My install so far..

[ali_g]

I'm trying to make my house, nice and media-centered, starting with the upstairs...
I have 2 rooms, Bedroom and a Study room, we have just finished decorating, so i have run some wires in the wall (HDMI, USB, Power and CAT5) so that the TV will look 'Floating'. Both rooms have these wires run and plastered over, and wallpapered.
I'll add some photos to show what i mean.
   
   
   
I got advised by my electrician, that i shouldn't have CAT5/HDMI running alongside power.
So in the Master bedroom i have taken the precaution of putting the AV cables in seperate trunking, I also have run enough power wires to have a 2-point plug, so i can have some LEDs on the back of the TV in the bedroom.
   
I don't have a recent photo but that rooms all decorated, and HDMI cable run etc. expect an update.

Any advice is welcome, and some required already, I only need one TV on at a time (I have noticed the lack of TVs, it's fund permitting, as i do want two TVs that are identical), so do i still need 2 PCs, or could i run one PC with two HDMI outputs to each? any suggestions/guidance?

Thanks For looking.

Ali

[elootos]

It's looking like you've laid the base for a neat install. As for sharing CAT and HDMI cables with electrics, mine all run together in the channel up to the loft from the lounge and elsewhere throughout the house all my cabling runs together without a problem. But it is always better to over-engineer the situation as it restricts the likehood of any future problems, I think I've been fortunate.

You say about running 2 TVs together from one system, but it depends on how much use each will get. If you require them to be used independantly them you'll need 2 PCs, but in the case of my bedroom/bathroom install where the monitors display exacly the same picture you can get away with one PC.

To save money you could always just buy monitors and not TVs; they're the same thing but without the TV electronics inside. My bedroom, bathroom and kitchen are all just PC monitors, but you have to be confident that your PCs will always work; if they crash or are down then you'll have monitors on the wall with no backup TV functionality! I laid spare aerial cabling etc for my Samsung TV in the lounge because I thought the PC would frequently not work, but in over three years use it's never let me down. Again, I've been fortunate.

[ali_g]

(11-02-2009 07:27 PM)elootos Wrote:  It's looking like you've laid the base for a neat install.

Thanks, in both rooms i have run a spare CAT5 lead for futureproofing, as a pull-through,

elootos Wrote:You say about running 2 TVs together from one system

Yea i think this is all i need for now. any suggestions on a PCI-e card that has 2x DVI out, or 1xHDMI &1xDVI budget wise?

elootos Wrote:To save money you could always just buy monitors and not TVs; they're the same thing but without the TV electronics inside.

The main reason i'm going for TVs is so that i could have an XBOX/PS3 in the room with me, hence the CAT5 cabling (online gaming) in the future, would a normal monitor do this?
I am currently looking a 32" Samsung, because my lass likes the red "tinge"

elootos Wrote:I laid spare aerial cabling etc for my Samsung TV in the lounge because I thought the PC would frequently not work, but in over three years use it's never let me down. Again, I've been fortunate.

You have indeed! I work with computers and the idea is to have a shell of a computer on stand-by just in-case the worst were to happen, all i'd have to do is nip into the loft switch the Main Hard-disk (All recorded material etc..) and place it in the other machine while i fix the other...

[elootos]

I've recently used a couple of the ATi cards, the 4550 which has been very good. It has HDMI out and can carry sound over it as well (appears as a soundcard in Windows sound control panel), but be warned that even though some have HDMI, DVI and VGA, only 2 of these three can be driven at the same time (DVI and/or VGA/HDMI I think). Although there are variations of the 4550 with dual HDMI so have a look around. There are better cards than the 4550 but I think that's the lowest entry level you should be going for, and the ATis at that level are cheaper than nVidias.

The fact you want more than one input into the displays suggests you'd be better with TVs then. There is always the option of an HDMI switcher though which may be a more discrete option; running only 1 lead to the display.

My backup for the lounge is the bedroom PC; I made sure when I built it that it could handle Blu-ray playback etc. They sit next to each other in the attic so swapping over should be straighforward if it ever happens.

Since I've have the kitchen PC and a Blu-ray drive in the lounge I rarely ever go up into the loft, but that's a bad thing as I no longer check what's happening up there (failed fans, bad noises from failed hardware etc), so it is better to have a system you can keep an eye (or ear) on. :s

(11-03-2009 10:39 AM)ali_g Wrote:  Yea i think this is all i need for now. any suggestions on a PCI-e card that has 2x DVI out, or 1xHDMI &1xDVI budget wise?

The main reason i'm going for TVs is so that i could have an XBOX/PS3 in the room with me, hence the CAT5 cabling (online gaming) in the future, would a normal monitor do this?
I am currently looking a 32" Samsung, because my lass likes the red "tinge"

You have indeed! I work with computers and the idea is to have a shell of a computer on stand-by just in-case the worst were to happen, all i'd have to do is nip into the loft switch the Main Hard-disk (All recorded material etc..) and place it in the other machine while i fix the other...

[elootos]

Regarding your dual screen install, I'm just watching TV in the bedroom and I've realised the nVidia card I have up here (8600GTS) running both the bedroom and bathroom screens in clone mode has an annoying feature of a scan line slowly scrolling up the screen. It's very discrete and I didn't notice it until after about 3 months use, so I would gun for an ATi card if going for clone screens again. In fact just thinking about it I could swap this card over with the ATi that's in the kitchen PC. Hmmm, something else to mess around with...

Oh, and if going for an LCD monitor rather than a TV, AVOID any with a 16:10 ratio. Some manufacturers have a nasty habit of using 16:10 panels, in fact it took me ages to pin down what screen I'd use in the kitchen due to finding a 16:9 panel with the right glossy black look I needed it to have.