Browse Forums Home Theatre & Automation 1 Jan 16, 2009 9:53 pm Hello,
I am looking at ideas for Home Entertainment System for our new house. I was thinking of running CAT6 through the house for my media Server to stream video to all our TVs and Home Theatre. I found a Omni Pro II Home Automation Controller which doesnt look to bad but once it it fully used, lighting, Alarm, Audio, Video, Data etc, it can become expensive. Does anyone have any suggestions? Cheers, Andrew Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 4Jan 22, 2009 1:44 pm have you consider using linuxmce
it does everything you require above. and its free ---->Some say that a recession is when your neighbour loses his/her job while a depression is when you lose yours!<----- Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 5Jan 22, 2009 2:11 pm I am a big supporter of linux, and if money permits, I will be setting up a mythtv server in the study and clients next to each of my tv's. Finances being the biggest obstacle :). Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 6Jan 22, 2009 2:37 pm I am running TVersity for free in our current house via 1 XBMC and 1 x Xbox 360, I have no complaints . StarServe is more for the wife and kids to control devices from different rooms.
I also agree with the no TV in bedrooms but there are plenty of other rooms that we will have one, Home Theatre, Rumpus on Ground and Rumpus upstairs, Livingroom, Games room, etc, but that is for me. Everyone will have different needs Im sure Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 7Feb 11, 2009 3:23 pm I am planning to use MCE (vista) with Windows Home Server and the MyMovies plugin which will nicely display all the movies with covers automatically.
I just wanted to comment on the cabling.. Instead of running cabling have you thought about just getting adittional power points? With this new netgear product you can run ethernet over power. I am going to wack one of these in the media room and have the backend device where my WHS sits. http://www.netgear.com.au/Products/Powe ... B1004.aspx Cheers Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 8Feb 11, 2009 11:29 pm andrew78m I am planning to use MCE (vista) with Windows Home Server and the MyMovies plugin which will nicely display all the movies with covers automatically. I just wanted to comment on the cabling.. Instead of running cabling have you thought about just getting adittional power points? With this new netgear product you can run ethernet over power. I am going to wack one of these in the media room and have the backend device where my WHS sits. http://www.netgear.com.au/Products/Powe ... B1004.aspx Cheers cause they are junk and from what I'm hearing from many peope who have used them thaey have only lasted a couple of months before dieing.. and to the OP you don't need Cat6... Cat5e is more then enough for any home wiring.... unless your trying to get 10GB/s over copper Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 9Feb 12, 2009 6:07 am Pugs - my parents have been running an entire home network, movies etc over a similar product for 2 years - no problems After 4 years - we're in! Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 10Feb 12, 2009 8:45 am lucky them proberly got th only working set out there...
but if a person is building and has the money they might aswell run the cable around... just a tip if your getting charged over $1.25/m for either types of Cat cable you are getting ripped off Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 11Feb 12, 2009 9:49 am Does that include the cost of any wallplates used to terminate the points? Does that include the cost of the work to run and terminate them? Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 12Feb 12, 2009 9:52 am no purely the cable.... i always do custome quotes for my customers and don't work to a set profit margin on any job...
usually charge parts cost + as little as 10% then labour to do the whole job... Kodiak Data Cabling onFaceBook Consult*, Design and Installation Data, TV, Home Theatre/ AV Cabling, Multi Room Audio, IP CCTV and Door Intercoms Ask for a Quote. *DIY DATA Cabling Is Ilegal Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 13Feb 12, 2009 10:50 am If we decide to build (depends on financing) I will get CaT5E run everywhere, especially behind the TV spots though.
