Whole Home Video Distribution - HELP!

[ccmichaelson]

Hmmmm.. Thing I always have trouble understanding is WHY people want to do this? 
 
We have a 20 year old house wired with a plain old coax to each location.  We have a DirecTV DVR and 4 remote units. We have HD at every location, and each person can watch whatever they want live or watch recorded programs.  DVD players, Netflix, Amazon players, AppleTV, Xboxes are all so cheap that you can each at each location a whole lot cheaper than your going to distribute it through your house.
 
DirecTV even distributes your Internet through your cable, so if Wi-Fi doesn't reach your TV location, a simple transceiver gives Internet to you.  
 
Excuse my ignorance, but what does video distribution give you that you can't do without it?  Is the problem that you can't play a DVD through your whole house at once?

 
If you saw my current home you would understand why I want to home run everything into a central closet.  Let's just say we have lots of wires and devices (directv receiver, dvd player, surround speakers) spread through each tv room and my wife HATES it...  In our new house I will only have a TV on the wall (and in-wall/ceiling speakers) and that's it.  The tricky part is the control part (e.g. button to "play DVD", "watch TV", "listen to pandora", etc.)

 

[drvnbysound]

Hmmmm.. Thing I always have trouble understanding is WHY people want to do this? 
 
We have a 20 year old house wired with a plain old coax to each location.  We have a DirecTV DVR and 4 remote units. We have HD at every location, and each person can watch whatever they want live or watch recorded programs.  DVD players, Netflix, Amazon players, AppleTV, Xboxes are all so cheap that you can each at each location a whole lot cheaper than your going to distribute it through your house.
 
DirecTV even distributes your Internet through your cable, so if Wi-Fi doesn't reach your TV location, a simple transceiver gives Internet to you.  
 
Excuse my ignorance, but what does video distribution give you that you can't do without it?  Is the problem that you can't play a DVD through your whole house at once?

 
I have done small amounts of it, and do it simply to reduce equipment footprint in rooms. For me it's primarily an aesthetic thing... not only "clean" looking, but also space saving.
 
20 years ago computers were much larger too... why on earth would anyone want one that's smaller???

 

[wkearney99]

 
If you saw my current home you would understand why I want to home run everything into a central closet.  Let's just say we have lots of wires and devices (directv receiver, dvd player, surround speakers) spread through each tv room and my wife HATES it...  In our new house I will only have a TV on the wall (and in-wall/ceiling speakers) and that's it.  The tricky part is the control part (e.g. button to "play DVD", "watch TV", "listen to pandora", etc.)

Bad wiring work doesn't mean you have to/should introduce a whole new set of headaches. Lots can be done with better, more compact devices at the TV. Ceiling speaks raise the problem of sound direction and leakage to other rooms. As in, too loud to the bedrooms above while kids are sleeping, etc.