Hi Guys, I've got home theatre set up down stairs in my home, and my computer is upstairs, instead of burning dvds all the time.. im planning on hard wiring my computer to the theatre through the roof, this will require video and audio signals from my computer.. im not experienced at this type of work, so just need a little help Video: my graphics card has dual DVI outputs, one to monitor, and the other im looking at using a converter to VGA, then running a 20m cable to theatre projector.. Is there going to be any signal degradation?? Audio: At the moment, my sound card has all outputs towards my z5500 computer speakers, so i'm thinking of running the audio from the onboard sound, ( or though i've heard P5B Deluxe onboard audio is useless ) i've got the choice of coax, optical or just the simple L and R channel cable?? Suggestions? greatly appreciated thanks
20m is a long way to run a video cable. it may be hard to find a digital cable that is rated for that distance. Most newer DVD players have a memory card or usb slot. I used to just copy my movies onto an SD card, then plug it into my DVD player to watch the movies. No extra cables needed. If your DVD does not have a usb or memory card slot, I highly recommend upgrading to one (they are like $60 now) instead of trying to run a bunch of cables upstairs to your PC, and then figuring out how to control your pc's video player from downstairs.
Just build a cheap HTPC with a wireless card and stream your video from one pc to another or dl your media directly to it. 20meters of cable is gonna cost you about the same anyways LOL
My TV has an ethernet adapter on it.. you can connect it to your home router/switch and stream video to the tv using vlc from any pc ... uh the tv is a Philips cineos 37" 9-er series.. sorry hard to remember the exact model number.
Or just get an xbox 360, and plug it into your router, then it's only one cable (or wireless connection) to worry about. That's what I ended up doing, and couldn't be happier. I got mine used for less than $200, which is pretty good considering a cheap PC will cost more unless you have some parts lying around. Just make sure it's one with an HDMI port, as early models didn't have it. streams pics, music, and movies from my primary PC in the other room, and it's got some good games too!
Nice I completely forgot you can do that. With the XBOX360. I have one but I tend to use my HTPC for video watching. Although the XBOX seems to not play all video formats. I did see a forum where a ;erson wrote a code for media player to allow it to play h264 videos and it works for the xbox 360 aswell because now it recognizes all of those videos.
yeah, I believe MS upgraded the codecs for the 360 media player recently. seems to play most everything I throw at it, though I haven't tested everything. I usually play avi's encoded with divx, which works great on it.
Yup, the XBOX 360 is a great choice for an HTPC set up. Unless you also want Bluray, the PS3 is an excellent choice as well. Unfortunately both offers don't have TV tuners .... H.264 videos play well here on my X360 with no extra codecs... The maximum length is 15m for 1280x1024 resolution. So if you plan to have a 720p resolution then you can try... 20m? I think you'd have a bit better resolution than 1024 x 768. deltatux
Yeah, In my firm we use 720p tv's for displaying ques and stuff like that. We just couldnt get 1360x768 on a cable lenght exceeding 15 meters. We ended up constructing wallmounts that carried the associated small form factor pc behind the actual tv and the tv all in one. Analog audio signals are a no brainer on those lenghts tho. Anyways, ethernet adapters to stream content to tv sets/projectors ftw! Altho I heard rummors of 10m and above HDMI cables, suppose thats gonna be in a next standard...
