Home Theatre Design Help (1 Viewer)

[polsy37]

I am building my new house and am about to order and plan out my home theatre and multi-room. I am pretty unsure about several things and I need some help.

My setup is:
Great room on main floor - Pioneer SC-07, Panasonic TH-58PZ800U, 5.1, Media server, Satellite receiver
- This receiver will be powering my multi-zone
Home Theatre in Basement - Pioneer SC-07, PTAE-3000u, 7.1, Media server
Multi-zones: Rumpus Room, Deck, Garage, Ensuite
- All rooms will be wired with cat5 for networking purposes.

Here are my questions:
1. Is Abus the cheapest way to get audio to multiple zones? I know the receiver has multi zone outs, but not enough. The last house I built I used Abus and was pretty happy with it.

2. Satellite will be brought into the great room, but I want to be able to send it down to my theatre room when the guys are over to watch games. In my last house I used a very long HDMI cable, but I have since found out that the signal degrades after a certain point. Would I be better off using long component and toslink cables?

3. I want to be able to play PC games in my theatre room. The den is on the main floor, far side of the house. Streammygame.com does not seem to be good enough. Is it possible to run a long DVI cable from PC to Theatre room projector, and use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard to control it? Or is there a better setup (besides putting pc in that room) that someone can think of?

4. I was told by a salesman recently to use component cables from receiver to tv, as it is higher quality than HDMI. It sounds odd, I know, but he says that many professional installers go that route, and he showed me that in their showroom they used component. Any opinions on this?

5. I really like the Pioneer SC-07, but it does not have HDMI processing. Is that really a concern, or is there a circumstance where I would regret it?

6. Can you think of any other things I may want to build or rough in at this point?

I appreciate any help I can get. My biggest concern to figure out is the multi-room for tv and PC. Thanks in advance.

 

[GrahamHTGUY83]

(original) 4. I was told by a salesman recently to use component cables from receiver to tv, as it is higher quality than HDMI. It sounds odd, I know, but he says that many professional installers go that route, and he showed me that in their showroom they used component. Any opinions on this? Clearly whomever gave you this information had no clue as to what they were talking about. That's why he or she is called a salesman and not an HT-Tech. Component is absolutely not a higher cable quality than HDMI. Component cables are ANALOG, HDMI is DIGITAL. Component can only carry up to 1080i (analog signal). HDMI can carry up to 1080p (digital signal). This being the case also answers your other question, (Would I be better off using a long component and toslink cable ?) The answer is no. If you have a long run, HDMI is by far the best option because HDMI does not degrade/fade/weaken no matter the length because it is a digital signal. Digital signals are simply on or off, THERE OR NOT THERE. They do not fade or get crackly like a radio station does when u drive further away from the radio signal's source. Simply put, if the run is too long then you just don't have any signal at all. You will not have a weak crackly signal because of a long run.

 

[GrahamHTGUY83]

Also to answer one of your other questions, I can't think of a reason why you should be too concerned with HDMI processing on the SC-07 . The reason being that both your projector and plasma are of high quality video. They will both handle all the video processing needed just fine on their own. However I'm not sure what you are using for a Blu-ray or DVD player. Based on the equipment you have or will be purchasing I'm sure you will have a great quality Blu-ray or DVD player which will handle all the DVD up-conversion. Hopefully I've answered your questions and concerns or at least cleared a lil confusion.