So I read the Wiki for a little bit, and I couldn't find exactly any info on integration with the rest of the home.
I know there is a Live TV feature, but I'm not sure how to hook up my set top box to the PC. Do I need to buy a capture card with it? When I click the Live TV function does it do something similar to switching the input?
Also, is there an add-on for integrating the lights and a/c of the house into the program? If not, are there good PC programs that could do all that which work well with XBMC?
Thank you for any help!
Hi Cellie,
Welcome to the forum.
You have all good questions, but it seems you have a bit more reading to do. From your question about the set top box, I'm guessing that you have a cable subscription. If so, you may need a tuner device that accepts a cable card like
this one. If it's not a cable box, you may need to provide some more information.
I don't know about controlling the a/c, but I've seen addons that control lights although I don't use that function myself. Google is your friend.
Thanks for the response. The cable box is a standard comcast cable box
(I'm fairly certain it's this one, but might be a different model year than this one). I looked up online and it seems like comcast will give me a cable card at no charge, the only thing I'd lose is on demand, which sucks but I can deal with it. I've been Googling a light add on for a while, but a lot of the threads and old and many of them are about lights auto-dimming when movies and tv are playing, not too interested in that, and it'd be nice to have, but it's not necessary.
What kind of lights and a/c? Can you communicate with them via your home network? Or are they controlled via ir-signals?
The lights and thermostat are not hooked up right now, I wanted to know what I would need to buy to be able to hook them up to the network. I've looked into Insteon and it seems like that'll be the best option, and I did find someone who is working on an Insteon addon for xbmc here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=185129