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  • Consider Home Cinema

    themovingforwardguy 9:07 pm on January 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , Smart Homes


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    There’s nothing quite like watching a favourite or new movie on the big screen; the sheer magnitude of everything that is going on around you means the ensuing few hours are an uninterrupted emersion into whichever world you have chosen to plunge yourself.  Be it battles with dragons, Western shootouts or technology-filled forays into space – the cinema can take you there and back from the comfort of a cinema seat.Alright, so cinema seats aren’t really that comfortable, especially compared to your sofa at home.  They also don’t have a pause remote balanced on their arm and a kitchen with a supply of tea-bags within easy reach; but watching a film at home isn’t quite the same is it?  Well, that would depend…What if you had a sophisticated home cinema installation, with a 72” high-definition screen and speakers wired all around the room, surrounding you with perfect quality sound and audio?  Wouldn’t that make staying in for a private cinema experience from the comfort of your own bed or sofa a preferable alternative to dealing with angry teenagers in dirty aprons?  Combined with a stack of your favourite films on DVD or Blu-ray and a fridge next to the sofa and I doubt whether you’d ever leave the house to go to work, let alone the cinema!The surprising truth is that home cinema systems like this are becoming ever-more realistic possibilities for many of us, even in these times of penny-saving.  Although they are quite expensive up-front, home cinema systems are an impressive and long-term asset to your house, which could even save you some money in the long run; when you consider that taking an average family of four people to the cinema can cost the best part of £50, it doesn’t take too many visits before the prices start becoming comparable.  If you deal with the right company, the process of getting a full home cinema system installed in any room in your house is relatively quick and stress-free and, what’s more, modern design techniques mean there won’t even be any visible wiring running all over the room!Should you decide that this sounds like the perfect addition to your home, make sure you base any decisions about your system first and foremost on the way it performs and the manner in which it will be installed; it’s no good having a great-looking system that doesn’t work properly.  There is such huge variety of choice available that it is also worth deciding which features you want in your system before you go out and start actually comparing them, lest you just confuse yourself with options.  It is also very advisable to use a home cinema installation company that will ensure everything is set up perfectly for you. So, when it’s that easy to get yourself a cinema in your own home, why put up with awkward cinema chairs, annoying teenagers and overpriced junk food, when you could just as easily cuddle up on the sofa and watch whatever you want, as many times as you want at your own leisure?

    Terry Litten has been installing home cinema systems and audio equipment for years and highly recommends that you get a professional to help you install yours. For more information about home cinema, please visit http://www.ilifesolutions.co.uk/
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  • Why You Should Consider a Home Cinema

    themovingforwardguy 9:06 pm on January 9, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , Smart Homes

    Anyone who has a love of television and especially movies loves the idea of having a home cinema system.  There is a great selection of systems on the market and because electrical appliances have come down in price so much in recent years there is something to suit every budget.  Once upon a time home cinema was something that you could only consider if you had a lot of money to spare.The first signs of people using audio and visual technology in this way can be traced right back to the 1960s when home movies were getting to be so commonplace.  There are still many older people with reels of cine film stored away in boxes in a dusty corner of the attic, but is over the last thirty years that such equipment has slowly become so much more popular. Home cinema really began to take hold in the 1980s with the advent of the Laserdisc.  Sound systems were also beginning to get a lot more high tech.  By the time the 90s came along it was state of the art to have a large rear projection television hooked up to a S-VHS video player or a Laserdisc.   By the time that DVD and Dolby Digital 5.1 channel sound arrived on the scene in the late 1990s things were really getting interesting.Today we can apply ‘home cinema’ to a wide variety of set-ups.  On only a very small budget it is possible to create a very impressive little system.  DVD players have become ludicrously cheap and by wiring one of these to a normal (but the bigger the better) television and a low price 2.1 speaker system you will find that you have created yourself a nice, affordable home cinema set-up.Of course, there is always the other extreme… If you have a look at some of the home cinema installations from the high end of the market then you will soon discover that you can spend an astronomical amount of money.  In the United States it is not at all unheard of to spend $100,000 on a top of the range system.  Mind you, this does normally include proper ‘cinema-style’ seating arrangements in custom-built ‘screening rooms’. It is quite possible to spend thousands of pounds on high quality speakers alone.  Proper aficionados of stereo sound, or ‘audiophiles’, will maintain that without spending a great deal of money it is impossible to attain a true, authentic sound. In between these two extremes, it must be said, are a lot of reasonably priced systems with some really good features.  You don’t have to ‘make do’ with a very basic set-up just as it isn’t necessary to run up an enormous debt to pay for something that will be on the scrap heap whilst you are still paying off the interest.  Like all things in life, you need to find a happy medium.

