Which is best?

[rwc]

We are looking to rewire and move around a bunch of equpiment in our house.

I was talking with a friend of mine who thinks it's better to have all the computers in a rack in the basement with ir, video, and audio runs from each room to the basement. His thinking is that all the hardware is centrally located, the machines would be silent (or at least we wouldn't hear them when we watched sage), and you would have to looke at equipment in each room.

I tend to go for a computer in each room (or a sage home theater box if we don't need a computer). My thinking is that this gives me easier access to the box when an error occurs, the ability to play DVDs directly from the room (rather than rip just to play) and less/shorter cables to run.

Which way is the "right" way?

[stanger89]

I'd go for a hybrid of the two. An equipment room for stuff that doesn't need to be directly accessed is a very nice idea. I have my SageTV server, NAS, HDHR, Dish STB/HD PVR, Switch, Router, and DSL modem in a corner of my utility room. It's cool, it's isolated so you can't hear the boxes, and it's nice because all the stuff is colocated so it can all be connected directly.

At the same time, I have my desktop PC in my office, and I have HD200's at each TV.

IMO, for the stuff you interact with directly, like the HD200's which you control with IR from a remote in your hand, and the desktop PC that you sit in front of and probably want to be able to put discs and flash drives in, you want those where you'll use them.

This sort of setup also means you just need power and cat5/cat6 run to each room, and not audio, video, lan, ir, all of which can get very expensive very quick.

I'd put it this way, if you're going to use it, whatever it is, in that room, and there aren't any "problems" (aestetics or the like) with having it there, it's easier and dare I say "better" to just have it there.

Stuff like STBs which are dedicated to Sage server, and the Sage server, any NASs, stuff you don't interact with directly is stuff that works well in a utility room.

[sainswor99]

The first option is not really ideal; while there are merits to centralizing your Sage server and using clients to access it, having long runs of audio/video/IR cable is not the way to do it. Instead, have a central server (or two), and use either a client PC or an extender to access it.

Your argument should really be about centralized servers with extenders OR network encoders, and here's a couple of more thoughts about that:

1. If you're accessing cable from a central location, you need to be careful about the number of splits and signal quality. The more tuners you have, the more splits you'll need, and you'll increase the likelihood that you'll start running into signal quality issues. This is, of course, mitigated by the different sources you have (do you have OTA access? Dish and cable, or dish only? Can you use the HDHR for clear QAM?) . In my house, the builder wired it so we have a strong main feed for the living room, and every other room (including my office where my Sage box is stored) is split from a single feed. I can only get 4 tuners in my box before I start running into signal issues. I'm considering running a secondary PC in the living room with a couple of tuners as a network encoder.

2. On the other hand, a beefy server with the Home Theater extenders is certainly much more cost effecient than running designated PC's everywhere. The one downside is that you'll need a DVD player at each location as well.

HTH,
Stu

[hufnagel]

I'm with stanger89. Here's the way I have it setup...

rack in my basement (with all my other computer gear... I'm a computer consultant... I have a lot. ), MVPs at all the TVs for playback. obivously I'm not HD but substitute the MVP's for other devices at will. there's a decent chance I'll be replacing one MVP with a full blown PC and hook it to the TV as it's also near my stereo rig and I'm getting ready to do some more transcription work again (recording records and tapes out to CDs, etc.) so that one might be a placeshifter hook up soon enough. the only TV that has a DVD player is the main one anyways so it's not a big deal, but what does a cheap/decent DVD player cost these days? $100 if that much?

The beauty of Sage is it's flexible... add or remove components as needed to do what you want it to do. and if you change your mind no biggie. it's why I've been a supporter for at least 5 years.

[TopJo]

I agree with stanger89 the ideal solution would be to have ethernet and extenders or self built box to provide the video and audio decoding. It also allows for future upgrades to your system like going from analog to high def.

[SWKerr]

I don't know why you have to choose now. If I was going to rewire I would certainly error on the side of too much. When I rewired my 1970 era house I dropped extra Cable, Ethernet, Phone and Speaker wire to all the major areas. Some cable just dead ends in the box but the cable is cheap. I ran cable to the bathroom years ago to watch TV in the hot tub. The Ethernet I left in the wall will actually get used when I eventually upgrade to HDTV and an Extender some day. I never thought I would put a PC in the bathroom at the time but now I can imagine using the network for something else.

Wireless may save the day at some point but I would not count on it.

I would plan a comm room with decent ventilation that would be the center for everything. You will want a central server at some point even if it is not your HTPC solution. Run Ethernet and cable to every room you can. I would go ahead and run HDMI to all the areas you might conceivably have a screen from the comm room. (You could have a central distribution system at some point who knows.)

Surround Sound:
Plan for speaker placement and surround sound in the main TV room or rooms.