[kumack]

Hey folks I thought now was the time to start this thread and please bear with me, its going to be a long ride. Basically bought a bungalow a few months ago and around the time of purchase I thought of using some if not all of the ideas I've seen here !

So, the plan is the create a media hub home, the main part taking place in the sitting room, all of which is contained in a hidden cabinet thats on one side of a chimney breast. The reason for this is that the opposite side of the chimney breast is already taken up by a cistern on the opposite side.

Living Room- AV hub, Samsung 42", PS3, WII, Netgear Router, ropelight backlit floating wall and backlight diodes for the sammy.

To purchase - Onkyo 606 or better, 5.1 speakers and sub fairly decent but on a budget. Besta or similar av cabinet.

The room is around 4.4m X 4.0m so its not too big or too small. Plan to use a floating wall with rope light surround, thanks Groove ! Wall mounted speakers. I have begun work already and will post pics soon.

Bedroom- Infocus N72 projector 720P, 100" manual screen, sky, ps3 (rotating between living room and bedroom) and 5.1 sound from a cheap philips home theatre dvd. All the hardwork has been done here everything wall mounted, just need to paint and put the skirting back up, then carpet then stick in the bed.

Bathroom- Had to completely redo the bathroom and it has cost me the most so far hence to slow mo pace I'm at presently. AV wise it will have 1 or 2 ceiling mounted speakers.

Kitchen- Stereo sound from 2nd zone output from Onkyo hopefully. Also was hoping to update the sammy in the living room to 50 " soon and through the 42" in the kitchen. All of this after I get a new kitchen though !

Im going to use this thread to ask questions and suss out possibilities, hope you all don't mind.

I'll stick up some before pics and some of where I am now too.

Keep coming back cos its gonna be a long ride !

[kumack]

Heres some more pix apologies for the severe poor quality as there taken with my blackberry and it has a terrible resolution, I'll add more when I have more updates.

[kumack]

Nobody gives a rats ass !

[alfromscotland]

i love it???

[Franco50]

Good work so far mate. Keep them pics a-coming!

[craigoscott]

looks good so far mate, get some more pics up!

you are right about the quality of pic, rubbish!

[KobeoneHD]

Hi kumack
why is the projector in the bedroom, why not put it in the lounge?

great work but need better quality pic s!!

KobeoneHD

[kumack]

Right finally found the camera charger so better pics are coming soon, today even ! The more I do, the more bloody questions I have. Cooling, cabling, colours and all of that is just in an alcove ! Nevermind the rest of the house.

The pj is going into the bedroom so I can go play ps3 when the gf is adament shes watching home and away or some other tripe, plus I plan on being able to move the projector just unplug and pop out the mounts and move it into the lounge, where eventually they'll be an automated screen.

I live in a bungalow, (we'll in a room in a bungalow, until the renovating's done) so its very easy for me to run cables anywhere, only problem I have is the fibre glass insulation ripping my arms apart.

Hopefully I can get my sketchbook on tonight and show you what Im planning on doing

[kumack]

Bit longer than expected but heres improved pics but not much done ! ;(

Starting to consider closing off the door of the planned av cabinet and using besta units to house my equipment after realising how hot the PS3 gets when enclosed, and would only get worse when the onkyo is in there
I could run a fan up to the attic but its just adding more work and not even sure if that would be sufficent to remove the heat in the cabinet.
So, anyone with any idea's please feel free...

[kumack]

Check out my crazy ramblings ! Any advice would be welcome too, I know its hard to get a full idea of what I'm doing, hopefully have more to look at soon. Still cant decide if I will you the hidden cabinet or plaster over all but the bottom of it so I can run cables to my floating wall..... Someone tell me what to do !

[kumack]

Just checking my html skills are up to scratch...

Monty who went awol for 5 days in the country after 2 days of being here, thought he was a gonna but he's a tough cookie

RED

GREEN

BLUE

LED WALL LIGHTS

CRAZY RAMBLINGS

VIDEO OF LEDS IN ACTION

Since these I've taken out the wardrobe in the bedroom, felt it was taking up to much room, and I was using it to house a skybox, home cinema tuner and sometimes a PS3 to my projector. After an hour the PS3 was burning up so I have now done more chasing so I can hide the wires I had running down the back of the wardrobe and will stick in a nice unit with push drawers and a central void to stick the equipment in.

Lighting will be changed to 2 angled down-lighters pointing either side of the screen and the other 2 will do into the lounge either side of the floating wall again in angled down-lighters, only problem being I have to buy another master unit LED (€65) and hopefully bring back the slave bulb.

