Multi Room Video On A Budget

NEW SELF BUILD

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We are in the process of building a house and as much as we would like to have a complete multi room video and audio system, we do not have the £4k+ to spend and the sound quality on the entry level systems is not very good. It is a very open plan house, we can therefore get round the audio issue by just installing a decent system in the main reception rooms. The issue I have is with video distibution, we want to hide all the inputs (Sky, DVD and Video), but be able to access these in 3-4 rooms, I have seen a 4 scart input with 4 output box on ebay, but did not purchase it. Does anyone know where I can purchase such an item, as it seems silly to transfer video using a sender when this could be wired in?

Thanks
 
I had planned to get over this issue using Media PCs! It doesn't really help with Sky but certainly movie and audio content is covered and as we move towards 'on demand' internet based TV services then you'll be laughing.

In theory having a media PC (fitted with Freeview cards) for each room you will be able to watch anything on the server in any room!
 
baldrick said:
In theory having a media PC (fitted with Freeview cards) for each room you will be able to watch anything on the server in any room!
But how do you intend to get the video from the Media PC to each client?
The raw video stream will probably be too much for 100 base-t network (even for a single channel?), so you would need the HTPC to encode it first. How are you looking to do this, with Freeview cards with built in encoders, or using the main CPU. I imagine the CPU wouldnt be able to cope though with encoding 4 streams of video for 4 rooms demanding different channels...
Would you also need to set up a video streaming server configuration ?

.. and finally - what about streaming over WiFi ? :D

I only ask as I want to do something like this too and would like to hear other peoples approaches.

Andrew
 
I use a device called an MediaMVP, http://www.hauppauge.com/html/mediamvp_datasheet.htm streaming from a PC picture, video and audio, some devices are hardwired and some utilise WIFI. Some are connected to TVs and some run headless - just connected to the hifi locally in that room.

I use these together with MediaNet which also supports other devices such as RIOs and provides a web interface and remote control of one device from any other device. Basically I can change the music in any room of the house from any PC or any TV connected to a MediaMVP.

The MediaMVPs are not expensive I paid from £20 - £45 per device (all new £20 was a special at PCWorld 12 months ago google is your friend).

However that will not provide access to SKY, for that I use a standard arial connection with distribution via a loftbox, combined with a TVLINK device which allows me to change channels from other rooms.(I wisely did not give my teen daughter this facility)

If you want better quality than you could look at KAT5 (they come highly recommended on the UKHA forums where their creator resides). These allow you to distribute TV/SVideo + Stereo Audio around your house using inexpensive CAT5 cable

The loftbox, TV link and KAT5 boxes are available here http://www.letsautomate.com/index.cfm?&Nav=video2& together with a few other options.

Steve
 
Steve

Thanks for the advice, I have looked on the website you have suggested and believe that the KAT5 system is what we will need, could you just explain how this could work? I do not understand how you have a device (DVD, SKY+ or video) with a scart output, and this is distributed via CAT5? I imagine that I have just set myself up for some P*** taking, but I would really appreciate it if someone could explain.

Thanks
 
new self build

look at the KATV and it shows the image of the device with the lid off. It shows the SCART socket on one end and a std RJ45 on the other. have another look at the link and check out the PDF for the transmitter and receiver. tells you how to set them up.
 

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