What is the best solution to this proposed setup?

This is a heck of project for a newcomer.

Economical is not the word that comes to mind. Do you have a budget?

At each TV location you have only ONE coax and ONE cat5e?

How many different shows does he want to be able to watch at the same time?

Does he want to be able to watch a different show on each TV (thus needing 8 STBs) or would he be content to limit it to say 4 different shows at the same time (this needing 4 STBs)?

There are lots of other questions to be asked but these will do for starters.

Assuming this is a US-based Sat system, forget trying to consolidate a "media server" from the sat source.

DirecTV and Dish both have "whole home DVR" solutions. Get a central DVR, and several receivers. If you want to centralize all the gear and merge with a DVD/BD image server, you'll be looking for an HDBaseT matrix switch to feed the sets. If you can keep to 4 sources total, your costs will be considerably lower. You can also mix/match sources on two separate 4x4 matrix switches as well (split HDMI output from a shared source like a server to both matrix devices) - depending on the usage model.

Good luck - you should really be consulting a pro for distributed HD if you're not familiar with the products and the associated headaches.

If your boss doesn't have "many thousands" in mind for the budget for this, you should really consider the whole home DVR solution(s) and a local sat receiver. Or centralize the receivers with HDBaseT extenders.

Jeff

You really should have a network connection to each TV location what with streaming content, online firmware updates, etc, being so common.

If you had two or three CATx runs to each TV you would have more, lower cost, options.

Now you could use MoCA to get a network connection over your COAX but that's sort of a kludge if you actually can run more CATx.

With only one CATx run I think your only option is HDBaseT which can support both a network connection and HDMI connection. Now I haven't seen such devices on the market yet but then I haven't looked all that hard.

Do you think you can get by WITHOUT a matrix switch approach? A matrix switch would allow routing any source to any destination but if you are content with a dedicated source for each destination you will save a lot of money. I was looking at one HDBaseT 8x8 switch with a list price of $14,000.00.

Aside from money and the "missing" CatX cable the only thing I don't know how to do is record from the SAT receivers to a centralized server. The SAT companies have their own "whole house" DVR devices but I don't know if they can handle eight TVs. Dish I think is limited to six but my Dish tech said he would advise waiting for "version 2".

Streaming ripped DVD/BD content is simple but the maintaining the store content will take a bit of work - and the legality of the whole thing is in question.

Without doing a detailed analysis my gut is that $5000 is much too low.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

Works like a champ.


"Hard" as in "not going to happen". Everything is protected, you'll be into hacking (which we're not going to talk about on this forum).

The sat systems can certainly handle large numbers of displays and recording streams. Just may need multiple DVRs to handle it.

Jeff

No one is going to design the setup for free... They may answer some questions, but don't expect a pro to be that dumb...

Realize that even if you can get the equipment and get it set up, YOU will be the one responsible for keeping it running. I'd run from any of this. Your boss will be calling you on the weekends because "I can't get HBO downstairs". A/V distribution on this scale is non-trivial - be very careful about what you're effectively signing yourself up for... Pro's get paid for a reason.

Jeff

This is a massive project for a beginner but can be greatly simplified. I assume at the moment you are leaving out receivers, speakers and speaker wire and are just focused on deliver content to each TV zone.

First, I think you should really push your boss to limit the number of independent TV streams to a more reasonable number. When is he ever going to have a situation where he people watching 8 different things? That said, there are 8x8 HDMI matrix switches that would make this possible if you used 8 DVRs/STBs. 8x8 matrix will cost a couple grand vs less than $200 for 4x4. You also have to determine how many different recorded programs he wants to watch at the same time to determine the number of STBs and DVRs.

Next, running more Cat5e or Cat6 might make things easier but there are HDBaseT solutions that make this unnecessary. For example, this one from monoprice would work. HDMI, IR and ethernet over a single Cat5e run would take care of all the signals needed between the central A/V closet and each TV.

That takes care of the basic requirements for a total cost (ex shipping) of under $4000.
8x $219.75 for extenders = $1,758
1x matrix = $2000?
STB/DVR rental = ??

A better solution would be to use a 4x8 HDBaseT system like this one which is $3000 including the 8 extenders. Then get 3 STBs, 1 HTPC and a HDHomeRun Prime. With this setup you could watch 4 different TV streams on different TVs and/or stream a single recorded stream to any of the 8 TVs. The HTPC could also be used for XBMC, Netflix etc. Total cost is again around $4000 plus 2x cablecard rental and 3x STB rental.

Edit: oops just noticed the matrix is not HDBaseT. You'd have to pull another cable for each TV or find something equivalent using only 1 cable.

The technology can certainly handle it but Dish (at least) has policies that limit how much equipment you can have on a single account.

If memory serves me (and it may not) Dish's new whole house system is limited (by policy) to 2 hoppers and 4 joeys, driving 6 TVs.

Which provides further proof why D* seems to rule the high end installs...

I've seen a house with around 30 direct tv receivers. Not that it was a well designed system, but I've seen it. Every time you call direct tv, you have to convince them that it is really a residence, not a business.

Just sign up with DirecTV. Installation is free.

But if he's looking for something more high end, sign up as a Crestron dealer, and start using Crestron control for video conference installations. You will likely end up using a local Crestron dealer for the resi video distribution, but you will learn a lot to prepare for the process, and the quality of your installs will improve.

Crestron DM is the top of the line video distribution system.

Anyway, if your boss doesn't want to use DirecTV, run away, and get quotes from local custom installers.

You may be surprised at how many commercial installs use Crestron.

Agree...

Another possibility is a client-server PVR system like MythTV. Put a backend server box in the central room and use HDPVR capture devices to record from the satellite boxes. A client machine (aka "Frontend") will be needed at each TV location. Through them, you select and play recorded or live TV, play movies that have been stored to the backend, access internet video sources, play music, etc. It would be tight but not impossible to do this for the $5,000 budget you mentioned. (That doesn't include the TVs, sound systems, or satellite boxes, does it?)

Craig

Even with free installation of DirecTV, with all TVs sharing the same DVR, he can get a few nice control options set up in several zones, using Crestron or another control system.

He should be using Crestron or AMX for control of his commercial installs, anyway, for demanding clients.

Hmmmm.... that's a crazy project. I think streaming would be the way to go (WDTV, Apple TV). Something along those lines... as for music. Same idea... Music Unlimited, pandora, or whatever. This is assuming no amplified music in any of the rooms right? IE, you will be using th TV speakers...