Easy/reliable way to get PC to display/play throughout house?

Originally Posted by darklordjames 

The correct answer is "continue to wait". Modern solutions suck, but videocard output compression is something that is in the process of becoming native to Nvidia cards and Steam . Then you just need a dirt-cheap PC or a custom CE box similar to a Roku/AppleTV for decoding on the TV side. It's all still pretty early stages, but we should have some reasonable solutions by this time next year.

The best solution today is: Build a second PC for the TV.

Punching holes in the walls and running long cables is not a solution. It's a kludge at best, and it's stating the obvious.


" I would assume the wireless solution won't work due to latency"

Wii U uses on-the-fly video encode and transmission and it is lower latency at 16ms than most people's HDMI cables to their HDTVs at 33ms. It's already proven that it can be done, it's just a question of whether anyone will deliver a quality solution for PC use. There are 1080p wireless HDMI extenders in the $200 range, but you would certainly want to research latency on any specific model before making a purchase. I would imagine being an outboard piece, that you add another 33ms or so, resulting in the final image being 4 frames behind the PC render. Compression artifacts may also be an issue.

Originally Posted by DaGamePimp 

It can be done and many of us here do so with no issues.

I use wireless HDMI + wired HDMI all over the house and it works just fine.

My gaming pc is in a different room from my HT and I am able to play 60 fps games with no problems in my HT, pulling off running headshots or taking down mid-air enemies is not an issue (although my projector is in the 30ms range to begin with).

I even have it set to where I send wireless HDMI from my gaming pc to my HT AVR and then one of the HDMI outs on my AVR drives a 1x4 that splits off to another wireless HDMI transmitter to a plasma and I can game on the plasma as well.

It's wired like this and still works everytime I fire it up...

Gaming PC -> 1x2 HDMI splitter -> WiHDMI Transmitter -> WiHDMI Receiver -> AVR in -> AVR HDMI out 2 -> 1x4 HDMI Splitter -> WiHDMI Transmitter -> WiHDMI Receiver -> Plasma

(HDMI out 1 on the AVR drives the PJ while the 1x4 splitter also drives another local HT monitor and another PJ as needed when I run A/B's, trials and calibrations).

I can play on 6 different displays throughout my home from the same gaming pc.

Now sending to a basement could prove trickier and may indeed require direct lines (HDMI over Cat6) but I would suggest a trial of the multi-room wireless HDMI and then experiment with the position of the transmitter/receiver, you just might have your easy solution. If you can locate the transmitter/receiver somewhat close to each other through a wood floor then you'll likely have no issues.

Best of luck,
Jason

Originally Posted by curttard 

I might be going something like this route in the future. Which transmitter/receiver do you use? And what do you do for the controller?

Originally Posted by DaGamePimp 

for a controller you can use a wireless Microsoft (360 style) PC controller.


Jason

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Originally Posted by MarkcusD 

I use a 50ft hdmi cable and 49ft usb extender both from monoprice.

Originally Posted by Anthony1 

I use the same thing, but I haven't ran it up thru the crawl space yet. So I only use it when I have the house all to myself, and I can have the wires running all over the place. I need to get up in the crawl space and wire it properly, but just haven't found the drive to get it done.


Regarding the usb extender, are you daisy chaining two 25 foot extenders ? This is what I've tried to do, and the only problem is that in certain games, my wired 360 pad will start acting really weird. Some games simply won't work if i'm using two of the 25 foot extenders. If I'm using just one extender, then the controller normally works just perfectly.