We're just hoping that Vista supports 1394b - if that is the case then we have the solution here: http://www.tecstream.com

actually, cable descriptors such as "oxygen free" do have value, but it is not realized unless you are talking about long term defects due to corrosion and such... the kind of things you'd want to accomodate for should you be placing wire in the walls of your home (I'm sure your landlords would love it, but hardly worth it for you!)

also, the pricing mentioned is targeted at CEDIA folks - these are Custom Electronics Installers - so the actual price will most likely include the tack-on of installation costs beyond whatever they suggest. Possibly not an issue though since they are claiming wireless connectivity. Of course the Gigabit side of things will need to be addressed by copper, especially if they hope to stream more than one HD source on their network.

we'd be happy if they implemented some 1394 ports... then homeowners could record HD to a single HD DVR from anywhere in the home. 8 HDTV's, one DVR, one cable box. all controllable from any HDTV in the home, even while running 16 simultaneous streams.

http://www.tecStream.com

the folks attending are the experts... the ones exhibiting are all sales and marketing! only occasionally do you get the folks there who really know something, like the engineers or tech department. (I should know as i'm usually in the booth)

this is a great diagram for adding just about any device in an analog fashion - it makes little or no mention of digital networking though...

http://www.tecstream.com/downloads/tecStream_Home_Schematic.pdf

"more easily compressed MPEG-4."

huh? MPEG-4 demands much more computational power than MPEG-2. it also gets lost in the "art" of tweeking settings to maximize video quality, while simultaneously maximizing the amount of compression to bring the movie down to a manageable level from a delivery standpoint.

studios are not up to speed yet with the art of MPEG-4 compression, whereras a multitude of MPEG-2 studios have mastered it. this will change quickly, but is not true today.

We're not sure what HANA's plans are, but we are supporting 5C already, not to mention full 1394 networking of HD in the home... we are of course thrilled that Microsoft has built 1394B support into Vista.

http://www.tecstream.com

another option is CenterStage http://www.centerstageproject.com/

hey Richard, if you are going to write about HANA and 1394, you should also include tecStream. It does everything HANA does, but is real product available today. tecStream just doesn't have gigantic companies lining up behind it like HANA.

http://www.tecstream.com

Great to see everyone signing up. We are already doing all of this at UStec with our 1394 based, single Cat5 cable, open platform, single remote and secure digital network. http://www.tecstream.com