Setting up Node Zero - Cabling Questions

[phillj]

I have been looking into starting my own remote media center install (slowly, so it is easier to get past the wife ). I will be using CAT 6 around the house and would like to minimise the amount of utilised sockets in each room (though I am going to try to put 6 in each room). I have also got a Layer 3 Managed switch. I also have Windows Home Server (self build) and I am very with the way it works. I have a few questions on Cabling:

1. How do you get USB to the media center when it is to far for conventional USB cables?
This needs to be relatively cheap (considering that the ideal Geffen/Icron boxes are about £250) I have seen Lindy Active USB extension leads for about £30 - £50 for 8 - 12m.
Ideally allow a blu-ray, USB IR (Microsoft), SD card reader to be used.

2. Extend the HDMI over IP preferable?
Which units are good stable (and cheap enough).
They need to do HDMI 1.3.
I believe it is better for sync if EDID is disabled, so if this is an option I think it would be beneficial (unless someone wants to correct me).

3. In the final solution I think I will have a dedicated media center in node zero, for each room. Is there a better solution?

4. Is there a better way to stream music to the rooms that only want music?
I have seen the Sonos systems and I am pretty impressed, especially when it works over WLAN. Are there any other good ones?

5. I am currently using WHS Media Center archiving TV at night to copy it to the whs. It is an approach that seems to work well, but how do you guys make your TV available centrally?

Thank you for taking the time to read this (I know there are a lot of questions, but I want to make sure the money gets spent on the right kit!).

Phill

[newstuart]

Hi

Sure you will get lots of different answers but in my house this is what Ive done,

1. How do you get USB to the media center when it is to far for conventional USB cables?

I have 5 x 5m cheap (ebay specials) USB extension cables linked together to provide a 25m run from the attic to the living room, it then connects to a cheap USB Hub running a usb dvd drive, webcam, wireless keyboard receiver and MCE IR receiver, been using it for 3 years with no problems

2. Extend the HDMI over IP preferable?
Not sure as I use 20m VGA cable and 20m DVI - HDMI cable for main living room plasma and PJm I then use MCE Extenders for all other rooms

3. In the final solution I think I will have a dedicated media center in node zero, for each room. Is there a better solution?

I have my main living room runing off my server which is in the attic, this runs windows 7 MCE and has freesat. The other rooms have Linksys DMA2100 MCE extenders for £50 each (end of line sales) and a 360 in the play room - Ebay would provide either at a keen price - This gives me independent viewing of all tv,films,music, pictures and CCTV in each room

4. Is there a better way to stream music to the rooms that only want music?

Dont know as I have a tv in each room i would want music so just use the DMA2100 through the tv interface to select music

5. I am currently using WHS Media Center archiving TV at night to copy it to the whs. It is an approach that seems to work well, but how do you guys make your TV available centrally?

I use my Windows 7 pc as my central source and do not use WHS. All the Extenders share recorded TV from this and I can also view via laptop etc with network shares of the relevant drives. For protection of a hardrive failing I have 2tb of movies duplicated over 4 x 1tb hardrives, bearing in mind the price of these now it seemed silly not to

Hope that helps

[phillj]

Thanks for your reply newstuart, it is very helpful.

I think I will certainly investigate using usb extension, rather than USB over CAT5e/6a as it is a lot cheaper! The only thing I was worried about was the fact I would have to have bigger holes in the wall than with CAT 6, but that is something I will have to get over and deal with.

The Cisco DMA2100s look awesome and for only £50 they were a bargain! They look really good and seem to have great reviews. I think the only disadvantage I can think of it that I use My Movies with MKV files, which don't seem to work, but for everything else they would be brilliant and can easily be installed in rooms were I will not be wanting movies.

How have you found Free SAT, I have been thinking of going to it for a while, but with satellite being active and needing one cable per feed, it has put me off. Though I would really like HD and can't really afford SKY and would preffer it to be integrated through MCE. Which tuner card have you got for it? Also do you find that your HDs can cope with recording two HD feeds at the same time (thought about SSD)?

Also you are right when it comes to backups, I really need to start thinking about this, as I currently only backup my photos and personal files online.

Thanks once again (sorry for sounding like the Spanish inquisition)

[newstuart]

Hi

no problem re the advice

for the movies on the DMA 2100s look at MY MOVIES3

http://www.mymovies.dk/

One of the paid options is a facility to transcode movies to make them compatiable with the extenders, it just does this "on the fly" for each film and does not store so there is no extra hardrive storage needed.