At the min I'm waiting on eircom to hook me up but there's a problem with it being a carrier line or some sh*t and they have to hook up a whole new line back to the distribution box 4 miles away. Got sky out anyway and paid the guy €60 to stick a quad line on the new dish installed and put 2 double co-ax lines in each location needed, so now I don't have to worry about them making a mess when they come out to install multi-room and can hide the wires while I have the chance. Sky plus in the bedroom, planning on getting sky hd in the lounge

In the meantime though I need to get all the cables in. I want to run a feed from the lounge to the bedroom for sky hd and possibly ps3, so I wont have to drag it in and out each time. I think I need
- Double co-ax for sky +
-HDMI 10m from ps3 (in bedroom) to projector
-Digital co-ax (2)for ps3 and sky+to av tuner
-HDMI 20m or CAT5e baluns (2) from sky hd and ps3(in lounge) to projector
-RCA audio 20m from ps3 and sky hd (in lounge)to HC tuner in bedroom through onkyo 606 possibly
-Need splitter for 2 HDMI inputs into projector
-2 ethernet ports 1 for ps3 in bedroom and 1 spare for laptop etc
-2 phone ports for sky + multi-room and spare for cordless phone

Phew sorry if anyone actually read through all that, its a good way for me to keep my plans somewhere, especially here where I'm spending all my time lately !

Does anyone know anything about the hdmi baluns ? I know theres 2 cat5e cables required to each balun one for audio and one for video but considering I'm only sending the signal to my projector I wont need the audio line I presume ? I'm using stereo lines from onkyo to HC tuners line in for the bedroom, but only when the equipment being used is in the lounge, when the sky + and ps3 are hooked up in the bedroom I'll using digital co-ax for each to the HC tuner for 5.1.

Comments/ideas/inspiration always welcome !

[MitsiTurbo]

Loving those LED lights. Tempts me even more into putting some of that LED tape into my trough!

What did you use to cut the slot for the projector screen as it looks nice and flush?

Oh, and ive got pieces of rambling paper all over my place at the moment! I really need to have a good clear up actually!

Good work mate

[enablerbro1]

Good work so far though your sig's not working.

[aberdeenpaul]

liking it so far

where did you get the colour changing LEDs, what are you using to control them?

[kumack]

Originally Posted by aberdeenpaul

liking it so far

where did you get the colour changing LEDs, what are you using to control them?

Someone tell me how to fix my sig, its been a while since I touched html !

The colour changing LEDs were found in my local trade electrical supplies shop. Its funny Ive bought so much off them now they think Im electrician ! If they only knew, plus they got some good hdmi leads 5m for 22 euro gold plated and all, not bad considering harvey are charging 60-70 euro for the same.

Anyway back on point, their remote controlled, one bulb is the master, so along with power it also has two small wires coming out of the back to daisy chain the rest using speaker cable

I wired them up myself and got my friendly electrician to give it the green light (literally hehe), trust me I was just as surprised they worked considering it was my first time installing any sort of down-lighters.

I'm sure I have pics of the remote and of the box of the bulb so you can ask any supplier, I was told they were pretty new though.

[enablerbro1]

Originally Posted by kumack

Someone tell me how to fix my sig, its been a while since I touched html !

Don't worry about the html, just go to 'edit signature' and type your sig like you would a post on the forum. If you want this thread in your sig then just use the 'Insert link' button and paste the threa www. into that

The beginning of it all !

I think your problem is that you're using <> instead of []

[kumack]

Heres the pics of the LED down-lighters if anyones interested.

[MitsiTurbo]

Hmmm..... they look quite good actually. Wondering maybe to put those in my box instead of normal lights? Where did you get them from mate?

Edit: Sorry, just seen youve already mentioned where you got them from! Mind if I ask how much they were?

[kumack]

Not at all mate the master which comes with remote was €65 ex vat, wohoo for being vat registered, and the slaves were round €40, I think worth it though as they will hopefully add a lot to both installs in my lounge and bedroom

Im still a retard trying to get my sig link to work

[enablerbro1]

Originally Posted by kumack

Im still a retard trying to get my sig link to work

Are you trying to get 'The beginning of it all' to read where 'http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=805761' is? If so, all you have to do is cut'n'paste 'The beginning of it all' into [ URL="http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=805761"]The beginning of it all[/URL ]

[kumack]

Yay knew I'd get it in the end, with a little help ofcourse, thanks folks !

[kumack]

Composite/Component/S-Video ???

Currently Im putting the finishings on my wiring for the bedroom.
This will have SKy + box, a Sony Amp tuner, and a PS3
All going to my projector.
Now the projector is an N72 infocus so not the highest spec, bout 2 yrs old but Im happy enough with the quality of image.

The Sky + has 2 options S-Video to PJ or Scart-Composite-> Projector

Just from trying both this morning the S-video looked sharper but almost too sharp and the composite looked softer if not a tiny bit blurry.
The PS3 will connect through HDMI, but the PJ can display 720p or 1080i.

So heres my queries :

>What would be a better video quality, s-video or composite and while I'm asking what's the deal with component quality wise, as I am considering a second feed from the Sky HD in the lounge running to the PJ aswell, and while I could split the PJ inputs to an auto switcher for 2 which I would prefer not to.

>Whats the best way of sending the audio from my sky hd to the sony av amp, would long phono R&W leads do for 20meters or would I loose signal quality. Im not after 5.1 or anything stereo would do fine.