Currently run a Vista Media Centre over wireless, and wired would be so much better. Would also avoid the current setup where my 360 plugs into my HTPC and bridges to a wireless network Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 14Feb 12, 2009 11:30 am Hellman109 If we decide to build (depends on financing) I will get CaT5E run everywhere, especially behind the TV spots though. Currently run a Vista Media Centre over wireless, and wired would be so much better. Would also avoid the current setup where my 360 plugs into my HTPC and bridges to a wireless network the best option with thatset up is 3 RJ-45's with a TV socket in each room for my quotes the more cable is installed the cheap the job gets esp in new builds... because i can Loom up all the runs at home before i get on site, as long as I know how i am going to run it and have a understanding with the sparky that he will ne a coridoor in which to run stuff away from his cables... and then clear of any air con guy who comes in later. was lucky to be on a job in the USA where the client had us all out a site inspection so we could all sort out hwere we would run stuff to aviod possible over laps and such.. tho saying that the US cabling rules are very lax compared to ours.... Kodiak Data Cabling onFaceBook Consult*, Design and Installation Data, TV, Home Theatre/ AV Cabling, Multi Room Audio, IP CCTV and Door Intercoms Ask for a Quote. *DIY DATA Cabling Is Ilegal Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 15Feb 12, 2009 12:22 pm Pugs for my quotes the more cable is installed the cheap the job gets esp in new builds... because i can Loom up all the runs at home before i get on site, as long as I know how i am going to run it and have a understanding with the sparky that he will ne a coridoor in which to run stuff away from his cables... and then clear of any air con guy who comes in later. A network cabler who avoids interference in the cables? AMAZING! Seriously, most wrap them around power cables and other stupid things... And yeah I know the power of multiples, its about 10% more work to pull two cables over one, about 5% more work for 3 not 2. Just add in extra cable costs obviously. Im thinking two to most points, I wont need multiple phones and such in most places, we wont have that many PCs. Maybe 3 behind the TV and 3 wherever my main PC will end up, as they are the only points where I might want lots of gear. TV would have HTPC (or hopefully just an extender in time), my 360, and maybe one other item at a later date. My PC might have a laptop working there or such where a wired connection would be nice. But for other points it seems a waste, however it wouldnt need a larger plate so who knows. Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 16Feb 12, 2009 12:49 pm actually required by law... well as far as my training .. was taught to aviod power at all costs and even when factoring in our normal segration rules i tend to go the other way if possible
also not that hard to pull 3 runs then only terminate 2 + TV so a 3 socket wall plate is needed right away and have a back up if needed... plus Cat5e/6 can be used for so many other things including piping audio and Video feeds around a house... Kodiak Data Cabling onFaceBook Consult*, Design and Installation Data, TV, Home Theatre/ AV Cabling, Multi Room Audio, IP CCTV and Door Intercoms Ask for a Quote. *DIY DATA Cabling Is Ilegal Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 17Feb 12, 2009 1:08 pm Ill be using a HTPC / Extender based on Vista/7 setup, I already run a HTPC with Vista currently, so just regular IP network will carry the data.
I know its required by law, but Ive seen dozens of cases where the sparky is lazy, or plain doesnt know the law. Ive seen cat5 wrapped around power 'to keep it up' by a sparky before. Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 18Feb 12, 2009 1:26 pm Hellman109 I know its required by law, but Ive seen dozens of cases where the sparky is lazy, or plain doesnt know the law. Ive seen cat5 wrapped around power 'to keep it up' by a sparky before. well thats some sparkies for ya... some of the stuf fI've had to fix up on some sites has been truely scary.... also doesn't help that most over cablers are out to make massive proffits on cable/wall plates and such that customers are generally scared away, or they get sparky who is trained but has no idea about the end users/ uses Kodiak Data Cabling onFaceBook Consult*, Design and Installation Data, TV, Home Theatre/ AV Cabling, Multi Room Audio, IP CCTV and Door Intercoms Ask for a Quote. *DIY DATA Cabling Is Ilegal Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 19Feb 12, 2009 2:23 pm Pugs Hellman109 I know its required by law, but Ive seen dozens of cases where the sparky is lazy, or plain doesnt know the law. Ive seen cat5 wrapped around power 'to keep it up' by a sparky before. well thats some sparkies for ya... some of the stuf fI've had to fix up on some sites has been truely scary.... also doesn't help that most over cablers are out to make massive proffits on cable/wall plates and such that customers are generally scared away, or they get sparky who is trained but has no idea about the end users/ uses Ditto, ditto and ditto again (with regards to audio visual stuff in my case...). Re: Building our house - design ideas for Home Entertainment Sys 20Feb 13, 2009 7:34 am The "bad" sparkies out there make it easier for the good ones to grow.
I get a lot of business fixing installations and simply testing networks. I have run Starserve in many houses without a problem. I use it in my house with CCTV as well as foxtel and a DVD feeding the entire setup. It always better to run more cables than you need, even if you don't terminate. You may use them later. PS. I was in a training course with the guy who writes the standards for ACA. He told us the separation because of interference was a myth. The principle is there (electromagnetic field/ copper wire) but in reality, the is next to no interference produced by standard 240v domestic and commercial cabling. The reason for the separation is mechanical. So no-one pumps a 50mm screw through a power cable and then into a network cable. your new kitchen and living area looks great and we need accurate dimensions to be specific but with the thickness of the brick column you may be able to line the inside… 1 1249 ideal house depends on the site and location as much as internal floor plan....what is the distance from the house to all four boundaries, where is north, describe your… 3 15169 From a pure legal perspective, if you've signed the variation, it is a very high bar to have it set aside. No-one can give you legal advice on a forum, but you would need… 3 5480 |