Rob's HTPC Setup (CableCard, Touchscreen LCD, etc..) PICS!

I finally got one of touch panels installed. I got a custom frame made for each Touch Panel

This Touch Panel will be primary used to play music in the bathroom.










I even made a power on button out of a pencil.

 
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I've been wanting to get into home automation like this... You need to make a book or paid guide. I'd buy it lol
 
Just finished installing 2 more touch panels. This project is never ending :rolleyes: (What did I get myself into?)

Touch Panel in my bedroom



Touch Panel in the Kitchen



Picture of Living Room 2



Picture on Main Living Room



Dual Subs for main living room

 
My current project is completing my 2nd Rack for Living Room #2.

Current State of Rack #2



Stuff is currently labeled with tape & I just finished attaching the IR emitters. I still need to install a APPLE TV Version 1 & Another HTPC (Currently working on this)



I bought a bookcase in a yard sale and painted it red. This holds all my game remotes



Hopefully I can start working on my backyard media center setup in the next coming months. I want to make a pond and install rock speakers. I plan to install another TV where that glass is (Serious :D)



And the biggest project is yet to come, I am converting my garage into a "Man Cave". Right now I have a bunch of ideas floating around in my head, nothing really set in stone yet but I was thinking of adding another 2 or 3 TV's and a Projector in the Garage. I have a bunch of spare PC parts so I will more then likely be adding 2 - 3 more Home Theater PC's (Running Windows Media Center of-course) Maybe I should change the title of my thread to "Project WMC Overkill" :p



And I still plan to add a 3 - 4 Ceton Infinitv 's or HD Homerun Primes & maybe a few wall mounted iPad's

Once I'm done will all this I will need a new Hobby :)
 
Have you done this all before on like another house? Or is this the first time? I wouldn't even know where to start let alone where to begin to even learn how to set it all up.
 
Rob what did you end up doing for Remotes?

Wife broke the URC MX-6000 and while i did like it, im not sure i want another one.

I currently have URC/Lutron RF lighting so I think i might be stuck with a URC solution, but wanted to see what you were doing / planning on doing since i havent researched anything lately.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Rob what did you end up doing for Remotes?
Click to expand...

I have the following

MRF-350 (QTY 4)
MRF-260 (QTY 2)
URC KP-900 (QTY 2)
URC MX-880
URC MX-980

And I have a semi working MSC-400.

And I have yet to program the system, this will be the last thing I do. :( I will attempt to program the system myself. I think I bit off more then I can chew :mad:

And all my stuff is outdated already...great!
 
Rob Black said:
I have the following

MRF-350 (QTY 4)
MRF-260 (QTY 2)
URC KP-900 (QTY 2)
URC MX-880
URC MX-980

And I have a semi working MSC-400.

And I have yet to program the system, this will be the last thing I do. :( I will attempt to program the system myself. I think I bit off more then I can chew :mad:

And all my stuff is outdated already...great!
Click to expand...

Your stuff was outdated the day you bought them lol. Damn technology always moving to fast.
 
OK its time for me to document the whole system, Everything eventuality became 5 separate systems. I would say I'm 75% done


RED = Need to buy still

YELLOW = I already own



Main System #1

Kitchen TV
Living room left TV
Living room right TV
Living room Center TV
Motorized Projector Screen
Projector
AVR Living Room – 5.1 Surround Sound
Sony PS3
3x5 Matrix Switch
XBOX360
XBOX360 2
HTPC
Nintendo Wii
HTD A-2050 Stereo Amplifier

Control System

MRF-350 [qty 2]
URC MX-980

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System 2

My Bedroom TV
Living Room 2 Left TV
Living Room 2 Center TV
Living Room 2 Right TV
AVR Bedroom – 5.1 Surround Sound
AVR Living Room 2 TV Center - – 2.1 Sound
HTPC
3x5 Matrix Switcher
XBOX360
XBOX360 2


Control System

Global Cache GC-100-12
Apple iPad

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Garage System #3

Projector
TV Left
TV Left XBOX360
TV Right
TV Right XBOX360
Outside TV
Outside TV HTPC
Garage AVR - – 5.1 Surround Sound
Outside TV AVR + 2 Rock Speakers


Control System

MRF-350 [qty 2]
URC MX-810


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Standalone System #4 – Computer room

