I am looking for some advice/ideas on how I should setup/wire my basement that I'm trying to finish. The basement is currently unfinished, and I will have the opportunity to run whatever wiring I need. I have some concept of what I want in the basement (man-cave), but am not sure about the best way to integrate it all. Listed below is the current state of the rest of the house, as well as the features I would like to have in the basement.
Current upstairs:
- 2 story house with 1 TV on First Floor and 4 bedrooms upstairs. All rooms are wired with CAT5 and Cable/Coax, that originate in the basement.
- existing media tube from basement to attic, so wiring can be ran if required.
- PS3 and wii hooked to living room TV
- Receiver hooked up to living room TV to change between HDMI connections
- 2 Sonos speakers (one on each floor)
- Blu Ray/DVD hooked to 1 TV upstairs
Basement Equipment wanted
- 3 TV's all on different walls (I'd like 1 TV to be relatively portable, so it could be hung in outside area if necessary.)
- Each TV will likely have/need it's own cable box as I'd like the ability to watch different channels on each.
- Media center (computer) to serve up videos
The ideal solution would maximize connectivity between all TV's in the house, so that I could pull up movies from the computer on any TV in the house. I would also like to be able to pull in Netflix or other streams to all TV's. Is the simple Roku stick the best option?
I'd like the components that are visible in the basement to be minimized. There is room for a media cabinet that could be accessible from front and back for ease of wiring. My fear if I did that and do actually need 3 cable boxes in basement, is how I would control those, as all will use the same signal and remote to change the channel. I don't want all 3 tv's tuning to the same channel, so some IR repeaters might be necessary? Could I shield other boxes from that?
For the portable TV that I want to move outdoors, should I pre-wire an external HDMI connection, or can wireless HDMI boxes stream 1080 successfully? 4K? I am lucky enough to have access to Google Fiber, so the Cat5 and limitation of wifi components will be the bottleneck.
I don't have any real home automation needs, but if something cool is available then I would be open to ideas.
For audio, I don't see any need to hear audio from the 3 tv's and their separate channels simultaneously, but I would like to be able to switch the sound to whatever TV I am concentrating on. Should I just get a versatile receiver or is Sonos Controller the way to go? I like the idea of being able to stream music easily from wifi channels (Pandora). I also am not sure how audio can be ported to the outdoor area, if the TV is moved outside? Wireless outdoor speakers? Wired outdoor speakers connected to receiver? The basement area will likely have 1 primary TV that is larger than other 2, and I think it easiest to give it a 5.1 or 7.1 setup for correct surround sound, and just using those speakers for other TV's as well even if they don't provide optimal sound to other areas. Considering the outdoor speakers I would only have 2 real zones.
I also think there is a shift coming in the way user's consume television coverage, but I'm not quite ready to completely cut the cord, as live sporting events will be the thing I'm most interested in watching in the basement.
As far as budget goes, I would say I am budget conscious, but willing to spend more money if the component would truly make a difference toward the setup I want. I’m also not as interested in brands of components right now, unless a specific brand would be required because of the features it has. (Like Sonos?)
Thanks
Current upstairs:
- 2 story house with 1 TV on First Floor and 4 bedrooms upstairs. All rooms are wired with CAT5 and Cable/Coax, that originate in the basement.
- existing media tube from basement to attic, so wiring can be ran if required.
- PS3 and wii hooked to living room TV
- Receiver hooked up to living room TV to change between HDMI connections
- 2 Sonos speakers (one on each floor)
- Blu Ray/DVD hooked to 1 TV upstairs
Basement Equipment wanted
- 3 TV's all on different walls (I'd like 1 TV to be relatively portable, so it could be hung in outside area if necessary.)
- Each TV will likely have/need it's own cable box as I'd like the ability to watch different channels on each.
- Media center (computer) to serve up videos
The ideal solution would maximize connectivity between all TV's in the house, so that I could pull up movies from the computer on any TV in the house. I would also like to be able to pull in Netflix or other streams to all TV's. Is the simple Roku stick the best option?
I'd like the components that are visible in the basement to be minimized. There is room for a media cabinet that could be accessible from front and back for ease of wiring. My fear if I did that and do actually need 3 cable boxes in basement, is how I would control those, as all will use the same signal and remote to change the channel. I don't want all 3 tv's tuning to the same channel, so some IR repeaters might be necessary? Could I shield other boxes from that?
For the portable TV that I want to move outdoors, should I pre-wire an external HDMI connection, or can wireless HDMI boxes stream 1080 successfully? 4K? I am lucky enough to have access to Google Fiber, so the Cat5 and limitation of wifi components will be the bottleneck.
I don't have any real home automation needs, but if something cool is available then I would be open to ideas.
For audio, I don't see any need to hear audio from the 3 tv's and their separate channels simultaneously, but I would like to be able to switch the sound to whatever TV I am concentrating on. Should I just get a versatile receiver or is Sonos Controller the way to go? I like the idea of being able to stream music easily from wifi channels (Pandora). I also am not sure how audio can be ported to the outdoor area, if the TV is moved outside? Wireless outdoor speakers? Wired outdoor speakers connected to receiver? The basement area will likely have 1 primary TV that is larger than other 2, and I think it easiest to give it a 5.1 or 7.1 setup for correct surround sound, and just using those speakers for other TV's as well even if they don't provide optimal sound to other areas. Considering the outdoor speakers I would only have 2 real zones.
I also think there is a shift coming in the way user's consume television coverage, but I'm not quite ready to completely cut the cord, as live sporting events will be the thing I'm most interested in watching in the basement.
As far as budget goes, I would say I am budget conscious, but willing to spend more money if the component would truly make a difference toward the setup I want. I’m also not as interested in brands of components right now, unless a specific brand would be required because of the features it has. (Like Sonos?)
Thanks
