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[JimH]

I'd like to ask your help in thinking about where we go with Media Center.

For a while, I've been talking about something I call a Media PC.  Someone corrected me last time and said it's called an HTPC (Home Theater PC) and that there is a whole forum devoted to HTPC over on AVSForum.  Some of you are active in both places, I know.

After watching what goes on over there, I think what I have in mind may be a little different.  Or maybe the HTPC is a special kind of Media PC.

As we wire our houses for Ethernet and as gigabit Ethernet is now coming, it looks very possible to have the audio or video we want anytime, anywhere.

Right now, I've got a PC in my office, a notebook in the living room, and a PC connected to my TV in another room.  And I almost forgot the experimental PC in the kitchen.

In theory, all these are capable of doing what I want, a sort of transparent ability to play what I want wherever I am, no matter where it's stored.

The real problem right now is that there are so many ways to do this and so little standardization.  It seems that everyone who does it, does it a little differently.  This makes progress slow and support difficult.

I'm going to ask your advice on specifying two or three reference designs of systems that we might recommend to people who want to follow this path.

Here's a sketch of what I'm doing in my TV room.

TV display
^
|
|
v

Amplifier

^
|
|
v

PC   <---> Girder <---> IRMan
^                  ^
|                  |
|                  |
v                  v
Wireless keyboard/mouse
           or Universal remote
           or PocketPC

----------------------------

If you call that system above, a Media PC, then the network that lets you listen or watch anywhere is something like this (sorry for the awful diagrams, but it's not so easy without a white board) --

Media Server<--->Media PC<--->Media Server<--->Media PC
^            ^
|            |
|            |
v            v
Media PC<--->Media Server<--->Media PC<--->Media Server
^            ^
|            |
|            |
v            v
Media Server<--->Media PC<--->Media Server<--->Media PC


etc.
----------------------

The trick areas are mostly in remote control of the media.  Media Server is one example of this.  The remote you use on the couch is another.  Another problem area is the display of the PC on a TV.  HDTV works well for this and it's getting cheaper.

While you should be able to record anywhere, it would be nice to have a big server in the picture.  One principal machine that most of the media is stored on.

Another problem is cost.  We need to define systems that start at reasonable prices with upgrade paths.

That's the general problem I see.  Your words of wisdom or sympathy are always appreciated.

[KingSparta]

and as gigabit Ethernet is now coming

Yes been looking at one for my self.

And I almost forgot the experimental PC in the kitchen.

I was going to remind you of it.

For me I would keep it simple (Like I have It) Just on the PC with A Good Sound Card, Digital Media Theater Sound System, And A Nice Monitor maybe 19inch to 22inch (I have a 19inch right now and am getting something bigger next)

I do Have 8 TV's Ranging From 2, 5, 13, 15, 19 Inch to my 36 inch Tv (I have a TV in Every Room Of the house to include the bathroom). Right now I would not hook my Computer system to my TV (36 Inch). besides sue would kill me.

As you said a HDTV is to costly and is for many people to include my self.

I think most users are in the same boat.



http://www.alienware.com/main/media_center.asp

[JimH]

besides sue would kill me.

O Sue, be Merciful.

[MachineHead]

HDTV works well for this and it's getting cheaper.

It's also going to be the only kind sold starting in 2006. Network and cable-sat are probably geared up for the transition now. Just waiting for the day to nick everyone for hi-def broadcasting.

Anyway, I tend to agree with KingSparta on the main tv being a seperate entity. For almost the same reason. If I had any notion of keeping peace in the family, hooking it up to the net would not be looked upon kindly.

Then again, advances between now and then may change the way I see things. I still want to pipe MJ-MC thru the stereo. But that is on the back burner temporarily. And it certainly seems to make sense to use a main server to store all the 'stuff' that we tend to think is important. Maybe something more substantial will present itself to me after this weekend. I have big plans - now.  

