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2K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  shl-kelso 
#1 ·
Hi All,

For those that have some form of cabled network in their home to pipe video and audio around the home, I'd love to know what pieces of hardware you're using.

For example, I'd like to pipe Freesat, PS4 and Firestick into 4 rooms (maybe more) so that they can be centrally controlled to any TV but have the option to select any of those inputs from each individual TV. Is that too much to ask?

I'm going to cabled internet in pretty much every room, this I am comfortable with, I know I.T Network infrastructure. It's just A/V stuff I have never had anything to do with.

I also want a way of playing some music from ripped CDs and spotify in basically any room and be able to choose the room or multiple rooms to listen. Would prefer wired speakers and be able to control something via a tablet to start the music.

I am more into opensource, tinker yourself type applications and software, rather than standalone big brand systems.

I've seen various Matrix's, HDMI Over Ethernet Etc.

Just curious as to what people are doing in the real world and what seems to work well and what doesn't.

Cheers
 
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#2 ·
I don't know much about these things, but i've a laptop plugged into my hi-fi (via a DAC) and use Foobar as the media player. I've installed the MonkeyMote app on my phone and can control the Foobar media player on my laptop.

You can get speaker split boxes with 1 input and x amount of outputs for multiple rooms hard wired with speaker cables.
 
#3 ·
I’ve got Sonos for music - many rooms with in-ceiling speakers wired back to the Sonos Amps in a central cupboard 19” rack, and some Play:1/3/5/Sub dotted around the house too. All run wired ethernet (I fully wired my house with Cat5e cabling when I built it 12 years ago).

I also have an 8x8 HDAnywhere MHub Pro HDBaseT matrix in my rack - allows upto 8 video sources to be distributed to upto 8 displays using a single Cat6e/6/6a cable. This distributes all my 1080p Full HD sources and also adds IR control for both source selection and source control via the HDAnywhere app.

I’ve just upgraded my main room to full 4k UHD with a wall mounted Sony 75” LED TV. This room also has full surround sound (using Tannoy Arena Highline 500 speakers and an SVS subwoofer). The AV amplifier and all sources are all located back in my central 19” rack. As this is some distance from my TV the HDMI is carried fully uncompressed over a fibre optic cable using a set of 4k-over-fibre extenders which also carry the IR control back to the amp/sources. The multimode fibre was installed when I built the house as this was pre-HDBT and the only way back then to get HDMI working reliably over any kind of distance.

I keep my 4k and 1080p distribution separate to each other as I simply cannot be ****** messing around trying to keep a mixed resolution setup working reliably.

4k sources include Sky Q Silver, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Sony X700 Ultra HD BluRay. I’ll be adding a dedicated Kodi media player once I can backup my 4k movies to my NAS drive (8 bay Synology unit) alongside my 1080p BluRay backups. All video/audio source switching goes via my AVR.

1080p distribution via the HDBT matrix includes 2 x Sky Q Mini, Oppo 105 BluRay, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Kodi media player.
 
#4 ·
I've got Sonos for music - many rooms with in-ceiling speakers wired back to the Sonos Amps in a central cupboard 19" rack, and some Play:1/3/5/Sub dotted around the house too. All run wired ethernet (I fully wired my house with Cat5e cabling when I built it 12 years ago).

I also have an 8x8 HDAnywhere MHub Pro HDBaseT matrix in my rack - allows upto 8 video sources to be distributed to upto 8 displays using a single Cat6e/6/6a cable. This distributes all my 1080p Full HD sources and also adds IR control for both source selection and source control via the HDAnywhere app.

I've just upgraded my main room to full 4k UHD with a wall mounted Sony 75" LED TV. This room also has full surround sound (using Tannoy Arena Highline 500 speakers and an SVS subwoofer). The AV amplifier and all sources are all located back in my central 19" rack. As this is some distance from my TV the HDMI is carried fully uncompressed over a fibre optic cable using a set of 4k-over-fibre extenders which also carry the IR control back to the amp/sources. The multimode fibre was installed when I built the house as this was pre-HDBT and the only way back then to get HDMI working reliably over any kind of distance.

I keep my 4k and 1080p distribution separate to each other as I simply cannot be ****** messing around trying to keep a mixed resolution setup working reliably.

4k sources include Sky Q Silver, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Sony X700 Ultra HD BluRay. I'll be adding a dedicated Kodi media player once I can backup my 4k movies to my NAS drive (8 bay Synology unit) alongside my 1080p BluRay backups. All video/audio source switching goes via my AVR.

1080p distribution via the HDBT matrix includes 2 x Sky Q Mini, Oppo 105 BluRay, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Kodi media player.
Wow that is some set up. If I ever save enough to self build I'm coming to you.

You must be proud of all that hard work and capability. Glad to see back then you had future proofed yourself

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
#8 ·
I have a pretty simple setup with a Synology NAS for storage and running Plex server and DS audio.
All TVs are Samsung so have a built in Plex client and audio is piped to amp via an Airport Express which is surprisingly good - https://kenrockwell.com/apple/airport-express-audio-quality-2014.htm

Audio is controlled by the DS Audio app on mobile devices but are not required once streaming starts.
I also have a few Alexa devices for music in the kitchen etc.
 
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