[Kressilac]

As I finish my basement and Theater 3.0, (each time gets deeper into home theater...) I was faced with a unique challenge. (see attached diagram)

1) The media room in my house was about 80' from my office.
2) The second issue is that I cannot decide between a 4K 75" TV or a 4K projector. I know the current limitations of 4K but I'm still about 8 months away from needing to purchase so I hope things are better then. That said, I'm wiring and planning now... This stuff never gets easier.
3) Third problem is baked into how I want to use the main room. There's three screens in an open room. Main screen is the aforementioned 75" or larger TV/Screen. There will be another 47" TV on the game room wall and a 40" or so TV above the back of the bar. How do I feed these three TVs a decent lip synced signal from a HDBaseT matrix switch or should I just stick with an HDMI switch?

Let's talk TV sources. The rest I think I can handle. TV is my biggest issue. I'm currently running 3 Ceton Echo's/Xbox 360s from a single Windows 7 MCE box (running a TV) that is working like a champ. (Haven't paid more than $3 a month in set top box fees for 4 going on 5 years now.) I'm limited to 5 extenders on a single Windows box and I'm not excited by the prospect of having to buy cable boxes or setup another MCE device considering that I am riding this tech to its grave. (Now I'm mad at Microsoft again for abandoning such great tech.)

So, I'm thinking about a 4x6 or 4x8 Matrix switch. Thankfully, every TV has at least 2 Cat6 drops behind it and all drops terminate at the rack in the diagram. Not all of the 8 TVs in my house are running at the same time but not all of them are as capable as each other as well. AV receivers of the Denon(1613, 1913 plus two new ones when we're done) variety are connected to any TVs with more than the built in speakers.

I essentially need to switch TV from 4 sources to 9 sinks and not lose audio capabilities while doing so. 7.1.4 Atmos in the theater. 3 other places with 5.1 surround, the remaining 5 use built in speakers. One 4K(Atmos receiver), the rest 1080p, though bar and office could go 4K(Office would have 5.1) before we are done. I couldn't care less about 3D. And no need to worry about IR stuff. We run everything through our phones using apps for the Denon and MCE/Ceton/Xbox 360s. Blu-Ray players have physical access. 5 of the TVs have in wall HDMI 1.4a and 2 - 4 Cat 6. The remaining 4 TVs are part of the basement that's in the planning stages. (wiring and insulation right now, drywall soon)

I've looked at Crestron, Altona, Monoprice and for whatever reason, I cannot find what I am looking for. Price is an issue but I'm willing to spend a few thousand to get it right so it passes the WAF and doesn't require a masters degree to use the solution.

Appreciate feedback in advance. I'm somewhat lost trying to piece together the equipment.

 

[Joe Fernand]

If you wish to retain 'simplicity' I would be tempted to look at how to simplify your requirement - mixing differing Source, Display and Audio requirements through the Matrix is never simple in terms of operation.


Joe

 

[Kressilac]

If you wish to retain 'simplicity' I would be tempted to look at how to simplify your requirement - mixing differing Source, Display and Audio requirements through the Matrix is never simple in terms of operation.


Joe

That's the hard part. I have too many TVs. It's possible to isolate the office. That's easy enough. I'm buying a receiver and there's a PC in the room anyway. While not ideal, I could put a set-top box there and forget the DVR features from Windows 7 MCE. The limitation here is the 5 extenders for Windows 7 MCE.


The main room of the basement is the major problem. Three TVs in sync from video and audio is hard. We usually host the sports parties and when we do, I do not want one TV to be ahead of the other TVs or it ruins the experience of having multiple TVs in an entertainment room. I'd also like to be able to watch different channels on different TVs, which quickly makes this thing a source/sink nightmare. Anyway, still researching how to get all this done while putting Cat6 to every location just so I have some future proofing.


First world problems I know, but 8-9 TVs in a single house is a logistical source distribution problem. Does it get easier if the TVs sharing inputs are capable of the same display? 4K TVs share a source, 1080p TVs share a source? Maybe aligning the matrix with the sink devices is a better approach. The sources are all uniform to begin with so nothing simpler there I think.