d1=\"PrivatePyle@Work\"]so lemme get this straight... You have a computer, to turn on the lights in your house? :?[/quote:bb4e1519d1]

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? i.e. That's awesome!

[Anonymous]

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[Aaron]

[quote:1748e4b4ae=\"PrivatePyle@Work\"]so lemme get this straight... You have a computer, to turn on the lights in your house? :?[/quote:1748e4b4ae]

lol yeah and various other appliances, mainly for power saving actually! Most things that it controls are on a timer. In the week, I'm normally in bed by 11:30ish, so at midnight it switches off things like the TV/digibox/stereo etc, instead of leaving them in standby mode for 8 hours. Then at around 7am, it switches them back into standby mode for a coupla hours and then back off again while me/my housemate are at work. You'd be surprised at how much electricity it actually saves when you add up 12-13 hours/day over the course of a month!

Its also useful having control of all the lamps in the room from one panel by the door instead of fumbling your way over to a table lamp in a pitch dark room. Health and Safety, people!

Its good as a security feature too - it has a \"humanise\" (or 'humanize' cos its american ) setting. The house is split up into zones, and it can be set to control those zones itself. So, if you are away, it will switch on/off lights in the house, making it look like someone is walking around the place, but it wont ever do it at the same time each night - hence the 'human' setting. Most of the time, it will keep the lights near the TV on, as thats where most people will spend alot of time, but every so often it will switch on a kitchen light for 10 mins (cup of tea ) etc...

Although, everything can be over-ridden by the wall panel/touchscreen etc.

It was just a little project of mine a couple of years ago that ended up staying in the house!

[quote:1748e4b4ae=\"PrivatePyle@Work\"]I was thinking \"that's terribly geeky... but terribly cool \"[/quote:1748e4b4ae]

Thats what most people say haha

[Aaron]

oh yeah - and the really cool (but extra geeky thing!!) is the macros function.

For a while, I had it set so that when you pressed play on the dvd section of the touchscreen, all the lights in the lounge dimmed to \"cinema\" level without you having to touch anything. And when the film finished, they slowly got brighter again... That was properly cool actually! might need to set that up again somehow!

[Anonymous]

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[Aaron]

I'm looking at this as an option:

http://www.neodigits.com/new/body/pr...line/x3000.asp

Anyone had any experience with this bit of kit?

(and i'm pretty sure this doesnt count as competitor linking as they are in the USA and aria dont stock this item anyway... but feel free to change it if you want to start stocking them and then put them on rush hour for a tenner )

[Anonymous]

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[Aaron]

lmao! you can tell?!

I'm gonna have to sell a few bits before I can afford that tho. Maybe sign myself up for medical reserch too.

[Anonymous]

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[Aaron]

youve written a whole thesis on this, havent you?

[Anonymous]

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