What gear do I need to do this??

[dave_s13]

Presently I have a media PC in the front room attached to a 42" plasma and all the surround sound gubbins..lovely. The Sky router is also in the room, as is the incoming phone line.

I know have a new open plan kitchen/dining/family room.

The kitchen bit is wired with speaker cables and bindong posts at high level to a point in the corner where my new telly sits. The family room bit has a 40" LCD and 2 big sofas. The TV is currenly plugged into a Freesat HD box.

What I want to be able to do is play the music stored on the media PC in the new open plan extension and also view my video files on the 40" LCD.

The 2 rooms are linked by a single Cat5 cable.

Jesus this is complicated.

Becuse I didn't think hard enough about it I've only put one Cat5 in, I should have put in 2 at least. Anyway, here's my plan.

1. Buy a NAS - site in old front room and connect to Sky router
2. Buy a 4gang switch, site in new extension and connect to router
3. Buy a 5.1 speaker system for the new telly
3. Buy an AV receiver and connect to 5.1 speakers and stereo speakers in kitchen on seperate channels.
4. Buy either a PS3 or build another cheap media centre PC and connect to telly and switch (for doing the video bits)
5. Connect my Foxsat HD box to switch to access iplayer etc.


I dunno though. It's confusing.

My main issue is going to be useability. I want my wife to be able to just turn something on and start listening to music, be it from the MP3 collection or radio. Using a media centre and AV reciever can be confusing for women folk, too many input sources, too many sound settings etc.

What do you chaps think? Budget is limited to fvck all by the way I'll be buying stuff on a monthly basis, and using Ebay/AV forums a lot I think.

Edited by dave_s13 on Monday 7th March 14:34

[dave_s13]

TEKNOPUG said:

.....

It does beg the question as to when will be the circumstances that you'll want to watch moives/listen to music in the room with the 40" TV etc, when you can simply sit in the room that has all the equipment already there and set-up?

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Monday 7th March 15:51

But that would mean actually having to stand up, then ambulate into a different room!!

I've spent a lot of money on this extension. I want to sit in it!!



Sorry, it's hard to explain in words. Basically the open plan area is an L shape with the kitchen at one end of the "L" the dining room at the corner and the TV/family room bit at the other end.

The kitchen is not a seperate zone, it's not big enough for that. So it would be either your just watching telly or just listening to music. I bascially put speakers in the kitchen area so you could get a decent quality of sound throughout the space, without having it really loud just in one corner.

Thinking about it the TV in the new open plan extension won't really lend itself to surround sound at all so the most I would go for their would be a 3.1 system, at most.

So what that leaves is essentiall 1 big L shaped room. with provision for 2 sets of stereo speakers. I want to be able to stream video content to the telly with sound to just the pair (or 3.1) of speakers next to it and then be able to also play the same music to the 2 pairs of stereo speakers.

I might see if I can draw a picture later to explain with a touch more clarity.

[dave_s13]

Teknopug....you got a link to that bluray player?

All good info anyway, thanks all.

[dave_s13]

Cheers. That BR player looks the business and will do exactly what I want. Feel much more confident getting something like that over a rather ambigous make of far eastern media streaming device.

That's me sorted then.

Nice one

[dave_s13]

That does indeed sound mental!!

My speakers are just going to be bookshelf types, wall mounted at high level for which I have prewired the cable and have banana plug face plates installed.

That's a whole other issue; finding decent looking and sounding speakers that are SWMBO friendly and not cost a gazillion quid each.