Digital Home Server Seeks to Simplify and Integrate Media, Applications and Home Automation
MissingRemote forum member, Soitjes, posted to let us know about a new application named Digital Home Server (DHS). The application has been conceived to unify media playback, applications, widgets and home automation tasks into an interface that is simple, designed for touch control and can run on any size screen.
DHS runs on Windows 7/Vista/XP and is completely free for non-commercial purposes.
I’m happy to announce the new version of my “Digital Home Server”, which is a free HTPC application which I wrote as part of my hobby. It used to be a graphical interface for my 7″ USB monitor, but now I completely rewrote the whole application. Website is http://www.digitalhomeserver.net.
It should become a mix between Home Automation and Multimedia. Until now, a lot of focus has been on the multimedia part, but I’m getting more and more into home automation. I like to think that DHS has some unique features, notably that it’s fully multi-monitor, and it can handle any size (from 7″ up to whatever). Screens are specially designed for touchscreens.
Careful, if you hit “Shut
Careful, if you hit “Shut down” in the program it will shut down your entire computer and not let you save anything…….just heard it was an issue 😉
Never thought this would be
Never thought this would be an issue… I will change the label into “Shutdown PC”. That should avoid the issue 🙂
All other comments for improvement are always welcome.
Thanks for mentioning it.
Soitjes.
Version 2.0.2.0 of the
Version 2.0.2.0 of the Digital Home Server is now released. New is the analog clock :
You can also decide on which monitor to open DHS (previous behaviour was open DHS on all monitors).
Soitjes.
A little update for my
A little update for my application, I’ve released several versions in the meantime.
Version 2.0.3.1 contained a DVD player :
Version 2.0.4.1 a scribble pad
And just release, version 2.0.5.4 contains a wakeup module.
Documentation for usage and installation can be found on http://www.digitalhomeserver.net.
Soitjes.
I just release version
I just release version 2.0.6.0, which contains the Picasa Slideshow module. You can create photo slideshows with your Picasa Web Albums.
Multiple monitors are supported, so you can send the slideshow to any monitor connected to your PC.
Soitjes.
Release 2.0.6.5 is now
Release 2.0.6.5 is now available. New is the “Notify My Android” module, which allows you to send free notifications to your Android smartphone.
You can set up multiple accounts or share accounts between smartphones (so that all smartphones get the same message), and sent messages are saved so it’s easy to resend them quickly.
Soitjes.
Release 2.0.7.0 is now
Release 2.0.7.0 is now available : Scanning and Archiving. This module allows to scan and archive your paper documents. You can also import document in the archive from disk.
Optionally, you can label a document as an invoice and then track your unpaid invoices using a widget that you can place on the desktop.
Soitjes.
I’m very proud to announce
I’m very proud to announce the availability of release 2.1.3.0 of my Digital Home Server. New is the multi-room audio feature, allowing to manage audio streams to multiple rooms.
Sending audio to multiple rooms has a few specific challenges. Imagine that you walk through your house, and every time you leave/enter a room you hear different music. Or you could have a PC in every room, listening to the same Internet Radio station. You would have a little delay between the different audio streams, which is very annoying.
In DHS if you choose to hear the same music in multiple rooms the audio stream will be cloned, so that you hear exactly the same audio in all rooms.
DHS uses the approach of one sound card per room, as illustrated below
Those audio cards are very cheap, and you can find plenty on eBay or DealExtreme. Every audio card is then connected to speakers in every room. Of course, this assumes you have audio cables to all the rooms in your house !
Once you have those sound cards you can create as many audio streams as you like, and send them to one or more rooms.
In the above example you have two audio streams, where the second one is being sent to the Living Room and Kitchen.
At this moment, only the MP3 and Internet Radio modules are adapted for multi-room audio. The other modules will simply use the default sound card.
A more detailed guide is available : http://www.digitalhomeserver.net/using-multi-room-audio-in-dhs/
Next module will be “Where Is Wally”, another request from my wife. But you will have to wait for the release to find out what it is… 😉
Soitjes.