[Renegade]

I admit, I'm just getting into a lot of this stuff.  But sometimes that can be a good thing.

My personal feeling is that you would definitely want one "server" somewhere dishing out all the different audio/video/etc.  Connected to that would be your various "display" devices.  Be those monitors, speakers, tv's, whatever.

Yeah, there's not really a standard for any of this stuff right now.  At least not when you put a PC in the mix.  Distributing audio and video in a house is old hat, in my opinion anyway.  You can do all of it with various components right now.  A quick look at the products on Worthington's site will get you up and running.

The biggest thing from keeping the "average" person from doing this is cost and complexity.  Not to mention all of us poor souls renting.

I have no doubt I can get something up and running.  Hooking it all together is going to be my biggest problem.  My landlord would literally through me out if I started pulling cat 5 through the walls.  I think they should thank me, but landlords are funny like that.

The biggest advantage something like MC can provide is ease of use.  By providing a single interface to all of the content someone may want, you lower the bar so to speak.  And being able to access all of it over ethernet is that much better.

I would think the ultimate goal for anybody doing this, and expecting to keep their WAF high, is to be able to forget what is running all of it.  Personally, I don't have to worry about WAF yet, so I can slap together something that no other person alive would ever understand.

[phelt]

I'll be interested in this when all of it can be done wirelessly. And with near-silent hardware at the end points. Until then I'm just waiting for MC9 to get bug-hashed into a final release  

[Mastiff]

I have a slightly different approcah: I have one computer that drives the audio in (currently) six zones (with four PCI soundcards, the built in on my MSI KT4 Ultra and one USB sound card, which probably will have company of a few more pretty soon). So audio is currently available in the dedicated home theater in the basement, the living room, the two bathrooms, our bedroom and my seven year old son Kevin's room (he got an amp, a speaker set and his own remote for the IRMan receiver in the HTPC/Media server for his birthday a few weeks ago). One relief is that most of the rooms (with the exception for the living room and the HT) have  regular "Joe Sixpack" sound systems, so I don't need very high quality sound cards for those. As for the living room and HT they have nice speakers and good Onkyo and Denon receivers with digital in, so I just feed them the digital output from two pretty good sound cards (one Hercules card and a Creative Audigy 2), and that gives me more than good enough sound quality. As I like to say: "I'm neither audiophile or videophile, I just like good music and good (or sometimes bad) movies."

This media server is placed in a room in the cellar next to the HT, and it also works as a HTPC, with a high quality video cable feeding the Barco Graphics 808 CRT proj, and optical digital out feeding Dolby Digital sound to the Onkyo 939 receiver (their former flagship). I'm quite lucky since I can run cables from that room and straight up to the attic, where they fan out and come down in the necessary rooms. I have the S-video output from the ATI Radeon card routed to the living room, where it goes into a VCR, so if I want to watch DiVX in any of the five rooms with TV I take that from the antenna cable. So I can surf the Net and do PC work from any room that has an IR receiver (which is in all rooms with a TV) and my wife even let's me use the TV in the living room for that at times. High quality video of course stays in the HT. Adding cables for a new zone takes me about half an hour.  

Finally I have a notebook connected to the same WLan that the pocketPC uses, so I can write this in the "throne room".  

As for the software I use (of course) MC9 for audio and ZoomPlayer for DVD's and the video files I watch in the HT (partly because I want to use filters from different companies for video and audio, and partly because I like the zooming and moving of the image that Zoom gives me, and besides I don't know how MC will react to playing mp3s on a couple of zones and DVD in the HT at the same time). I'm running XP Pro SP1, the only special thing about it is the multitude of sound card drives (I actually installed them all without any larger problems, mainly because I use PowerQuest's Drive Image before every change in the system) and an old SCSI card that has an exyternal cable to the cabinet where I have my HT DVD Rom (in the HT, of course...). Girder takes care of controling the audio and ZoomPlayer from all those IR remotes (I forgot to mention that I have an IR receiver that converts the IR to RF in every zone and a box that converts it back to IR and blasts it into the IRMan in the computer room), and I use my favourite control method: Ben's NetRemote with my PocketLoox.

