Can I pull this off with one receiver or do I need two??

[BMXTRIX]

HDMI to cat-5 converters are not inexpensive.

If you can live with 1080i video, I have used first hand the Monoprice version...
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10105&cs_id=1010504&p_id=4065&seq=1&format=2

Though currently on back order, your price is almost a wash compared to buying a HDMI cable that long. Likewise, you are likely to get more consistent and reliable results with the HDMI->CAT-5 extender than you are with any standard HDMI cable.

Does it work well?

That's a tricky question because, at the end of the day, HDMI sucks.

I mean, it's great...

But it sucks.

HDMI has all sorts of tricky little crud built into it to disallow multiple connections, multiple hops between locations, multiple repeaters, multiple splits, etc.

As a real bonus, you have absolute NO clue what it actually DOES allow because every single device you own which uses HDMI can respond differently.

Actually, being more specific, HDMI could be great, but the HDCP on the HDMI screws everything up.

A few companies out there have the ability to maintain true 100% sync with HDMI devices while running them through a HDMI matrix switcher, but the price on those products is insane.

At the end of the day, right now... I use a component matrix switcher to allow my 5 HD destinations to access eight (or so) component video devices in my home and it works flawlessly... except for the darn scan lines I get. If I was really smart, I would convert every component source to HDMI using a scaler then send it over cat-5 to each TV.

That wouldn't be cheap.

I've got no guarantees when I can't design the product myself. Sorry.

 

[parinshah]

Seems so complicated.

If I do HDMI to cat5, then I reconnect the HDMI to cat5 at the other end so it can go to the matrix switcher....that makes sense.

Do you think that is best way around this?

Am I better off doing a local connection in the family room instead of having all my wiring going to one central location? I was looking forward to being clutter free in the family room...not sure if its worth the hassel.

 

[parinshah]

One more question...
BMXtrix...are you saying that the trouble will be playing video via component wiring on TV and HDMI on the other TV simultaneously? How about if only one TV was on at a time...then would it be ok?

The only time it would be simultaneous in our house is via the cable box....if my wife and are watching 2 different TV shows. If its a movie, we will watch together on one TV. I rarely play nintendo, and have hardly ever used the apple tv.

 

[parinshah]

One other thing I have seen on another forum that was stated here earlier was going through cat5, like a vantora HDMI cat5 extender:

http://sewelldirect.com/Vantora-HDMI-Cat5-Cat-6-Extender---Metal---Black.asp

Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[BMXTRIX]

Seems so complicated.

If I do HDMI to cat5, then I reconnect the HDMI to cat5 at the other end so it can go to the matrix switcher....that makes sense.

Yes, the HDMI->CAT-5 converters come as a set. One transmitter, one receiver. So you would go HDMI from your source (switcher) to the HDMI->CAT-5 transmitter - then CAT-5 to your display location, to a CAT-5->HDMI receiver, then HDMI from the receiver to the display.

Do you think that is best way around this?

I think it is one of the better ways, but you can pick up 75' HDMI cables at Monoprice which are pretty solid. If the wiring run is dificult, I would do it ONCE and I would include a few CAT-5 cables, HDMI, and component video along with audio if possible.

Am I better off doing a local connection in the family room instead of having all my wiring going to one central location? I was looking forward to being clutter free in the family room...not sure if its worth the hassel.

This is a personal decision. A distributed video system is a bit more pricey. Yet, you can get a single cable/sat DVR system and play it back on any TV you would like. You get anything, anywhere - and that's nice.

The down side is that it tends to be expensive, and it tends to be somewhat complex to set it up. This is one of the reasons that AV engineers exist. For me it's pretty straightforward what can be done, and how to accomplish it.

Yet, at the end of the day, HDMI doesn't offer any guarantees the way that component video does. So, you pull cabling to protect yourself and for the future and get it done with one shot instead of needing to go back and correct for mistakes.

It IS easier to have two of everything, but then you pay for two of everything. Yet, just having two displays with things on two of them is also pretty expensive to just get two.

Actually, if the HDMI matrix works well, it really isn't that expensive. In theory it's fairly inexpensive.

 

[BMXTRIX]

One more question...
BMXtrix...are you saying that the trouble will be playing video via component wiring on TV and HDMI on the other TV simultaneously? How about if only one TV was on at a time...then would it be ok?

No, I'm saying that if you set the player to ouptut over component video, then it will NOT play over HDMI until you go into the setup and change it to HDMI output.

Then, the component output is dead until you go into the setup and switch it back over to component video. One or the other, not both, and not automatic.

 

[parinshah]

Thanks so much....i feel bad to keep adding more questions!

I went to the blue jeans page and they state that HDMI works well up to 50' and component works well up to 200'. They also state that HDMI isn't alway better than HDMI.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/how-long-can-hdmi-run.htm?hdmiinfo

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/dvihdmicomponent.htm?hdmiinfo

1) BMXTRIX...is this why you did component video over HDMI in your place?

2) Does the options such as using cat5 solve this problem?

3) If I run a couple cat5e wires, I can add on the HDMI/Cat5 extenders at a later time, right? I don't have to worry about that while I am building the house and pre-wiring, correct? If that is the case...maybe I should do local run of HDMI, and have a couple runs of cat5e and component video run to the central area for now.

4) If I am wiring a local run aswell as a run to the media closet, I assume I have to do this for my speaker wire aswell from the family room to the media closet. How do i pull this off if the speaker wire connects to a volume control before going to the media closet or to the local run? Am I able to put 2 pairs of speaker wire throught the volume control or do I have to physically change it depending on how I am routing my speakers?

Thanks!