Rick Thanks for the response, but my first iteration of the project will be totally void of video. AUDIO only. I want the Linux box to be able to connect multiple audio sources - I included a cable box and directv receiver as audio sources because they have some desirable music channels - to multiple rooms / zones. So someone in my study can source select my CD player, while someone in my yard can select on music channel on the cable box, while someone else in my kitchen can select a music channel from the XM radio receiver. Is that a more understandable description of my project - I hope???????????? Rick B wrote: > Steve Vanechanos wrote: > >> New to the group. Please forgive any unintended breaches of protocol. >> >> I just built a house and had it prewired for stereo speaker pairs in >> 6 rooms / zones in addition to cat5 in each zone. My intention was >> to purchase a >> multisource / multizone audio system from a high end integrator. >> After reviewing several options - Crestron and Niles primarily - I >> ended the review dismayed >> with the cost and overall approach of the "main stream" solution >> providers. >> >> I'm a UNIX guy going back to 1983 - Altos8600 running a 5Mhz Intel >> 8086 with 512Kb RAM, 20Mb 8" Winchester hard drive and Microsoft's >> version of Xenix. >> >> I'm wondering if the present state of the Intel/AMD powered PC with >> Linux is robust enough to control multiple sources (4, 6 or 8) like >> digital cable box, >> directv receiver, XM radio, CD player(s), etc. and route the output >> to multiple zones/rooms (4, 6 or 8) in an effective and cost >> efficient manner. >> >> The Crestron approach would cost me around $10K - so I've got some >> money to invest on development if necessary. >> >> Once again, my apologies if I've breached any list/group protocol >> with this post. >> >> >> > Your best bet would be to look at the "MythTV" project. I'm not > sure if it will do everything you want but it sounds like the closest > you will get on Linux. Of course the box you run it on would have to > be very fast, especially if your doing some HD viewing from the > harddrive. For $5K you could probably build youself a pretty mean > machine. (dual Opterons, couple 15k scsi drives, 2 gigs of low latency > ram) > > Rick B >
