Distribute AV from basement

You'll need to run an IR repeating system like this:
http://www.smarthome.com/81207BK/Din...85DBKIT/p.aspx

The IR receiver "eye" goes in the room and the wire can be run cat5 down to the connecting block which has an emitter connected to the fios box over where it receives IR signals

buy the Mrf 260 or any other of the URC RF base stations and they will work with that remote no need to do IR Repeating, they have about a 100' range and are pretty reliable.

I use the MRF-350 with my URC MX-850 remotes in my house to provide a mixture of IR and RF signals to control equipment.

Regarding how to hook the TV's up to the Fios boxes in the basement.

It would be a standard HD connection like HDMI cable or component with digital audio cable. There are other options using cat5e or cat6 cables as well.

I would suggest that you add a matrix switch if you want to have more flexibility with your setup.

-T.Wells

RF remotes are good, but can get flaky when trying to go two levels down into the basement with all other equipment, nothing would beat a hard wired IR repeater system, esp if your already going to run wires anyway, if not then the RF remote is the way to go

As far all equipment in basement etc, click on the link in my sig My Wired Home, i did just that having all my equpiment in the basement being served to 4 media locations through a HDMI matrix

There are also many other posts here that will explain to you what and how a matrix swtich works and will help you decide exactly what you want to do and how you should do it...

No, it works.

Yes, it works for me just fine.

I can see it just fine.
I think your setup looks awesome.
Its given me alot of ideas for my own setup. Thanks for posting!!!

I noticed in several pictures cables with no support or strain relief on the device the cables we hooked up to. I would highly suggest reevaluating that sooner than later.

Once it is all done get some velcro or wire ties and clean those wires up a bit too.

I would recommend you run Cat6. It's not much more $$ and can move significantly more information. It might be more then you need - for now but it can't hurt. Cat5e cannot consistently move HD video w/deep color. I realize deep color isn't really utilized ... yet.

I reviewed your pictures. Couple questions
On picture 16 behind your LCD, I take it that you plug in one of xantech IR receiver into jack "19" How did you then wire that into the cat6 cable?
What are the other cables, one out of the blue box and then the other one next to 19?

The only thing i think needs strain support is the IR repeater cables connected to the xantech control box, but yeah, I need a lot of tidying up




Yes, picture 16 is where I plug in an IR Receiver (see here and receiver on top of left speaker)

The cables in the blue box are already terminated cat6 cables that I ran from the Media Room (see here) to my room, I did that as a "just in case" if my setup didn't work as intended, I could store equipment in the media room since i didn't want anything but an LCD in my room.

I used this keystone and you just use 3 wires from your cat6 cable and connect it to the terminals on the keystone. The other end of the cat6 cable is terminated to the patch panel in the basement. Then from the patch panel I cut an already terminated cat6 cable in half, plugged the terminated half into the patch panel and then 3 wires into the Xantech Controller.

Do you have a link to the patch panel that you used?

Does the patch panel "tie" each of the incoming ir signals together for a singular output to your xantech controlling block? It looked as if in the picture you just inserted all of the cables from the individual rooms together.

Thanks

It's just a cat6 patch panel (link).

I cut 2 14ft already terminted cat6 cables in half (thus creating the 4 cables i needed for the IR passthrough for the 4 zones, i connected the terminated ends into the correct ports on the patch panel, then twisted the wire ends together and connected them to the Xantec Control Box. This Picure is 4 cat6 cables with the correct wires twisted together and connected to the xantech unit, the other end (which is terminated rj45) is connected to 4 ports on the the patch panel.
All the rooms go to the same xantech unit, since the rooms can control the 4 sources connected to the matrix...i just terminated everything to the patch panel first and then from the patch panel to whatever i needed to do with it, either connect to the matrix swtich, connect to network, or connect to the xantech receiver.

It's not bad, I bought it thinking it would also show the LED light on the patch panel based on network activity too, but thats not the case, the LED is only used when used with a specific network tester (link) which I also bought, did come in handy to test my terminatinos quickly though.

As for your IR/RF decision, you're already gonna run cat6, so just run an extra pair just incase. Make sure you run Solid copper, it's easier to terminate...this is the cable I bought (link), but non-outdoor rated cables would work also (link)

buy 2 Logitech Harmony 890 Pro remotes and the RF base unit and you will be set

If you've got the MX-880 remote, you've already got RF capability, you just need the base station to receive RF.

As for reducing the set-top box numbers or distributing blu-ray, you'll need a "matrix switch" with enough inputs for the sources, and an output for each TV location. There are both HDMI and component versions available, and many have remote-control-repeating and routing functions built-in. Distributing music is easy, controling it is another story completely. If you have a TV user interface for your media server, then just treat it as another video source and you're done. If not, then that's a whole other topic...

Jeff