While I do not have a dedicated theater room, I do have 5 components in my A/V gear that are hooked into my network; X-Box 360, Samsung 46LN640 LCD, Samsung BP1600 bluray player, WDTV Live, and a Wii. Those components are all hard-wired to the network with the exception of the Wii, which is wireless. While I could have ran 4 ethernet cables from my router to the A/V location (completely separate rooms), the most logical way was to run one ethernet cable from the router to the A/V location and tie it into an ethernet switch.
Since you want detailed explanations, think of an ethernet switch like a power strip. By plugging it into one power source, you are now given 5+ outlets to direct that power. Same goes for the ethernet switch. The cable from the router is plugged into the switch and then all of the hard-wired components can share the connection by being hooked into this switch as well. The switch I am using gives me an additional 7 ethernet ports right there at all of my A/V gear.
As for what being tied to the network can give you, in my case:
1 - Allows me to use the X-Box 360 as a media center extender and pull content from my desktop (or any other shared computer tied to the network), use X-Box Live, etc
2 - Keep the firmware on my LCD up-to-date. Also pulls stock quotes, weather information, and basic news from the net. Don't really ever use this feature, but it's there.
3 - Stream Netflix (some content in HD), Pandora, YouTube, and Blockbuster movies through the bluray player as well as keeping it's firmware in check.
4 - Stream content to the WDTV Live from my networked PCs (and/or NAS whenever I get one), use PlayOn media server to access additional online content like Revision3, Hulu, etc.
I could continue on a bit, but that is the just of it. From what I have seen, the primary use for networking in the home theater area is for HTPC and/or media player (Popcorn Hour, WDTV, Dune, etc) use. But, as illustrated above, it can certainly be used for more than just that, especially if you have a TV or bluray player that supports network connection.
Since you want detailed explanations, think of an ethernet switch like a power strip. By plugging it into one power source, you are now given 5+ outlets to direct that power. Same goes for the ethernet switch. The cable from the router is plugged into the switch and then all of the hard-wired components can share the connection by being hooked into this switch as well. The switch I am using gives me an additional 7 ethernet ports right there at all of my A/V gear.
As for what being tied to the network can give you, in my case:
1 - Allows me to use the X-Box 360 as a media center extender and pull content from my desktop (or any other shared computer tied to the network), use X-Box Live, etc
2 - Keep the firmware on my LCD up-to-date. Also pulls stock quotes, weather information, and basic news from the net. Don't really ever use this feature, but it's there.
3 - Stream Netflix (some content in HD), Pandora, YouTube, and Blockbuster movies through the bluray player as well as keeping it's firmware in check.
4 - Stream content to the WDTV Live from my networked PCs (and/or NAS whenever I get one), use PlayOn media server to access additional online content like Revision3, Hulu, etc.
I could continue on a bit, but that is the just of it. From what I have seen, the primary use for networking in the home theater area is for HTPC and/or media player (Popcorn Hour, WDTV, Dune, etc) use. But, as illustrated above, it can certainly be used for more than just that, especially if you have a TV or bluray player that supports network connection.