>Finally for the PS3 and my PJ is it better to se 720p rather than 1080i ? What's the major difference between the two if any ? I also read somewhere that using the later may reduce the bulb life on my PJ, is this true ?

Thanks so much if anyone can help me in any small way and sorry for the n00b questions !

[enablerbro1]

Originally Posted by kumack

>What would be a better video quality, s-video or composite and while I'm asking what's the deal with component quality wise, as I am considering a second feed from the Sky HD in the lounge running to the PJ aswell, and while I could split the PJ inputs to an auto switcher for 2 which I would prefer not to.

Svideo should be better than composite and component is better than Svideo. Component is the best analogue method of transmitting, by a country mile and, for 720P, not a lot different to HDMI IMHO. Are you sure the SKY+ isn't able to output vis RGB SCART?

glad to see you got your sig sorted

[MitsiTurbo]

Almost certain that Sky+ boxes dont output component on the scart. Kumack, definetely dont use Composite. Its like the lowest of the low (aside from RF) of the connections world. S-Video would be better but not ideal as enablerbro has already pointed out. You can get decent scart to component convertors (check out JS-Technology). Is SkyHD a no-go?!

[kumack]

Hey thanks for getting back to me.
Im going to use Sky+ in the bedroom to my PJ and Sky hd in the lounge to my Sammy.

I tested the cables for the bedroom HDMI 10m for PS3 and S-video or composite to PJ.

As I didn't have a rca to Composite cable handy I used my very handy scart selector that has 3 scart inputs, 1 scart output and 2 Yellow,Red, White outputs. So I used the yellow output (composite ?) to projector and I am using the optical output on the Sky+ to audio amp for the sound.

Going by yer advice then ideally I would want to use component from Sky + to PJ which is 3 video cables yeah ? Is there such a thing as a scart to component lead, I have good component cables so it would just need to be a scart plug with component outputs on the back.

On top of all this I want to get a feed from the Sky HD (still to get) in the lounge to the projector and audio amp for sound. My projector only has one HDMI input so a auto selector might be a way of sending a 2nd feed to the PJ, 15 meters away.

My only problem here is, what is the best way of sending the audio signal from an Onkyo 606 or better(still to get) to the audio amp in the bedroom, 20 meters away. The amp in the bedrrom has 3 optical audio inputs and 5 phono inputs. When I say phono inputs I mean red and white RCA's, am I correct calling them phono's ?

Again sorry for the simple questions, but they save me hours and hours of reading that I don't have !

[-Sp-]

Sky+ won't output component (y-pr-pb) (which is generally 3 phono plugs Blue Red and Green). It will however do RGB out on scart if your projector will take that (and for that you'll need a fully wired scart cable) if not S video is your best bet.

The older sky HD boxes have the component (y-pr-pb) and HDMI output but the newer ones only have HDMI along with scart etc.

As for sending audio 20m, if it's 5.1 your after you'll need something with a co-ax digital out put on one end and input on the other (or optial and sutable converters) then you can probably get it to run over a half decent but os shielded signal cable or a bit of cat5 and baluns, if it's just stereo your after then again shielded signal cable will do the job or audio baluns and some cat5.

[kumack]

Originally Posted by -Sp-

Sky+ won't output component (y-pr-pb) (which is generally 3 phono plugs Blue Red and Green). It will however do RGB out on scart if your projector will take that (and for that you'll need a fully wired scart cable) if not S video is your best bet.

The older sky HD boxes have the component (y-pr-pb) and HDMI output but the newer ones only have HDMI along with scart etc.

As for sending audio 20m, if it's 5.1 your after you'll need something with a co-ax digital out put on one end and input on the other (or optial and sutable converters) then you can probably get it to run over a half decent but os shielded signal cable or a bit of cat5 and baluns, if it's just stereo your after then again shielded signal cable will do the job or audio baluns and some cat5.

Thanks for getting back to me mate, unfortunately my PJ doesnt have a scart input, is there a scart to component balun or something similar?
Audio wise, stereo would be fine as its only for backup purposes really, so would phone leads (Red& white) over 20meters not work or would it lose signal over long distances.

I read on another thread about using shielded cat 5 or 6 cable and soldering on rca points to make component or in this case phono leads, would this work?

[kumack]

Just found this






think it should work

[-Sp-]

Originally Posted by kumack

Just found this






think it should work

It won't.... that will only work if your box provides component via scart, which the sky box doesn't. the only way to convert from RGB to component (y-pr-pb) is with a scaler Extron do one but it'll set you back over £100 IIRC

20m of signal cable will definatly work, wether or not there is a noticable signal loss depends on the quality of the cable and other external factors, and the quality of the source and the kit what's on the other end.

for the cost of a bit of shieled cable I'd probably chance it see how you think it sounds and then worry about the alternatives. you can use Cat5 and solder ends on, I do this for about 20-25m to get audio out to my garden and it's fine for me but there is definatly some hum on it (but not enough to bother me in the garden)

[dunks517]

Hi Kumack, Good effort so far. Could you provide a link for the led spots please? I'm intrigued!

Duncs