Setting up a new house

[admin_exported]

I am in the process of buying a new hosue, the house is a wreck so we will be more or less starting again from scratch. The good news for me is that I now have the perfect chance to link my whole house up how I have always wanted as hiding wires in amongst the new walls should not be an issue.

I actually have a floor plan with details of where I want my electronics to go, it's just the tools I need to make it happen.

In summary, I would like to have my main TV in the lounge linked to my main PC, I want to be able to view on the TV what ever is being viewed on the PC, so essentially a second video and sound output.

I would also like to be able to display the image from my main TV on the second TV in the kitchen diner.

I basically want my PC and two main TV's all interlinked for picture, sound will all run via my AV center.

I'll try post pics up and that will help.

But the main thing I'm here for is to see if anyone has done anything similar and if so what advice would they give/ what is realistcally possible and what isn't!

 

[Anonymous]

Ignore the yellow boxes, they are radiators.

I've also not included the speakers as there are so many of them! (going for 7.1 in the lounge)

 

[Clare Newsome]

Are you planning this as a DIY job, or do you have budget for installers?

 

[Anonymous]

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/696/downstairsentertainment.jpg/

 

[Anonymous]

Are you planning this as a DIY job, or do you have budget for installers?

DIY job.

I'm fairly handy at most things AV (not so much at general DIY mind!)

I'm hoping once I know what is needed, the rest should just all link into place. I have an Onkyo AV reciever that seems to boast that it can handle most things, so I thought that could act as a nice bridge between the hardware.

I'm expecting the bill for wires though to be stupid. It is 9.5m from one length of the lounge to the other.

 

[BenLaw]

 

[Anonymous]

thanks Ben, that's what I wanted to do!

 

[Andrew17321]

Hi

I tried to do something similar 5 years ago when I was doing up a new (old) house, but got one bit wrong! I sorted out the satellite and other aerials and telephone lines to various rooms, and the power sockets (almost), but I did not foresee the need for ethernet cables.

Suggest you put ethernet cables to everywhere you might need them in the future, even if you do not need them now. WiFi is fine up to a point, but if there are a few walls to go through, or you have neighbors also using WiFi, radio phones, etc, you'll wish you had put in cables. Suggest you put in cat6 ones, as I suspect you will be streaming HD television sooner than you expect.

Andrew

 

[Anonymous]

I'm considering running a tube behind the walls that will house all my wires, my plan is to then have string inside that can act as a pulley if I ever needed to run more wires in the future. I've also been caught out with that before!

 

[amrits]

I've just completed a similar project.

As James suggested I've laid cat6 cables across the house and am already seeing the benefits of it..

The two TV's I've connected via a TV link and a good quality RF cable. This now outputs my SKY HD box to the second TV and the TV link and an additional remote allows me to change the channel when in the second room.

You wont get HD picture on the second TV with this setup but it is very cheap to do and works really well, if all you want is the same picture on both TV's.

I've connected the PC, which has a dual graphics card to an Onkyo amp which allows me to output to the TV as well as the monitor and I can then stream all my AV content direct from the PC.

I laid all my cables under the floorboards and planned everything in advance so I don't have to lift them up again. Make sure you map out your cable runs and plan for any future upgrades which you know you'll do in the future.

I also used an angle grinder to house two 2" wide conduit pipes into the brick behind the TV and then plastered over this. It's only a 60Cm run so there is no need to drop strings down I can simply push the cables up and down. the wider pipe also allows me to push larger cables such as a VGA or a kettle lead through with no problems.

good luck with your project.

 

[Anonymous]

Something to consider would be a HDMI switch with 4 in and 2 out. Then have something like a synolgy ds210j, popcorn hour a200 or WDTV live in each room linked via ethernet. Then you can store all music and movies on the synology and access them on each box

I'd run Ethernet to everyroom with 2 possibly sockets so it's future proof.

With the HDMI switch you can run some HDMI cables between rooms from the switch and use wireless ir to change channels. With 2 out you can have hd and flick between devices on rooms