On yesterday's count I had about 19 100 MP3 files (mostly my own ripped CD collection in HQ Lame VBR, I'm a retired DJ and have a huge pile) and 150 DiVX (mostly my own DVD's ripped so my two kids can watch Disney and other children's movies on their own computers in their rooms without hogging the TV).

And how does this work? Well, I can watch a DVD with a rock solid image in the HT while all the other zones are playing different MP3 files at the same time. I haven't dared to look at the CPU load while doing that, but I have a huge CPU fan and case fans in the PC, since it's in a separate room I don't care how much noise it makes.

When I need to play the same music in all zones I use SPDIF out from the Audigy and sendts it into the SPDIF in on the other cards.

The MC9/Zoom approach fits me very good, and I think that the one computer method is the best way, since it's totally transparent, and I do not have to spread any more computers around than I already have. I can teach anybody to use my system in five minutes. Case in point: It took my son about 40 seconds to understand it. My mother would be the real challenge, though...  

the two things I'd like to see in MC is:

1. A better ripping method. On worn cd's I have to use Exact Audio Copy, with it's advanced error checking methods. But my guess is that it would be pretty difficult to implement.

2. A better way of adressing/changing zones than the current, that demands use of Pebbles (for PocketPC) or a computer with RemoteAdministrator. But I know this is coming, I'm just the impatient type...

Oh yes, thank you, guys! MC9 made Christmas very easy for me, I just ordered it to play all the Christmas music on my computer, shuffeled, which lasted about five hours.  

All in all I'm really starting to enjoy the benefits of my system, since MC9 made sure that I can start to remove the "bunch of WinAmps". The only WinAmp still in use is for my son's room since I don't want him to learn how to control the HTPC from his PC. This will be buried with great seremony the day I can adress zones directly on MC9.

[Dave T]

I have one HTPC that exists as an audio/video server, and this interfaces to an audio system that provides multiple zones of audio throughout the house.  I have 5 pc's in the house, but only one HTPC.  The others are sometimes used to remote control the HTPC (via VNC).  This works very well for me - I get the best sound and video quality.  I'd prefer to listen to music on a "real sound system", connected to the one HTPC, rather than on other computers connected to the main HTPC.  I mostly use NetRemote for MJ music playback - I rarely go into the MJ UI to initiate music playback.

There are a couple of things that MJ is lacking, in my mind, before it fits ideally into a home audio/video system.  The first is support for multi-zone audio (actually, I believe that you did just add this - I haven't tried it yet).  The second is support for remote ripping.  My HTPC is in a bit of an out of the way location in the house.  If I could rip from a remote computer onto the HTPC, that would be awesome.  Even better would be some way to install a standalone CD drive into the wall somewhere, and be able to use that to rip to the central server.  The last, and most important feature missing from MJ currently is support for unattended ripping.  I've bugged you guys about this before, so I won't get into details.

Thanks for a great product!

- Dave

[Mastiff]

A standalone CD drive is no problem, you can get SCSI cabinets, and also USB 1/2, plus FireWire. All of those should work fine with ripping.  

[Dave T]

But could you have it on the other side of the house from the computer?  If so, we're almost there.  You'd still need some kind of feedback, if only to know that a CD was ripped successfully.  Maybe it would be enough for MJ to eject the CD when done.  But, a little LCD display with some text on it would be better...

[JNKH]

Hi Jim,

One role is clear:  MC has a role as a server, storing large multi-media content- audio and video.  This would be maintained as a high end PC.

The MC Server would be interacting with other devices- which could cover the need of a Media Center PC.  It could also cover other devices which are not PC.

