I do have a alarm/audio-video guy I work with when I hit snags I can't figure out. He wired my house for alarm already. My brother and I do IT work, and he is employed as an IT manager for Sara Lee. We wired all the low volt for my home, have it all ran to a network closet, and are putting in the patch panel and multimedia connections over the next month.

I know the receiver and remote are going to be the most expensive part of the system, I just don't want to buy one and then long for an upgrade a year later. What I described is basically all I want to do. I don't mind the IR receiver in the ceiling I described, I just don't want to have to have multiple IR blasters to control each component for different rooms. I also don't want to have 3 or 4 DVD players, one for each room. I'm buying a small WDTV media player for each room because they are not that expensive, and they can all draw different media from my NAS drives.

The only thing my remote is going to control from the closet is the FIOS receivers, a DVD player (or two) and the receiver I get. Money of course is a concern, but I have no reference point for a receiver that does what I'm looking for costs. I see them all day long for $300-$3000 in Fry's, and the standard Harmony remotes. I guess I would like to keep the cost of both to around $800-1000.

Hope that helps in any advice. If I need to be more clear, please tell me how.