Audio Set Up for Projector - Help Needed

aaronabbo91

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Hi all,

I am new to the forum but spent few hours reading through it this morning and couldn't find any support, so thought I would share.

I have recently moved house and tomorrow I am having a 100 inch media wall put into the living room with a 74inch fire underneath.

We have an electronic projector screen going into the ceiling and we already have an Epson projector.

Where i need some support is around what cables/audio i need to buy to set everything up.

We have 5 surround sound speakers built into the ceiling and I have attached a diagram to this thread.

I need to know for me to be able to have the Projector/TV/Sky plugged into the surround sound what cables do i need?

I also need to buy an amplifier, so any support on the wiring etc would be great!

This is on an extension in the house so thankfully we are able to run wires through the ceiling if necessary, as we can just pop the spotlights out.

If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.

Living Room.jpg
 
If you buy a modern AVR then all the sources and displays will connect to it via HDMI cables. Just make sure you get an AVR with two HDMI outputs if you’re running a TV and a projector off the same system.
 
If you buy a modern AVR then all the sources and displays will connect to it via HDMI cables. Just make sure you get an AVR with two HDMI outputs if you’re running a TV and a projector off the same system.

great thanks, any shouts on mid priced amplifiers that will be good for this? Also so just need to get amplifier with the outputs suggested and then the rest is just hdmi cables? Thanks
 
The Denon AVR-X2700 is the lowest in its range to have dual HDMI outputs.

Personally I would also be using 2.5mm2 gauge (roughly 13AWG) pure copper speaker cable all round and, if possible, run Cat 6 ethernet cable to all the equipment (inc. projector). Even if your current projector isn’t networked your next one probably will be.
 
The Denon AVR-X2700 is the lowest in its range to have dual HDMI outputs.

Personally I would also be using 2.5mm2 gauge (roughly 13AWG) pure copper speaker cable all round and, if possible, run Cat 6 ethernet cable to all the equipment (inc. projector). Even if your current projector isn’t networked your next one probably will be.
Just realised we don’t have an optical input on the projector would you recommend getting a new one, we live in an old town house so 3 floors and we have the router on the middle floor so don’t think can connect Ethernet, see picture attached
 

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In that case I would use a WiFi extender on your AV system's floor and connect this to an Ethernet switch and feed all the AV devices into that switch. Some of the higher end extenders have at least 4 Ethernet ports on them in which case you might be able to dispense with the need for a switch. Those extenders also tend to have a much better range. This is exactly what I do in my living room system with a Netgear EX6200 extender and it works perfectly with zero buffering and has proved to be far more reliable that using WiFi on the individual devices.

NETGEAR WiFi AC1200 Range Extender EX6200 | Tablet Phone Case

Your current Epson projector is fine and doesn't have to be networked but if you're already running cables to that area then for the cost of a few pounds I would run an Ethernet cable for future use.
 
Something else you could do is run 12V trigger cables from the projector and/or AVR to the electric screen to automate its activation.
 
Something else you could do is run 12V trigger cables from the projector and/or AVR to the electric screen to automate its activation.
Sorry to be a pain Mr Wolf! As I am very grateful for the help and it has saved me on getting someone in to have a look at everything however I appreciate it sounds like im taking the mick here but in terms of what i need then based on the above:

  1. Netgear Wifi AC1200 Range Extender
  2. Denon AVR-X2700
  3. Multiple HDMI Cables?

Anything else required to get this up and running?

Again many thanks for the help!
 
Also is there a cheaper alternative than the Denon AVR X2700 or would you say this is a MUST.

Finally we currently have a WIFI booster in the living room - Would this need to go if we were using the netgear wifi extender?
 
If your current "WiFi booster" has an Ethernet port on it then it may already have you covered. In which case you'll just need to connect it to an Ethernet switch like this and plug the Ethernet enabled network devices into that. Or you could just connect them all the devices to it via WiFi if they have it - how reliable is that booster?

Amazon product ASIN B07HP5TN4S
Obviously you'll also need some CAT6 Ethernet cables. The HDMI cable between the TV and AVR should be latest version and support eARC (HDMI v2.1) if your TV supports it.

HDMI ARC and HDMI eARC: everything you need to know

You could go for a cheaper AVR than the X2700 but you would need to combine it with an HDMI switch to share a single output between the two displays. Personally I wouldn't want to do that.
 
Denon AVR X2700

If your current "WiFi booster" has an Ethernet port on it then it may already have you covered. In which case you'll just need to connect it to an Ethernet switch like this and plug the Ethernet enabled network devices into that. Or you could just connect them all the devices to it via WiFi if they have it - how reliable is that booster?

