Home Theater/Audio Distribution

[jls944]

My father has asked me to help him build a home theater and audio distribution system for him. Before I describe the features he's looking to add, I need to stress the fact that this system has to be as easy as possible to control. He is in his 60's and is not all electronically inclined. Anyway, my father wants to add the below features. Since I am relatively new to HA/HT I am seeking advice from you experts as to the products I should buy. His total budget for the project is $7,000.

Living Room
42" plasma with surround sound
lighting control for the living room lights and gas fireplace
Remote control that will access all HA/HT features

Kitchen
Pair of ceiling speakers
Wall mounted touch panel to access media server, am/fm/cd player for the kitchen zone and for the deck zone

Sun Room
Pair of ceiling speakers (this can be the same zone as the kitchen)

Deck
Pair of weather resistant speakers

Bedroom
Pair of ceiling speakers
Remote control that will give them access to sources such as assess media server, am/fm/cd/dvd player and the bedroom's TV sound
TV to be hooked up to the distribution center (cable box)

Office
Pair of ceiling speakers
Wall mounted touch panel to assess media server, am/fm/cd player

I know of a lot of products that will help me reach my goal, but I just don't know what products are compatible with each other and will provide the easiest solution. ALso, is his budget unrealistic for this project? Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

[bfisher]

There are a few ways to do this. You don't state if this is a new house, or if it's prewired, or if you have to retrofit. If you have to retrofit, can you get to each room with wiring, etc... so I'll keep this high level

1) Each room has it's own setup. Costs more in equipment (duplication) but much easier in wiring. You have equipment in each room.

2) Centralize everything, but use seperates. For example each room has it's own amp, but shares sources. All equipment is hidden

3) Use a distributed system (like A-Bus, etc.). Some of these systems have 1 main amp box (multiple amps in it for different zones) and you run speaker wire to rooms; others are more like PC networks where you run Cat5 to the rooms and a small amp is in the control panel in each room. Sometimes easier to wire.

Some things to keep in mind is you will need a way to control things if remotely locating equipment. Some distributed systems have IR (infrared) built in, but some may require you to install an IR control system too.

Also, video is different than audio... and HD will be changing the game (the old way of doing video was to convert video signals to cable TV channels. That's not good enough for HD.)

My setup is #2 above for audio, and Sage for TV. You can click my link for some details (I need to update it) if you want to see how I set up the audio portio.

Also, 7k is definitely doable. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer for the 1 right way to do it. Mostly it's the limitations that will dictate (such as can you get wiring to each room, etc). Good luck!

 

[jls944]

It is an existing house so I will have to retrofit everything. However, I am able to get to every room with wires, so I was planning to centralize the equipment. How would you recommend that I set up the system? Would you use a 5 zone receiver to output all the zones or use separate amps? Which way is cleaner and easier? Thanks.

 

[royalj7]

Well, it seems like you only need 4 zones, so you can use a multi zone amp to provide power to all the locations. There are products from Russound, Xantech, Proficient, etc that do this. I would just look for one that provides line level out to an external amp, which I would use for the deck speakers, since the multi zone amps ussally only put out 20-35W per channel, which might be alittle low for an outdoor environment.

--Jamie

 

[jls944]

Will the receivers you mentioned allow me to add home automation to them?

 

[bfisher]

Will the receivers you mentioned allow me to add home automation to them?

Depends by what you mean "Home Automation".

Many multiroom amps have serial ports on them which allows automation systems to control them. If not, you should be able to use IR which most HA systems support as well.

For example, my wife in the kitchen hits the touchscreen to select her music. It goes to the HVPro which determines if that source is free (if yes, turns it on, tunes it, etc; if no, selects the most appropriate alternate source (I've predefined)). It then turns on the amp, turns up the volume and plays (controlled via IR as if someone with a remote was sending it a signal).

Hope that helps

 

[CollinR]

Another vote for SageTV, just hook an MVP up to just about any amp.




I have also become intested in placeshifter on linux with a touchscreen, this seems very possible.

 

[jls944]

Can I hook up two televisions to these receivers? I need to be able to watch a dvd from one or both televisions. I will have a cable box for each television though. Also, I was looking at the manuals of some of the Russounds and Xantechs and noticed that they doent have HDMI outputs to televisions and HDMI inputs from DVD players. Why is this?

 

[bfisher]

I'm not real familiar with Russounds, but I believe they are audio only devices... not video.

If you go with a Sage setup (for video), you have a centralized PC that is your PVR and your DVD player. You then buy Extenders that connect to the PC via Cat5 network. The extenders can display anything on your central PC - and many TVs at once. I have 5 Extenders, and have used 4 of them at once... no issues. HD Extender is due this month (current one displays SD only, but can automatically transcode HD into SD (very nice)).

 

[royalj7]

Can I hook up two televisions to these receivers? I need to be able to watch a dvd from one or both televisions. I will have a cable box for each television though. Also, I was looking at the manuals of some of the Russounds and Xantechs and noticed that they doent have HDMI outputs to televisions and HDMI inputs from DVD players. Why is this?

Each of the companies mentioned have multiple product lines. Most of the flagship products have composite video along with audio, however, these are primarily used as whole house audio products. Russound has a new VM switcher that will distribute component and works with their CAV product. You won't find any of these products that do HDMI, mainly because mulit-room HDMI is still a pain in the neck.

 

[CollinR]

You can watch a DVD from my changer at your house with my SageTV, also HDMI is fine if you have the hardware. The extender due this month also has HDMI, DVI, Component, S Video and Composite Video. Since it runs on off the shelf PC hardware it adapts much faster to changing technology.

 

[jls944]

So just to clarify, you are telling me that I can purchase one of these receivers and connect it to a HD extender to get a HDMI connection from the components to my television? Will this also work for my BluRay because these receivers do not have HDMI inputs? ALos, what are my other options for video distribution (other than SageTV) if I don't want to incorporate a computer?

 

[CollinR]

So just to clarify, you are telling me that I can purchase one of these receivers and connect it to a HD extender to get a HDMI connection from the components to my television?

No it's not an HDMI extender, it's an extension of the server. Just about whatever you can do on the server you can do on an extender. VOD is a big thing these days, why buy a BlueRay when you can VOD it from Netflix whenever you like. You will see this becoming more an more popular as it is hardware independent and Netflix has more DVDs/HD-DVDs and BluRays then any of us ever will.

Google and YouTube are already integrated, many are looking into getting the others going. Some I had never heard of but I don't really care as long as it works well.

Will this also work for my BluRay because these receivers do not have HDMI inputs?

Not an extender a client will assuming you have the other requirements covered. HDCP, and a decoder.

Most combine them at the display however I will go client route so I can still surf the web in picture by picture while the wife watches TV.

ALos, what are my other options for video distribution (other than SageTV) if I don't want to incorporate a computer?

Can't help you there, and really it's impossible everything is a computer nowdays. Even your current set top box.

 

[royalj7]

I think he means the Windows XP/Vista style PC. For video distribution you get into matrix switchers, units from Extron, Autopatch, Gefen, etc. There are variations on these, stuff like AA AVAtrix and such. All of these have component distribution, and alot have new units that do HDMI.

--Jamie

 

[jls944]

My question was about hooking a BluRay to the system via HDMI connection because my parents are not computer savvy enough to purchase movies from the internet. As I'm building the system for them, I need to use components that they are comfortable with. In this instance, how would I hook up the BluRay to a receiver if the receiver doesn't have an HDMI hookup input (i.e. Russound CAM6.6)?