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[quote=Mike Garcen]

Nope, WeMo is smart device only, so it will only work from that, there’s no PC client :-/ you don’t have like an iPod Touch or anything?

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Hi Mike,

Of course, I’ve got an old iPhone, and my wife has a new one, but that’s not the point. I’ve got no problem with built in OS (iOS, android, etc) support, but there should also be support for a web based interface that is OS independent.

I ordered the monostrip from visible energy. They offer web based interaction. We’ll see how things work out. I should have it next week and I’ll post a writeup if theres interest.

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Its strange. I thought for sure there would be more out there for something like this. This seems like such a simple step to the whole home-automation progression where every device could be running android of some sort. In any event, that’s neither here nor there. I did do some looking and here are a couple of options I’m looking at in case anyone is interested.

Belkin Wemo (http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Automation-Switch-Apple-iPhone/dp/B0089WFPRO/ref=pd_sim_e_1)

There are also a couple of product by a company called Visible Energy (http://www.visiblenergy.com/products/monostrip.html), which look interesting but its more money, and does more than I’m looking for– looks like an online version of what a Kill-A-Watt does.

I ran across a few other products as well. With the exception of the WeMo, the others charge a monthly fee for remote access to control the outlet.

At the moment, I’m trying to figure out if the WeMo can be configured easily from a PC, since I’ve moved from iOS to Windows Phone 8. A simple dumb outlet would work for me, but I thought this could be something fun to satisfy the geek in me. After looking around and seeing what’s available, actually more like, what’s not available, I think this is an area ripe for someone to make alot of money.

 

 

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[quote=Aaron Ledger]

Try a newer Catalyst driver. Perhaps they screwed something up.

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The lastest version came out a few days ago. I tried it yesterday without any luck. Strange. I might see what happens when I connect my HTPC to my TV using my AVR– which I’m not currently doing because it doesn’t support HDMI 1.4a. I might also try connecting to my TV directly with DVI instead of HDMI. Someone at AVS suggested that it might be the TV and not the computer, but I don’t see how. It works fine when I’m at the desktop, or using applications that are maximized, but still within the desktop (ie I can still see the few pixels of the ‘hidden’ taskbar). I only have the problem when an application tries to take exclusive control– much the way a video game might.

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Thanks John. That was helpful. From your points, it seems like the posted price is good, but not too good to pass on. Just to clarify a few of the points you brought up. I’ve got fios in Long Island NY. My understanding is that FIOS is (or maybe was) one of the only providers to mark most (or all) channels as copy freely. Is there any reason to think that the Ceton tuners now will be compatible with their forthcoming extenders? Would the SD Prime be compatible?

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Thanks for the post. Is this deal too good to pass on? I’m planning a server upgrade, and am considering getting a cablecard tuner. I haven’t read up on this as much as I need to, so I’m not sure if its worth putting together a cablecard capable system right now, and if I were to do so, if the hdhomerun prime is the best option for me. As a reference, I’m running SageTV7 with an hdhomerun and an Hauupauge HD-PVR on an old server with components from 2005-2007.

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I’m sure they are very similar. I recently built a computer for my parents using the Define mini. The quality of the case is great. I was just curious if there are some options under $100.

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Just to update here. I gave up on the GT430, and now have an ATI 6750. Although I had hotkey switching working using Ultramon, the computer somehow got confused about inputs, resolutions and such depending on the input state of the TV and AVR. Once this happened my hotkeys stopped working properly and resulted in my display resolutions getting all mucked up. The catalyst software still includes built-in display profile switching with hotkeys, and I’ve also gone to a more simple display setup to get it working more robustly (essentially giving up on HD-audio for the time being, in favor of 3D).

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My Panasonic plasma (P60ST50) was delivered last Thursday, it is looks fantasic. I’ve been watching mostly Olympics, and running the slides to age the panel when its not it use. I’m not convinced it’s going to make any difference, but the worst it will do is run my electricity bill a bit higher and age my TV an extra 100 or so hours. I still need to attempt to properly calibrate it, but without changing hardly any setting it looks great.

As for the nvidia gt430 vs amd(ati) 6750, I tried both, and now have the 6750 in my HTPC. Nvidia, stupidly got rid of ability to setup hotkey display changes within their control application. I have a secondary monitor that I like to use when the large panel is being used via cablebox. I like to have hotkeys mapped to remote to switch between the secondary monitor and my TV– single display at a time. I was able to set up the Nvidia card with hotkeys using Ultramon, but for reasons that aren’t clear to me, the computer or control software would get confused and stop switching displays and the resolution would gets screwed up. I didn’t spend too long trying to make this work, mostly because I knew the catalyst software had the hotkey features, and its worked well for my with my old 3850 for years, so I popped in the 6750. So far its worked well, but I haven’t spent much time adjusting settings. The ATI card didn’t allow me to pass audio through DVI, and I think I needed the HDMI out to go directly to the TV for 3d, so I am going back to optical digital out from my HTPC to my AVR, have given up on HD audio for the time being. Maybe if I get sick of 3d, I’ll think about HD audio– I don’t think I’ll notice a huge difference.

