New Home Help! Basic Media Setup

v500dj

Established Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2009
Messages
124
Reaction score
4
Points
56
Age
37
Location
Hartlepool
Hello all,

Looking for some advice or somewhere I can find the answers for this one. After looking at Jamster1’s house refurb I have been in awe for months and the time has came now when I can finally try and attempt it myself.

I have reserved a new home with Persimmon. A 3 bed detached which isn’t a bad size and there will only be me living in it so I have a free reign over what goes in. No pink, fluffy cushions or dressing tables thankfully.

Problem is (not really that much of a problem) the builder is very restrictive and won’t let me do anything as they are too worried about their NHBC cert. After ringing the site today and finding out I have no chance of any modifications I have thought about chasing the walls and putting in what the hell I want. I was only going to ask them to move a few sockets so I could plug the TV in and then run HDMI cables through the partition walls. I didn’t want to start tearing freshly skimmed walls to pieces but this is a house I intend to live in for probably 10 years minimum so I am not really bothered how much work I have to do as I would rather get it done now rather than wait until I have decorated everything.

Basically I am looking for advice on what I should do in terms of media integration around the house. I am not a tradesmen but have a few friends in trades but I doubt many of them are media savvy. I have a Sony STA-1200ES receiver a PS3 and I will be getting the full Sky HD package installed. I would like to have all items in a cupboard upstairs and have the ability for any TV to be connected to the PS3 or Sky. I will only be using 1 speaker system which will be in my living room which will be connected to the receiver. All other TV’s (study and dining room) will just run off their own speakers. I may invest in a 2.1 system for the bedroom but will run that directly off the TV.

Is this all possible with a simple HDMI splitter connected to Sky then all cables running to the associated TV’s? Also the speaker cabled just running to the living room from the upstairs cupboard where the receiver should sit?

I am a total beginner when it comes to house installs and I would like to make the most of the situation while the walls are open so any further suggestions on what I should do or what I could incorporate are welcome.

Thanks for reading!
 
Your best bet would be to move this to the cabling forum. Have you searched the cables forum (HDMI and/or cat 5/6)? You will find plenty of information there re. whole house AV distribution using matrix devices and cat 5 or cat 6 baluns. If you want to get the fastest available network, running cat 5/6 cabling would be the way to go. The DIY forum will also have details of similar installations.
 
Thanks for the info, that much of a novice I didn't know where to look!
 
You've been a member here for a while though!!
 
I have, but this whole subject is a bit confusing. I am seeing a lot of talk about cat6, cat5e and people throwing cables everywhere and I honestly see it as overkill but as I don't know the subject I know I will be wrong.

To put it simply all I want to do is have 1 SkyHD+ box and 1 PS3 to be able to be viewed on any TV in the house. I will be having a living room tv, a dining room tv, a study tv and a bedroom tv. I want HD viewing on all sets. I will also have a reciever as stated which will only be used for my living room 5.1 system.

Now what I see happening, as it is not a really big house, is the equipment in the upstairs landing cupbaord, a HDMI splitter from the sky box and run 4 hdmi cables to each of the tv sets. Run all speaker wiring from the cupboard to the living room and there I have it. Finished install?

Can anyone tell me where my thinking is wrong on this? I have been looking around the forum but they all look a little much for what I want to do?
 
Unfortunately due to the way HDMI works (handshakes) a splitter won't work. You would need to use an HDMI matrix. HDMI was also never designed to be run over long lengths and they seemed to forget about av distribution and the custom installation side when it was introduced. This is why cat5/6 balun setups are used.

Whole house av distribution is more complex than most people consider and also a lot more expensive.

The HDMI cables forum has lots of threads on this subject and it's not a new question so I would have a search there.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom