[Cash]

Hey guys not sure were to put this but am sure some of you can help.


PART 1
I’m helping a friend wire his new house for media center audio and all that’s stuff. There will be 4 TVs throughout the house.

1 in bedroom
1 in great room
1 in master bathroom
1 in 2nd bedroom

What is the best way to stream all different movies to individual TVs without have a whole PC behind each TV? Also they don’t want to see any of the equipment near the TVs. So picture all TVs up on the walls and no PC anywhere in sight (is it possible). We will have 1 main server with all HD movie rips on it and obviously running XBMC.

What is the smallest in size and most practical way to stream different movies to the TVs on demand for each room without a huge Computer being visible, maybe a lot smaller version located about 25 feet away.


PART 2

They also have in ceiling speakers and want to have like 4 zones that can play different or the same music at the same time, and are able to control all this through maybe the same MASTER MEDIA CENTER PC linked to TVs…. Like is there not a way to do this with a pc yet or is there a better way, like maybe a sound card with 6 outputs that can allow remote access through an open source tableton the wall er something or harmony remote or the TVs… Also the in ceiling speakers will not be hooked to the TV audio out, this is a whole separate feed.

I know this is long and thank you all for your input.

We want this house to be wired to the t!ts. Just need some guidance b4 drywall goes up.

[soulnothing]

Havent done any wiring, and this isn't the most practical solution.
Just checked Wikipedia, and there seems to be no cable length limitation on hdmi, granted signal degradation over extended lengths. I don't think lengths of 25-50ft should be problematic. You could do drop plates using stuff from monoprice

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdep...p_id=10426

Create a custom drop with hdmi+usb. Then create another drop in the server room with hdmi. The usb plate near the tv would be for an IR receiver. So the only visible component would be the IR receiver.

This sounds really iffy to me but its an idea. If you want one PC, like one nettop to show on every TV you can use an HDMI splitter. Something like
http://www.monoprice.com/products/produc...1&format=2
^Does that support audio thats something to consider.

The 2nd part I dont know enough about to answer properly. These ideas seem sorta hackish.

Did you want PC specs to? If so are you looking at a pc per tv, or one pc that does everything?

[Targettio]

In order to run 4 separate TVs with 4 different outputs, you will need 4 different machines, either real or virtual.

4 real machines would be the easiest way to do it, and as soulnothing said you could have them quite far from the TVs and out of sight.

As for multi-room audio, if you have each of the PCs connected to the speakers in each of the rooms then you can use something like http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=78431 to play music, via XBMC, to all the rooms in the house.

[rbrohman]

I recently rewired my house while doing some major renovations. I found the AVS forum (particularly the Home A/V Distribution sub-forum) to be a great resource for ideas and suggestions.

I ended up running 4 CAT-6's to each drop in the house. In addition to this I ran a mini-component bundle wire to the master bedroom, rec room and living room terminated in the same sort of keystone jacks that soulnothing linked to. For audio, I ran 7 x 14 gauge speaker wire to living and rec room, 5 drops to master.

If I did it again, I would go with just the Cat6's and speaker wire. I still haven't used ANY of the mini-component bundle, and likely never will. You can get baluns to use Cat6's to carry HDMI so I now feel like Cat6 offers enough flexibility to cover most future needs. It's true that it's more expensive to run Cat6 and use baluns than to just use HDMI (at least it was when I did it), but the Cat6 wire is far more durable and flexible for pulling through the wall. Plus you can repurpose the cat6 in the future, whereas the HDMI is always going to be just hdmi.

What I can't help you with yet is what to do with all those wires! After getting all the renos done, we're out of money. But with the wiring in there, I can go pretty much any route I want when I'm ready for phase 2.

[Cash]

Thanks for all the help, so far i ran 1 cat 6, rg6 and cat5e for phone all from main server room seperate runs all to each other room. Should i also run one cat6 in each room from hidden pc direvtly to tv connection for HDMI like that is just as good as a real HDMI cable if so i like it...

The part that i really need most help with was the hdmi runs and the audio thing. I can eaven figure it out later as long as i run my wures to the right spots... should i go from each zone down to media center or each room to a main tuner but then that just plays radio etc and not from my mp3 collection.