I watched ~50% of avatar in 3d with cyberlink power DVD, which worked quite well, execpt that it crashed twice and got choppy at several other places (maybe chapter divisions). The 3d effect was beautiful, and very enjoyable. I also tried the same with arcsoft total media theater, but its very choppy all of the time– there must be some setting that is screwed up.

Bottom line– the panasonic P60ST50 is great TV. I’m very impressed after a solid weekend of use.

 

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Thanks Aaron.

Looks like the GT430 is straightforward to setup audio via HDMI->AVR for HD audio and DVI->HDMI->TV for video (specifically for 3d). I found conflicting reports about the ati cards being able to do this. I’ll post how this turns out.

 

— Bryan

 

 

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I purchased the 60ST50 from Amazon yesterday. Hopefully, I’ll get it by mid week and be able to run some slides to age the display before the Olympics start next weekend. I’m very worried about static images from my HTPC damaging (either temporarily or permanently) my plasma with image retention. Does anyone have any tips for minimizing this?

I imagine that I’ll have a screen saver with a short timeout (both within SageTV, and on the desktop).

On a different note, I purchased an nvidia gt430 and ati 6570 to test out. I’ve got the gt430 in right now, and setup. My receiver in not HDMI 1.4 compatible, so I can’t use it to pass 3d. I need to decide how much I want hd audio. I believe I can run hdaudio as a separate output from the video using the 6570, but not with the 430. I’ll just have to play around with it I suppose.

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I was able to get this working with ultramon. The program allows for display profiles, much like nvidia desktop manager did. The profiles are then able to be set to hotkeys. I was able to use the same hotkeys that I had with the old card, so I didn’t need to change anything in eventghost to get my remote to execute the dispay swap.

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One more question. I purchased what I consider a sturdy TV stand capable of holding a 60 inch DLP back when I purchased my 50 inch DLP in 2005. I don’t know the name of it though. Its got three large pedestals in a triangular pattern that support a glass top. Since my DLP doesn’t have a stand and sits directly on the glass, the weight of my DLP (its not all that heavy to begin with) is distributed pretty evenly. Should I worry about the fact that this 60ST50 weighs a bit more, but since it uses a stand, the entire weight will be resting on a smaller portion of the glass surface of the stand and not anywhere near the support posts?

If I owned the house, I would hang the TV, but since I have the stand and the rest of my home theater in place, I’d like to just swap in the new TV. If I need to worry about the glass top being able to support the TV, I can just buy some plywood or something like that to rest on top of the glass.

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Thanks for the good advice. Once the wife gives the ok, I’ll get the 60 inch panasonic plasma (P60ST50).

I’ve seen many people on avsforums talking about professional calibration. Is this worth the money? I’m not even sure how much it costs, but I think I’ve seen $250ish thrown around. I’m under the impression, that I could get my own meter for about that price and learn to do the calibration myself. Again, I’m not sure how much this is needed or not.

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Yeah, I was considering that. If I’m going to build a client PC, then I would expect it to be capable of playing back bluray which shouldn’t be much of an issue. And I’ll be happy with decent computer speakers. Personally I’d like a separate receiver/speaker setup, but PC speakers can easily handle this job while keeping things small.

OTOH, the office PC is on the opposite side of the wall to where this stuff would be going. If I were willing to drill a slightly larger hole (already rg6 going through), I could put through HDMI or even a small audio cable and run the office PC as a dual monitor setup. I just worry about how robust that will be though.

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[quote=”Naylia”]
Yes, this was  thought I had that I mention in the Cons. I thought a shelf w/ window for IR would be nice above the card reader.

But…I’m also in the camp that sees the value of using some sticky tape to attach your IR receiver to the bottom of your tv. Included IR I dislike – because they almost never include a standard IR receiver (in my mind there are only two – USB-Uirt and MCE Receiver – anything else is useless). Even building in a shelf with an IR glass window is not necessarily a feature that every one will use.
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I’ve gotten by for five years on the IRTrans module that is in my origen X11 case. Sometimes I wish I had a USB-Uirt, but I’ve never really needed it either. But I also currently have an issue where my coffee table is in the line of site for my remote-HTPC which is annoying, so I wouldn’t mind having a tape-job ir receiver right now.

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