[zephyr]

I have a dream...

That one day i can fully integrate XBMC in a multiroom system by running all clients from one server.


Well, I have tried to find sources for what I want to do, but not many have tried this.

This is what I have planned until now.

-I will use Crestron as a home automation system.
-I will have 7 zones. Livingroom, kitchen, cinema, bathroom, master bedroom, kids bedroom and a guest room.
-All zones exept bathroom will have a tv.
-All zones will have in-wall or roof speakers.
-Video and audio will be connected to a 8x8 HDMI Matrix (Most likely Atlona AT-PRO2HD88M) running HDBaseT to all zones (Cat6 cable).


Now I use a HTPC running XBMC connected to a media server in the attic, but this is where my final problem lies.

I do not want ANY boxes or ATVs or anything on the TV side in each zone. Just a Cat6 cable running everything through the matrix.
I have also tried the ATV2 and i do not like the slow menues and no 1080P so no option to have these connected through the matrix.

The server is based on a ASUS DSBV-DX motherboard with 2 x XEON 5410, 12GB Ram and a SSD. It also has 15TB of movies.
I want to install 2 graphic cards with 2 HDMI each so I have a total of 4 HDMI outputs.
Then I want to run 4 instances of XBMC, each routed to one of the HDMI ports and connected to the matrix.
The Crestron system will then use the first free XBMC output for each TV trying to use XBMC.

Soundcards will also be installed so I can pull analog audio to the Crestron system to the hidden speakers.

The 4 installations will have to use the same DB, but this is under control as I have used this before.

The most crucial part is that the installations will have to be seperate so they can only be controlled from the correct zone.
Is what I want to do at all possible??

All help is welcome

[Ned Scott]

The only way to do this would be to have an extremely powerful computer run virtual machines for each instance of XBMC and somehow set each VR to use a different audio output device (and it's unlikely that any kind of passthrough audio will work). It's just not cost effective or practical.

[lrusak]

haha good luck

[Tesla]

Since I now have two Win-7 XBMC clients on my network, I'm starting to dream of something like this.

However, I wouldn't think of trying to do this without placing an intelligent CAT-6 network client at each TV to provide processing and run the HDMI port for each location. Pick the smallest client you can support and that has the horsepower to drive 1080p res. XMBC runs on so many small machines.

And while not XBMC, at WDTV-SMP will do it for $75 per TV/client. That's my baseline.