advice for home TV distribution

[mfacer]

Hi all,

I currently have a LoftBox to distribute my SkyHD around the house via Coax. I'm about to move in to a new house and have a chance to set something up a little better.

I've been looking around for a long time at different solutions, but most that I find are way out of my price range. I am thinking up to £500 at the moment.
(but if it's a good solution I could go higher)

We'd ideally like HD around the house (4 rooms) but I understand this can be pricey. I've looked at HDMI 4:2 ports to then run cat5 and a balun(?) at the end of each room.

I'm really after some advice to see what people think we should do. Should I "future proof" it by laying cat5/6 around the house AND coax... then just use another loft box for now? It's not essential that we have HD in each room, but I'd like it if possible!

I want the Sky HD distributed and so that we can use the magic eyes to change channels from each room. I also have a Mac Mini running Plex. If that could somehow be distributed too it'd be amazing. Not sure how to do that other than using the HDMI matrix thing.

Any thoughts?!

 

[SparksCW]

You won't get any pro solution for that money,an atlona 1 x 4 splitter is the majority of your budget on its own.

But with my DIY head on.....

Neet 1 x 4 HDMI Splitter = £59.95

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet®-SPLIT...CW82/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322506999&sr=8-3

Neet cat5/6 balun £34.95 x 4 = £139.80

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet®-Extender-Cat5e-network-cable/dp/B002ECYEYA/ref=pd_bxgy_ce_img_b

Neet 0.5m HDMI lead £7.95 x 8 = £63.60

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet®-Black...4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1322507279&sr=1-4

Install two cat6 cables and a coax from hdmi splitter position to each TV.

Then install a global loft box or labgear equivalent, install a coax between the RF2 out and the loft box and a magic eye at each TV. This is a cheap way of getting HDMI sky distribution with full control of the sky box.

Total is £263.55 + the Cat 6 cable and loft box/ magic eye stuff.

 

[SparksCW]

By the way, a 2 x 4 matrix is going to cost a whole lot more, you could use a 2 x 1 hdmi switch to switch between the sky and pc into the splitter but you're not going to be able to control it too easily/cheaply. Depends how much you want both sources distributed.... The method in my last post is cheapest way to do the sky, and at least you'd have the right cabling in if you went for a 2 or 4 x 4 true matrix with ir pass back for device control in the future. I'd recommend running three cat6 cables (or 2 x cat6 and 1 x cat5) to each TV to be honest, that gives you network for smart TV if ever needed..

 

[Swans1912]

I'm planning mine at the moment and the HDanywhere - Multiroom HD made easy - HDMI over Cat5 Matrix with IR control solutions look interesting but out of that price range if you wish output all of the inputs at the same time.

If you only wish to distribute a single input to the four locations then this might be worth looking at:
1x4 HDMI over Dual Cat 6 Splitter with IR Passback