New Home Construction - home theater advice needed (1 Viewer)

[lv2pitch]

New to the forum, looking for some guidance so I don't get taken to the cleaners and also get what I am looking for.
We have set aside a dedicated interior basement room in our new home (17 x 18) for use as a home theater. In that room we will be putting a 3D 1080p projector and a 109 inch screen. Room will be used for movies, DirecTV, and gaming on our XBox 360 w/ Kinect.
We will also have a flat screen TV wall mounted in our living room and master bedroom.
Here is what I would like to have the system do.....
1) I would like to be able to stream content from my computer or networkable storage device to any of the three rooms with. The ability to play AVI, MKV, MP4 and all other major video formats and codecs with a decent interface. Preferrably able to control the system through smart phone on iPad.
2) would like to avoid having the DirecTV boxes and BluRay player iin each room, but have them in a rack in a storage room. But maintain individual access in each room, at least for the DirecTV boxes.
3) Like to have the ability to access my iTunes Library in the various rooms, as well as Pandora. Also have separate audio zones in the kitchen and back porch. Control via smart phone or iPad.
4) some basic lighting control and option, just in the basement home theater room.
So, any help with configuration ideas, equipment reccomendations, and any other advice would be greatly appreciated.
My main worries are finding a media server that plays all video formats and will be able to adapt and grow as formats change. And getting a quality home theater experience in the basement room. Eliminating visible wires throughout the home is also important, so networkable equipment is a plus.
We have had reccomendations for Control4 but I am not sure. Our budget is around 13-15k.
Hope I can get some help so I make the right decisions. Thanks in advance!

 

[Todd Erwin]

Welcome to the Forum!

I'm sure many will be by to recommend various pieces of equipment for your media needs.

What I recommend, first and foremost, if the house is yet to be built, that either you request from the homebuilder (or hire a contractor to do this while the home is under construction) to run CAT6 (for networking) and all other necessary wiring before the drywall goes up. My father had a house built a few years ago and to this day is still kicking himself for not running any network wiring throughout the house (although he did have speaker wires run throughout).

Also, I would look into Gigabit Ethernet router and switches, since you are planning on running HD video over your network. You will need the speed, and wireless, will convenient, can be very troublesome when trying to stream video and high bitrate audio. This may eat into your budget, but will save you a lot of frustration when you move in.