It only shows the filme (ie not the menus) and you loose the ability to skip chapters but for rooms such as the kitchen and bedroom I find this fine.

It is a paid option and not included in the free option but from memory it was only £20 or so.

With regards to the free sat I use a Hauppauge card (sorry cant remember model at the mo) and only have one feed. For our familly that is fine as we usually watch recorded tv rather than live but it would be an easy enough job to run a dual LNB to the satalite and an extra feed if you wanted a 2nd card.

Lastly, SSD is happening in the very near future, i presently have a post on here about it and am just reveiwing which one to go for

hope that helps

[cliffwright]

Hi,

I realise it's a wee while after you asked the intial question so not sure how far on you've got with your setup, but the following would be my advice;


1. How do you get USB to the media center when it is to far for conventional USB cables?
This needs to be relatively cheap (considering that the ideal Geffen/Icron boxes are about £250) I have seen Lindy Active USB extension leads for about £30 - £50 for 8 - 12m.
Ideally allow a blu-ray, USB IR (Microsoft), SD card reader to be used.


You don't say how far you need to extend your USB for but I personally have gone with the powered USB hub approach. I can't find the exact model I bought as it was a while ago but it was just a 5 meter cabled 7 port hub for about £15 off eBuyer.com.

If you need less devices or longer distance, the following might be of interest to you;

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronics/multi...ode=USBXT5


2. Extend the HDMI over IP preferable?
Which units are good stable (and cheap enough).
They need to do HDMI 1.3.
I believe it is better for sync if EDID is disabled, so if this is an option I think it would be beneficial (unless someone wants to correct me).


What's your HDMI connecting and why HDMI specifically? Like Newstuart has done, I'm running my HTPC >> TV via either a VGA or DVI cable . . . these are cheap enough off eBuyer and eBay for longer runs . . .

If you're stuck on HDMI specifically then I've not experienced this so I'll leave it to someone else to answer . . .


3. In the final solution I think I will have a dedicated media center in node zero, for each room. Is there a better solution?

'Better' is all down to how it suits you . . .

Me personally, I've cloned the screen of each of my media Centers to service 2 rooms each. This is because I'm more than happy to have a shared approach to the pairings of rooms because that suits our Media Habits - for example, my Bedroom HTPC also services the Bathroom, because whenever we're using either room, it's independantly, so I've no need for independant media in each. Same goes for the Cinema + Kitchen paring and the Lounge + Dining room pariing.

This is straightforward whilst it's just me and the Mrs - I'd do things slightly differently when we have kids because I can see situations where there'd then be someone using the Bathroom to play some music whilst I was watching the morning news in the bedroom . . .

I used a DMA2200 extender in the Bedroom off the lounge MCE box for about a year but I've gotten tired of the slow startup times and sluggishness . . . I've now (well I'm in the process of) swapping to clone the Bathroom media center into the bedroom too . . .


4. Is there a better way to stream music to the rooms that only want music?
I have seen the Sonos systems and I am pretty impressed, especially when it works over WLAN. Are there any other good ones?

I think the answer is 'yes' - assuming that all you want is music. A full on MCE box running just for playing tunes seems a tad overkill.

I guess what solution you opt for depends upon what control you want. In the wife's dressing room I used to use an old Mini ITX based box running XP that had iTunes on it . . . it was hidden well out the way, connected to a Cambridge amp and a pair of small satelite speakers and we used the 'remote' iPhone / iPod touch app to control playback.

You can achieve similar effects with Squeezebox products too without having to have a localised 'PC' though these days . . .

Where are you looking for just music playback? Do you have a control prefernce?

5. I am currently using WHS Media Center archiving TV at night to copy it to the whs. It is an approach that seems to work well, but how do you guys make your TV available centrally?

Each of my MCE boxes record to their own dedicated 1TB HDD's - then I've just setup shares on each box (this works on Windows 7 but not if you're on Vista still) so that each PC can 'see' all recordings across the network.

On the whole and under my setup, I can't personally see the point of going to the effort of constantly moving recordings from multiple locations to 1 central 'server' location when you simply setup network shares . . . I class TV recordings as pretty much disposable media . . . it's not something I'm bothered about backing up . . .

Of course if you're running extenders then this is a different matter . . .

Hope this helps

Cliff