Using Slingbox or gogoMedia to broadcast home CCTV

Been research for sometime and for a cheap cctv. In brief, I found 3 options. You can buy Motorola Homesight HMEZ2000 for £66.

But there is a monthly subscription payable to myhome247 to remote access the camera and with ability to receive text alarm.

2nd option is get a wifi camera from linksys or dlink and hook it to the wifi network. If you can VPN back home, I believe you can access the wifi camera., but there is no notification or motion capture.

Traditionaly, most CCTV has a SCART plug to connect to your TV.

GetPLC Smart CCTV is one of the model HomeBase has stock.

The 3rd option need a Slingbox. Not only you get to enjoy your TV channel or recorded show anywhere you go, you can also use the SCART plug to connect the CCTV into it and your house anywhere you go. I think this option give you better value as it is subscription free. Of course, it would be nice to connect Slingbox to PIR motion detection in order to snapshot of your house on any movement as there isn't any yet.

Alternate to Slingbox, Adigit gogomedia Pro a Taiwanese product that rival Slingbox seems to do it all. I extracted this diagram from their website. Unlike slingbox where you need to connect to sling website, you can directly connect to gogomedia as it has ddns option and support recording!

The price is a bit steep at £250, but as compare to Sling, you get multi access capability. Adigit PDF brochure is available here and manual here. Unfortunately the model I'm interested in this post is the Surveillance model but it is not for retail. :(

Deal for Automated Home Devices

1.5 week ago I posted about Insteon, home automation device that available in the State, but I managed find a few UK sites selling fantastic remote for less than £15.

1. EKDVDR has Radiplug 3x Remote Control Mains Plug sockets/switches for £13.99


2. Maplin has Remote Transmitter and Receiver for £4.99


3. Ebuyer selling Indoor Remote Control Sockets with light dimmer function for £8.82


4. And finally Lakeland selling its Remote Control Plug Set for £8.99, with £10 off code (DW1) for purchase over £25.

Personally, I prefer the Insteon last one, as the device looks appealing. There you go, get one of this and you can sit tight on your lazy sofa. If you want more sofisticated Home Automated product, HawkingTech is going to launch their "Z-Wave solution" by Q2 2008.

Interesting Automated Home product

While I was looking for RF (Radio frequency) remote controller for my potential HTPC, I came across this interesting SmartHome device from Insteon. Unfortunately it only available in US, and the power plug is not compatible here. Hopefully not long from now it will be available in this region. The picture below shows the RemoteLinc Starter Kit, for USD129.99

Basically it works like this: the white Access Points (back of the picture) need to link up with the black RemoteLinc device, and link the Lamplinc device (front of the picture) with the RemoteLinc. Then plug your table lamp into one of the link. Click play on the Windows Media Player below to see the setup.

The diagram below shows the connectivity between the devices in starter kit package.

Here is a video clip from SmartHome.com showing Insteon wide range of automated home products such as Appliance dimmer, keypadlinc controller, remote switch, rollerblind controller and home control software.