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#314933 - 12/10/2008 17:17 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
Train yourself not to watch live TV and just have 2-3 tuners/boxes to make your big PVR work. Most kids tend to always want to watch the same thing over and over and over and over again anyway. Add in a DVD library and you'll cover most of what you'd want as well.

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#314934 - 12/10/2008 17:35 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: tman]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
Originally Posted By: tman
Train yourself not to watch live TV and just have 2-3 tuners/boxes to make your big PVR work. Most kids tend to always want to watch the same thing over and over and over and over again anyway. Add in a DVD library and you'll cover most of what you'd want as well.

That's a good point... I already have this extensive DVD library, but I do like live TV sometimes, if only for the news. And even if I use a PVR, this would still mean I would need to determine beforehand what I would like to view... and, afaik, there are still no digital TV PVR's available over here, unless you use the one offered by telenet, which has a lot of limitations (they've only just released a PVR model with HDMI interface, can you believe that? Before, you needed to connect your digital TV set top box to your TV via scart!) So again, that would leave me with analogue TV as the only option... (for this reason MythTV is also not really an option...)
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#314935 - 12/10/2008 17:42 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
You'd have to investigate the possibility of making a CAM have the serial number of your box I guess or you just accept the fact you're going to have to go digital -> analog -> digital.

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#314936 - 12/10/2008 18:15 Re: Whole house media distribution - a point of order [Re: tahir]
gbeer
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
It's not my house but what's the word on long term availability of bits of hardware that attach to the ends of the lines.

I'd kind of be worried about what to choose for the end point modems as well. Shouldn't that be considered when choosing the lines.
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Glenn

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#314942 - 12/10/2008 18:46 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: tman]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
Originally Posted By: tman
or you just accept the fact you're going to have to go digital -> analog -> digital.

You can do that? Is there a way of receiving digital TV, and then distribute it in the house as an analogue stream? And also, can you use this up to 1080p? (I can guess the answer to this, but figure I'd ask anyway :))
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#314944 - 12/10/2008 18:59 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
Originally Posted By: Archeon
Originally Posted By: tman
or you just accept the fact you're going to have to go digital -> analog -> digital.

You can do that? Is there a way of receiving digital TV, and then distribute it in the house as an analogue stream? And also, can you use this up to 1080p? (I can guess the answer to this, but figure I'd ask anyway :))

Not the way you're thinking no. I meant set-top box analog output -> TV card in computer. You'd get SDTV out of it.

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#314945 - 12/10/2008 19:01 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
If you require a set-top box (that is, if the channels on the TV itself are useless) then there's not really anything you can do but have as many set-top boxes as channels you want to watch/record simultaneously.
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Bitt Faulk

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#314946 - 12/10/2008 19:02 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: wfaulk]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
Originally Posted By: tman

Not the way you're thinking no. I meant set-top box analog output -> TV card in computer. You'd get SDTV out of it.


Ah, that makes sense, yeah... but indeed not the way I would like to use it.

Originally Posted By: wfaulk
If you require a set-top box (that is, if the channels on the TV itself are useless) then there's not really anything you can do but have as many set-top boxes as channels you want to watch/record simultaneously.

Indeed. That's what I've also gathered. frown
I really hope there will soon be a solution released for this...
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#314948 - 12/10/2008 19:16 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a solution. It isn't in the cable/satellite companies interest to make it easy for you to make your own PVR or distribute all streams to all your TVs from a single box. They want you to buy their own PVR system (if available) or multiple boxes along with the associated limitations and fees.

The analog TV system works the way you want because there is a tuner inside every TV and there is generally no encryption or protection systems.

The US has the previously mentioned CableCARD system which would mostly do what you want but thats making the set-top box tiny basically. You still need 1 CableCARD per device.

Making a single set-top box that was able to tune into every signal available + decrypt + distribute and optionally do PVR duties would be incredibly complicated and expensive.

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#314950 - 12/10/2008 19:35 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
LittleBlueThing
addict

Registered: 11/01/2002
Posts: 612
Loc: Reading, UK
Originally Posted By: Archeon

Before, you needed to connect your digital TV set top box to your TV via scart!) So again, that would leave me with analogue TV as the only option... (for this reason MythTV is also not really an option...)


Except that that is exactly how I use MythTV smile

Look at the pdf I put up.
satellite dish->closed set top box->[scart]->VCR->[s-video]->MythServer

The server uses an ir transmitter to change channel. It works *perfectly*.

You do lose "interactive" TV.

The picture quality is good enough to project to 100".

As for the comments about wires etc - that's really nothing to do with full house multimedia; that's design and decorating smile

My projector screen hides behind the coving in the ceiling; the speaker wires were installed when I built the walls. I took the floor up in the room above to feed the video. I drilled through the floor and fed more speaker wire there; the centre speaker is ceiling mounted and the wire was *hell* to route!! The subwoofer phono wire is visible. The amp/PC are currently "on show" but I'll hide them if/when I build the extension...


Oh, and the bathroom wires are quite well hidden ....
http://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=s...true#Post306255
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LittleBlueThing Running twin 30's

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#314951 - 12/10/2008 19:40 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: LittleBlueThing]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
Originally Posted By: LittleBlueThing
The server uses an ir transmitter to change channel. It works *perfectly*.

You tried the little dongles you can get that attach to RF2 to send the IR? I got one for my TiVo and it is much more reliable than when I was using a real IR blaster. There is a guide about using one with LIRC.

