I first set this page up to showcase my modest home theater. I decided to change this to indicate how my media will be networked across multiple rooms in my house. I just started this so it will be a work in progress. Basically I can break down the networks in my house as the following: AC Power, Telephone, Satellite, Audio, LAN. I won't be discussing so much the AC Power or phone networks too much, as they were put in during the house build, which I was not part of (bought the house 10 years later). AC PowerI have wired back to the main panel a couple of AC receptacles in order to have power in the office for the Video Editing computer, my antique workhorse computer, and the music-server (and accompanying equipment). I also wired in an extra receptacle in my celler off an existing junction box that supplied a homebrew alarm system only, so the breaker has lots of overhead. TelephoneI had to add a jack in my office and now more recently the cellar (wired back to the hub) in order to get DSL capabilites, and now I'm adding a new line that will run from the cellar to the junction block that will be used to distribute a VOIP ATA signal throughout the house. All the phone/network equipment now reside in the cellar. The phone system is distributed to all the rooms in the house, save the bathrooms, have a phone outlet. VOIP is distributed to three outlets currently. Two of the wall plates have cordless bases connected to them, the other has an answering machine. For more details on the cabling, see the LAN overview below. As of May 13th, 2011, the house has gone to a "Dry-Loop" connection and are now fully using a VOIP service. This is a bundle with our ISP DSL provider, and because of this, are saving between $10 to $15 monthly ($120 to $180/year). Satellite/OTA TVAll I can say is when we moved into the house, there was already a dish mounted and pointed at Beverly Nimiq1. The cabling was in such a tangled mess, and after cutting a source cable (feed from one of the LNB's), I had no choice but to figure it out and fix it up. We were using the dish setup for a while and still have a multi-switch connected to it to allow for multiple receivers, but since discovering OTA, we dropped the Bell subscription. Now we have a four antenna setup (antenna farm) in my attic. Two SBGH for UHF, and two Loop antenna for VHF. Each SBGH is paired with a VHF-Loop. Each pair is connected to a Channel Master 7777 preamp (using both VHF and UHF inputs). The outputs of each preamp flows down ~60' of coax to their respective power-inserters. The output of the inserters are combined through a Holland's splitter/combiner and directly coupled to the input of a Channel Master 3414 distribution amp. Two of the distro-amps outputs go direct to a bedroom TV (longest run at around 80'+) and my HTPC (only run using RG-59 - buried in walls, was already there when house was purchased...not by choice). The other two outputs are each split with Holland's splitters to another 3 TV's and my MediaPVR. The whole system is shown in the diagram below. Video Distribution Network:  Music DistributionSince I have dedicated its own page, I won't repeat myself here. The main overview can be viewed here though:
 LANMy LAN is currently only 10/100 base. I now have a Buffalo WHR-HP-G300N 4-port router/switch/wireless "N". This router came pre-installed with dd-wrt firmware (now upgraded to the ver. r17201). One port ties to the 24-port D-link switch. Another port connects directly to the Sipura SPA2100 VOIP ATA. The other two ports are open. The bulk of the network is connected to a DLink DES-1024R+ 24 port industrial switch hub. It is a 24-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch. I also have a DSS-8+, which up until picking up the 1024, was the main switch. This D-Link is now being used on the second floor of my house to tie all the bedroom connections to the feed from the basement. I do have plans to upgrade at least part of the network to GigLAN. Three computers that will get this upgrade will be the UnRAID server, HTPC, and the MediaPVR. These computers will most likely connect to a 5-port GigLAN switch, which will then connect to one of the ports on the router. The more recent addition is to set the house up to use VOIP. For this I picked up a Sipura (now Linksys) SPA2100 ATA/router box. I don't use the router portion, but I've wired up 3 wall jacks in the house to accommodate for VOIP. As mentioned above, it is connected directly off one port of the WHR-HP-G300N router (the DES-1024R+ to a second port). The current LAN setup is shown below:
 Additional Network connections which aren't shown in the diagram above: 2x Western Digital WD-TV Live Steaming boxes with fixed IP address 2x LG P500h cell phones running Android 2.3.3 OS with dynamic IP address 1x ViewSonic Viewpad 7 running Android 2.3 OS with dynamic IP address In additional all other wireless devices are all setup with dynamic IP address, and BES has been defined. ROOM SHAKEDOWNOfficeIn addition to the distribution centers listed above, the office holds the following systems:
I picked up a Core2 Duo that was auctioned at work. Very nice machine for the price. It came pre-installed with Vista Professional, 4G RAM, 160G HDD, DVD burner, and wireless adapter...which I'm not using.
