My media center kitchen/diner

[fixiehipster]

alright everyone. Came to this site for inspiration for my house. Bought it back in June last year and have been gutting it and rebuilding it since. Now at a stage where I can start thinking about wiring it up for a media centre and planning for what goes where. It involves the groundfloor and an openplan kitchen/diner with living room. I've tried to layout the back half of the house in powerpoint below and detail how I see things happening.

I'm not plannin on a house full of PCs; just 1 in an end cupboard in the kitchen that with two video outputs will drive a wall mounted screen in the dining area on a swivel arm (maybe the 23" touch T230H that cverrier mentioned) and the second output will be an hdmi to the TV in the lounge. I plan to run them in clone mode (same on each screen) to make it easier to operate everything. But I do have an Xbox360 and that will also be in the lounge so should I need 2 independant media centres to watch I can always run that in extender mode I guess. My plan is to eventually install the maximum 4 tuner cards (DVB-S for Freesat I think) in my PC in the kitchen and have 4 runs of coax running up inside the wall and out to a quab lnb satellite. I do curently have a PC I plan on using, but its running Vista so Windows7 will definately be needed.

There will be doors across the back of the living room to isolate it from the kitchen/dining area (and the food smells), so I'm planning on some ceiling speakers in the dining area and mayeb one in the kitchen that will run back to an amp in the cupboard where the PC will be. For remote control, I like the look of the gyration that elootos uses so will try and get one of them. There will also be my current stereo in the lounge and I will split the audio ouput from the pc; one phono run to the amp for the ceiling speakers, and the other to the lounge stereo. For my bedroom, I like the look of the LinkSys extender that a few other members are using, so I may try and pick up one of them in the next few weeks. The fact it's so cheap (£60 at the mo!) and also wireless are great bonuses for me.

Cam I ask though, if anyone reads this who has one, does it replicate the exact media centre interface? Can I watch live TV through it etc? If I install My Movies 3, can I watch DVDs through the extender as well?

Pictures!

this is a layout of the back of my house showing the kitchen, lounge and dining area. I've included the idea of having the screen on a swivel arm so I can see it from the kitchen as well.
   

this is standing in the diner looking back at the section of wall that will house the LCd screen, and also looking through where the doors on the back of the lounge will be.
   

this is sitting from roughly where I think the sofa will go looking toward where I think the TV will be in the alcove next to the chimney breast.
   

here's me standing in at the back corner of the dining area looking toward the kitchen area and what looks like a modern piece of art on the floor laying screed
   


That's it for now. Also planning on LED lighting etc so hopefully when it's all complete (for next summer, hopefully!) it will look like a proper pimped batchelor pad

[dunks517]

(12-15-2009 04:02 PM)fixiehipster Wrote:  alright everyone. Came to this site for inspiration for my house. Bought it back in June last year and have been gutting it and rebuilding it since. Now at a stage where I can start thinking about wiring it up for a media centre and planning for what goes where. It involves the groundfloor and an openplan kitchen/diner with living room. I've tried to layout the back half of the house in powerpoint below and detail how I see things happening.

I'm not plannin on a house full of PCs; just 1 in an end cupboard in the kitchen that with two video outputs will drive a wall mounted screen in the dining area on a swivel arm (maybe the 23" touch T230H that cverrier mentioned) and the second output will be an hdmi to the TV in the lounge. I plan to run them in clone mode (same on each screen) to make it easier to operate everything. But I do have an Xbox360 and that will also be in the lounge so should I need 2 independant media centres to watch I can always run that in extender mode I guess. My plan is to eventually install the maximum 4 tuner cards (DVB-S for Freesat I think) in my PC in the kitchen and have 4 runs of coax running up inside the wall and out to a quab lnb satellite. I do curently have a PC I plan on using, but its running Vista so Windows7 will definately be needed.

There will be doors across the back of the living room to isolate it from the kitchen/dining area (and the food smells), so I'm planning on some ceiling speakers in the dining area and mayeb one in the kitchen that will run back to an amp in the cupboard where the PC will be. For remote control, I like the look of the gyration that elootos uses so will try and get one of them. There will also be my current stereo in the lounge and I will split the audio ouput from the pc; one phono run to the amp for the ceiling speakers, and the other to the lounge stereo. For my bedroom, I like the look of the LinkSys extender that a few other members are using, so I may try and pick up one of them in the next few weeks. The fact it's so cheap (£60 at the mo!) and also wireless are great bonuses for me.

Cam I ask though, if anyone reads this who has one, does it replicate the exact media centre interface? Can I watch live TV through it etc? If I install My Movies 3, can I watch DVDs through the extender as well?

Pictures!

this is a layout of the back of my house showing the kitchen, lounge and dining area. I've included the idea of having the screen on a swivel arm so I can see it from the kitchen as well.


this is standing in the diner looking back at the section of wall that will house the LCd screen, and also looking through where the doors on the back of the lounge will be.


this is sitting from roughly where I think the sofa will go looking toward where I think the TV will be in the alcove next to the chimney breast.


here's me standing in at the back corner of the dining area looking toward the kitchen area and what looks like a modern piece of art on the floor laying screed



That's it for now. Also planning on LED lighting etc so hopefully when it's all complete (for next summer, hopefully!) it will look like a proper pimped batchelor pad

Hi, The linksys extenders several flaws and is discontinued hence it is only £60ish. The full MCE is not experienced such as transitions and several file types being unable to be played. In my opinion it would be false econmy to purchase one and if I was in your position I would rather go for either a small form factor pc or an Xbox 360 Arcade.

