by GadgetBoy on Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:49 pm I have a system with 2.4gig PC with 784 Megs RAM exclusively running Homeseer 2.0 on Windows 2000. I am thinking of maybe either reloading Windows 2000 (to just clean the system up) or just load XLobby begin serving DVD Viewing, along with Homeseer pages in my Family Room (and eventually my entire house) via component or 3 video cables. Am I kidding myself with this PC or does it sound plausible to anyone? If I need a to move Homeseer to a new cheap PC (that I would have to purchase), I may consider doing that. I have a ATI Radeon 128Meg All In Wonder video card lying around that I could install in the PC to use for viewing on the TV - it has Composite Video, SVideo Output and DVI output, but the PC is 40 feet away from the TV and the price of a long DVI cable is crippling, so I would probably try to find some adaptor (if there is one) to get component (red, yellow ,green) out from the PC to the TV, and run several 50 foot lengths of RG6 cable with RCA adaptors on the ends (cheaper, but hopefully still effective).
I also have another PII 400 pc with 384Megs of RAM that acts only as a MP3 server. Would I run an XLobby on the smaller PC as well will the main PC control that PC?
I am running SeerAMP on the Homeseer PC; for those of you that do not know, it allows my Home Automation software to control instances of WinAMP on remote computers. I am aware that there is some work being done on an interface between XLobby and Homeseer - I would be willing to pay for the plugin (an expense) to facilitate control between the two. The MP3 server output goes to an amplifier that ouputs to two ceiling speakers and 2 outdoor speakers (for now). I can then switch between MP3 (Aux on the amplifier), Tuner, or CD Changer to play music around the house. Would I add extra cards to the MP3 server or the XLobby server to distribute audio? I understand that I would need to purchase additional amplifiers, but I also have some powered speakers laying around the house that I could plug in different rooms with some simple cable runs.The output of the MP3 server goes to an external USB Creative Soundblaster card, which means I could probably also use the on-board sound card for another zone, right? I bought the USB sound card with the idea that I was not utililizing more CPU processing for sound ouptut (maybe that was a stupid assumption on my part). Maybe I should just move the USB to the Homeseer PC and use everything from that PC. Do I keep the WinAMP on that PC and have the XLobby as well as Homeseer control the instances of WinAMP (that was kind of confusing
)
I have PowerDVD software that I got with another video card as well - I could use that to playback DVDs right?
I understand that this could also be a post to a Homeseer message board, or Cocoontech for a broad answer, but I am more interested in the answers of the XLobby folks, since I would think the XLobby playing DVDs will put the most strain on this PC (plus I am always looking to make new friends
)
As I think of more things I will post them. I have a lot of equipment around the house, and I think I am really underutilyzing it. For minimal expense, I am trying to do a complete review to see what I am capable of upgrading to without going any more into my pocket.
I guess I will come back, my battery on my laptop is beginning to die from all this typing