[Knoxy2101]

Thanks for all your help Ernie! Yeah, in my previous set up a lot of people had no idea how much cabling I had- that was only basic compared to yours, so no doubt ill be doing attic/roof runs! Haha

With the noise from fans/HDs, I'd been lead to believe a silent system was possible, antec case, WD green hard drives etc- is this not feasible? I'd want it to be very quiet, not hear a loud whirring noise as I'm mid film.. Haha.

For the switches, ill take your advice and hunt down that brand here in Aus not sure what serial is?

Would the distance effect quality? What's is EDID?

Thanks heaps mate, you're a legend!

[tboggie]

Looking at your setup again, the simplest solution would be to get a 3D capable htpc for your projector room, another htpc like the pivos,tlbb etc which can handle 1080p for the tv room and a NAS which will feed both HTPCs.

Connect the two htpcs and NAS to 5-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch and you're good to go

[aesalazar]

I'm not sure you need something complicated... 1 HTPC with media and dual video output, switching displays with a batch file should do the job if the distance between displays is not too large (say less than 50 feet or the limits of HDMI - works for me).

Its always worth a try! My concern would be EDID problems since he is mixing a stereo TV with a multi-channel receiver since even when a device is in standby it can still mess things up. At least that is what I have run into which is why you want to make sure the switching device has proper isolation.

Looking at your setup again, the simplest solution would be to get a 3D capable htpc for your projector room, another htpc like the pivos,tlbb etc which can handle 1080p for the tv room and a NAS which will feed both HTPCs.

Not a bad option. It will require extra work to manage the separate devices but will save alot of remote configuration and running wires. Probably end up costing the same in the end.

@Knoxy2101: Is all about the fans and how big a case you can live with. if you can get a full size tower you could probably go down to one or two fans depending on how many drives. For our desktop PC I have an Antec 900 I went with a No Fan CR-95C so I could go fanless on the CPU (intel i7). So the only fan running is he big 200mm one at the top of the case and the CPUs under full load max out at only 40 degrees. But that is with two SSDs in a RAID 0 (stripped) array - running bigger platter drives will require more care. As long as there are fans and platter drives there will be noise - the question is how much is acceptable - where box is, how sensitive your ears are, etc.

Serial control is just an alternative to IR or RF remote controls - if you look at the back of your receiver you might have it on there. It is an actual hard wire connection between the controller and the device being controlled. Probably 90% of people use IR (remotes), maybe 9% use RF and I cant image more then 1% of people out there go through the trouble of using a Serial connection. In fact only one of my devices (the switcher) is set up for Serial control. So I wouldn't worry about that option - it the most "solid" but is also the hardest to implement.

EDID is the handshake between two HDMI devices. So if you have a TV and a BR player connected via HDMI, they talk to each other between the connection - the TV "tells" the player, say, "I can handle up to 1080P and up to Stereo but nothing more" and the player then takes that and will adjust its output to the max of those parameters. That is why HDMI is not a simple single you can split like with the simpler analog signals. And it is not a simple thing to replicate in a switcher. And when you try to connect both a stereo TV and a surround receiver to the same output at the same time what "should" happen is the output go to the lowest common denominator - stereo.

For HDMI, I believe the official limit is 5 meters before attenuation becomes noticeable - but there are a whole bunch of caveats to that - single boost, cable quality, etc. But the good news is since it is digital the picture quality does not degrade. What happens when you have significant attenuation is you will actually see random blips in the picture - for me it was thin red lines that would just pop up randomly. This is when I was pulling directly from the source. When I added the switcher the problem in my 15m runs went away since the good ones have single boosters. But if you skip the switcher you can always pick up inline booster that will let you go that long like this: Booster (this one seems to need power but they make ones that do not need power but cost more).

Hope that helps.

Ernie

[Knoxy2101]

Okay, 4th attempt to reply. I don't know why these arnt going through. My apologies if ive seemed rude, I've typed this and it never actually posts?

Okay, so a switch won't be my best bet, because you think ill have issues with stereo/5.1 sound, is that correct? Even if I buy a top if the line switch? So my idea what, since I'm only watching movies on projector once a week or so, what if I just swap the cables? It will all be housed in a cabinet on the otherside of the wall to the TV and about 2m on a straight line from the projector, what if when I want to watch the projector I just swap the cable that's running into it from the TV for the cable running from the projector? Would that run into any issues? Sure, its a little unprofessional, but I don't mind..

Dual HTPCS and NAS, I don't understand how this would be similar in cost to one HTpCs- NAS run in excess of a few hundred, each HTPC is $500, how would that be similar in price? Am I missing something? A website? My HTPC design? Am I doing it wrong? Haha

I can live with a huge case and little bit of a buzz, probably not a few fans running on full but.. It will also be housed in a cabinet, so I imagine that will dull a bit of the noise as well.. The MacBook I'm running makes little noise, so I would imagine a HTPC with a lot of power, just 1or2 two terabyte drives for my data etc, shouldn't be too loud? Minimal gaming will happen on it, I've a playstation for that..
How much noise would you expect something like that to make? I'm no videophile or audiophile, so unless its something people make jokes about it sounding like a rocket taking off, I think I could live with it..

