new system with a central rack for all av equipment

Guys,

I need some input. I have a new home that I was the general contractor on. I have wired 1 cat 6 and 2 cat5 wires to each tv. I want everything in one location, the wiring closet located upstairs. I have everything, including security and all speaker wire coming into this wiring closet. The goal is to keep each room clean. There are 3 rooms with rooms prewired for 5.1 and 5 sets of stereo speakers wired in a various rooms...

I am open to all solutions. I have a brand new Control4 250 and remote to play with, as it was a gift. I am not sure if this is the way to go. I like Indigo, etc. I just want everything centrally located and I want to start building a automation system... maybe using something like indigo with a video distribution system over cat5/6 would be more cost effective and using sonos for audio. I just need some input from those of you that have been down this path.

I have the new Direct TV wireless genie on 4 tv now that will be a part, but maybe these boxes will be relocated into the closet and pushed over cat6 via a distribution system?


Thanks,


Jeff
 
I have really no experience with distributed video & audio, but I'll give my input from having used multiple different systems (crestron, control4).  They never seem to work as well as I'd like them.  Seems that after spending thousands on these systems that they'd work reliably and be quick to respond.  When building my house, the thought never honestly crossed my mind to even consider one of these 2 options as my needs are filled by using a simple harmony hub RF remote.  Obviously, the varies home by home, but I have plenty of space to move components by each TV location, and I just chose to run conduit to those cabinets or closets.  The harmony hub is small, simple to setup, and very fast to respond.  If I need to add/remove components, I just use my cellphone and its done in 5 minutes.
 
Best of luck if you're going to proceed this route, I just know that I don't have the time or patience to do this myself!
 
Welcome to CocoonTech.
 
What material other than DirecTV do you want to want to watch?  I stopped researching distributed video after the cable and satellite companies came up with their own distributed systems (Genie, Joey, etc).
 
The client boxes are small, and could be mounted on the back of the TV.  For a media room, with in-ceiling/in-wall speakers run to the closet for amplification, you could use an extender (HDBaseT).
 
Small amps can be used behind the TV, too.  I'm installing large-ish TV boxes behind my new TVs, to accomodate extra devices, if needed.
 
TVB810_vertical.jpg
 
I don't really have a true video distribution system in my house, just DirecTV at all the TVs and then local AppleTVs or other sources as I see fit.

However, while researching something for a different, small project I came across something awesome that I'm surprised I haven't seen used in my forum travels more often.

Basically, it was an RF modulator. Except instead of the crappy $14 composite video kind (which actually WAS suitable for my project) these were full HD digital RF modulators. They take an HDMI input and output digital HDTV like an OTA broadcast onto coax. You can select what channel and even label it.

They were pricey sure, but it seems like a super effective way to distribute an HDMI source around the house. You use this thing at the head end, and then each TV just has a coax input right into its antenna jack. Change sources by changing channels.

They had a single input one, and a different one that could take 4 HDMI inputs.
 
http://www.pviusa.com/VeCOAX-PRO4-HD-RF-Modulator-1080P_p_19.html
 
That is what your talking about.  Their expensive (~$3,200) and not sure on the quality.  Also some fuzzy information on whether they are 4K ready or not.  I also wonder about the TV's decoding the signal correctly.
 
Google terms like matrix switching,baluns and HDBaseT.  Be aware there are few to no choices which handle 4K.  I could be wrong on that but could not find an easy choice myself on a quick search.
 
One thing to keep in mind is usability and overlap.  i.e. if your using a Genie then do you need distributed video?   They have wireless boxes and shared DVR hence putting it all in one closet defeats its advantages. 
 
Same goes for local sources (bluray) vs network sources.
 
Planning is EVERYTHING in a distributed system.  We ended up on skipping it due to Genie and how cheap appleTV and ROku's are.  Saves literally over 10K to just buy a bunch of Roku's and use a Genie system.  Thats for a 6 TV house.  No theater yet :(
 
Yeah, crazy expensive for sure. I'm not sure if I'd worry about the TV decoding it. The best HDTV I've seen is my TV decoding a local OTA broadcast. If I had this setup... I'd have more TVs. No other hardware to buy!
 