AVR - – 5.1 Surround Sound
TV
EDGE Extender [AKA XBOX360]

Control System

Acoustic Research ARRX18G XSight Universal Remote
Compatible IR Extender




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Standalone System #5 – Dad’s room

TV
Media Center Extender connected via HDMI over CAT6 adapter

Control System

XBOX360 Universal Remote


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Miscellaneous

3 in-wall Fifteen inch LCD Touch Panels (Powered by 3 screen less Laptops)
HTD A-2050 Stereo Amplifier (Connects to Touch Screen, Powers 2 in ceiling speakers in bathroom)
Custom 10TB Windows Home Server
 
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yowen said:
So do you have a high power bill, or a really high power bill?
Click to expand...

No not at all ($100 - $130 a month) This system is mostly only for me so I don't normally have everything turned on at once (Only during gaming or UFC / Boxing Party's)
 
1st update of the year! :D I havent updated this thread in a while but for the last few months I been working in my garage. Here's a teaser

103 inch screen and two 37" LCD's



I will also have a half A/V rack in the garage, I will be making my own face plates this time (face plates normally cost $69.00 each, Cant believe I bought 15 of these! :mad: )

Step 1.
Buy some mdf wood from Home Depot ($15)



Step 2
Apply Carbon Fiber Vinyl Sticker (from eBay, $12.99)



Here is the "Rack"



Components going into the rack

4 PC's
2 AVR's
4 XBOX 360's

And lastly I switched my entire control system to a iPad compatible system utilizing
Glocal Cache & iRule remote



More to come...
 
Nicely done! I like how the first post in this thread from a few years back is "just" a tv and an HTPC, and now your entire house is networked up.
 
randy5554 said:
Nicely done! I like how the first post in this thread from a few years back is "just" a tv and an HTPC, and now your entire house is networked up.
Click to expand...

Yeap. It all started with a single TV and 1 HTPC, now I have

12 tv's
2 Projectors
6 HTPC's
and a bunch of other stuff

Yeah looks like alot of stuff but everything is already old and outdated :mad:

Hopefully I can be done this year :rolleyes:
 
:mad:

The 1st TV I bought back in 2007 for $1700 decided to crap out on me



I can either pay $400 to get it fixed or buy a new one for $800 - $1000 :mad::mad::mad:

And in other news I upgraded the wireless network in my home

 
Rob you make me cry. It so pretty!

Q: If you only had 1 TV per room would you be able to run the whole thing off of one rack?

and where do you keep all of your media? on a NAS? if you have so many HTPC's this is the only thing that i could think of.
 
cj3waker said:
why do you need so many tvs?
Click to expand...

People spend thousands of dollars restoring old cars, people spend $600+ on a single GPU, Well my hobby is electronics / HTPC's . My main PC is a $300 HP Pavilion from Walmart. Do I need all this? Probably not, but I only live once so why not?
 
Adidas4275 said:
because this is [H]ardForum not oft
Click to expand...


Pretty much. People don't do things that make sense here. I spent hundreds of dollars on a Sega Saturn, an N64, and an original Xbox even though i've owned all of them and thrown all of them in the trash somewhere in the past.
 
Rob Black said:
People spend thousands of dollars restoring old cars, people spend $600+ on a single GPU, Well my hobby is electronics / HTPC's . My main PC is a $300 HP Pavilion from Walmart. Do I need all this? Probably not, but I only live once so why not?
Click to expand...

no I mean how do you utilize them? Im wondering why you opted for 3-4 smaller cheap panels as opposed to a nice larger panel in each room
 
cj3waker said:
no I mean how do you utilize them? Im wondering why you opted for 3-4 smaller cheap panels as opposed to a nice larger panel in each room
Click to expand...

Few reasons...

1. Cost, a 32" LCD can be had for around $200

2. Viewing multiple things at once, Sometimes boxing runs head to head with UFC and I like to watch both at the same time (or multiple football games)

3. Gaming, each player gets their own individual screen, nothing like playing XBOX on 8 screens
 
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So how do you manage the sound across the screens? Wireless headphones? Or can you only select either one source at a time or both?
 
MrSmoke said:
So how do you manage the sound across the screens? Wireless headphones? Or can you only select either one source at a time or both?
Click to expand...

The center screen(s) handle the main audio, I will probably buy wireless headphones also for the left the right screens
 
Any chance you could do a super diagram of this?

