Whole Home HD Video Distribution

Paws

New member
In short. We are building a home and it will come with a media shelf in the basement. Would like to have all our ATVs, Cable box’s, DVD players and any other video connection in this location and run Cat6 to each room for video.

Anyone have any suggestions on brands or how too’s for the do-it-yourselfer Recommendations would be be great as to not break the bank. I’ve seen these run from $1000-$8000 and I’m sure that’s just skimming the surface.

Requirements...
Support up to 8-10 HDMI inputs

Support 4-6 Cat6 outputs

Support HDBaseT

Want it to be some what modular so I could build as I go. If it can’t be then oh well.

How does the IR work? What remote do you need to change the channels?

How does one change the output from one output to another or go from one tv to another without missing any part of the show? Maybe there are apps to use as a switcher for your phone or tablet?

Reasoning...
I’ve had a small house for a while so the house we are building will be substantially bigger. Our AV appointment is scheduled in a month. I’ve always hated that every entertainment room must have a cable box, Apple TV, DVD player, connected. The whole home video makes complete sense and would cut down on costs in the long run. No need to have 3 Apple TVs or 4 cable boxes and 4 dvds. Also cuts down the clutter and you never have to mess with connecting another HDMI in the back of your TV. Do it once and done. Pretty slick!
 

sc_rhino

Member
Sometimes KISS. And for cheaper.

Also, I'm thinking if you want to watch a DVD then you're going to have to go down to the basement and stick the DVD into the reader and go back up to your room to watch. You may want to rip all of your movies and run them through your AppleTV.
 
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I hope you find something that works for your needs but as far as I know you will still need the number of cable box tuners that you want to access tv’s on different channels. Some boxes have multiple tuners which will cut down on the number necessary.
As far as remotes go you will need radio frequency (RF) remotes bc no IR will make it downstairs, last I heard the higher end harmony remotes are still one of the top sellers. I think you’ll find better answers on reddit and tech forums for home integration and automation. Something to keep in mind as well is technology sucks because it’s always improving, so spend the extra to get something a bit forward compatible. Not just hdmi compatible but also 4K compatible etc.

It sounds like you only are talking about inputs of blu Ray, cable, and streaming. Seems excessive for just that. If you were doing more like home media network and getting all your media from a home server it would make more sense.

You still have to get cable boxes and most new tv’s have streaming apps built in, all you really save is the blu Ray players, not sure it’s worth it.


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BaddestCross

Active Member
I had my house pre-wired for cable and networking when it was built in 2001. The problem with that is technology evolves fast. They did install rg6 coax and cat 5 for the network which was the best at the time, but now with faster internet and more data being passed through the cables it's hard pressed to keep up. As already said, pay extra for today's next step up to be relevant for as long as possible.

With wireless tech being what it is, I wouldn't worry too much.

I got rid of all my cable boxes and run a TiVo Bolt in my living room and TiVo minis in the 3 other rooms that TVs are used in, so all I pay the cable company for us a CableCard and some other box to decode the HD channels. The TiVo setup communicates over MOCA (networking through the coax) so the video streaming doesn't tie up WiFi.

I wouldn't bother trying to have a central blue ray because of the having to run to the other room to change disc problem. If you've got a bunch of discs already, the suggestion of ripping them to a drive and setting up a movie server is a good one.

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 

Paws

New member
Sometimes KISS. And for cheaper.

Also, I'm thinking if you want to watch a DVD then you're going to have to go down to the basement and stick the DVD into the reader and go back up to your room to watch. You may want to rip all of your movies and run them through your AppleTV.

Agree on the DVD issue. That would suck. We don’t watch much DVDs today with all the streaming we do. Probably could get rid of them.