Video Editing machine:
It acts as a secondary system if required, but is mainly used for video editing. It has the following equipment:
P4 1.7G CPU, Dual Layer DVD burner running WinXP Pro SP3.
Printer: HP Photosmart 2610, network attached, 4 in 1 system. Nice printer, and with it being connected to the network, required no extra equipment to allow everyone access to it.
Music Server - can view the system at that link
Home Theater (Family Room)
Currently my home theater consists of the following: Panasonic PT-47X54 47" Widescreen RPTV  HTPC - home theater PC NAD 304 Integrated Amp (30W/ch)  Yamaha DSP-492 Surround Sound Processor/3 ch amp  Nintendo Wii game console - great fun - Wii Sports (4/5 rating) - Mario Kart (4/5 rating) - High School Musical: Sing It! (3/5 rating) - Rockband (4/5 rating)
- 2K Sports Hockey 2K9 (1/5 rating) - Game froze 2/3 into season...lost the remaining season...found out that is common with 2K sports games.
- Rockband2 (5/5 rating) - Beach Games(4/5 rating) - Movies (party games) (3/5 rating) - Dora the Exploroer: Winter Adventure (3.5/5 rating) - Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics (5/5 rating) - Mario and Sonic at the Beijing Olympics (4/5 rating) - Wii Resort (5/5) - Party Sports Games (4/5 rating) - Wii Fit (5/5) - using the balance board Speakers:
Center: Signet VLC-266
Surround: Paradigm Titan's
Subwoofer: JBL (can't remember the model number right now, but is 200Wrms)
The HTPC has replaced virtually all components in the home theater. I can now enjoy DVD's upscaled, DVB-S receiver (when working again), OTA tuner, music player, classic gaming console/arcade emulator, weather reporter, picture viewer, HD movies and eventually a HD disc player via Blu-ray. Gone are the following standalone players: DVD player: Pioneer DV-C302C (moved to bedroom), tapedeck: Hitachi...thrown out, satellite receiver: BEV 3200, moved to the upstairs TV. The AM/FM Tuner: Yamaha TX-480, and the CD player: JVC XL-M403 have been moved to the multizoning setup. The tuner and CD player act as additional sources to the music server on top of my music library and shoutcast music. Below are some screen caps of running a DVD, comparing normal viewing to upscaled on the HTPC: Standard Widescreen Image:  Upscaled via ffdshow/zoom player:  I just recently started to upgrade the network connection in this room. I originally installed a wall plate with two RJ45 connectors. One was for the LAN, the other for the MayBALD line. I have now replaced it with a triple wall plate for LAN, the MayBALD still, and a third connector for eventual GigLAN to the HTPC. Each one is now appropriately labeled so there won't be any confusion.
Living RoomThe livingroom is the general viewing area, but is receiving a huge facelift. Primarily the old 32" Panny is slowly being de-serviced as I'm installing a new Samsung 46" flatscreen on the wall. The interesting thing here is that all the components that are currently in use with the TV will be moved into the basement, and controlled via an IR system. All connections for components to the TV will be done through baluns (both DIY types and store bought). All wiring will be hidden behind the walls, so the only thing the viewer will see is the TV. The one nice thing is that I can finally loose the POS DVD player, and strictly use the MediaPVR for all media playback. Samsung LN46C550 46" LCD Display
 Bell ExpressVU 3100 Revciever Below is the general overview of the system:  Polk Audio R-10 Bookshelf speakers connected to music-server amp for a music zone
BackyardThe backyard has a set of HT5 outdoor speakers that are connected to one of the music-server amplifier outputs for a music zone. There is also a coax connection which is wired back to a 3-way splitter that is sourced from the Livingroom satellite receiver output, which allows for watching the same programming that is being viewed in the livingroom.
KitchenThe kitchen has a small antenna TV that receives local broadcast TV signals. It also has a PPC hub used for recharging the battery, and is a permanent mount for the PPC to control the music-server. Eventually the kitchen will get an upgrade. Looking at a small netbook. Then attach a USB ATSC tuner to it for OTA viewing, and xlobby for controlling the music server. The kitchen ended up getting a little more than a netbook. I have now an Acer Aspire laptop running. It is an AMD single-core processor, with 2G or RAM. It has a 160Gig hard drive, DVD Dual layer burner, wireless-n, and GigLAN. It came with an ATI HD3200 graphics accelerator, which is capable of playing back HD content on a 15.6" 16:9 screen. It also came with Win7 Home Premium (which includes WMC). It now replaces the PPC to control the music-server, and I am eventually going to look at a USB tuner for it.
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My Home Network Breakdown |
Not mine, but the same
