[chbot] OT....what should it cost?

[Robin Gilks]

>
> Hi Team,
>
> I'm trying to get a quote for wiring my house for multi room AV. I get a
distinct feeling that what I'm getting is a "go away" price.
>
> The longest run is about 20m and I want to do component video over that
distance.
>
> What should a suitable coax cable cost per meter?
>
> If anyone is experienced in this area I'd really like a chance to chat
off the board about it.
> Thanks
> Carl.

I can think of two options that would probably turn out cheaper and be
more likely to be future proof. In both cases the basic wiring is CAT5E or
CAT6 Ethernet (4 twisted pairs). This cable has the advantage that if you
use 100Mb connections you have 2 pairs left over - one for a phone and one
for anything else!! Run them back to a central place such as (in my case)
the garage where you run a small 100Mb switch.

1. HDMI to Ethernet converters - these run up to 300ft of 1080p and since
HDMI carries the audio as well as the video there are no extra cables to
run.

2. Media system such as MythTV. This is a distributed system where the big
noisy server with all the storage etc is tucked away out of sight and a
small 'set top box' (a low power computer such as an Acer Revo 3700)
drives each TV under the control an IR remote. Each of these boxes would
run to about $600 if bought here, about $400 if imported.

The server would probably run about $2K with a high def tuner and a couple
of satellite tuners (assuming you already have a Sky dish), a couple of TB
of disks and a low power dual core CPU and 4G of RAM on a pretty generic
motherboard (no need for gaming performance). That will provide up to 13
simultaneous recordings (i.e. all active Freeview channels at once!!),
playback separately to each TV so they can start and stop what they want
when they want. 1TB of disk provides about 200 hrs of recordings, another
1TB will hold over 100 DVD images.

I can provide details at the next meeting if you're interested as I've
been using it for over 5 years now and wouldn't watch TV any other way!!

-- 
Robin Gilks




-- 
Robin Gilks zl3rob/g8ecj
Internet: g8ecj at gilks.org    http://www.gilks.org