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Project Distributed AV

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Sp!, 7 Aug 2004.

  1. Sp!

    Sp! Minimodder

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    Ok, hears the history behind the idea, in my old flat I had a jukebox pc setup in the living room that played MP3's through my home threatre setup (nothing special so far but this was nearly 2 years agao so it was a little more unusal back then) This was all well and good is you were in the living room playing video games or whatever, but you couldn't near the music in the bedroom or the kitchen so I ran a long length of 4 core cable from maplin round the skirting and soldered some rca plugs on either end and plugged one end into the pre out of my amp and bought some powered multimedia mission speakers (basically posh pc speakers ) for the kitchen and plugged the other end into there this worked just fine and as the kitch was opposite the bedroom you could now hear music almost anywhere in the flat with out having it so loud all the neibours complained....

    Well about 4 months ago me and my missis bought our first house, and this one length of cable wasn't really doing the job as we now have the issue of getting music updtairs as well as round downstairs, so the plan was to make it look neat and tidy as we did the decorating I'd install cat 5e behind the skirting etc, so we could have network and internet access from where ever in the house, and we can also run the phones over it so we can efectivly put phones in anyroom as and when (if anyone cares I'll do a bit about the phone setup!!)... ANyway with the cables all in place I'm thinking why not run audio and video over the cat 5, I'm sure I've been told it's perfectly possible but search as hard as I can can't find any mention of it anywhere on the web.

    So baiscly I cat a patch lead in half and soldered some rca sockets on either end and plug it through the patch panel and I sould be able to pipe music (or video in one end and out the other......

    let the experiment begin.....

    First the cables simply enough just make sure the clorors match, as you all know there's 8 cores in cat5, now I need 3 for audio (left, right and ground) and 2 for video (video and ground) or can I use the same ground for both?? don't know.... anyway I figre to mimimise the resistance I'll use a twisted pair for each of the audio ones (as this is where my prorites lie) so the cables look like this...

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    So first to be on the safe side (an not overly complicate things)I plug my MP3 player in downstairs...

    [​IMG]

    and the other end into my headphones updatiars...

    [​IMG]

    That works ok..... so next to try the stereo see if the sound qualitys up to proper speakers....

    [​IMG]

    Sounds good..... I'm sure some audiophiles are going to be spitting teeth at this but it sounds good enough for me....

    Anyway next stop..... Set the PC in the comms cupboard up with winamp and browse amp (a web front end) and then see it video works...
     
  2. activecactus

    activecactus What's a Dremel?

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    Sounds very interesting. When you say cat5 do you mean just regular telephone wire?

    BTW did you buy your playstation like that or did you paint it?
     
  3. Sp!

    Sp! Minimodder

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    Cat5 as in standard network cable.... like the stuff offices are cabled with...

    Nope that's the limited edition silver playstation bought it like that...


    Any so far so good... video works fine... my major limiting factor at the moment is that the on board sound from my server PC sounds awful... so I'm going to try installing an old SB64 see if it improves any...
     
  4. activecactus

    activecactus What's a Dremel?

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  5. Sp!

    Sp! Minimodder

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    made up some new cables including a 3rd video conector....

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I know it's not much to look at but.....

    [​IMG]

    On my PC monitor is a VNC connection, on the TV is the video out over Cat5 and I can hear nine inch nails so I'm happy!!!
     
    Last edited: 8 Aug 2004
  6. bullfrog

    bullfrog What's a Dremel?

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    Sounds like some good ideas, wiring up the whole house. Ill haveto try it some time. Now all i need is some nice audio equipment and a house. When I get a house in a few million years ill try it. Im definatly doing something similar to my room, so i can control everything from my bed. Then hook up my pc to my tv, and get a blastin sterio system goin. So i can watch south park on my tv from my pc. And this all while laying in bed, mayb i should get me a remote for my pc. Sounds like its gonna be my next project.
     
  7. Hacker2B

    Hacker2B What's a Dremel?

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    Does the audio/video stop the Cat5 from working for networking at the same time? It would be a little annoying to have to run twice as much Cat5 or go wireless. Otherwise it's a good idea. :thumb:
     
  8. timbudtwo

    timbudtwo What's a Dremel?

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    I see you have creative headphones. I have the 40 gig zen xtra. What jukebox do you have?

    Nice btw

    Edit: i see the nomad zen xtra now. Looks like a 20?
     
  9. NzC

    NzC What's a Dremel?

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    Just a suggestion, and it could add more fun for you :naughty:

    Make some sort of switchboard (how to is up to you) to switch the A/V all over the house and from different sources so that you dont have to swap wires all the time. Plus it would look cool when you have guests to open a cabinet and flick 1 or 2 switches and bam your TV has video or speakers have music.

    Cool ideas so far. Keep up the good work!

    Nick
     
  10. Sp!

    Sp! Minimodder

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    Yes the Audio/video does stop you running network down the cat5, but with this inmind there are 4 network points behind the TV (1 for AV, 1 for the phone line for the sky, 1 for network for the X-box and a spare). I rely don't see it as a problem as I've put at least double sockets in everywhere thats getting cat5 (every room but the bathroom!!) so you can have whatever in each room (AV network, phone or anything else I can think of!!).

    Which kinda brings me to my next challenge I've got a serial IR reciever that I used on my last jukebox PC, need to see if that will run over cat 5 to the spare socket behind the TV so I can use the remote whilst sat on the sofa!!

    It's a 30 igig Zen Xtra I like it but the headphones are shocking!!! got some cheap sony ones from argos (there about a million times better but the lead is a little short.. :sigh: )

    I'm only going to use the PC as a source as it's one channel of AV if I did want to add a second source later (can't at the moment see why but there's always the line in on the PC.)
     

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