Regards

Duncs

[fixiehipster]

OK, thanks for the advice. And there I was thinking it was getting cheap for me!

I suppose Xboxs can be gotten for about £130 now so its not all that bad I guess. I'll see how I get on with the one in my lounge before i buy another though.

[newstuart]

Looking foward to seeing this progress.

I am sure we all have different opinions but I have 2 of the same extenders and with MyMovies handling transcoding for my movie collection internally now they have been working really well, they do not have the transition animation but for bedroom and kitchen/diner use as i use them i think they are fantastic value and do not notice any difference between these and the 360 in my sons playroom (other then the 360 sounding like it is about to take off although i believe the newer ones are better). In fact as I am typing this my son is watching a dvd rip of Wall-E in the kitchen on the extender.

I used to use a number of PCs and wanted to consolodate my system hence the change. The other issue I had was i Needed a seperate tv card in each pc for live tv (although this may have changed).

[elootos]

Good stuff! This all looks very promising :)

Any idea on what ceiling speakers you'd use, or whether you'd have an in-line volume control in the wall?

And is you lounge system 5.1?

[fixiehipster]

(12-15-2009 07:29 PM)newstuart Wrote:  I am sure we all have different opinions but I have 2 of the same extenders and with MyMovies handling transcoding for my movie collection internally now they have been working really well

(12-15-2009 10:27 PM)elootos Wrote:  Any idea on what ceiling speakers you'd use, or whether you'd have an in-line volume control in the wall?

And is you lounge system 5.1?

Thanks for your input on the extender. Sounds like a search for firmware issues may be on my list! Anyone know of any other make/model I could consider? Still a few months away from going down that route so still time to get plenty of research in. The house so far has taken up all my weekends for the last 6 months and I cant wait to get to the fun stuff - decorating and fitting it out for tech!

Dunno yet what gear I'll be getting for the ceiling speakers. I guess I'll see how much is left in the kitty when ive bought my kitchen.

For the lounge it will just be stereo for the moment. I've a pair of floorstanders and amp that I like the sound of so I'll keep with them for now. I'll make sure though that I lay enough cabling for future upgrades to surround though.

One thing that will need a bit of an update is my PC. Its an Advent with Core2 E4500 that just scrapes inside the minimum spec for bluray playback, but its gonna need a new grpahics card as the 7300LE it has now won't do two things - playback bluray or run the 2 LCD screens I want. Im thinking of getting an ATI with an HDMi output to run my TV in the lounge, and with its second DVI output run the wall-mounted screen in the dining area. Hopefully spend no more than £45 on it. PLus of course it'll need windows7. And Ive realised it only has 2 pci slots, so only 2 tuners in it for now, unless I can get some sort of dual tuner DVB-S cards. Maybe it will have to be freeview and not freesat as I know the Nova 500 cards are good dual tuner DVB-T models. From what I've read, Freeview seems to be more supported in the media centre guide than Freesat, any ideas on that?

Lots more to do before then, but hopefully start laying some cabling up to and over xmas. Want some network cables to run between key areas (router cupboard (in dining room?) / pc cupboard in kitchen / TV area in lounge / up to bedroom / up to loft even?). And I also want to get the coax in for tv signals, again it will be 4 runs to where the PC will be, one to the TV area, another to each bedroom maybe.

Any work I get done with any of that Ill get some more photos up here.

Thanks for all your feedback!

[fixiehipster]

I'm thinking I'd like some funky led lighting in a trough running around the top of the walls in my kitchen/ dining area that illuminates the area with indirect light bounced off the ceiling.

Anyone tried this or got any ideas/suggestions?

[ali_g]

(12-22-2009 05:00 PM)fixiehipster Wrote:  I'm thinking I'd like some funky led lighting in a trough running around the top of the walls in my kitchen/ dining area that illuminates the area with indirect light bounced off the ceiling.

Anyone tried this or got any ideas/suggestions?

I'm also looking forward to seeing the progress on this 'Bachelor pad'.

With regards to the lighting, this company/product have good feedback, and i've saved a few quid by making a resonable offer too, i think elootos used these LEDs for under his kitchen here in his blog

[fixiehipster]

(01-05-2010 01:55 PM)ali_g Wrote:  I'm also looking forward to seeing the progress on this 'Bachelor pad'.

you got that right! Ordered this week a pool table that will double as a dining table. took some measurements and to sit at it is the same as any normal dining table so i'll make a top for it with a lip all around for the twice a year that i need to use it as such. purple cloth will also match the burgundy color i have planned for a couple of the walls.

Now if I could run Microsoft's Surface on it I would be a happy man!

   

(01-05-2010 01:55 PM)ali_g Wrote:  With regards to the lighting, this company/product have good feedback, and i've saved a few quid by making a resonable offer too, i think elootos used these LEDs for under his kitchen here in his blog

Yeah, elootos kitchen plinth leds look like the kind I'll get. need to find out how long a run of leds I can power from one unit before having to boost it again.


Got some the pastering of walls planned for Jan/Feb, then the kitchen to start in march hopefully. Sometime before all that I need to lay done some network and coax cable for the PC and Freesat signal.

[northan]

Got an idea for your new kitchen.
   

Swish and this would be great in the living room.
   

:-/ Sigh.
Must remember to get lottery