....You may want to read a bit farther, because yes. LinuxMCE can control devices itself in very complex ways that no current hardware solution can duplicate. However, your choice of KNX may have been a bit foolhardy. Our implementation of EIB/KNX is very basic......
Thanks for the response. I am in the UK, and I will look into what you say. Yes it was my intention to use VDR, and I will probably be looking for a way of driving the outputs to the t-amp via sound cards, as a preference (core, or md's or dedicate hardware with lots of channel outputs). The trend audio external soundcards are nice, and I'm using one of those to give a nice clean output via a t-amp to Klipsch RB-61's. If Linux supports more than one of those via the USB controller that may be a potential solution for me.
My choice of KNX is based on a number of factors. Clearly it is a European based system, and less well supported in USA based software projects. However, in my view, it is
very good. In fact I would go as far as to say that it is the best integrated control system in the market place. It's superior to everything else available in my territory, and over the last five years I've researched them all. I can program my KNX devices so they work, they will work without a controller, they will reset themselves after power cuts. They can integrate a wider range of items than pretty much anything else. You can send bus messages via pretty much every medium, including powerline, wireless and dedicated bus. I will only be using the dedicated bus.
I would only use LinuxMCE as a secondary level controller to change scenes, or instigate certain actions. If there isn't a lot in place already, I guess that's an area that I will be contributing to the project, over time. I've really looked at every other type of integrated automation system, and everything comes short of what KNX can do. If it never becomes integrated into my LinuxMCE system it's not the end of the world. I can program it to just work, using the alarm system and the integrated logic built into each device. There are dedicated web controllers for KNX, and that is another possible avenue I can pursue.
I see LinuxMCE's big advantage in my situation as Audio/Video distribution. If I can add in the other elements and get a totally integrated system, all the better, but my house is designed so that each sub-system works independently with no single point of failure. The devil will be in the integration, but there's a better chance with LinuxMCE, as far as I see it, than with any other project that I'm aware of.