    Andrew Finlayson is a <a href="http://www.ilifesolutions.co.uk/” rel=”nofollow”>home cinema installation specialist, having installed thousands of home cinema systems over the past 15 years. Please visit http://www.ilifesolutions.co.uk/ for more information.
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  • Why You should Install a Home Cinema

    themovingforwardguy 9:11 pm on January 8, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , Smart Homes

    In America people have been creating home cinema systems in their homes for many years.  It is not only the rich and famous who do this; it is also done by a large number of ordinary families.  A great deal of them love to sit and watch movies together and it is not at all uncommon for them to have a room that is dedicated to this sole purpose.Home cinema installation is not as complicated as you might think.  The biggest decision you are going to have to make is how much you are willing to spend on it.  If you enjoy watching films that much then it is probably worth spending that little bit more.  People who get lots of pleasure from movies are going to fully appreciate having a system that is of very high quality.Once you have established what kind of budget you are working to it will become much clearer as to what items you can or cannot afford.  Plan out exactly what you are thinking about getting; you do not want to overspend on a state of the art television and find that you have not allowed yourself enough to buy a decent set of speakers…  When you are setting up a home cinema system you must remember that video and audio quality is of an equal importance.  Scrimping on one to have a better quality on the other is pointless and you will kick yourself for it afterwards.If you look at how American families have carried out home cinema installation then you will come up with some great ideas.  One of the things that they do is to make use of their basement.  This is a brilliant location for a home theatre if you have one in your home…Many people will have to settle for setting up a home cinema in their front room but even then there are a lot of things that can be done to make it even better.  For example, if you are able to carry out some simple woodwork it is not overly complicated to create a speaker system that looks as if it is part of the walls in your room.  This can be a brilliant finishing touch and, even if you could not afford the best speakers, it will make it all appear far more professional.If you are lucky enough to have a spare room in your house then you can really go to town.  There are all sorts of things that can be done to make your home cinema system look really authentic.  It is even possible to fit a false wall and to have your television ‘hidden’ behind a viewing screen.  When some people fit surround sound systems they recess a couple of small speakers in the ceiling.  This can make the sound in your movies much more realistic and add a great deal of atmosphere to every scene.  Although if you enjoy taut thrillers then you might end up wishing that it wasn’t all so believable…

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  • Pc- Based Smart Home Controllers

    themovingforwardguy 9:11 pm on December 31, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Computers, , , Smart Homes,