Some would like to connect the MC Server to a network of Media Center PCs so that the MC PC can receive audio and video from the MC Server.  The MC PC would be connected in each room in a home, with high speed broadband network.  Some of these MC PC could be portables too.

Some would like to connect the MC server through ditigal AV and serve several HT devices.

I would like to imagine a world without MC.  This would mean purchasing several units of HT systems, and it could be very costly.  Furthermore, most families would afford one expensive good system, and live with several cheaper systems in other parts of the home.  

In the world of MC, some changes can benefit home users:
a) TV output/monitor are converging.  Hence, in each room, even when we are viewing/listening to content, we can also view the source- lyrics, etc.  It is a different experience, and this is where MC can provide significant value.

b) If it is possible to focus on a server system, where it complements a high quality HT system, it can centralize the resource.  This is a cost effective benefit for many users.  It also brings out the ability to manage content better.  Most HT system focus only on playing the content, not managing and documenting it.  Hence, there is a significant role for MC to focus on content mgmt.  In the audio world, linking CDs to online databases etc is a simple and effective way of helping us manage content.  How about videos, DVDs etc?  Are they similar to audio, or include other richer linkages- actors etc.  The cast of a movie production is more complex than a audio library.

c) I like the idea of a MC PC which can help replace an existing HT system.  It also have the benefit of using the TV/Monitor to view the content, and also its meta data- like lyrics, casts, summaries, critics etc.

I imagine MC capable of improving our home living quality, and a smarter way of spending our cash on better products and equipment.

i)  I think many users still would like to purchase a good HT system.  This is because content mgmt and delivery over broadband is still not standardised, and the TV/HiFi combo still need to be supplemented by many other devices to complete the HT experience.

ii) MC PC has a role to reduce our budget, and help us avoid duplicating the expensive HT systems in each room, but focus in streaming the HT content from a server.

iii) MC PC/Server combo has another advantage which will encourage users to adopt the MC approach- the focus on content mgmt, so that in each viewing environment, other source of information, related to the content can be viewed over the TV/Monitor.

iv) Help define the configuration of a MC Server, so that we can enjoy storing HT libraries, with good reliability, backup, and compression technologies to use less disk storage.

v) Help define the configuration of a MC PC/Player so that we can take the MC experience from simple audio, and moving into Home Theater experience in the new year.

I think this would be a nice way for MC to help users transform their HT lifestyle to something unique, valuable, and reduce our overall spending on expensive high end HT equipment.

[JimH]

These are amazingly helpful.  I'm in awe of what you're doing and how you're thinking.

[Mastiff]

But could you have it on the other side of the house from the computer?  If so, we're almost there.  You'd still need some kind of feedback, if only to know that a CD was ripped successfully.  Maybe it would be enough for MJ to eject the CD when done.  But, a little LCD display with some text on it would be better...

Yes, if you use powered extensions/hubs on a USB/USB2 you can go pretty far, I think. SCSI won't do that. FireWire I have no idea about the max length. And yes, spitting out the CD would tell you that the ripping is done.  

[Ingo]

Mastiff,

USB isn't very good at longer distances.... If you want to have more than 5m (or around 5 yards ;-)) you have to take powered extensions. But these again can't be longer than 5m each and you can only connect 3 of them (according to the standard definiton).
This gives you 3x5m powered extensions + 1x5m regular extension. That's 20m. Not realy much, at least if you don't want to have the cables across your room.

Ingo

[Dave T]

Well then that wouldn't work.  In my case, I'd like to run the cables about 75 feet from one end of the house to the other.  I know an installer who would like to do this for some of his clients, and he'd need it even further.  What he has in mind is to put the HTPC in a rack in the basement somewhere, and run the cabling up to a common area in the house.  Some of the houses he works on are HUGE.  So, maybe this idea won't work.

- Dave

[KingSparta]

I use a USB extension cable for one of my web cams (I have two) so i can see if my wife is coming.

other than that I have no use for an extended USB connection.

