You no longer need to be good with PC's to seamlessly compete with crestron gear (I know crestron dealers and installers will take me to task on this but its my firm belief and real world experience)...
With a HTPC you have source component for DVD / HDTV / Multi room compatible audio.. This is world class scaling for high res projectors etc and now with the envy 24ht chipped soundcards (or the M-Audio 1010 if you are heavily into the high end balanced output side) it is competeing with the big boys there too.. Freebies like CSII multi channel decodes are a bonus etc...
With the Cinemar suites (MainLobby) you have simple easy to use GUI construction that is girder compatible for network control... Plus handles X10 natively and can control IR out with a SLinkE for legacy / consumer components that dont have RS232...
With Girder you have command and control...
With Progears you have XGA TFT touchpanels in magnesium cases with built in 802.11 for $600 USD..
Want to incoporate some PDA's then use NetRemote so you can import any of the color CCF's from this site onto your PDA with the added appeal of 2 way control so plenty of playlist / album cover art / all the benfits that this entails...
Really having looked at Panja / Crestron / etc I see no reason to side with modular incompatible systems when so much sudden and highly integrated work is being done with pure PC hardware...