I'm looking to do something alot like this but on a 1 screen per room setup.

I have kids and I'm soo sick of only being able to watch certain things in certain rooms and I have a feeling that its actually cheaper to do it this way verses buy separate equipment for each room.

I already have
1 - Gaming comp.
1 - PS3
1 - Wii
1 - good reciever (Onkyo TXNR708)
3 - tvs

Debating on how to do the TV side of this. Currently I have DirecTV but really like Windows + tuner

And Im only gonna be doing 3 rooms.
 
Hippee921 said:
Any chance you could do a super diagram of this?

I'm looking to do something alot like this but on a 1 screen per room setup.

I have kids and I'm soo sick of only being able to watch certain things in certain rooms and I have a feeling that its actually cheaper to do it this way verses buy separate equipment for each room.

I already have
1 - Gaming comp.
1 - PS3
1 - Wii
1 - good reciever (Onkyo TXNR708)
3 - tvs

Debating on how to do the TV side of this. Currently I have DirecTV but really like Windows + tuner

And Im only gonna be doing 3 rooms.
Click to expand...

Hello, a 4x4 HDMI Matrix should fit the bill

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=5704&seq=1&format=2

4 inputs and 4 outputs, im actually thinking of purchasing this for my system, im currently
currently running 2 older component switches.

Controlling everything is a different animal (most confusing part) I would check out the remote control section at AVS Forum.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=93

edit: Here is also a 4x4 matrix with CAT5e

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10113&cs_id=1011310&p_id=8151&seq=1&format=2
 
No real updates, still working in my garage. I'm expecting a nice tax return ;) so I'm currently looking at different upgrade options for my system. Thinking of the following

1. Replace two 3x5 Component matrix switches with 2 monoprice 4x4 HDMI switches.
- Reason: I want better picture quality, component video doesn't look has crisp like HDMI & analog sources like component are getting phased out,

2. Upgrade the video cards on my HTPC.
- Reason: I want to play games on my HTPC's and Im currently running a 4000 series Radeon GPU on my main PC and I can not even play new PC games without lagging :mad:

3. Still looking at TV options, Looking at getting a single 6-Tuner HDHR Prime or 2 USB Ceton Tuners, possibly thinking of getting Directv TV (I can get up to 6 boxes with no upfront cost, only downside to this is that I have to pay a fee for each box)

4. Looking at solar panel options, I would like to keep on my PC's on but I cannot due to the electrical cost

or

I can just keep what I have and be done with, ill never finish if I keep changing stuff around :(
 
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Ordered some stuff today

3 x Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB Turners
HDMI® to Component (YPbPr) & R/L Stereo Audio Converter
6ft 24AWG CL2 High Speed HDMI® Cable Male to Female Extension - Black
1.5ft 28AWG High Speed HDMI® Cable w/Ferrite Cores - Red
5FT 24AWG Cat6 550MHz UTP Ethernet Bare Copper Network Cable - Orange
12 Inch Cathode Light Kit - Blue (1 Piece)
1 PAIR OF High-Quality Copper Speaker Banana Plugs - Closed Screw Type
 
3 cetons?! DUDE! Why?! how are you going to distribute all of those tuners? I know you don't have 12 Xbox's.

Also..Why don't you just make your own cables? (Cat6) For the amount I'm sure that you use, you would save a ton of money.

Is most of your stuff Wireless or [H]wired? I wanna just come over and watch your network activity while everything is on. LOL
 
Hippee921 said:
3 cetons?! DUDE! Why?! how are you going to distribute all of those tuners? I know you don't have 12 Xbox's.

Also..Why don't you just make your own cables? (Cat6) For the amount I'm sure that you use, you would save a ton of money.

Is most of your stuff Wireless or [H]wired? I wanna just come over and watch your network activity while everything is on. LOL
Click to expand...

I have 7 XBOX360's (I plan to get 2 more) 3 HTPC's (Originally I planned to have 6 HTPC's) PLUS I have have 3 Laptops / 1 Desktop that could access the tuners. I am excited about upcoming windows 8 tablets which I could hopefully use to watch live TV

The laptops are wireless and everything is wired, I only bought 5 CAT6 cables from Monoprice, usually I can get them for free from work. :cool:
 
This is sweet

bga8sl.jpg
 
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