[digineer]

Jim,

After reading of your request and subsequent replies from the forum members, I thought I add my own twist as well.  Be forewarned, although you asked for 'next year' musings in terms of HT and marrying the "desk" with the "couch" etc., please forgive in advance my proclivity to reach beyond.  I'll keep it brief and if you think any of my comments prove intriguing,  please advise.  

IMHO, most of the excellent comments herein deal with short-term tactical execution and not long-term strategic development.  All well and good and it is what you asked for, but I don't think it goes far enough.  I believe your app and approach to media offers so much more and from a strategic vantage point could/would serve to help you solve the two big issues you raise: standardization and support.  

1.  Think globally, act locally - why stop at the four walls of the home - extend your MJ/MC model into the 'net and corporations.  I think your app, excellent in its GUI design, ease of use, open-standards orientation and scalability could be combined/extended to include B2B and B2C functionality.  In other words, stand-alone in-home MCPC or MCServer would be nothing more than a 'local' extension of an 'MC portal engine' where a user can choose his/her level of LAN/MAN/WAN connectivity.  Building off this idea:

2.  Start at the top of the food chain - allow content owners/producers to market/sell their programming direct to the consumer via MJ/MC.  One approach would be to create an ASP app that corporations can utilize to host their media for internal consumption by employee as well as offering content for sale/distribution...

3.  Digital Rights Mangement is but one side of the coin - implement automated verification functionality that tracks use and utilization of media, no matter if its form, at home, on the net, in public venues, no matter its delivery vehicle - over the air/satellite or cable.

4.  Current distribution methods are unable to monetize the Internet - this one is easy, if its broke, sheesh - build a different model!!  MJ/MC could serve as the core app of a "better" distribution model that can definitively monetize the Internet, enabling aritist and consumers better value for their $$ spent or earned without disintermediating the music publishers, tv producers, mag pubs, etc.  

These are but a few ideas, but hopefully you can see where I am going with all this.  While none of these ideas speak directly to HT, it does suggest "media integration" as a "new business opportunity" from which the tactical ideas you seek are but natural extensions.  Instead of extending the old models with new revenue ideas, try building a new process altogether; you've got what it takes... IMHO anyway.

don

FYI, I am a newbie to MJ/MC ever since I bought a WiPod for my gf this Chistmas.  So if you ARE doing any of these things already, then please forgive my presumptions.  I merely seek to see if an accumulated 25 years of 'convergent' digital media production and business expertise might prove beneficial to this discussion thread.  GREAT job on your app!!  :-)

[JimH]

Don,
You raise some very interesting possibilities.  I used your text for a new thread:

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=beta;action=display;num=1041175992;start=0

Jim

[dubbs]

I'm new on here guys but one thing I would add being a Network Consultant with a very keen interest in music and high quality HT products is.... why no wireless?  Bluetooth is coming on stong now despite a slow start and the various wireless technologies are going to be the way forward for all systems.  At present on my desk I have 6 different loose cables for various devices to be plugged in be they MP3 players, digital cameras/ camcorders/pdas etc.,
 To really bring MC to the masses you need to provide a link to their high quality systems via a wirefree link.
 My Sony DB940 Amp/decoder has more ports on the back than you could ever use!  Use two audio inputs to go into a bluetooth (or similar) box and then use the wireless link to connect to the PC with MC on it.  Many HT buffs already use forms of wireless remote control so then just provide an interface from the PC to the remote unit.  I'm sure a bluetooth enabled Sony Clie could have a mini-me MC interface on it which would talk to the PC whilst the infra red of the PDA would allow it to continue controlling the TV/VCR/DVD/AMP/SAT, etc.,

Just my 2p's worth (being in UK)

Dubbs.

[pburkett]

Hey Dubbs you've peaked my curosity with this Bluetooth stuff.  I'm currently using an x10 wireless connection between my computer and the entertainment system but it is noisy much of the time. Assuming that this Bluetooth technology is alot cleaner what exactly do I purchase to switch over? Like brand/product names?

