Recently I had to work out a solution for my brother-in-law's large home. There are three levels, 15 rooms and a granny apartment all as part of the home. What we needed was to put an intercom...

"Smart Homes for Dummies" has been around since 2000. A new edition was released without fanfare in July of this year, 2007. From a quick flick through and comparing it with the 2nd Edition...

Hi and welcome to my new blog. My name is Elwyn Jenkins and I have taken over from the previous blogger. Because I live in a "Do-It-Yourself" wired home I face all the challenges and rewards...

If you're like me, you know that summertime means time to hire the neighborhood boy for 15 bucks every few weeks to cut your grass, because you don't have the time or the energy to do it...

Since we posted the tutorial about programming the 30 second skip on the Motorola DVR, we've gotten several emails asking how to program TiVo with the 30 second skip. So for all of our wonderful...

Editing digital video can be a nightmare if you don't know where to start. Editing Digital Video : The Complete Creative and Technical Guide gives you the basic steps and tools for preserving...

I've always been envious of TiVo and ReplayTV users and their ability to zip through commercials (recorded shows only) with a 30 second skip button. If you're not familiar with the 30 second...

Okay, this is definitely not a project for everyone. Have you ever wondered about the exact electricity an appliance in your house uses? Well here's a tutorial that shows you how to build a home...

We've talked about building a large screen home projector in the past. Now InventGeek has a really nice DIY that does a great job of breaking down the costs and considerations for this extremely...

If you're looking for a media center and you're comfortable messing around inside a computer case, you'll want to strongly consider building your own system. Oreilly has a really nice...

Here's a problem most of us will run into one of these days. Our computer will crash, and unless we had a backup (yeah right!), we'll lose all of our music files. The nice thing is if your...

Looking to build that killer home theater system? We've talked in the past about building a Windows Media Center system and even a Mac Mini home theater system. Now it's time to talk to you...

I wanted to share this email with you:William, I've got a collection of about 100 home movies on VHS. I'm afraid the tapes are going to wear out and want to find a way to preserve them....

If you're the type that prefers to build your own media center, you know you've got to start with the right TV tuner card. The Tech Report has a nice article comparing 3 TV tuner cards: ATI TV...

We've talked a lot about TV tuner cards and Windows, but what if you're devoted to the Penguin? LinuxJournal.com has a nice article that walks you through setting up a Hauppauge WinTV Radio...

Last week we told you about the Mac Media Center Project where the goal was to turn the Mac Mini into a full fledged media center. If you're not that patient, Engadget has a nice how to on...

Looking to soup-up that old Series2 DirecTV DVR Box of yours? PVRBlog has a review and a tutorial of a PTVnet upgrade drive. According to the review:The PTVnet upgrade drive fills a void, letting you...

Jake Ludington of Mediablab decided to take on a unique project at home. He took his existing phone wiring and converted it to Voip.I had a revelation during a trip to the drugstore a few blocks from...

When the Terminator's Head is bigger than your whole body, that's good TV! Tomshardware.com has a excellent tutorial on how to build your own supersized big screen tv. We've all gotten...