OK, We're building a house. Need info on central multimedia hub...

As the thread says, we're building a house. Tilson Homes is the builder and it'll be a pretty badass house. Had a Formal Dining Room, but who uses that?! I axed it, walled it seperate from the kitchen, and named it the Media Room. Now, I want to have access to movies and all that stuff from the other rooms in the house without DVD players. I'm also going to be installing speaker outlets in the ceiling in all bedrooms, kitchen, and living room. Also on the back porch. I'd like the ability for the daughter to plug in her iPod and play her crappy music in her room and we don't have to hear it. Now, the question is... What do I need to accomplish this?

Please inform me. The main thing is I'd like to Pre-Wire everything I'd need and buy components later. Not a problem.

Laters,

Brian

Wires?

Well the TV's we have don't have WiFi. So yes, I needs wires. LOL

I have looked into this a little bit and the "clean" way to do it seems to be to create a "media closet" of sorts. You put all you components there and run all the wires to there. To do this will likely require (depending on where the "closet" is) you use a IR remote bridge thingy (sorry can't remember the real name). This allows you to put an IR receiver near the TV and have the signal transferred to the closet.

A note on wireless speakers. I looked into these a bit also. They don't seem worth it since although you don't have to run speaker wires, you will have to run power wires or use batteries, so no real gain.

Obviously, you will want to check out:

http://www.firefold.com/

I think you are going to need a pro to lay this out for you. Doing the prewire is no big deal, but you need to know what to use and where. Check for Home Audio in your area.

Where I live, I highly doubt there's a home audio place. LOL I'll do some checking though.

run all cables in CONDUIT!!!

so they can be pulled and reran with whatever the next technology is. Especially any and all video cables.

Grtechguy wrote: run all cables in CONDUIT!!! so they can be pulled and reran with whatever the next technology is. Especially any and all video cables.

This, a lot.

Whatever you do, the lifespan of a house dwarfs that of any technology. Make sure you can change it later without too much trouble.

Yes, large diameter conduit was absolutely going to happen whatever I did.

In a recent PopMech, they suggest for longer runs of HDMI cord, use HDMI over Cat5/6. I basically, you will need to run a bunch of Cat 5/6 cable with powered converter boxes to do all your media streaming. I am pretty sure speakers in every room should be pretty straight forward, it's just devising a system to select the source content.

aircooled wrote: A note on wireless speakers. I looked into these a bit also. They don't seem worth it since although you don't have to run speaker wires, you will have to run power wires or use batteries, so no real gain.

Except that you don't have to run the power wire back to the audio source - which is usually on the other side of the room from the rear channel speakers (most common application). There's usually - granted, not always - a more convenient power plug nearby. Since it's going into a new home, there will be convenient power plugs every 6 feet or so. Even wireless rear channel speakers and wired everything else will make a huge difference in configurability of the media room if you decide to move furniture around or repurpose the room entirely. Life happens....

+1 one on the conduit idea. I wish I were able to easily fish whatever is appropriate (cat5/6, HDMI, fiberoptic, speaker wires) to each room depending on what its being used for. Unfortunately I am renting right now. Conduit is going the next house I own.

CAT5 everyhwere. With the right Baluns you can run just about anything over it from a basic phone line up to HDMI.

I did this to my house this winter. Nice winter project because the attic wasn't too hot.

For parts, I used Parts Express www.parts-express.com, Amazon.com, the local Lowes, and Craigslist.

Parts Express has a great print catalog and the cheapest prices on most items like trim plates and whatnot but shipping will eat up savings on the onesy twosy orders.

Amazon.Com had some great deals on some items, and as a prime member, it was nice to be able to get the one or two "oh crap" items I needed on a weekly basis during the project shipped for free and in 1 or 2 days.

The local Lowes actually had better prices on boxes of Cat 5 and some trim plates than Parts Express or Amazon so I bought from them. I used the Amazon price checking app on my phone to comparison shop.

Craigslist was a great help for the actual hardware. Used electronics depreciate quick, and its nice to be able to try before you buy. Also, shipping on big things like used speakers will kill a lot of "deals"

I mounted my 50" Samsung plasma screen on the wall using a Sanus tilt mount. I had a friend come to help me, that thing weighs something like 105 lbs. Its lag bolted into the studs, not going anywhere. I mounted my center channel on the wall below the TV.

