Getting Started

[Randall]

I've done a fair bit of reading on the wiki but I was hoping someone can offer some additional input on my new home setup.  I've installed 0710 (and more recently 0810) in vmware-esx and poked around a bit and I've finally bought a dedicated box.  For the moment, this is going to sit behind my firewall/vpn and next to my existing home server (debian) as I work to migrate my exim, apache, asterisk, squeze, samba, and various other services.

Are there any good guides on wiring-up a clean, TV + surround system and a 5-zone, multi-room audio using LMCE?  In moving to LMCE, one of my big hopes is to clean-up my living room and simplify the control of the main TV and home audio.  I'd really like to reclaim some space and remove everything, except the TV, from the living room.  I have a dedicated wiring closet and rack in the basement for gear.

Outstanding questions:
- What is the best way to get surround sound 5.1 / 7.1 into the living-room without having a reciever/decoder/amplifier in the same room?
- Can anyone recommend a reasonable multi-zone amplifier, ideally capable of taking independent inputs for each zone (preferably rs232)?
- For orbiters, I'm thinking that a pair of 7" android tablets. Does anyone have any thoughts on these or are they all more-or-less the same?

[posde]

- What is the best way to get surround sound 5.1 / 7.1 into the living-room without having a reciever/decoder/amplifier in the same room?

Just put the MD with the receiver and stuff into another room/box, and just put the wires for the TV and loudspeakers thru the wall

- Can anyone recommend a reasonable multi-zone amplifier, ideally capable of taking independent inputs for each zone (preferably rs232)?

With LinuxMCE you don't want multi-zone amps, but an amp for each zone. And each zone is controlled by either an MD or a SqueezeBox. In theory you can use a multizone-amp, but that means doing a lot of loudspeaker cabling, whereas with the original LinuxMCE approach you only need a single CAT cable to each zone.

- For orbiters, I'm thinking that a pair of 7" android tablets. Does anyone have any thoughts on these or are they all more-or-less the same?

You get what you pay for. The <100EUR tablets have a very flimsy feel, but work ok. A used iPod Touch is also nice, if you have good eyes and delicate fingers.

[Randall]

Thanks for the reply!

Just put the MD with the receiver and stuff into another room/box, and
just put the wires for the TV and loudspeakers thru the wall

That's the plan. My basement is unfinished which gives me good access for wiring everything up.  The only issues I forsee is the lack of a local MD may make it difficult to use an RF remote and/or a bluetooth keyboard.

With LinuxMCE you don't want multi-zone amps, but an amp for each
zone. And each zone is controlled by either an MD or a SqueezeBox. In
theory you can use a multizone-amp, but that means doing a lot of
loudspeaker cabling, whereas with the original LinuxMCE approach you
only need a single CAT cable to each zone.

I appreciate this but I'm not a big fan of the squeeze/logitech hardware (it has always seemed overpriced for what it does).  I was able to get my older roku device to work on my test box but, again, I'm not a huge fan of these. After a little research I think I'm going to try squeezeslave and a Russle Sound CA4 amplifier (completely controllable via rs232).

You get what you pay for. The <100EUR tablets have a very flimsy feel,
but work ok. A used iPod Touch is also nice, if you have good eyes and
delicate fingers.

I like the iPad/iPod touch but I've decided to wait for the next revision. One thing most of these android tablets are missing is a simple, charging stand/cradle.  I'm looking at the color nook at the moment.

[bongowongo]

Code:

That's the plan. My basement is unfinished which gives me good access for wiring everything up.  The only issues I forsee is the lack of a local MD may make it difficult to use an RF remote and/or a bluetooth keyboard.

Can't you use a gc100-4 or IRblaster for that?

[wierdbeard65]

One thing most of these android tablets are missing is a simple, charging stand/cradle.

Have you seen the gizmo Duracell have released for portable devices? You only have to leave the device on a pad (looks a bit like a mousemat) for it to charge!

Not tired one yet (anyone got one?) but as soon as my new iPhone arrives, I may be tempted. Certainly, with the number of devices we now have at home, a pad in each room (and one on my desk at work) would save carrying around a lot of chargers / leads!

Just a thought....

[purps]

One thing most of these android tablets are missing is a simple, charging stand/cradle.

Have you seen the gizmo Duracell have released for portable devices? You only have to leave the device on a pad (looks a bit like a mousemat) for it to charge!

Not tired one yet (anyone got one?) but as soon as my new iPhone arrives, I may be tempted. Certainly, with the number of devices we now have at home, a pad in each room (and one on my desk at work) would save carrying around a lot of chargers / leads!

Just a thought....

Ah, you refer to the Duracell "MyGrid". Clever idea, but I think in order for it to work you have to put a supplied rubber jacket on your device. No biggie; but whilst I'm sure there is a standard size that will fit iPhones and Blackberrys and the like, but I would have thought that one might have trouble fitting one to a random tablet PC. I don't know though, will look into it further.

Cheers,
Matt.

[wierdbeard65]

I checked out their site. They have generic "miniclips" for mini and micro USB and so on.

Also, the list of "supported" devices is available here...
http://www.duracell.co.uk/media/en-GB/pdf/product/mygrid.pdf

HTH

[Itsik]

That's the plan. My basement is unfinished which gives me good access for wiring everything up.  The only issues I forsee is the lack of a local MD may make it difficult to use an RF remote and/or a bluetooth keyboard.

You can put your MD and even your sat-box in another room. Just run some Cat6 cables from your MD to your TV and connect a USB extender and an any no. of HDMI extenders to them. This will enable you to connect the TV to the MD and the sat-box using HDMI and use the USB extender to connect a keyboard, a remote and even a usb-uirt, gaining complete control of your TV, MD, Receiver and your Sat-box (it can sit next to the MD and use another HDMI extender, controlled by another usb-uirt) and anything else without having them in the room. You just need to figure out how many Cat6 cables you need according to the No. of extenders you need.

Hope this helps...

[tschak909]

You will need to create a device template and do some complex pipe rules for the Russound. This is a very advanced topic, and only a handful of people know how to successfully pull it off correctly (myself included).

i am available for paid consult, if working via forum isn't enough.

-Thom

[Randall]

You will need to create a device template and do some complex pipe rules for the Russound. This is a very advanced topic, and only a handful of people know how to successfully pull it off correctly (myself included).

i am available for paid consult, if working via forum isn't enough.

-Thom

Many thanks for the offer Thom. I'm pretty good with low-level C so we'll see how it goes when the time comes. I'm taking 5 months off for paternity leave starting in Feb. so I should have a few hours per day (nap time) to tinker.