I hope you find something that works for your needs but as far as I know you will still need the number of cable box tuners that you want to access tv’s on different channels. Some boxes have multiple tuners which will cut down on the number necessary.
As far as remotes go you will need radio frequency (RF) remotes bc no IR will make it downstairs, last I heard the higher end harmony remotes are still one of the top sellers. I think you’ll find better answers on reddit and tech forums for home integration and automation. Something to keep in mind as well is technology sucks because it’s always improving, so spend the extra to get something a bit forward compatible. Not just hdmi compatible but also 4K compatible etc.

It sounds like you only are talking about inputs of blu Ray, cable, and streaming. Seems excessive for just that. If you were doing more like home media network and getting all your media from a home server it would make more sense.

You still have to get cable boxes and most new tv’s have streaming apps built in, all you really save is the blu Ray players, not sure it’s worth it.

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Thanks for the reply. Yes we will still need as many cables boxes as we would have on at one time. Right now that’s two until we finish the basement. But the ability to additional soirces like Chromcast, FireTv and only need one of each but can be used in any room is kind of a neat idea. No longer messing with HDMI ports and connecting them.


I had my house pre-wired for cable and networking when it was built in 2001. The problem with that is technology evolves fast. They did install rg6 coax and cat 5 for the network which was the best at the time, but now with faster internet and more data being passed through the cables it's hard pressed to keep up. As already said, pay extra for today's next step up to be relevant for as long as possible.

With wireless tech being what it is, I wouldn't worry too much.

I got rid of all my cable boxes and run a TiVo Bolt in my living room and TiVo minis in the 3 other rooms that TVs are used in, so all I pay the cable company for us a CableCard and some other box to decode the HD channels. The TiVo setup communicates over MOCA (networking through the coax) so the video streaming doesn't tie up WiFi.

I wouldn't bother trying to have a central blue ray because of the having to run to the other room to change disc problem. If you've got a bunch of discs already, the suggestion of ripping them to a drive and setting up a movie server is a good one.

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Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407

Wireless would be nice and it’s getting there but does not beat hardwire yet. Also haven’t heard of 4K over wireless but maybe it’s out there. I agree it would probably saturate the wireless which will already be hard to support as the house is big. Moving to a wireless mesh will help a bit but with most everything is on wireless already, adding cable video to that may be too much. A separate wireless network may help. The TiVo ideas sound interesting will look into that as well.



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BaddestCross

Active Member
Agree on the DVD issue. That would suck. We don’t watch much DVDs today with all the streaming we do. Probably could get rid of them.




Thanks for the reply. Yes we will still need as many cables boxes as we would have on at one time. Right now that’s two until we finish the basement. But the ability to additional soirces like Chromcast, FireTv and only need one of each but can be used in any room is kind of a neat idea. No longer messing with HDMI ports and connecting them.




Wireless would be nice and it’s getting there but does not beat hardwire yet. Also haven’t heard of 4K over wireless but maybe it’s out there. I agree it would probably saturate the wireless which will already be hard to support as the house is big. Moving to a wireless mesh will help a bit but with most everything is on wireless already, adding cable video to that may be too much. A separate wireless network may help. The TiVo ideas sound interesting will look into that as well.



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Personally, I only care about the best quality (4k, etc) on the main theatre TV. The other rooms I just want to be able to have the ability to watch the same shows.

I think Chromecast, Roku, etc can only stream one at a time, so you might be able to mirror a box, but for watching a different stream in each room you'll need a box in each room. They're cheap, so that's not a big deal. I had a Roku box on each TV until I went with TiVo. The Bolt has YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Hulu, Epix, and other apps built in and they're adding more.

The main TiVo box does DVR and streams all the cable channels and DVR recordings to the minis in the other rooms. Each mini can run the same apps as the main box so they won't take up a tuner from the main box if they're using Netflix, etc. I have the old Bolt so it only has 4 tuners. They have a new version with 6, I believe. You can also add another main TiVo box and switch between them with the minis if you have a shit ton of TVs being used at the same time or your recording habits cross over so much that 4-6 tuners aren't enough. The TiVo streams HD and, I believe, 4k to the minis as long as you're networking them over a MOCA network.



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