Originally Posted By: LittleBlueThing
You do lose "interactive" TV.

Wait. Is that supposed to be a disadvantage?

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#314953 - 13/10/2008 15:16 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1913
Loc: London
Originally Posted By: Archeon
The house is entirely built from the ground up with energy saving in mind. In the ground plate there will be 15 cm of isolation (apart from the concrete ground plate which will be 20 cm thick) so the cold cannot get through the ground floor. In the walls there will be 10 cm of high-isolation plates. Below the room there will be 18 cm of isolating fabric. The house will be heated with a heatpump and ventilated with a mechanical ventilation pump with heat recovery fed with air that goes through a 'Canadian pitt' (don't know the term in English, but in essence this means that the air which is pulled into the house is guided through a 30 meter long 20 cm wide tube that is put under the ground 2 meter deep - the air that goes through this tube is thus pre-heated to the temparture of the ground, winter and summer 10°C-12°C - this has the advantage that in the winter you never draw in frozen air and thus can't kill your ventilation pump, and in summer this air can cool the house)


That's pretty much like ours, it's designed to the German PassivHaus standard, we'll have mechanical heat recovery, and a "labyrinth" (your Canadian pit), no ground source heat pump but we've got a lot of land so will be putting in a sizeable wind turbine if we get permission from the council.

I'll post some pics on a separate thread when I get the chance, our architect does stuff on paper not electronically.

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#314955 - 13/10/2008 17:18 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: tahir]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
Originally Posted By: tahir

That's pretty much like ours, it's designed to the German PassivHaus standard, we'll have mechanical heat recovery, and a "labyrinth" (your Canadian pit), no ground source heat pump but we've got a lot of land so will be putting in a sizeable wind turbine if we get permission from the council.

I'll post some pics on a separate thread when I get the chance, our architect does stuff on paper not electronically.

Ah! Very nice! smile Our intention was not really to build a Passive House, but just be as independent as possible from external power/energy suppliers. As the house is drawn out now, we'll only require the electrical power company for electricity, and that's about it. And to minimize those needs also, same as you we also plan on putting a wind turbine in our back yard. (I forgot to mention that) The turbine we plan on should be able to deliver about 75% of our electrical power needs. With the ever increasing energy cost these days, I believe you cannot invest too much into this kind of stuff!

If you don't mind me asking, what will you use for heating? We chose the heat pump with bore holes (type ground/water) because we believe that type provided best value for money.

Looking forward to those pics, I try to read/see as much as I can about this subject. smile
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#314957 - 13/10/2008 17:29 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Originally Posted By: Archeon
we'll only require the electrical power company for electricity

???

Do they usually supply water, too?
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Bitt Faulk

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#314959 - 13/10/2008 20:15 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: wfaulk]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
Sorry, let me rephrase that: the only external company we'll need for any service will be the electrical power company. (and and ISP and cable provider ;))
(but yes, over here they do actually also deliver natural gas to the houses) smile
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#314960 - 13/10/2008 20:27 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
What about water and sewer? Well and septic tank?
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Bitt Faulk

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#314967 - 14/10/2008 04:51 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: wfaulk]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
Originally Posted By: wfaulk
What about water and sewer? Well and septic tank?

Ah yes, forgot about that. We don't have to pay for the sewer/sepic tank (well, it's included in the communal tax - we don't have to pay for it separately I mean), and water we indeed have to pay, but that is about the only thing that is still relatively cheap these days. On the other hand, about 80% to 90% of the water used in the house (toilets, shower, bath, washing machine, ...) uses rain water, collected from the roof via the gutters into a special tank. Only the water that is actually used for consumption is tap water. (read: which is used to prepare food with). But yes, you are right: we still also need the water company's services... if only very little.

I've also looked into filtering my own waste water via special tanks etc, but that was too big an investment which I would never win back in my lifetime. Unless the price of a litre of water becomes at least 10 times as expensive as it is now, and even then...
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#314968 - 14/10/2008 07:51 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: BartDG]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1913
Loc: London
The house is designed not to need much heating, they reckon we could get away with no heating, we're installing a small gas boiler to top up hot water (solar panels) and linked to radiant panels (a bit like underfloor heating in the walls) as a backup. The mechanical heat recovery/ventilation system should also help minimise heat requirements. We've been told by lots of people that ground source heat pumps can be highly inefficient, in order for it to be effective the system has to be designed very well.

The key to our house is insulation, walls, floor, ceiling all super insulated, all windows triple glazed.

There are a few of threads about it at www.aecb.net (you should join, a very useful organisation).


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#314973 - 14/10/2008 11:38 Re: Whole house media distribution [Re: tahir]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
Originally Posted By: tahir
We've been told by lots of people that ground source heat pumps can be highly inefficient, in order for it to be effective the system has to be designed very well.

This is true for heat pumps that have not been properly configured, but otherwise heat pumps are very energy efficient. For every unit of power you put into the system, the system delivers 4.5 units of heat. But as said, it's very important that the system is fine tuned to your house, and that the heat pump is tailored to your house with regards to capacity (obviously not too little, but also not too big). All this is true with regards to your ventilation system also.
Originally Posted By: tahir

The key to our house is insulation, walls, floor, ceiling all super insulated, all windows triple glazed.

Agreed. Insulation is like covering your house with a blanket.
Originally Posted By: tahir

There are a few of threads about it at www.aecb.net (you should join, a very useful organisation).

Very useful! Thanks for the tip!
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