Location of Cable/Satellite Box

[dangoody27]

I have tried searching both the forums and Google to determine where the cable box/satellite box should be stored within the house.

Long-story, short- I have been researching LMCE for almost a year now and we are in the process of building our new house. I want to take advantage and do it up right. My plan is to build a dedicated server closet with all the trimmings.

Am I correct in assuming that the cablebox can be installed in this server closet and the MDs will be able to view both recorded shows and live TV and will be controlled by the orbiters in each room? Or do I need to have a dedicated cable box attached to each MD?

Thanks in advance....Looking forward to the upcoming sales to get my hardware together.

[_if_]

usually people put TV cards into their core (if that is possible) and the core will record or stream liveTV to the MDs.
You can use satellite boxes if you want to and use LinuxMCE to control them tough...

[Marie.O]

dangoody,

from your choice of words I assume you are living an area where you have to use your content providers settopboxes to receive TV. With LinuxMCE you have two choices:

1) Attach the settopbox to your output device (i.e. the TV), and let LinuxMCE control the settopbox via Infrared or RS-232.
This results in your ability to utilize the settopbox output in one location. The advantage is, should LinuxMCE die you are still able to watch television.

2) Attach the settopbox to a PVR card, and let LinuxMCE control the settopbox in the server cabinet, and stream the content throughout the house.
This results in your ability to utilize the settopbox on every MD in the house. A disadvantage with this solution is, when LinuxMCE breaks, no TV for SWMBO. Also, I am not too sure about the current status of the Hauppauge HD-PVR box, that would be needed to import the stream into LinuxMCE, if you desire more than standard def (which could be imported into (and streamed from) LinuxMCE using a regular Hauppauge PVR-150.).

[jamo]

Further to what posde says, I think you can do something in between the two options which is how I plan to set it up-

Attach the settopbox to PVR card / video capture device as in option 2, however, locate the settop box where your TV is as well. Then, instead of feeding the settopbox video stream into the Core, you feed it into the Media Director where your TV is. The media director can receive the video stream and control the settop box the same way the core would in your server cabinet (and the video stream will be available to all the LinuxMCE devices) but the advantage is that now, if your LMCE system is down, you can just plug the settop box straight into the TV and use it as normal.

The disadvantage is that to capture/record/stream the settop box output the media director at the TV has to stay powered up.

I haven't done this yet, but from what I understand this setup is possible and will certainly be how I'm planning to do it. If anyone has further experience with this, please speak up!

James

[Techstyle]

I have just refurbished my house and wanted to have as few components as possible where the TV's are to reduce wiring and general clutter.

In the centure of the picture, you can see the TV, the centre, right and left speakers, a Xbox Kinect and a IR Relay - all cables dop through the wall and into the basement.  behind the TV there are 4 x network drops, 2 x 3.5mm stereo, 1 VGA, 2 x HDMI, 2 x USB.  these all drop to the basement.

on the left hand side there is an entertainment centre that has only an Xbox and a Bluray/Netflix box.  there is a panel on the wall with 2 x  USB, 2 x 3.5mm Stereo, USB and 2 x HDMI, 4x network.  the HDMI signals from both units drop to the basement, the USB from the Kinect is fed to the xbox and the 3.5mm stereo line is used to relay IR signals.

in the basement is the Cable box, AV reciever, Core/MD, IR reciever and transmitter, a variety of Network stuff and a HD-PVR.  I have both the cable box connected to the HD-PVR and the AV reciever to the TV.  This allows me to view both via the LinuxMCE (on this or any other MD) and directly from the cable box (to this TV only).

My HD PVR has some issues and therefore I am interested in understanding how to set up a HDMI matrix so I can send the Cable box signal (and perhaps the Xbox and Bluray) to other MD locations,  The one I am looking to use is http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10113&cs_id=1011310&p_id=8151&seq=1&format=2.  earlier this week I posted a question about Matrixes and will be moving forward to buy this device.  remember you need either a HDMI under 25ft (ish) long or use 2 Cat5E/6 cables

[jamo]

Nice and neat, techstyle. I'm interested in your TV about the fireplace thing... I've been toying with this as well but cabling is the challenge as they're brick walls and would require chasing which is mesy.

My HD PVR has some issues

Care to elaborate on this? I presume you're referring to the Hauppage HD_PVR that connects via USB and captures composite/component video. I have some ineterest in this as you would see from my other post.

Thanks.

