[empirix]

Hi all

I'm in the IT game ... two directors from one of the businesses we support have asked me to advise on the following. They are both soon moving to very large new houses and are looking for -

A central media server to hold music, ripped films, iTunes stuff etc etc
The ability to watch any media stored on the above, or Sky, or DAB I guess at any one of 6 to 10 locations around the house.

I know this is very little detail, but can anyone answer the following questions -

cabling required
best system for the above solution
suggestions for suppliers/installers to the North Notts area
approx ballpark figure for this solution

We would be looking to sub the work to the installer, since they want to put all invoices through the business.

Any help appreciated.

[empirix]

Sorry all ... is HDanywhere - Multiroom HD made easy - HDMI over Cat5 Matrix with IR control the answer ?

[shortyav]

Hi there,
My main advice would be to choose the right installer. Unfortunately I cant personally recommend anyone in your area as im not familiar with installers in that area but in sure theres some good guys on here who could help. Recently I looked at a house that must of had 100k worth of kit that just didnt quite do what it was supposed to do. The original company had basically given up and the clients now left with a very expensive problem. Because its you invoicing its basically you carrying out the project. If it all goes Pete Tong youll be the first port of call and need to sort out support, re-installation or worse re-wiring. This sounds like a horror movie but its not an unheard of situation. Home entertainment and automation when installed and configured well can be a very cool and pleasurable thing. However these systems are complicated and take a lot of knowledge and understanding to seamlessly integrate. I hope it all works out well but be sure that everybody knows exactly where your going and be as sure as you can be that at the end everyone will end up with what they expect. HTH Shorty.

[shortyav]

If its high end HD distribution my first choice would be a Wyrestorm HDBaseT solution.

[vex]

2nd the HDBaseT as a solution.

Then on top of that you need a good, reliable video server, and if you want to do HD/BluRay ripping you need to make sure you are happy with the way and legalities of the system you choose.

Either way, video ripping and storage with a nice GUI is not that cheap.

HTH

V.

[carlos the jack]

Hi Empirix,

Will recommend the Wyrestorm HD system for high def distribution, used it a couple of times this year and really works well, used the DF base solution for storage of dvds and bluray etc and has a nice on screen menu system, can recommend that too

Where abouts is the property? Pm me if you want with details.

We are based nr Loughborough and have installations you can look at if required including a nice 7.2 amina invisible speaker and velodyne in wall sub cinema room if they are interested in that too.

regards,

Carl.

[ArcAngel78]

Originally Posted by vex

2nd the HDBaseT as a solution.

Then on top of that you need a good, reliable video server, and if you want to do HD/BluRay ripping you need to make sure you are happy with the way and legalities of the system you choose.

Either way, video ripping and storage with a nice GUI is not that cheap.

HTH

V.

Can do relatively cheaply via My movies server to rip and xbmc as front end distributed over the hd matrix

[vex]

Originally Posted by ArcAngel78

Can do relatively cheaply via My movies server to rip and xbmc as front end distributed over the hd matrix

Agreed Mr Angel, but it is still outside of the copywrite law and also classed as a bit of a DIY solution.

As installers, those of us here can't be seen to promote something that infringes copywrite or has the potential to fall over such as a Home Theatre PC using windows.

For shear reliability we would prefer to use something that meets copywrite restrictions and has a custom operating system dedicated to the job. To many call outs for OS's that fall over start cost money and also becomes unreliable for the end user.

V.

[ArcAngel78]

Originally Posted by vex

Agreed Mr Angel, but it is still outside of the copywrite law and also classed as a bit of a DIY solution.

As installers, those of us here can't be seen to promote something that infringes copywrite or has the potential to fall over such as a Home Theatre PC using windows.

For shear reliability we would prefer to use something that meets copywrite restrictions and has a custom operating system dedicated to the job. To many call outs for OS's that fall over start cost money and also becomes unreliable for the end user.

V.

True, what i suggest would probably require a reasonably savvy end user. I would guess budget is often the deciding factor, If I won the lottery I'd go for a kaleidoscope system (although didn't they just lose a court case re copyright laws?)

There doesn't seem to be a solution at the 'real world' end of the budgetary scale?

[shortyav]

Unfortunately there isnt an all in one budget do it all well solution (tempted by mozeax) but a lot of clients get really fed up by fallovers and a htpc really isnt the way to go for a higher end customer right now the mid range guy seems to get on best with an Apple TV and a blu-ray player Saying that ive been asked to recover a job where theres about 100k of kit and the installers idea of a media server is a notebook, itunes and a nas! FAIL!

[ArcAngel78]

Originally Posted by vex

Agreed Mr Angel, but it is still outside of the copywrite law and also classed as a bit of a DIY solution.

As installers, those of us here can't be seen to promote something that infringes copywrite or has the potential to fall over such as a Home Theatre PC using windows.

For shear reliability we would prefer to use something that meets copywrite restrictions and has a custom operating system dedicated to the job. To many call outs for OS's that fall over start cost money and also becomes unreliable for the end user.

V.

Did u see that the DVD industry issued an injunction vs kaleidoscope. DVDs have to be present in system as well as blu rays now

[cjwood555]

They're going totally the wrong way there. With the move towards streaming rentals etc, surely they should be looking more at a license model than 'the disc is key'?

[ArcAngel78]

Originally Posted by cjwood555

They're going totally the wrong way there. With the move towards streaming rentals etc, surely they should be looking more at a license model than 'the disc is key'?

True, I would have thought within a few years well all be streaming the newest releases in 1080p so business model probably dead anyway?!

[cjwood555]

I personally hope it doesn't go that way, as 1080p is no good if half the pixels are guesses due to compression. Might as well stream at PAL uncompressed!

I've noticed the picture quality on virgin drop recently (presumably as they're putting more bandwidth onto broadband to allow for the doubling-up), so what will happen if half your street are streaming on a Saturday night? For me the convenience benefit is far outweighed by the loss in quality.

Chris

[shortyav]

Well I had a look around the site but I couldn't see too much relevant info to this thread. Maybe im missing something? Regards Shorty

[Crustyloafer]

Originally Posted by shortyav

Well I had a look around the site but I couldn't see too much relevant info to this thread. Maybe im missing something? Regards Shorty

There's a few other posts in other areas of the forum of a similarly unrelated nature. I have reported these posts as spam as well as this one.