Engadget just posted a Review on the 2005 Microsoft Multimedia Center. I am waiting for the hardware to come down in price before I give this a try. I bet after christmas sales will win me over :)

I was checking out the PVRBlog and I saw a DirectTV Tivo Series 2 Hack.  This looks like something I want to give a try. However I have to get my Wife and kids to give up the Tivo for a while to do it :)

I was looking for a camera that was waterproof (although I am installing it under the front porch), has motion detection, IR Leds for night vision and works well during the day. I found something that seemed to fit the requirements at the local Radio Shack. The Radio Shack Indoor/Outdoor B&W Camera was only $60 and also had two way audio.

The first time I gave the camera a test run was at night on the front porch and I was amazed at the clarity that the camera produced. With the front porch light on I could easily see 20 ft into the front yard. I never relized that incandescent lights give off infrared light. Well I was very pleased with the results so I planned to install the camera into my whole house video system on the next weekend.

The integration took a little hacking because I had RG6, CAT-5, and power going out to the front porch and the camera came with a PS2 connector. So I purchase a 6ft PS2 keyboard/mouse extension cable to canabalize for the camera to whole house video integration. The camera had signals as follows: GND, 15 vdc, Video, Mic Audio, Speaker Audio, and Motion Sense. After all was hooked up and I added an RF Modulator to brodcast the video into my whole house. This was about 1pm and the sun had gone down in my front yard. Well the picture that came from the camera was very washed out. I pointed the camera indoors and the image came quickly into view. Obviously the sun's IR was causing the camera to be blinded. Even though the sun was not directly in view with the camera. So the end result is this camera did not fit by "Works well in Daylight" requirement.

Back to Radio Shack to return the camera. I hope I can find a new one to take it's place. Even if I have to purchase a seperate motion detector and infrared flood lamp I would be statisfied. As long as the camera video quality is good during the day and night.