CNC

There are numerous ways to set this up, and im trying to figure out the best option for the project i am on, and would like to know your guys opinions.

The customer has multiple TV on the lower level of a 2 story house; 1 family, 1 living, 2 outside, (1 over hot tub, 1 on deck)

id like to have digital cable on all 4, and DVD on all 4, and XBOX 360 would be cool too.

Should i run each TV with its own cable box, or network them to one cabinet, and use a RF remote, or IR sensors, (are the RF signal remotes powerful enough?, like a harmony?) Either way, all the locations of the TVs will need to have a remotely located area the componets are located.

the only problem with this is, then all tvs would be displaying the same signal....

Before i do a start to research this, i was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction on setups you have done. Any info would be great.

Bare earth

I once installed 12 TV's in one house, I found the easiest and safest method was to install them all in the same room.

busymnky

I think you're best off taking home runs to a specific loc. If you need seperate cable boxes you can still do that by tying thru for it, and it will be easy if they network later. It's hard to go wrong that way.

__________________
Wood alcohol: Cannot be made non-poisonous.
Of all the lessons dad could have left out...

RIVETER

Bare Earth, I think you invented SURROUND SOUND".

MisterCMK

So there is no place to put a cable box for each TV? If not, your best bet is to designate a closet or somewhere you can put a rack or shelves for everything. Your best bet would be to pull a couple of Cat5E cables and one or two RG6 to each TV location as well as whatever cable your IR extender requires. If you can do it, smurf tube from the TV location to the equipment location would be ideal.

CNC

What is the piece of equipment used to transmit the hdmi signal over cat5 ? Or just get long hdmi cables?

BigJohn20

CNC,

It's called a Balun. You need both a transmitter and a receiver.

You can do a search on the web for "hdmi cat5e balun" and you'll get plenty of results.

They're costly, but if you're doing truly long runs, they're the best way to go.

CNC

I think I'm going to just get 50' hdmi cables, they will reach the locations. I'll use an hdmi 4x8 distribution amplifier to mirror the DVD , and xbox 360, and ps3. Then use a second hdmi cable to each location for individual cable boxes. Also a IR repeAter multi room system to control it all.

egads

You might want to find out what the "program" is. In other words how will the displays be used? Sharing a source may or may not be desirable. Even in a given area, folks may want to watch more than one game. (for instance) Surely one of these areas will be used as the primary home theatre and need full surround sound. Clients who have that many displays are usually not that concerned about converter costs. (we would be) You need to go over the wants and needs with the client and the space for components with the designer. Only then will you know how to proceed.

MisterCMK

They are called baluns. Check out Extron or Key Digital for some of the A/V distribution gear. There is also Crestron but they are way spendy.

Mr Zappa

is this guy serious? must be a massive room dude.......