I’m moving into a new place and want to start from scratch. I like Roomie and have decided I want to use it, so I want to tailor the rest of the system to work well with it. I’m particularly concerned with power on/off – the problem I have noticed with IR on other systems is that macros can end up toggling power off when you really want it on. For example, if both the “watch TV” macro and “watch movie” macro involve toggling power on the TV, switching from watching TV to watching a movie will actually turn the TV off. This is what I want to avoid.
It seems like the way to do this is to get a Sharp/Elite or Panasonic TV (VT50 is a possibility) and basically whatever receiver I want. Is this an accurate assessment? I’m a bit curious about cable boxes as well – will I absolutely have to use IR unless I go with DirecTV? Will this create problems similar to the one I outlined above? I have the option of Comcast or AT&T cable, if that makes a difference.
Any other tips would also be welcome. Thanks!
I can tell you that my Panasonic VT50 works great with Roomie. trick is to use the wake on LAN command. I have a Pioneer Tuner that works very well along with a Pioneer DVD.
The VT50 is an excellent choice and has won every picture quality award we’re aware of this year:
Panasonic VIERA TC-P65VT50 65-Inch 1080p Full HD 3D Plasma TV
[Ordering from that link benefits Roomie!]
DirecTV and TiVo are both fully IP controllable. So that covers Satellite and Cable. Given the choice of Comcast or U-Verse, we’d recommend Comcast with a TiVo. There is no better integration with Roomie than TiVo and we will be expanding that in the future.
Nice – I didn’t actually realize that TiVo worked without an additional cable box. I’m happy to buy through a link that supports Roomie, especially since that looks like the best price available anyway. Also thanks for the prompt response.
Roomie,
Do you know if i can use a TIVO with DTV? I’m not real happy with the DTV box interface.
Yes, TiVo is also available for DirecTV and that works well with Roomie’s integration:
directv.com/technology/tivo_receiver