myhometheaterpc.com

When I went about this, I had a general vision of where I wanted to do. It's been 3+ years, you can read all the details of the journey in this CQC forum thread. I'd be lying if I didn't say that it has also been a largely organic growth path, where the vision has been adjusted based on lessons learned, but seriously - when in life is that not true?

Vision & Goals:

• Minimize or eliminate non-essential equipment in rooms. (the only reason the wife lets me do this is because I don't clutter up the Family Room/etc with junk)
• Not only just use a single remote, but don't do the "universal remote" copout of forcing you to press the device you want to control first. If you hit the pause button, the system should be smart enough to know what's on (DVD player, Sage extender, CD) and route the pause command to that device only.
• Don't do ANY programming, and use a point&click solution to set it up even if it means paying a tiny bit more. My life is complex enough already, I don't want to learn some funky language just to do this stuff. I'm not an IT guy, and I don't want to be.  
• Be able to monitor and/or control the house from my PDA cellphone anywhere in the world. This is a lot more useful and powerful than one would think at first glance, read below for more examples. 
• Lower electricity costs, have the house be smart enough to turn things off when not in use. Who's electric bill is too low nowadays?
• Access to any TV show, DVD, BluRay, or Home Movie from any room.
• Don't be forced into learning 101 different device programming instructions (ie, irrigation controller, HVAC). I can use my system to control them all.

Impact:

• We actually watch a lot of those old DVDs that we have, since we don't have to get up and find them.
• Kids are more independent. They can self-serve a kids DVD or CD (if we say yes), I don't have to deal with it.
• The inlaws will babysit more, as I can always start up a DVD or turn the TV/stereo on remotely if there's an issue. Less of a benefit now that the kids are a little older, and can do 95% of it themselves, but damn was this useful until they were 7 years old.
• Peace of mind since we can check in on house from remotely. True story - the neighbor called us once 2 days into a 12 day Hawaii trip and said "your house is being robbed".  We happened to be in the hotel room, and had my PDA pulling up the house server while the laptop was pulling up the CCTV within 60 seconds. A review showed that our other neighbors moving guys just parked in our driveway due to parking issues, the OTHER neighbors were moving out; the neighbor that called us is a little older, eyesight isn't so great, but she's really nice & helpful. Within 30 minutes of getting a potentially vacation-ruining call, we were on the beach enjoying the sun, secure & confident that nothing was going on.
• Wife feels safer. If someone rings the doorbell, the $200 kitchen touchscreen wakes up with the front-door camera screen, so she can see who it is before approaching the door.
• The lawn & plants are healthier. I can actually adjust the irrigation schedule easily without first learning what all those dials and buttons do, like my horrifically complex Rainbird used to have.