Whole home audio with video input audio question

[Nifield]

i was thinking i would run any and all of my video inputs audio through my whole home sound system, in case i wanted to say have music videos playing on all the tvs in my house with the audio playing in all rooms that dont have tvs.. but my question is, would i still be able to setup 7.1 surround sound in my theatre with input running through my whole home audio system using nuvo or hifi2? i would assume id need a seperate amplifier for the home theatre to have this work, but im just wondering if the audio inputs can run through the nuvo or hifi2, and then into an amplifier for the theatre room and distribute 7.1 sound with a sub woofer etc.. or is there any way to make this work?

thanks for any help.

Reilly

 

[tmbrown97]

Depending on which receiver you go with in your home theater, there's a pretty good chance that it'll directly drive your 7.1 speakers directly, then you could also connect the low-level outputs from the AMP to an input on the Whole Home Audio system. Then on that same system, you'd have one of the inputs be the direct output from the whole house audio system so you can use that same receiver to be part of the WHA system.

I'm sure there's a few other configurations but that's the first one that comes to mind - I have a few other options, depending on what you're trying to accomplish and how you're willing to operate it.

 

[xlurkr]

I think the issue is that most receivers, if they are decoding a mutichannel format, will only output L and R through those preamp out jacks, not a downmix. So you'll lose most dialog (center channel), all surround information, and LFE. I think most receivers also do not downmix multichannel formats to the other zones if they are L&R only, though I could be wrong about that. Many don't even allow anything but analog sources to go to other zones.

An alternative is to send the downmixed output from the back of the source device (cable or satellite box, DVD player, etc) to the WHA audio input. Then the problem will be keeping the source selection in sync betweeen the two. This is what I do with my Tivo: multichannel in the theater via HDMI, L&R in the rest of the house.

Th OP seemed to suggest having the WHA system send multichannel audio to a home theater room, which is the opposite of what I described above. That is beyond the capability of most WHA systems, which route only 2 channels of analog audio to each zone. Though you might be able to make this work by assigning multiple zones to the theater, or routing digital audio masquerading as video with a WHA/V system, it sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth.

-Tom

 

[tmbrown97]

good info xlurkr - honestly I've never experimented enough to know what makes it out - but your point certainly makes sense... depends on the receiver manufacturer's take on things I suppose. I'd be curious if the pre-amp outputs are any different (the ones intended for an inline EQ if desired)... would definitely take experimenting. Also, some amps have a Recording Out (like the old school option for hooking up a tape deck for dubbing) - I used to use that in the early dolby surround days. It seemed to downmix at least on the receiver I had many years back.

Another option - and one I've used out of laziness... I've used the TV's stereo outs to go to another receiver before - whatever you're watching is now on that zone... so you don't have to eat an input for every option in the media room - just "whatever's playing in the family room" kind of option. With my combination of components at that house, it worked pretty well.

Unfortunately I don't have much experience with the newest HDMI switching 7.1+ stuff; as much as I love music, it doesn't seem to get the priority over everything else the house, cars, kids need... one of these days.