Convergence, = Nerdvana?

[quiksilva]

Confession time, I adore gadgets and harbour a not-so secret desire to make every piece of electronic paraphernalia in my house interact with each other, and of course all be controlled by a single remote control. **sigh**

Today I will be taking delivery of a wireless box for the rear speakers of my home theatre system and at the same time will be plugging my LCD TV into my PC upstairs (which also pumps audio to my home theatre systems) and will be running the TV as a second display.

I know its not ideal but it will serve until I get a media center OS for the PC and will use my Xbox 360 Elite as a media center extender. Its looking like I may have no option other than to buy Vista - they dont sell xp media center separately (or do they?).

So when they guys come out I will hoodwink them into helping me get the TV off the wall and will finally get to plug in the HDMI cable and get to see the 360 display in HD for the first time, I have also been holding out on digital 5.1 channel surround sound too but again tonight is when it all happens and will hook up my digital audio cable to my home theatre system. EDIT - I think the planets are aligning because Halo 3 just arrived in the post today too!

All this of course tie in with my home network, which is partially wireless, allowing my laptop and phone to connect.

So if there is some sort of ripple blowing through the geek universe tonight you will know that I have come that much closer to nerdvana and had a minor geekgasm when (if) I get it all hooked up and working. You have been warned

Okay that's my story out of the way now on to the thrust of the thread.

I actually find it quite incredible to think of how far we have come along in the last ten years, we are so much closer to this technological utopia called total convergence. Okay, yes I accept that its been achievable for quite some time now but costs have put this out of reach for most but today total convergence seems much more feasible, and certainly seems to have become a lot more affordable.

So how about you? Do you also have a convergence plan for your home, you'd like to share, how far along have you come?

Do you have any suggestions for budget DIY convergence projects that are easy and I can undertake myself? (bear in mind that I'm a just real estate guy who just happens to like IT stuff).

What technology are you excited about that is on the horizon (and will be available in Thailand)?

Edited September 26, 2007 by quiksilva

[stumonster]

Confession time, I adore gadgets and harbour a not-so secret desire to make every piece of electronic paraphernalia in my house interact with each other, and of course all be controlled by a single remote control. **sigh**

maybe you should look into VNC ( virtual network computing ) - run a VNC server as a service on the main desktop and then run a VNC client on your (smart) phone. if your phone is touchscreen and has wifi you can control your computer from anywhere in the house with the phone.

[RKASA]

Technological utopia called total convergence

The thing I like about it the most is I can buy all the used stuff really cheap.  

[nikster]

I will join the celebrations when all this stuff happens wirelessly, including the power distribution.

It needs to be a lot simpler, too. I love surround sound, but I am not going to mount 5+1 speakers around the house - it should all come out of one box.

Same for digital content - I would love to have my movies on a central server and have it distributed to all LCD screens in the house. Wirelessly. However, if I first have to buy a DVD, then rip it, it defeats the purpose - it would be easier to slam it in a cheap DVD player. So in order to make this work, I would also need a very high speed internet connection, 100Mbit+, and something like Apple TV + iTunes except in HD quality. We are not there yet - internet speeds are too slow, Apple TV / iTunes seems the only fully automated / integrated solution out there and has limited content as well as very low resolution. Doesn't work for me.

There is also that small issue of frequent power outages which can totally ruin nerdvana

Edited September 26, 2007 by nikster