Smart Home Blog

Linux distribution yaVDR – yet another VDR, offers XBMC version integrated with VDR – Video Disk Recorder. Because, as you may know, XBMC lacks PVR functionality. Moreover, yaVDR supports hardware acceleration VDPAU from the box. It allows to playback HD video even on Atom processors using power of nVidia GPU.

The latest version of yaVDR, announced yesterday, is based on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid. It looks very promised because contains two the best in my opinion open source software XBMC and VDR in one distribution. I read before about integration VDR and XBMC but it needed too many manual work to setup such solution. With yaVDR that procedure became much easier. Even for ordinary users.

Quite interesting project was found on the AutomatedHome site. Its goal is provide open source solution for iPad to use it as X10 controller. It uses Shion, PHP and AppleScript as software part and CM15Pro to communicate with X10 devices. User has a nice looking web interface to configure system and manage devices. That project will be available for download soon.

[via AutomatedHome]

Recently I found a nice article about home automation using open source software and OS Linux. It covers all aspects of smarthome – appliance control, media recording and streaming, security and surveillance system, telephony. Actually this is a brief overview. So, don’t expect to find there detailed instructions how to automate your home. But as a start point is really helpful.

P. S. LinuxMCE basically offers all features described in that article and much more.

The open source software to watch Internet TV Miro was lunched recently. It turns your PC into full-featured media center. The main idea of Miro is offer en easiest way to browse, search, watch and store a video content (even HD) delivered by internet connection. Using Miro it’ll be easy to watch and store video from sites like YouTube or Google Video. It offers a simple interface to download video files from BitTorrent. It can be stored and played after on your PC. Also you’ll be able to watch thousands Internet channels, video blogs or podcats. Additionally, Miro can play Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID video files stored on your PC.

The first version of Miro is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. So, you have a various choices 🙂

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Recently I discovered Ubuntu Home Server Project. As project creators say:

Ubuntu Home Server (UHS) will be an edition of the Ubuntu operating system which allows users to administer their home network. With Ubuntu Home Server you will be able to store all your music, songs and pictures in one central location, to access your files over the internet and to backup all the computers in your house.

So, hopefully we’ll have a good alternative to Windows Home Server. Especially, Ubuntu has the most attractive user interface IMHO. Also, we should take into account that recently open source home automation system Plutohome was ported to Kubuntu. I can see the good tendency that two great software product for home are concentrated on the same OS.