Everything in my house besides the TV and speakers is put in a closet near the garage. I have a Belkin PureAV power conditioner in there running everything. There is a separate romex running from the PureAV to the TV. This way I could add an outlet behind the TV myself and still be code legal and keep the TV on the same ground as everything else to eliminate ground loops. Also in that closet is my AV receiver, my cable boxes, cable modem, PS3, and a router. I control it all with a Logitech Harmony 1000 remote with a PS3 adapter to run the PS3.

I installed a large 12 hole breakout plate in the closet for all the Cat 5 I ran. There are 2 drops in every bedroom, 2 drops on the back wall of the living room, and 3 drops behind the TV. One for data and two for an HDMI over Cat 5 balon. The PS3 is also hardwired on the network. I ran HDMI over Cat 5 to the TV and also ran component cables for legacy items like a 200 disc DVD changer I have.

Speaker wiring was easy once we decided where to place the speakers. The center channel runs with the HDMI and component to the TV. Left and right are mounted on the walls where the left and right speakers go. In the rear, I ran everything to one point which greatly simplified the installation. You can't see the wires because they are behind furniture and do not cross any doorways, windows, etc. I ran a set of preamp cables in back as well as a set of high level speaker wires for the subwoofer because at the time I was unsure of where the amp would go for the subs.

The only hurdles I ran into was with the Logitech 1000 remote and with the AV receiver. The Logitech remote requires a pretty computer/logic savvy person to get it configured and get all the macros/RF commands to work. Once I got it dialed in, its been great. It needs to be charged once a week, no big deal. The AV receiver is an older model without an onscreen display so I had to program it to do most operations via macros on the remote. Not hard, but very time consuming. The HDMI over Cat 5 works flawlessly, but get a powered adapter. The one I had initially was unpowered and would sometimes drop audio over the 40'. The powered one is flawless.

I use a jailbroken PS3 for my media center. It works great. The interface is smooth, it plays streaming videos off my workstation perfectly and in HD. The real bonus was that the PS3 controllers work at this range so I can still use it to whip out the occasional game of Pipe Dream or Super Mario World.

Future plans call for adding another PS3 and on-network TV into one of the bedrooms, networking my printer, and adding whole-house speakers. Right now I just crank up the living room speakers, but not all my neighbors appreciate Daft Punk at full jack when I am cleaning the house at 7AM on a Saturday.

Really though its gonna be how you wish to use it. Plan it out, prepare for the future, and shop around and you should be good.

I would stay away from wireless anything if you have any other option. The sound quality is not as good as wired, its always going to be flakey and susceptible to interference, and is a sure sign of a sub-par installation. Since you are in the planning phase, now is your chance to do it right.

Are you using an IR blaster with the Harmony or some other solution? This thread has rekindled my desire to move the various boxes from entertaiment console to a rack in the basement under the family room but I have to have a very high ease of use for the WAF.

I am using the Logitech RF to IR blaster to run everything but the PS3 and the TV.

The TV has to be run through IR because its in my living room.

The PS3 was running Logitech Harmony (RF) Logitech IR Blaster (IR) Logitech PS3 adapter (Bluetooth) PS3 which had a fine response time but there are issues with doubletaps on the buttons that way. The PS3 IR adapter has way less multiple button press filtering than most devices and because of this it was way too sensitive. This is a known issue with the PS3 and Logitech RF adapter. I solved it by putting the Logitech IR to PS3 Bluetooth adapter in the living room on top of a speaker. Its the size of a pack of playing cards and unobtrusive. Everything else works like you are running it off the OEM remote.with the Harmony 1000 and RF to IR blaster.

There is a way to hardwire the bluetooth PS3 adapter to the RF to IR adapter, but it doesnt solve the problem 100% and it takes a goofy custom cable to do it. The only downside to my current configuration is that if I want to change tracks on the PS3, I have to use the Logitech remote within range of the IR to PS3 adapter or use a PS3 controller.