New house, new set up!

fwor

0james0 wrote: »

I will just use a very long composite cable

Regarding long cables: I'm fairly sure you'll need top quality cable if you do long HDMI runs - I can't recall offhand what frequency it uses, but for HD content it's quite demanding. I've heard reports of flickering and dropouts with long cables.

Composite video: I'd advise you to try this before you commit buried cable to it. On a big screen I doubt you'll be happy.

BunShopBandit wrote:

As for Myth, I keep a copy running on one of my desktops, it's useful, but not great imho. A number of little 'annoyances' exist in it

Agreed. The "annoyances" have got less in recent years, but it's still not perfect, and I don't expect it ever will be. I've taken to cloning the HDD of my Myth server before every new release, so that if a new release breaks it I can roll back without too much trouble...

0james0

fwor wrote: »

Regarding long cables: I'm fairly sure you'll need top quality cable if you do long HDMI runs - I can't recall offhand what frequency it uses, but for HD content it's quite demanding. I've heard reports of flickering and dropouts with long cables.

Composite video: I'd advise you to try this before you commit buried cable to it. On a big screen I doubt you'll be happy.

I did think this last night, but after seeing the price of them had come down that much, I had assumed that the tech had improved to allow better quality. If only Sky had 2 x HDMI outputs I wouldn't even have a worry, but the composites are the only way I could think of.

..........unless I bought another HDMI splitter and split the signal before it went to the main TV. I'm assuming HDMI loses less over distance? it has about 15m to travel. Maybe I'll need some kind of booster?

Would you say that composite is that much worse? I've used it before for DVD and an Xbox and couldn't really see any loss compared to HDMI in HD.

fwor

IIRC, 15m is about the limit for HDMI without an extender/repeater, so if I were you I'd buy the cable and try it out before committing.

0james0 wrote: »

Would you say that composite is that much worse? I've used it before for DVD and an Xbox and couldn't really see any loss compared to HDMI in HD.

This probably depends on the quality of circuitry at both ends. My comments are based purely on the times I've tried composite video versus DVI (which is effectively the same as HDMI) for PC output to larger TVs. Composite was definitely inferior - so much so that it would have been unusable as a PC monitor (though that is admittedly about as demanding an application as you can get).

23n1th

fwor wrote: »

I've done something similar, but not quite the same functionally. Essentially I have a (relatively) high power media server in a room where I don't care about PC noise, connected to a Gigabit Ethernet switch in the same room, star-wired out to wall sockets in each room where I need a TV.

The media server runs MythTV and has 3 Freeview tuner cards installed, so it can play up to 3 different LiveTV channels to any MythTV client (or any DLNA-compliant TV) anywhere in the house, or record up to 3 programmes at once, or any combination - plus it can play back any recorded programme to any TV in the house at any time. And of course it provides access to the Internet on any TV in the house - though of course that's only practical if you're prepared to have a wireless keyboard in each room.

It gives you the benefit of a PVR in every room, so you can for example pause LiveTV and then skip forward - very useful if you hate watching adverts and broadcasts by political parties.

It's a very flexible system, but note that it's ~not~ designed for broadcast of the same material to all TVs in the house at the same time. If you really do want to do that then I guess you'd need a simpler splitter/amplifier arrangement.

Just out of interest when I eventually move house I'm thinking of setting up a mythtv server for the exact same thing. With the three tuners does that mean three aerials/dishes? Probably a stupid question but like I've said I've not looked into it properly yet as am waiting to this house to sell.

fwor

23n1th wrote: »

Just out of interest when I eventually move house I'm thinking of setting up a mythtv server for the exact same thing. With the three tuners does that mean three aerials/dishes? Probably a stupid question but like I've said I've not looked into it properly yet as am waiting to this house to sell.

No, it works pretty well with just one aerial (big and high up), an amp/splitter in the loft and a second splitter next to the server. So the one aerial serves two TVs and three tuners. It surprised me, as we've not yet had the digital switchover, and my nearest transmitter is about 20 miles away, with a small hill in between!

When my neighbour runs his cheap Chinese petrol mower the picture breaks up a bit, but nothing else really affects it.

23n1th

fwor wrote: »

No, it works pretty well with just one aerial (big and high up), an amp/splitter in the loft and a second splitter next to the server. So the one aerial serves two TVs and three tuners. It surprised me, as we've not yet had the digital switchover, and my nearest transmitter is about 20 miles away, with a small hill in between!

When my neighbour runs his cheap Chinese petrol mower the picture breaks up a bit, but nothing else really affects it.

Thanks, my intention is to have a TV in two of the bedrooms one in the living room and one in the kitchen.

The TV in the living room will be virgin media so for the other three freeview or freesate is the way to go. I don't know if virgin media do mutliroom but I bet its not cheap.

I take it from the MythTV server you can use a home net work for the tvs and they will be connected to a PC anyway. Or are you able to do it just to the TV without a PC involved?

fwor

23n1th wrote: »

Or are you able to do it just to the TV without a PC involved?

In theory you can, as Myth has a DLNA compliant server implementation onboard - but I've not tried it (yet, as I don't yet have a TV with DLNA).

I use a small near-silent PC next to each TV as a Myth client at the moment. For SD playback you can use a silent (e.g. fanless ITX based) client, but IIRC that's a bit harder to achieve for HD content.

John_Gray

BunShopBandit wrote: »

I don't agree. There are, apparently, numerous instances where CAT-6 has been installed and causes compatibility and performance issues with existing networking equipment. CAT 5 is cost effective and perfectly adequate for anything most of us will see in our lifetimes IMHO. If it were a data centre using enterprise equipment perhaps it may be a different scenario - but for all of today's household hi-speed needs it's perfectly adequate.

Do bear in mind that the majority of high speed data links brought into the home in the UK travel for many miles over what is, effectively, cat 3 type cable.

Then I assume you are referring to Cat-5e...

23n1th

fwor wrote: »

In theory you can, as Myth has a DLNA compliant server implementation onboard - but I've not tried it (yet, as I don't yet have a TV with DLNA).

I use a small near-silent PC next to each TV as a Myth client at the moment. For SD playback you can use a silent (e.g. fanless ITX based) client, but IIRC that's a bit harder to achieve for HD content.

Thanks again much appreciated. Food for thought. I keep wanting to build an ITX system, maybe AMD Fusion will make this easier, though the current i3 from intel are very good for this.

mr.magoo_4

This pc is £200, with £100 cash back from HP till the end of May, no operating system, so open source will be the way to go...

there are three internet links nelow ( in blue ) just add the http:// bit at the start and subtitute a . ( full stop ) for the word dot (removing the space either side ) As a noobie I am not allowed to post web links....

www dot crescentelectronics.co.uk/hp-proliant-microserver--athlon-ii-neo-n36l-13-ghz.html

[FONT=verdana, helvetica, sans-serif]www dot silentpcreview com/HP_Proliant_MicroServer [/FONT] for a good review with detailed pictures

forum dot xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=94199 for advice on how to turn it into a media centre

some techie people at work have bought them to be media servers and report it is a good buy!

I do not work for HP or the company selling these boxes