Amazon product ASIN B07HP5TN4S
Obviously you'll also need some CAT6 Ethernet cables. The HDMI cable between the TV and AVR should be latest version and support eARC (HDMI v2.1) if your TV supports it.

HDMI ARC and HDMI eARC: everything you need to know

You could go for a cheaper AVR than the X2700 but you would need to combine it with an HDMI switch to share a single output between the two displays. Personally I wouldn't want to do that.

No to the AVR because the sound quality would decrease with a splitter?

Would you recommend trying it all without the WIFI Booster first to see how it goes.

Our current booster is in the kitchen so nothing can really go to it.

I can get what you have attached however not sure where it will go?
 
An HDMI splitter wouldn't decrease sound quality but it would impact convenience and potential stability/reliability. The X2700 is already fairly low down the Denon range and I personally wouldn't want to drop any lower - in fact I'd probably go one higher (X3700) for the better EQ system and amplifier pre-out capability but that may not be important to you. If you want to save money in this area, you could always consider a second-hand AVR but used prices are fairly high at the moment.

By all means try it first with your current WiFi booster but a hardwired solution will always be more reliable. As I've said already, for me, the next best thing to a hardwiring back to the router was to use a high-end WiFi extender and then hardwire everything via Ethernet into that instead. If your extender doesn't have enough Ethernet ports then just connect a multi-port switch to your extender. This way you only have one WiFi connection between two high gain components in the network which maximises stability. If you're using a WiFi only source device that has no Ethernet port (Firestick, Chromecast etc.) then simply connect those to the extender via WiFi.

To maximise connection speed, I run my Netgear EX6200 extender in "Fastlane mode" which connects it to the Router on the 5Ghz band and to WiFi devices on the 2.4Ghz band.

Are you with me?
 
Sort of lol! Tried the projector out tonight I bought 2 long optical cables and 2 long hdmi so think I’m nearly there just realised we’re missing the hdmi sender for some reason which would of saved a lot of messing around with cables however look to expensive online! The optical cable x 2 will go from from sky and PlayStation to amp however as the projector doesn’t have a cable it has a r and l audio so do I get a r and l audio to hdmi or what would you recommend
Thanks
 
I’m sorry but I really don’t understand what you’re doing with your system. Normally all sources with an HDMI output would connect to the AVR via HDMI and the AVR would run an HDMI to the display(s). I don’t understand why you have any need for optical cables (unless it’s CD player) or optical to analogue converters.
 
So my projector has not optical capability however it has 2 x hdmi and a l and r audio as you pointed out for me mate.

I was going to run

2 x hdmi from PlayStation and sky to projector and then I thought I would need to run.
2 x optical from PlayStation and sky to amp

however I’m guessing all I need is 2 x hdmi and then a l and r audio to hdmi for the projector to go to the amp?
 
These are the only connections you need into an AVR-X2700 for your set-up. Note that only a single HDMI cable goes to the projector (apart from a power cable). So you need four HDMI cables, one subwoofer RCA cable, one Ethernet cable (unless you're using the AVR's WiFi) and some speaker wire. That's all.

AVF 1.jpg
 
That's great, I thought a picture might help.

Just make sure that the HDMI cable from the AVR to the TV is connected into the TV's HDMI socket labelled "ARC" (only one of them will be) otherwise you won't be able to get digital audio from your TV's tuner into the AVR. You'll probably also need to go into your TV's audio settings to enable it.
 
Great thanks mate, question:

to save on the hdmi lead this Epson projector I believe once had a hdmi sender (not in the box and was a gift) with 5 hdmi ports, would I be able to buy one and use this with the projector a generic one or not?
 
I’ve never used an HDMI sender so can’t really comment. As long as it supports the full bandwidth of the signal being sent then I wouldn’t have thought it would be a problem. Personally I stay away from anything wireless whenever I can as they tend to be much less reliable than hardwired solutions.
 
@ aaronabbo91 - once you have an AVR in the system your Projector only has to deal with the video signal the AVR sends to it so all it requires is a single HDMI cable between the AVR HDMI Output and the HDMI Input on the Projector.

Your Source(s) connect to the AVR via HDMI cables - usually relatively short as the norm is to have the AVR collocated with the Source devices.

You also run a single RCA to RCA cable between the AVR and an Active Sub and twin core loudspeaker cable from the AVR to your Front LCR, Surround, Rear and Overhead speakers depending on the speaker layout you are going with.

Joe
 

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