Hi all,

I hope someone can shed some light on what I should be doing with what I have. I recently bought a home (already constructed) and I am having to retrofit everything.

Here's what I have and what my master plan would be.

Pioneer 4340HD Plasma Display
Pioneer DV578 DVD Player
Pioneer Elite VSX 52-TX Receiver
(2)Scientific Atlanta 8300HDPVR
Panasonic TH58PZ850U Plasma Display
Pioneer Elite SC-07 Receiver
Windows XP Pro PC as Media Server
Apple 24" iMac

(2)Pronto TSU-9200
Pronto RFX-9200
Pronto PCX-9200

I'd like all controlling equipment in the basement and wires have already been run to there. 2nd floor has the Pioneer 4340HD Plasma and the Panasonic TH58PZ850U is in the basement. Both areas have a 7.1 system. The VSX-52TX is for the system on the 2nd floor and the SC-07 is for the basement.

I'd like to be able to get media from both PC and iMac to either system/tv. The SC-07 is DLNA ready and I'm wondering if it's better to use that or video/audio direct from PC/iMac.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

tbolt,

What wiring do you have between your equipment and the upstairs location ?

Hi,

Currently all speaker wire and control cables for the plasma are routed through the wall straight down to the basement.

The Pioneer 4340HD has a plasma receiver that sends the control signals and video to the tv. This unit is in the basement as well. If you know of a better way to do it and have all of the equipment in the basement I am a willing listener.

Thanks.


PS - The control cables consist of a DVI-D and DFP combo.

Anyone else?

Thanks.

All these experts and no help yet? I'm really trying to get this all figured out myself, but I'm not very good with all of this yet.

Well, you have a rather complex setup, and it's not easy to visualize how it all goes together. For example, do you know what connections you will use to the PC and iMac?

The modern way is to connect everything with HDMI cables, but that can have it's own set of problems when trying to connect multiple devices. For example, do you want to be able to view any device on any TV? That would involve some reasonably complex switching. And the more complex the switching, the more expensive it is.

If you state exactly what you want to view on each TV it would help us make suggestions.

Sure.

Ideally I would love to share everything across both displays, but maybe that's the next project down the line.

So...

Connecting to the Pioneer 4340HD (upstairs):
Scientific Atlanta 8300HDPVR
Pioneer DV578A DVD Player
Pioneer Elite VSX52TX

Connecting to Panasonic TH58Z850U (basement):
Scientific Atlanta 8300HDPVR
PS3
Pioneer Elite SC-07

Connecting to both:
Media Server

Forget about the iMac, I'll just dump media to my media server over the network.

This is a much simpler setup doing it this way and since the SC-07 in the basement is DNLA it really only leaves me with how to get the media server available to the 4340HD upstairs?

Thanks.

What type of outputs does the media server have?

dual dvi

----

Sorry, my bad it's only single DVI-I out with Optical out for audio.

Sorry, my bad it's only single DVI-I out with Optical out for audio.You could just run a DVI-I cable with a DVI to HDMI adapter at the TV end of the cable, and run an optical cable for the sound.

If you want to run to both TVs, you could use a DVI splitter such as http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10113&cs_id=1011302&p_id=4072&seq=1&format=2 and an optical splitter such as http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Bi-Directional-Optical-Toslink-Splitter/dp/B0002MQGR2.

What about for regular computer use, is that safe? or should you use the PC input for regular stuff like browsing the internet etc.?

What about for regular computer use, is that safe? or should you use the PC input for regular stuff like browsing the internet etc.?Not sure I understand your question. I don't see any safety issues.

What is the "PC input"?

Sorry I wasn't clear, most of these tvs have PC inputs (usually standard VGA input) and I was just making sure feeding my signal through my receiver to the tv in any other port than that would be fine.

It's just a video signal so I guess it's no different.

Thanks.