Yes but how do you control it at the head end?
 
I mean lets take two cable boxes operating.  Each is modulated to a different channel over the coax.
 
Now you have to find a way to send the remote signals back to the equipment closet in order to change channels.  Also you have no way of knowing who is watching which box.
 
Little jimmy sets down to watch Power Rangers and he changes the channel on the box your watching the game on in the other room.  You miss the big play.
 
And if you have four boxes for four TV's then whats the advantage to a central equipment closet?  Not saying this isnt a great idea, just saying I think it has some very specific uses and may not work as well in a residential environment.  Its priced that way as well.
 
JeffWilliams, as an FYI the Matrixs made for this almost always carry the remote (IR) signals back to the source closet.
 
Bal said:
 
 
These work great once you get them configured correctly.  I have the 2 input version and got it at a really cheap price compared to the ~$1700 retail price...I think $400...it was overstock on a project I was working on and the GC just wanted to get rid of it and move on.  
 
I use it with a notch filter to distribute my NVR main screen and WMC server (to play bluray) throughout the house.  
 
The only thing I don't like is that there is a lag between the information received and then output to the coax.  Moving a mouse across the screen when tuned to one of the channels it modulates to is really painful. 
 
If you want to try it out fairly inexpensive I have a solution for you. I purchased some of these extenders when I built my sons house. Also got some for my house but never installed them here.
 
http://www.amazon.com/CE-Labs-Video-Transmitter-CAT5TX/dp/B000GIUXSK
 
 
Downside is they take component - not HDMI, but many will argue that video on component is still superior to HDMI.
 
Full HD
Digital Audio
Active IR
 
You can see Amazons price for each end i.e. Transmitter of Receiver. If you contact me I can get you these for WAY less expensive. As in I want them to go to someone who can use them. I have five sets.
 
I have a system similar to what you are contemplating. It works well.  I have in-ceiling speakers, so I have the added complexity of the distributing the audio to the ceiling speakers as well (I don't use the TV speakers).
 
Essentially, the system boils down to the following:
8x8 HDMI matrix Switch
HDBaseT extender and receiver for each TV
Zantech IR receivers connected to a Zantech IR distribution hub at the rack
 
You need 1 cat 6 for the HdBaseT extenders and 1 pair (cat 5 works fine) for the IR distribution.
 
Audio starts to get complicated if you have some zones that are multi-channel and some that are stereo, but it can be done (I use the Atlona HDMI audio decoder).
 
The HD Modulators are an awesome concept except for the price.
 
We're at a pretty crappy point with this whole AV distribution thing... 5 years ago it was WAY easier between modulation and basic extenders... now I don't even know why TVs bother with tuners - my livingroom TV doesn't even have one - it's sold as a "monitor".
 
Worse yet is that the matrixers today are very costly and most of them are high end dealer-only items.  However, there are some truly awesome ones out there that can be relatively cost effective and automatically transmit in both HDMI and HDBaseT so a single Cat6 gets your video, IR and ethernet to the end TV - and some claim to support 4K/3D.  
 
This is one of those markets that I consider to be in a crappy flux state right now... we have the technology but it isn't well implemented by anyone.  It should stabilize soon; in the meantime, I'd go with a matrix with HDBaseT outputs long before modulation... while modulation sounds great in concept, it's very expensive and doesn't allow for other signals on the same wire like IR and/or ethernet.
 
I use a Monoprice 4x4 Matrix HDMI® Switch & Splitter over CAT5e/CAT6 for video distribution. Then I use a 6 zone amp (MAP 1200HD) for audio. Both inexpensive and work well. For total control of everything I have iRule with iTach module and can use iPhone, Andriods, iPads, etc for all remote control operation.
 
See my blog about my HA project at http://cocoontech.com/forums/blog/38-buckos-blog/
 
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