Thanks for your explanation on Infared and serial! IR is ideal I imagine, a cable running the distance seems a lot of work.. Is there a big advantage to it I'm not seeing? Or is it just a solid connection rather than invisible?

EDID, okay- so what if I hooked the TV upto 5.1? Used a digital optical cable (I think that's the right one) from the TV into the amplifier, and used the same speakers to power both setups? Would that remove my issue of EDID? Or?

For signal loss, the area I'm doing in total is about 10m, however the devices are within 5m of each other, with te cabinet that will be housing them in the middle of them, so I'm not concerned about that signal loss anymore thanks

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!

I'm sorry this took so long

Allex

[aesalazar]

Wow, thats alot of info, I will do my best.

Okay, so a switch won't be my best bet, because you think ill have issues with stereo/5.1 sound, is that correct? Even if I buy a top if the line switch? So my idea what, since I'm only watching movies on projector once a week or so, what if I just swap the cables? It will all be housed in a cabinet on the otherside of the wall to the TV and about 2m on a straight line from the projector, what if when I want to watch the projector I just swap the cable that's running into it from the TV for the cable running from the projector? Would that run into any issues? Sure, its a little unprofessional, but I don't mind..

Not at all, a switch is certainly an option. You should be able to get booth 2.0 and 5.1 just not to two devices at the same time that are not BOTH capable of 5.1. If you try to run your tv AND receiver off the XBMC box at the same time then it will go down to stereo since that the highest single both have in common.

But if you are just looking to run it on one OR the other then there is no issue. You might have to reboot the HTPC to get it to resync the EDID to properly switch from 2.0 to 5.1 and back (thats is what I have to do currently) but thats no big deal - just program a remote button.

As mentioned, if you get a htpc that has two HDMI out you could run an cable from each output directly to the devices and see what happens - my guess is it will only allow you to get stereo but that is just a guess.

Swapping the cables would certainly work and be simplest . If it works for you, why not!

Dual HTPCS and NAS, I don't understand how this would be similar in cost to one HTpCs- NAS run in excess of a few hundred, each HTPC is $500, how would that be similar in price? Am I missing something? A website? My HTPC design? Am I doing it wrong? Haha

I think the thought would be you get a pricier htpc where with your receiver and maybe a cheaper one for the TV. But ya, thats true, if you are still planning to go without a NAS the it would be a lot more money then just a single htpc + hard drive (not a nas) + switch or just switching cables.

I can live with a huge case and little bit of a buzz, probably not a few fans running on full but.. It will also be housed in a cabinet, so I imagine that will dull a bit of the noise as well.. The MacBook I'm running makes little noise, so I would imagine a HTPC with a lot of power, just 1or2 two terabyte drives for my data etc, shouldn't be too loud? Minimal gaming will happen on it, I've a playstation for that..
How much noise would you expect something like that to make? I'm no videophile or audiophile, so unless its something people make jokes about it sounding like a rocket taking off, I think I could live with it..

Thats a tough one to answer since it is relative to the person. If you get a good case with proper circulation, good fans with real ball bearings, and not to many hard drives it sounds like you should be ok. You just have to do some research and pick your parts well.

Thanks for your explanation on Infared and serial! IR is ideal I imagine, a cable running the distance seems a lot of work.. Is there a big advantage to it I'm not seeing? Or is it just a solid connection rather than invisible?

Think of it like wireless vs wired Ethernet connections. Which is better - wired hands down because its a physical connection. BUT in the world of remote controls, the amount of actual data being transmitted is miniscule compared to a network connection so there is no reason to go through all the trouble of serial unless it is convenient enough (say you have to run other wires anyway) or you are just totally hardcore . Otherwise stick with IR, it works just fine. Or consider RF if you want to be able to control things from another room. But dont worry about serial...

EDID, okay- so what if I hooked the TV upto 5.1? Used a digital optical cable (I think that's the right one) from the TV into the amplifier, and used the same speakers to power both setups? Would that remove my issue of EDID? Or?

Not sure I follow what you are saying. The only time the EDID will become an issue is from what I described above- you try to watch the same source like the htpc on both your receiver/project AND the tv at the same time. In that case, it will simply defaults to stereo .

For signal loss, the area I'm doing in total is about 10m, however the devices are within 5m of each other, with te cabinet that will be housing them in the middle of them, so I'm not concerned about that signal loss anymore thanks

Sounds like you should be fine then.

I think the best you can do is start simple and see if it works for you. Say, get a htpc and the cables and plug them in. Maybe borrow an external HD if you can or just use your laptop with a shared drive temporarily. If you like the setup, you saved yourself a bunch of money. If you want more convenience then you can always add on later.

Ernie