Hello everyone,

First of all i like to congratulate the board admins for this excellent AVS forum. Secondly, since english aint my native language i apoligize for any misspelled/incorrect sentences and gramar.

So here goes...
We are currently renovating our house and since we want everything to be done now (when the wallsfinishing is not done yet) i would like some help of the experts here on the best way to connect all my devices to eachother and the way i can set them up towards each other.

Some years ago i at least had some idea of what AV possibilities were on the market. Now, i do not have a clue anymore.

Now what i want is this:

Room 1
Holds PC 1 which is connected over a router with the internet
That router is also connected with PC 2-3-4-... (in bedrooms)

Room 2 Living Room
Inputs:
* DVD/Blueray
* wii
* digital television
* but also connected with PC1
Outputs:
* LCD/Plasma
* Projector
* 5.1/7.1 speaker set

Room 3
Possibility to play music(video) from PC1. I imagine this can be just another pc that just plays the content of PC1 over the network.
The sound however must be hearable through 2-3 wall mounted speakers.
The video should also be available for example a small LCD

Now so far i figured out this:


I think the best way to work in room 2 is with a AV receiver who supports sending to two outputs (simultanious of seperate, maybe even possible to play wii on tv and watch dvd on projector).
What is a good receiver that has enough HDMI ins and outs to accomplish this?
Besides that i have also seen something about HDMI switches?
Now i need to find a way to connect my PC1 with that AV receiver so i can stream movies from my computer to the screen or projector. (over RJ45? other possibilities?)
What is the best way to get the AV content from PC 1 available in room 3?
And last but not least: maybe there exist a complete (affordable) solution that makes it possible to connect every input with every output and be able to switch between them. (maybe in my dreams yes)


I hope i make some sense.
Maybe someones has better ideas/suggestions on setting this basic thing up. I would be glad to hear that to.

Regards,
Pout

Maybe something like this could enable viewing my movies from the network on my plasma-projector:

KiSS 1600

is this any good?

Hi There,

I did some "re-decorating" some years ago (Still re-decorating, if I told the truth) and this is what I did.

I wanted my family to be able to watch or listen to my content in any of the 'living rooms' in my house.

To achieve this i created a 'Star network' of Cat-5e cable and RG6 coax. All the runs from each room went back to a central point. A router and Home made TV patch panel then forward the info where it needs to go.

In the central point is a NAS server.

So each of the 6 viewing rooms can watch/hear content from the servers. In the main rooms (lounge & Home Theatre) I use HTPC's in the kids rooms I use a similar product to the KISS from Sazio (sp) and Helios. They have all worked out great. The kids watch films/movies on the Tv's in their rooms. The whole family watches in the lounge and Home theatre room.

I know Home theatre receivers will allow you to play music etc in two different locations, but I am not sure they allow video in two locations.

One other thing I would add, when you are running your cables, If you think you will need say 2 Cat5 run 4, or 1 coax, run 2. I have 4 cat5 behind each TV, and when you plug the HTPC, STB (telephone line), Blu-Ray player (ethernet connection), they get used up real quick.

oooops, waffled a bit. my apologies. I hope some of this is useful.

Regards
Dave

Hello Dave,

and thanks for your answer.
If i understand correct you can watch each source in each room? So one can see a DVD in a room while a movie from a server is playing in another room?

Can you maybe make a little scheme? cause i don't really get what you mean with star-network (sorry)

Regards