    Today I’m going to discuss a range of X10 compatible PC controllers that the budding smart home enthusiast could take advantage of. These devices allow for the control of appliances by set times or through the sending of immediate commands. Before choosing a controller it is necessary to weigh up the limitations of each, with special consideration given to the relaibility, as well as, how easy a custom application could communicate with…the device, should you wish to make one.CM12U The most widely used controller is the CM12U. It connects to the PC via serial link and when batteries are placed into the device it is capable of storing user defined settings, for example if the home owner wanted the lights to turn on at 6pm, this can easily be accomplished by the CM12U even when the computer is turned off. A major limitation surrounding the CM12U is the fact that it uses a serial port for communication, which most PC’s do not support these days. When I tried out a CM12U I purchased a serial to USB (Universal Serial Bus) adapter with the hope that it could work on my USB only laptop but to no avail. I assumed that this was due to the fact the CM12U has been around for a long time without much advancement, therefore compatibility even with a supposed adapter has not truly been considered. CM15A The CM15A is essentially an evolution of the CM12U and makes use of a USB connection, rather than serial. This eliminates the problem of only being able to use the device on certain computer systems. It also consists of a wireless transceiver, thus providing a more elaborate means of communication. On first glance it might seem obvious to choose this device over the CM12U; however the device is known to be unreliable, not just with the additional wireless capbilities but also with the sending and receving of signals over the household wiring, which the CM12U actually does rather well.SmartHome PowerLinc Controller 1132CU The PowerLinc controller developed by SmartHome connects to a PC via USB, just like the CM15A and is also capable of initiating pre-defined settings when the computer is switched off just like the previously mentioned devices. The built in backup battery has a 10 year lifespan, a good advantage over the other two components. If you wanted to create your own custom application the PowerLinc is not a good one to choose because it is a lot harder to program than the other two devices, down to the fact there isn’t much in the way of support for the development of your own application using this device.

    Please visit http://smarthomeguru.blogspot.com for more on smart homes.

     
  • Smart Home Features

    themovingforwardguy 9:06 pm on December 16, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , Smart Homes, ,

    It’s about time I go to the nitty gritty about what kind of features you might want in a smart home. Both x10 and INSTEON have products that can suit these needs. Anyway here are the most common features you might choose to have in a smart home:Lighting

    As lighting is an integral part of a building. The user would be able to choose the time of activation, for example, in the home 7pm when it starts to get dark might be a sensible option. If the user wishes to further customise the lighting settings there should be an option available to implement motion detection, which would involve a person actually stepping into a room, in order for the lights to be activated. This could include a specific room in the home or all the rooms. In a voice controlled format the user could check if the lights were on in any room of the house by speaking into a Bluetooth headset. The system could then ask the user is the lights are in the required state.Security

    With the advancements of smart technology, it makes sense to include security fetures. The user would be able control the arming and disarming of the alarm, as well as edit specific settings of the alarm, such as the key code. The user could also have the option to configure intrusion detection settings. This would work firstly by outside lights detecting motion and then the system would warn the security personnel or house owner of any windows or doors being forced open, through the use of electronic sensors that are connected to the system.Temperature

    The user would be able to control the heating and cooling of the home, through the use of both time and parameter-based functions. The user may choose for the heating to come on when outside conditions drop below a certain temperature, there would be heat-sensitive sensors placed outside to detect varying conditions.Appliances

    The power supply to all appliances in the home could be controlled using the smart system. In a large home this would be a very convenient feature because there may be a lot of electrical appliances that are left on standby, hence the system should contain a feature, which searches all power supply links in the home to determine where energy can be saved.Entertainment

    For a fully capable smart home, entertainment features would be an innovative feature to include. The most widely used aspect of entertainment features would probably be the ability for subtle music to air throughout the household, this would be very welcoming especially if a resident has had a stressful day at work.System Status

    It is worth having an option to verify the current status of the system. This kind of feature would provide the user with the ability to scan the entire system or just parts of it for errors.Vehicle Detection

    When a vehicle approaches the driveway of a home, the system should be able to alert the homeowner. This is only possible if certain types of smart home technologies are used. It would work very well with a Bluetooth headset because the system announce the arrival of the visitor to the homeowner. It would also work well with more long-range wireless standards, such as, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) because the homeowner could receive an SMS (Short Message Service) when someone arrives at the home, which is especially useful when away from the home.Phone set-up

    A home-based system should be able to initiate with a mobile-phone when the house is empty. The system should provide the ability for the user to enter the name and model number of the phone so it can be verified for use. The user will be able to communicate with the system when approaching home to switch the television or the oven on and any other electrical appliances the house owner may wish to make use of.Wake up

    A useful feature in a home-based smart system would be alarm clock functionality, for example, the user would be able to choose from a selection of wake up sounds from more pleasant sounds to more piercing types. At the weekend the more pleasant ones are likely to be selected.

    Please visit http://smarthomeguru.blogspot.com for more about smart homes.

     
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