Can a harmony go through walls?

B

bassballboy

Gawd
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
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I'm looking for a cheap solution for this situation:

I'm buying a house right now, and I'm also about to build a computer. I'm planning on snagging a blu-ray rom for the computer and keep it in my room. I'm going to run an hdmi cable from my room down to the living room (pretty much right below the mater bedroom) so that it can hook up into my TV.

I was planning on using my xbox 360 remote until I realized it doesn't work like the controllers :(

1. Can I program the 360 controller to run a Blu-Ray player in my PC (I'll be running Vista)?
2. If not, or if it's hard, will a harmony or other any other nice remote go through walls with ease?
 
holy crap, at $350 it should cook me breakfast too though! Thanks for the info though. Maybe a remote that can do BT? Or maybe a wireless keyboard and mouse...

Is it too much to ask for a remote that can go through walls considering a $40 xbox controller can do it (or hell, the gamecube's wavebird did too)....

damn...
 
If you threw it hard enough i guess it could. :) I doubt a 360 controller will run anything but a 360.

Why not get a IR repeter like a hot box?
 
I have done a lot of home installs for audio and video distribution. What you are doing is an easy but not really a cheap solution mainly because you have all of your components in one room, but a single one (the computer) is in another. I have used these http://www.hot-link.com/hotlink_pro_xl.htm personally and found them to work very well. All it takes is a cat 5 to connect it to where your components you want to control are. Also specify the components you have, what the room is laid out like, what you want to control, and also if you are putting in a flat panel LCD on a wall or a projector and what all the components hidden.
 
That hotlink thing is really interesting. Does it use the existing device remotes or universal remote and relay the signal or is it an IR blaster?
 
Harmony remotes are great and all, but IMO overpriced. Especially considering you'd have to buy the 890 (As previously stated..). The only reason I even own an 880 is the fact that I got it for next to nothing. I like it, but I would never pay the retail price.
 
Here's the thing:

The whole point of this is to save some money. Blu-rom drives for PC's are only $120, much less than standalones.


I'm thinking a decent wireless keyboard/mouse (maybe a Blue tooth version) should get the job done, I mean worst case I can make the tv "clone the desktop and set the movie up, then walk downstairs and watch it...

How good is the range on BT keyboards and mice? Or just run of the mill wireless ones? I need a set anyways, because I plan on using my TV in my room as the monitor.

edit:

still just wanted to make the point that it seems really odd to me that it costs so much for a TV remote that goes through walls when a $20 video game controller can do it with ease....
 
Ok, and I just realized that this all might be moot....

Does audio go through the HDMI? I mean, if I'm playing the movie from the computer in my bedroom through a HDMI cable run to the living room, withh the audio play through the TV in the living room, or the TV in the bedroom?
 
fireburster said:
hdmi plays video and audio. You can use any remote with an ir repeater.
Click to expand...

That statement is partially correct. It should say HDMI CAN do audio/video IF your motherboard supports audio passthru over HDMI. Not all do, and in fact, most do not. If you are using a discrete video card with a DVI to HDMI cable, you can almost bet that you will not get audio over HDMI. If you have a 780G chipset from AMD or an 8200 chipset from Nvidia, then you should be ok. If not, make sure you do your research before you go sinking a lot of $$ into a project that won't deliver your intended results.
 
even if you go dvi to hdmi , you still only need some audio jacks to get the sound out of your living room tv .

rf key board and mouse ... the range may not be that great , so all you need to buy is a usb extention cable and run your rf receiver closer .
 
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