Multiroom, HDMI downgrading and expert advice needed

BACKGROUND

As a lot of people I am looking for a simple highish quality multiroom solution. I have ruled out RF distribution and want to distribute Composite Video and Stereo Sound. As I am not a massive perfectionist I am not too concerned about top audiophile quality, just as long as its decent.

I do a huge amount of Cat5 cabling at work so I am confident there and the coax runs and speaker runs seem simple enough.

Ideally I want the sound in many rooms to be through the TV with a couple having speakers (bedroom1 and bathroom). Having the choice of either speakers or TV might be an option.

I, as many do, want to do it on the "cheap". This is where my problems start. I have looked around and the Opus Octopus seems to do almost exactly what I want at something that is in my price range. I figure the octopus with the addition of a decent spec remote control (pronto 9800, nevo SL) would give a great experience.

Does anyone have any better solutions ? See below for my issues with the OPUS.

HDMI DOWNGRADING

I say almost, I have 2 devices that exclusively give HDMI, no other connections and I want a cheap way of getting these to plug into the RCA sockets on the Octopus. Does anyone have any ideas ?

EXPERT ADVICE

The Opus doesn't have a waterproof / resistant bathroom control. Is it common to route the controls outside the bathroom ? What speakers would you recommend for the bathroom ?

[hornydragon]

i suugest you also look JAmo and QED mulitroom solutions why on earth anyone would want composite distribution i have no idea and no need for a Nevo or pronto remote either what exclusive HDMI ouput devices do you have? For bathroom you need environmental speakers usually in ceiling but can be wall mounted. besides you can run this whole system on cat5 so why dont you far more upgradele in fututre just run 2 x CAT5 TO EVERY LOCATION then yopu can do all sorts (also worth loooping from keypads to ceiling

(how many room is this for again? and for what reason? What sources?

how rude was I ? No thank you, no please. Sorry

OK, a little background.

ROOMS

3 bedrooms. AV (1 fully speakered, the others probably thru TV). medium LCD panels in each.
1 bathroom. Speakers (no AV - could be sub zone)
1 kitchen. AV Small LCD
1 Front room. AV 43" plasma, AV 7.1 Amp.
1 Dining room. Speakers (no AV).

SOURCES

Sky HD
SKY+
Windows Media Centre - Free View Triple Tuner.
Windows Media Centre - Free View. Dual Tuner. DVD.
Some Radio source. I need to purchase one.
iPod connectivity if possible (just plug an ipod in to charge and use as a source)

I probably have too many sources, more than I need and could drop a WMC, both these are HDMI output only. I bought them broken for next to nothing and repaired them but the video cards are heavily integrated into the fanless heat pipe cooling system and its almost impossible to change them !!!!

I have been playing with video over CAT 5 with the Milestone system from BlueDelta, and while its good most of the time, in very dark scenes I just lose a lot of colour and peoples faces go grey

Thanks

Sorry, forgot to mention. Composite .. not a requirement, just not RF.

Thanks.

[hornydragon]

right well multiroom is in essence expansive controlling 2 PCs will be a royal pain in the arse mate i would use one as a source and the other seperate composite will be shocking on LCDs even cheap ones S-video minimum really now you can integrate an ipod and radio quite easily using an aV amp (or stereo) with ipod dock connector (doing something similar my self soon (hopefully) sky HD and Sky+ control also a pain as use same remote codes i would pick one box for distribution. As for "fully speakered bedroom" is that 5.1? if you use one Sky STB one PC and Ipod + radio then you have a nice 4 source system leaving 1 PC and Sky HD attached to main room.

then your distributing 4 video and 2 additional audio zones, is bathroom main bath or ensuite? could dining room be a sub zone of main lounge or kitchen? Some aV amps can do 1 or 2 extra zones mid level onkyo can do 1 zone higher spek denons can do 2 (ideal for kitchen and dining really) look for multizone over S-video for this then distribute to main bed irect from sources and then other rooms on basic MR system its messy (ideally you would use a £30k system to this properly) but will work the you just have the serious control headaches

hornydragon,

Thanks for this. Do you have experience with the Jamo ? I can't find much info on it. Does that distribute s-video ? The WED looks like just audio, is that right ?

I think you are right about junking some sources .. far too many but thats everything I have now but all in one place

I still need to work out a way of converting HDMI down to a suitable signal to feed into this system.

The PC control is windows media center remote control, I have tried it over s-video and RF using a laptop and the signal is fine as you tend to just watch TV or listen to music. Not going to use the actual PC functionality at all.

[hornydragon]

to control this from multiple rooms (unless you cary remote with you) you need programable remotes like harmony and IR pick ups in every room going back to source kit also you need to think about priorty control really annoying when watching a film and some one i the bog decides to play a CD or listen to eastenders... try contacting these peeps http://www.intouchtech.co.uk/multiroom.htm they do the Jamo kit as well as others (PS tell them i sent you)

[Joe Fernand]

Hello roxburghm

'Highish Quality' and 'Composite' video ought not to be in the same sentence

Looking at your system and what your trying too achieve I'd be tempted to stick with RF and install a stand alone Freeview tuner (or Tuners), which will be far less expensive than trying to convert the HDMI Output from the WMC to get it into non HDMI equipped TV's.

If you aren't contemplating Analogue (Component) or Digital (HDMI) Distribution with the ability to cater for SD and HD signals I personally cant see the advantage Composite video will give you over a decent RF system.

SKY HD can feed SD and HD to two locations simultaneously over HDMI + 5RCA without any additional hardware - all you require is 1 x HDMI cable + 1 x Video+Audio Multicore to the second location; with RF alongside it to enable low cost IR control.

As you have found out a lot of the low cost Video and Audio over CAT5 solutions are not without problems - look to Gefen for more choice, reliability and little or no signal degradation; see http://www.gefen.com.

For Distributed audio over CAT5 have a look at the Sonos system - you can use each Zone Player (ZP100 with Loudspeaker outputs or ZP80 Line Output only) as your local 'HiFi' with an external Source attached 'In Room'.

With Sonos you can grow the system as your budget and requirements allow/change - and its by far and away the easiest system for the family to operate and understand; see http://www.sonos.com/.

Best regards

Joe