Wiring a house for TVs

[Jakson]

Just moved in, looking to get the whole house wired up but have very little idea how to do it. I've heard USB will only go so far before needing hubs and whatnot.

This isn't to scale, but just for reference:

Spoiler: show

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...nty/Layout.jpg

The distance from the Office to the Studio is about 70 feet in a straight line, so I'd imagine I'd need something around twice that much to put the cables in corners and around stuff if I don't use wireless (which I'd prefer not to use wireless). There is about 45 feet from the office tv/xbox to the living room TV and another 35 feet or so from that TV to the bedroom TV provided I snake the wires through the outside wall and keep them running along under the eaves outside.

I would like to get all three TVs hooked up to either my xbox or surround sound, but keep all the equipment in my office, by my computer. The living room TV and Office TV are newer TVs with HDMI, Composite, etc. plugs, but the bedroom TV is just an old CRT that only takes cable and composite.

What I'm wondering is what cables do I need and what would be the most reasonable solution for this. Mainly, what I want to do is to be able to play xbox at any TV (and watch a movie on the xbox) and maybe be able to serve what's on my computer on any of these tvs. Is that possible?

Edit: Er, I forgot to mention that my modem and router are right next to the office TV/xbox.

[Norellicus]

Before I say anything else, I feel I ought to point out that you won't be able to serve any particular one of these sources to more than one TV simultaneously. Only way you'll be able to get the PC to more than one TV at a time is to run a media server from PC and use smaller devices hooked up to the TV to view the content locally.

That said, it's doable, however...you can do it cheap(ish) or autonomously, but not both. If you go cheap, you'll probably have to walk into your office every time you want to switch sources/TVs. If you go autonomous, you'll be able to do everything from your couch, but the hardware required to make this kind of "intelligence" happen is costly.

[Jakson]

Oh I don't mind walking into my office, I just want to be able to play xbox/watch DVDs on my living room TV or bedroom TV without having to pick up my xbox and move it from room to room. I have an old Media Center PC from 2005, but I've never set it up to serve or control anything.

[Caiyuo]

I hope you get more feedback, I'm interested to see how this would work.

[Norellicus]

Okay, well if you don't mind walking into your office it should be doable with the use of some switches and powered splitter/amplifiers.

For simplicity you'll probably want to use HDMI, and can get an HDMI to Component converter for the older tv, but note that if you have to go over 50' in a single run like you mentioned you'll need an inline booster.

Your OP isn't totally clear on how many 'inputs' (xbox, stereo, pc, etc) you're working with, can you clarify that? I should be able to draw up a rough idea of what the end result will look like that way.

[Takedown3]

you could use azerus(sp?) to serve files to your xbox, windows media center also works i believe but i dont have any experience with it. sucks tho since you can't play .mkv unless they've recently updated/patched that ability.

for the other tv's you would have to setup some form of HTPC, to connect to your source(s) back at the computer. i think the new western digital mybooks have the ability to connect to your TV and then play the content on the mybook.

i'm not sure what the best setup is honestly, would be interested to see other's thoughts.

[Takedown3]

hmmm the "xbox on any tv" thing might get complicated, would need to run all of the cables from each tv to the xbox and then find some kind of switch that allows for multiple inputs that works for xbox. not really sure if it exists honestly.

[Norellicus]

you could use azerus(sp?) to serve files to your xbox, windows media center also works i believe but i dont have any experience with it. sucks tho since you can't play .mkv unless they've recently updated/patched that ability.

for the other tv's you would have to setup some form of HTPC, to connect to your source(s) back at the computer. i think the new western digital mybooks have the ability to connect to your TV and then play the content on the mybook.

i'm not sure what the best setup is honestly, would be interested to see other's thoughts.

hmmm the "xbox on any tv" thing might get complicated, would need to run all of the cables from each tv to the xbox and then find some kind of switch that allows for multiple inputs that works for xbox. not really sure if it exists honestly.

You're really overcomplicating this and missing half of the point of what he's trying to do.

TVersity (which is worlds better than Azureus, seriously) won't solve the problem of trying to serve multiple TVs, and it puts the xbox in a position to be tied up no matter what you're trying to do, leaving the use of other TVs as a nonoption.

And you only need one cable from each TV if you use HDMI.

[Quixon]

Well you are either going to have to run wires through the wall, or under carpet/on the floor.

There are some cheap HDMI Switches on Monoprice.com from what I remember.

I'd just buy another Xbox, and keep one at each TV in the living room and office if I were you.

[dannyl]

Well you are either going to have to run wires through the wall, or under carpet/on the floor.

There are some cheap HDMI Switches on Monoprice.com from what I remember.

I'd just buy another Xbox, and keep one at each TV in the living room and office if I were you.

Buy all your wires at Monoprice.com. Don't be that idiot at Bestbuy buying 6t Monster Cable for $49.99

[Cyn]

Don't be that idiot buying pretty much anything at Best Buy lol.

[kareface]

If you plan on doing anything major distance HDMI runs you might consider using cat5e. I've had to do this with a couple theaters in the past when the rack was a little too far for normal HDMI lengths and it's a lot cheaper than going with a 100 foot HDMI cable that might not get the signal there in tact.

[SephYuyX]

Networking is one of the thing I do a great deal in my line of work, ive been looking at this thread now and then, but I havent had the time to sit down and really give it any thought, been too busy. While not networking persay, it's close enough, I do a bit of hometheater work like this for friends. Ill have some time friday I think if youre looking for another opinion.

[Cyn]

If you plan on doing anything major distance HDMI runs you might consider using cat5e. I've had to do this with a couple theaters in the past when the rack was a little too far for normal HDMI lengths and it's a lot cheaper than going with a 100 foot HDMI cable that might not get the signal there in tact.

That's what the pro AV world has been doing for years. We have hundreds of feet of it hanging on a wall at work. The shit is so cheap it's almost disposable.

[Norellicus]

The cabling is cheap but the equipment to get it transported over ethernet isn't

[kareface]

The cabling is cheap but the equipment to get it transported over ethernet isn't

For longer runs it's still cheaper. 100foot HDMI would be around 80$. 2 100 foot cat6 cables + the wall panel converters would be around 44$. If you're doing lots of runs you can save even more with bulk boxes.

[Darus Grey]

cat5/6 is likely going to be the AV standard in the future, we're already talking about...

wtf was it called? HDbase10 or some stupid name I'll never remember.

The cabling is cheap but the equipment to get it transported over ethernet isn't http://images.bluegartr.com/forum/im.../icon_razz.gif

?

You only need the cabling, don't need special equipment as long as you can cut/splice/crimp your own wires... the HDMI-to-Cat5/6 adapters are just small PCBs that convert the pin-outs to match, you can do it manually if you wished.

And if you can't...and don't want to learn, you shouldn't be tackling jobs like these anyways.

That said, the "equipment to convert" is only like $20...hardly expensive.

[Norellicus]

I was thinking you were doing it with a single cable, not splitting the pinouts over two cat6 (like so http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...q=1&format=2); the equipment I've seen that does single ethernet transport is retardedly expensive.

Double cat6 is still cheaper, you're right, so no reason to overdo it.

[Quixon]

the equipment I've seen that does single ethernet transport is retardedly expensive

True. A bunch of my customers are high end A/V Installers. The equipment can get VERY expensive.

CAT5 and CAT6 are pretty cheap if you're just running them in a house. We sell 1000' boxes of CAT5 for $65 and the CAT6 runs about $100. I work at a manufacturer though, so the prices you guys pay would more than likely be a bit more than that.

[Darus Grey]

Actually...we pay less.

(what is going on?)