ALSO not to get to complicated but what if u want to play the same blueray throughout every tv that is connected, will xbmc do this?

I know this sounds pretty extreme but i assume there are people out there that have done this its not that far fetcht, its just not really the unrealistic... hmmmmm anyone else have some input. Thanks to all the previous respones.

[rbrohman]

I've read mixed reviews on the HDMI over single cat6 extenders/baluns. So I would run 2 cat6's anywhere you could possibly foresee HDMI being needed. A good quality HDMI/cat6(x2) balun is just as good as HDMI, from what I've read.

In my house, for most drops I just ran the cat6 from my laundry room (where one day I plan to have the server and other hardware) to the spots where I thought I'd put a tv/computer. Main intent here being that everything driven from hardware in laundry room, with thin clients only in the rooms.

But for the rec room and living room, I created an extra loop (say 10 feet) of the cat 6 and left that in the attic (I went from the basement up into a main floor closet and then all the way up to the attic and then distributed to each room from there). I did this so that if my plans (or technology) changed to the point where a centrally distributed AV system wouldn't be ideal, I'd still have the ability to just put hardware somewhere in each room.

[CrashX]

Why not get 4 boxee box which can be hidden ? Is that' cheaper than doing this ? You need hdmi + ethernet + remote + pc for each tv ...

[rbrohman]

Yeah, that'd definitely be cheaper. That's why I think running Cat6's is the best bet. If they end up balking on a full AV distribution, you can just put a small form factor pc at each tv and network them to a media server in a central location. And yet, if they do want to go all-in eventually, you're still pretty much covered.

[Phat Phreddy]

The problem with multiple nodes that I see is when you want whole house in sync.. You need software that does a party mode / synced mode..

I did spend some time thinking on this subject but ultimately didnt go zoned just distributed which is a lot easier.. One soft I did find was working at this the right way was JRiver media center, which could handle 4 zones with a standard cheap 8ch soundcard, independant zone controls, and also synced whole house (or sub sections of) modes.

How far they have progressed or not at all I really havent maintained current on.

[Cash]

Thanks for all the help guys am looking into this more now and will post back my findings if anyone interested..

[darkscout]

HDMI also has a limited distance run without repeaters.

A tiny ION PC could easily be mounted behind the TV (they actually have a standard: VESA mount).

And there are people who have run multiple XBMC on a single PC, you just need a NVIDIA card for each screen.

[dabx5]

You can do all that you want but you have to remember that its not just the audio / video distribution that you have to think about but also how you control it.

There are various ways of doing this from "iPort" using inwall iPads and apps to crestron or nevo type remotes or control4, etc...

I am in a very similar situation and decided to run 2 Structured fiber bundles each (2xcat6, 2xRG6, 2xMultimode Fiber) terminating at 60" above finished floor to the desired TV locations. and 2xcat6 to every other location i need something else at..

This gets expensive to do.. 12K+ in cabling and you still have to get port adapters/converters, switchers...the list goes on... mine is currently setting me back about 35K+.. but for this my system will have Stewart Electriscreen ABT4135, 18 in ceiling speakers 6 inwall speakers, inwall/inceiling enclosures, pool control automation.. security IP monitoring 14 camera's... and the 35K will not include all the equipment..

You also need to look at inwall volume controls..etc

Bottom line is.. it can be done but it is alot of work and it depends on how far you want to go with it..

D.

[vinistois]

http://www.justaddpower.com/Home-Theater...ducts.html


you may be interested in these products.

Basically they allow you to take any number of HDMI sources, and distribute them at once to any number of monitors.

You can have 2-3 small XBMC boxes, blu-ray, and your cable/sat boxes all hooked up, and you can watch any of these sources on any screen you hook a receiver up to.

The only drawback is it doesn't do surround sound. I would put one xbmc box in the media room for that, and leave the other rooms in stereo.

There are many IR-over-IP solutions out there, I'd use that with harmony remotes in each room, or some other commercial offering.

If I were building a house I would run multiple (3-4) CAT6 runs and a fiber run to each room, as well as speaker wires. forget running hdmi or other video cables to the rooms, they will be out-dated so quickly.