DIGITAL HOME Online: For Builders of Smart Homes, Home Theaters, Networking, Security, and A/V.

Digital Home Online provides extensive research on products and building ideas for today's smart homes. Find information on home theaters, networking, security and A/V quickly and easily.

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January 13, 2009

DTV: Chaos Ahead? Or Opportunity?

Just prior to the holidays, when electronics retailers were having fire sales, I purchased for my family a pair of new flat-panel LCD TVs. They're nothing like the awesome, Internet-connected, 3D TVs that were on display last week at CES in Las Vegas, but they serve our purposes fine. In both cases, I plugged our coaxial cable directly into the back and began a channel scan. What I found was like a surprise gift in my Christmas stocking....

Posted By: bgrimes | Time: 8:17:00 AM | Permalink and Comments (0 Total)

December 09, 2008

What Would the Appraiser Say?

We think we know it intuitively. That adding electronic systems to new homes—whole-house audio, lighting control, security—adds value. Builders can make more money and home owners, when they sell, can, too. But is it so? I mean, who decided granite countertops added value? Certainly home owners who demanded such amenities drove the market for them. But home appraisers gave their seal of approval by factoring them into their valuations, right? So DIGITAL HOME asked appraisers what they made of home technology....

Posted By: bgrimes | Time: 9:04:00 AM | Permalink and Comments (1 Total)

November 11, 2008

Prepping for the Builders' Show

Last week I finally booked my travel reservations for the NAHB's International Builders' Show in Las Vegas next Jan. 20-23. You haven't yet? Well let's see if I can entice you. Besides being the biggest show each year for home builders and the folks that work with them to meet, learn, and see new products, this year's IBS will offer a couple killer educational sessions on digital home technology....

Posted By: bgrimes | Time: 7:16:00 AM | Permalink and Comments (0 Total)

October 14, 2008

The Network You Already Built

Builders, whether they're building digital homes or not, install a computer network infrastructure every time they put up a house. And I'm not talking about the air over which radio frequency enables so-called Wi-Fi wireless networks. I'm talking about the home's electrical wiring. And it works great....

Posted By: bgrimes | Time: 7:26:00 AM | Permalink and Comments (0 Total)

September 09, 2008

More New Products from CEDIA

As in our other running blog post of CEDIA new products, we present unvarnished announcements from the manufacturers themselves. DIGITAL HOME can't attest to each product's features and capabilities, but we do present some of the new products we found most intriguing....

Posted By: bgrimes | Time: 4:23:00 PM | Permalink and Comments (0 Total)