AV setup

Semple

Semple

Semple

Soldato
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5 Mar 2010
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I think i'm getting the right idea of the HDMI over ethernet, but would be good for someone to confirm my understanding.

Here's a diagram of an expected set up, is this how these things are typically set up?

vrzsz6.png


Assumptions:
1) Pretty much any graphics card (as long as it displays 1080p) will manage here, as the HDMI splitter amplifies the signal?
2) Assuming you can get a splitter that supports multiple inputs, i'm guessing that whatever source is fed to the output will be the same for all ports?
3) The "Neet HDMI extenders" i've looked at have an IR option, i'm guessing that this would somehow allow the input source to be swapped? Following the behaviour from Q2, this would then swap the feed for all TV's - which then makes having multiple extenders with IR capabilities a bit pointless?
 
your assumptions are all correct.

I believe you can get more expensive equipment that will allow different sources to be sent to different devices however.

The IR feature would be handy if you wanted to change channel in bed and no one else was watching tv however.

If you are only using the above setup for your media server have you considered a raspberry PI at each TV Location instead ?

I haven't played with them at all but loads of people seem to be using them nowadays :)
 
That is a relatively inexpensive solution. I like it. Unsure how it would work though.

What I have done is a little more expensive admittedly. But depends on the capabilities of your TV's.

I have smart TV's in my bedroom and lounge, and smart bluray players connected to other TV's. I run Serviio on the server PC, and this is connected to the TV's / BR players using homeplugs around the house, rather than RJ45 cables run everywhere. I then have this signal run into a router / switcher in each room if I need the ethernet to go to several devices (like tv + BR + xbox etc...).

This works great for delivering HD content to each TV in the house. The smart br players are relatively inexpensive, and allow each TV to have their own access to other On Demand features such as Amazon Prime, iPlayer etc... And each TV can watch it's own source.

This doesn't allow the sharing of the sky box however. I do this through the normal co-ax, so I don't get HD in the other rooms. But this does send the aerial feed to the other rooms (via a co-ax splitter), and with the use of a magic eye, the box can be controlled for any room.

Eventually, I will set-up several sky boxes similar to how you are setting yours up (HDMI over ethernet), but I will be doing multiroom, and keeping the boxes stacked somewhere in the house. So that each TV has it's own dedicated box, but it's just a TV on the wall. No sky box, no BR player (once all my tv's are smart). Just a TV on the wall and a couple remotes. Cleanest possible set-up, but retain full media access to all movies, music and tv.

At the moment, I have to rip all my content to my server first, which can be time consuming, but it's all there, to watch on demand, in any room in the house. If you are that way inclined, you can DL TV shows, almost just after they air, using RSS feeds to your server automatically. Then this auto populates in Serviio for immediate playback on your tv without having to do anything (other than run serviio and your download client constantly).
 
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Just to be pedantic, but it's not ethernet. That's HDMI over Cat5e/Cat6 cable.

If you want to pick an input and send it to any output then you need a matrix switcher.

I would definitely use HDMI over (whatever) for Sky distribution and then go with media servers for playback of files. It's a lot more flexible.
 
Can you control the Sky box through the HDMI the same as you can with Coax and a magic eye?

What is going to be sent from the media server to all the TVs? Won't it be all the same content to each?

I wired my house with Cat6 before we moved furniture in. I've got a little PC full of HDDs that will eventually hold all our media. In the living room I've got a PC that performs HTPC duties. I've got a NUC in my bedroom doing the same and in my eldests room she uses a PS3 at the moment as that seems fairly fool proof for a 12 year old.

I have 4 Sky boxes - living room, my room, daughters room. I have coax going from daughters room to TV in the loft.
 
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