Thanks
Phil

[Dave T]

Regarding wireless -  do you guys know about NetRemote?  It gives you full control of Media Jukebox from a 802.11 enabled PDA.  You can use it to browse, play, pause, etc, view album covers...  It's available here: http://www.webwingnut.org/NetRemote/

- Dave

[pburkett]

Very cool.   I've asked several Palm/Pocket PC retail outlets for just such a device capability and always get blank stares.  Picking songs from the pocket PC while floating in the pool will be way cool.

Thanks

Phil

[Dave T]

Well, in the pool may be a little risky.  But, I actually do use this all the time next to the pool (or I did, in the summer :-().  It works great!  It really works - not just a toy.  I can pass my Pocket PC to a friend, and they're playing songs immediately - it's that easy to use.

- Dave

[dubbs]

Hey Dubbs you've peaked my curosity with this Bluetooth stuff.  I'm currently using an x10 wireless connection between my computer and the entertainment system but it is noisy much of the time. Assuming that this Bluetooth technology is alot cleaner what exactly do I purchase to switch over? Like brand/product names?

Thanks
Phil

No idea!!!  Looking around for solutions though...

[JaredH]

My question is, where was this topic a month ago when i wrote a 10 page research and documentation paper on media servers and their growing popularity and accessibility. I love all of the ideas here. Too bad I turned in the paper like 3 weeks ago. hahaha. oh well.....such is life.

[Mr.X]

My hope is that Media Center becomes the one piece of software which can run on my HTPC and finally do all the things that I would normally need several pieces of software and hardware to do.

My entertainment room setup would be very simple in terms of components. A fast HTPC (more on that later), an HDTV and a surround-sound amplifier and appropriate speakers. No CD player, no VCR, no DVD player - none of that would be needed. Even the HDTV could be a monitor-only device that has no speakers or even a tuner. Here's what the HTPC would contain:

• A fast processor to allow quick encoding/decoding.
  
• A large or set of large HD's
  
• A DVD-RW/+RW
  
• 2 TV tuner cards
  
• A video card that has component output and can support HDTV resolutions. Alternately, an HDTV monitor with VGA inputs.
  
• A remote control (RF)
  
• Wireless keyboard and mouse
  
• A broadband internet connection
  

This machine would contain my music library on the HD, and would allow me to listen to any music I wish from a simple interface that would be displayed on my HDTV monitor - ideally using overlay so the menu items would appear over the currently playing video/TV/animation, etc.

It would have the ability to do PIP functions with the 2 tuners and/or recorded video.

It would have the smarts of TiVO or better, so it would work with a web-based schedule to allow you to pick shows to watch, and it would also keep track of the shows you watch regularily and record them for you (depending on available space) and also allow pausing live TV, rewinding, etc.

Be able to watch a recorded show while another one is recording, and with the 2 tuners, be able to record 2 programs at once, or watch a live program while recording a different channel, things like that.

It would be able to record shows to HD and/or DVD, and be able to copy shows from the HD to DVD.

FINAL THOUGHT:
The thing that surprises me most is that I would have thought this sort of functionality would be the "killer app" that lots of companies would be trying to write. It always makes me shake my head when I have to record programs on my VCR, it seems SO outdated in this day and age to be using such an archaic system.

Luckily, Matt has shown some interest in building PVR capabilities into MC9. Hopefully that and the other functions that would be needed to create the ultimate HTPC software will be implemented! I look forward to that day!

Sincerely,

Andrew Broughton

[DougHamm]

I hope I'm not too out of line for posting a url to a competing product, but:

http://www.showshifter.com/

could provide some pieces of what you're looking for.  As could WinDVD Recorder.  They lack most of the hardcore features of MC9 but are compementary in areas of disk-based recording.

