[mythtv-users] Using X10 to power on external hard drives

[Steve Peters - Priority Electronics]

Hello all,

I have 4 external hard drives on my mythbox that I use to store movies (my
dvd rips). I want to have those drives turned off most of the time except
when we decide to watch a movie. I think by keeping the drives powered off,
I'll extend their life, and save power at the same time.

So I bought this X10 Firecracker thingy that connects to the serial port of
my computer. You run a simple command and it can turn on or off other X10
connected devices like my hard drives in this case (which are all connected
to a single X10 outlet).

What I want to do is have it so that when you turn on the drives, they only
stay on for 6 or 8 hours. I think this is pretty easy to do, but the issue
I'm running into is what if someone watches a movie at noon, and someone
else decides to watch another one at 7pm. Also, the same applies for music,
as that is stored on these drives.

Also, I want to do it all through myth, and seamlessly without anyone
knowing that the system is doing this. The idea I had was that when you hit
the video button on my remote, a script runs to turn the drives on, and at
the same time, myth goes to the videos screen. Is there a way to have it so
that the drives are only powered off when there is like an hour of
inactivity?

What do you guys recommend?

-Thanks
-Steve