PS, what remote controller / orbiter are you using to control your UI2?

[Techstyle]

Re: tv above the fireplace, I had the same problem, chimney breast is brick so I created a false wall spaced off from the chimney to fit what I wanted in. I even have a recessed outlet box with a surge protector outlet in there.

The HD-PVR works intermittently not sure if it is a (HDPVR) software version problem because TSCHAK reports his works fine

I use a few different remotes, I have a harmony or remotes, a TS820 (look on the wiki) or a Lenovo (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0036VO67I). Then also web orbiter, iPad orbiter or iPhone orbiter. The problem with the onscreen orbiter and watching tv connected directly is that you are watching the cable feed and not LMCE

[jamo]

That's neatly done. Yes, I saw the video on floss weekly last night where TSCHAK mentioned his HD PVR. Good to know he has it running at least. That was a good video by the way, quite a nice intro to the system for the uninitiated.

[Newguy2]

I have just refurbished my house and wanted to have as few components as possible where the TV's are to reduce wiring and general clutter.

In the centure of the picture, you can see the TV, the centre, right and left speakers, a Xbox Kinect and a IR Relay - all cables dop through the wall and into the basement.  behind the TV there are 4 x network drops, 2 x 3.5mm stereo, 1 VGA, 2 x HDMI, 2 x USB.  these all drop to the basement.

on the left hand side there is an entertainment centre that has only an Xbox and a Bluray/Netflix box.  there is a panel on the wall with 2 x  USB, 2 x 3.5mm Stereo, USB and 2 x HDMI, 4x network.  the HDMI signals from both units drop to the basement, the USB from the Kinect is fed to the xbox and the 3.5mm stereo line is used to relay IR signals.

in the basement is the Cable box, AV reciever, Core/MD, IR reciever and transmitter, a variety of Network stuff and a HD-PVR.  I have both the cable box connected to the HD-PVR and the AV reciever to the TV.  This allows me to view both via the LinuxMCE (on this or any other MD) and directly from the cable box (to this TV only).

My HD PVR has some issues and therefore I am interested in understanding how to set up a HDMI matrix so I can send the Cable box signal (and perhaps the Xbox and Bluray) to other MD locations,  The one I am looking to use is http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10113&cs_id=1011310&p_id=8151&seq=1&format=2.  earlier this week I posted a question about Matrixes and will be moving forward to buy this device.  remember you need either a HDMI under 25ft (ish) long or use 2 Cat5E/6 cables

I have basically the same setup as Techstyle.......I needed an additional satellite receiver for another room so I bought a used H20 receiver from online which has both the composite outputs and the hdmi output which work simultaneously. I connected a 50ft Hdmi cable directly to the LCD and the composite to core/pvr in the laundry room so when lmce goes down i just switch inputs on the lcd to watch tv. Right now something happened or i screwed up my mythtv so i'm watching the direct connection, but i got a usb-uirt to have lmce control the receiver from the laundry room. 

[totallymaxed]

I have tried searching both the forums and Google to determine where the cable box/satellite box should be stored within the house.

Long-story, short- I have been researching LMCE for almost a year now and we are in the process of building our new house. I want to take advantage and do it up right. My plan is to build a dedicated server closet with all the trimmings.

Am I correct in assuming that the cablebox can be installed in this server closet and the MDs will be able to view both recorded shows and live TV and will be controlled by the orbiters in each room? Or do I need to have a dedicated cable box attached to each MD?

Thanks in advance....Looking forward to the upcoming sales to get my hardware together.

In most cases locating the STB/PVR's centrally at the equipment hub is the most sensible option (although with HDbase-T HDMI to CAT6 extenders you can locate the STB/PVR's in separate rooms and then send the full HD video stream back to the hub). Collecting them at the hub then means you can route each STB's HDMI output into an HDbase-t HDMI video matrix and then send the output from that over CAT6 (along with 10/100 IP, RS232, IR return etc) to each rooms TV. The Core is then located also at the hub and you can control each STB using IR/IP/RS232 (depending on what the STB's support) and also control the HDMI Matrix too (IP control is normal now). You can then route any STB to any TV in any room and either use SmartTV's for video content playback or use MD's at the hub or in-room. TV's can then be IR controlled (if older model) or CEC or IP controlled if a more recent model.

We tend to steer away from video capture - its possible to do with HDfury's or HD-PVR's etc... but in our experience the picture quality and lag is always a problem.

All the best


Andrew