My HEPC (Home Entertainment PC - I'm remiss to call it a Home Theatre PC because the stereo components will be woefully inadequate for at least a year until I save up the bucks) will be based on WinDVD for DVDs and (s)VCDs, and MC9 for audio and disk-based media files like video.  It'll serve a bookshelf PC upstairs, wirelessly, for an independant audio zone with its own display.

I won't be doing any PVR as I watch relatively little TV and record even less of it.  Besides we have a digital cable tuner and there's no such thing as a tuner card that can decode digital stations; I'd be limited to the analogue stations, which are shrinking in numbers.  Also WinDVD Recorder's online guide (and Showshifter's, possibly) aren't friendly to Canadians.

I, and possibly others, would have much more use for the PVR features of MC9 if it could be set for a simple 'Dumb Line-In' setting that accepts whatever DirectShow signal is coming in from various devices like capture cards.  That way I could pump the digital cable receiver through the line-in, and as long as the receiver is set for the right channel, MC9 would just record the stream.  As it is now, it balks if there's no dedicated tuner card found and aborts, even though I can actually see my capture card's video in the display window.

-Doug

[Mr.X]

Hey Doug;

I've known about ShowShifter for a while. Thought that it might be the one, but unfortunately it's woefully inadequate.

• They have no interest in adding a guide that's available in Canada
  
• It has none of the TiVo's "smarts" for automatic recording
  
• It will not allow you to record one program and watch a pre-recorded program, or do any PIP functions or support dual TV cards
  

I still await the "killer app" for HTPC.

[DougHamm]

Yeah, my solution is, at this time, a VCR on every TV.  And they'll likely be replaced by one dedicated PC when that 'killer PVR app' comes to market.

My main reason for not looking seriously at a dedicated PVR is that I want to be able to play the recorded files from any TV/computer connected to my home network, edit them, etc.

-Doug

[RocketDude]

Here goes:
1). Switch from YADB to either FreeDB or CDDB. It doesn't make sense to me to create yet another CD DB, when there already are several very good ones with lots of entries. Plus a much larger user community entering CD's.
2). Further Split MC into a three tiered architecture:
     a). Server or digital file repository;
     b). Output device -- computer that is physically connected to the stereo/TV/speakers;
     c). Presentation layer -- the user interface.
The goal for this split would be to allow people to use Touchpads/tablets/PDA/etc. as the front end/control, and bury/hide the computer that is actually connect to the output device. For some people all three (or a combination of two) of these might reside on the same computer. But this further split will greatly increase the flexibility for everyone else.
3). Work on improving the interface for a "touch" sensitive interaction, such as at a party or from a PDA/tablet.

My $0.02,

RocketDude

[Mastiff]

Eh...RocketDude? I'm doing exactly that now, with NetRemote and Girder on my PPC...  

[RocketDude]

Mastiff,

Yes, you can use netremote and Girder to do what I want, but I'm hoping for native support instead of having it create it myself.

I think the solution will be a lot more elegant and rebust if MC is designed to support splitting the digital media / playback equipment / UI onto potentially seperate machines, then if users create this split. I also think it will make MC much more flexible and able to adapt faster and new devices emerge. I.e., MC could have a Java version of the UI, and then it could run on a myriad of devices without any additional work on J. Rivers part.

My $0.02,

RocketDue

[rar2667]

Here's my $.02...maybe covered elsewhere in this thread.

Combining all the media into a single UI is key to defining standards so that everyone doesn't have to learn the nuances of 10 different photo album, jukebox etc programs. To spread it out through the house, perhaps a browser or extremely thin client would allow all the media to be centralized.

I have a IR repeating system throughout most of my rooms, but there are so many code sets and still will be many legacy devices until analog content is gone. Remote control will continue to be bothersome. Perhaps MC9 can translate/redistribute IR signals, too? Just a left field thought.

Keep reaching. Maybe you need to embrace the Steve Jobs world in the future, too. (don't shoot me).