Design on a prewire Help.

[Wynbnt]

I am in a prewire and want to use Atlona lite (230 foot)HD base T extenders. 100 feet max, cat6, Marantz AVR 7008 & 6008, maybe a matrix switch ( Snap av OK? 4x4 not available at this date) for one location with 3 TV's and one 5.1 theater. I ran a 75 foot HDMI and customer added some changes, now I don't have time to order & run 100 foot HDMI cable. I just want to cover my butt due to the very many HDMI issues over a distance. Can you help with out breaking the bank. I also Have an Atlona HDMI test kit that seemed not work that well. After testing good when all is installed I still had issues with uverse. My question is . Does this design look solid and with very few HDMI issues? Have not figured out the Matrix switch in the mix. Maybe use it for the 2 TV's and leave the 5.1 alone.

Basic system design:
Pre out from both marantz in same cabinet to russound. ( I would like to have both, zone one out Pre & speaker level so customer could see whole house source on TV).Russound MCA-C5 with the russound DMS 3.1 and 2 recovers zone 1 pre out.
Maybe a matrix and add MBR TV. Maybe not. Maybe let him buy 2 or 3 Blurays, Sat boxes & Apple TV for more choices on whole house sources, and it would make remote control programming easier. Let MBR TV be a stand alone system.

 

[BMXTRIX]

You will have EDID issues and possibly have signal blanking anytime a HDMI matrix switcher is added to the mix. Hopefully you didn't run any HDMI cables without putting cat5e/6 cables right next to it to ensure reliability should a HDBT unit be necessary.

The HDMI matrix switchers simply don't have enough reviews out there. Most blank, many more have HDCP reauthentication, and almost all only allow for lowest common denominator audio and video. So, if one connected source only allows for 1080i and stereo audio, then that's ALL you will get.

After enough time banging my head against the wall with other people's problems with more simple setups and doing my homework, I'm going to get a Crestron solution in my home. Pricey, but solves the issues. HDMI input cards with DSP audio downconversion and scaler output receivers which will allow my non-1080p displays to work in this day and age. Gonna cost an arm and a leg, but is truly reliable.

I think you will be okay with what you are describing, but be aware of the caveats of HDMI matrixing.

 

[Wynbnt]

Thank you. I will forget the matrix. Although I did install a Key Digital 8X8 in commercial app and works pretty well. I have cat 6 everywhere and under 100 feet.
I can not sell Crestron and it is a bit pricey. I can do pretty much the same things thru HAI and russsound.

 

[BMXTRIX]

HDMI matrixing is complex, mostly due to the fact that HDMI does not carry multi-channel audio along with stereo audio, and that any displays which can't handle 1080p video will bring the rest of the system down to a lower format such as 1080i. While there are some HDMI matrixes which have advanced EDID functionality and offer breakaway audio, most simply don't. In a business application, HDMI matrixing is actually much easier typically as you often can sell new displays which are all 1080p and you typically only need to work with stereo audio (if not mono!). But, in the home environment, it just gets a lot more difficult.

It should be noted that cable boxes have an issue with HDBT. For some reason the hot plug from cable boxes don't play well when directly connected to a cable box. This causes the signal to not work right. The solution is to run the cable box to a cheap HDMI splitter ($20 or so) and then the output from the HDMI splitter to the TV. This will allow a HDBT transmitter to be connected almost directly to a cable box and provide a signal. The issue seems to be related to cable companies sucking monkey balls when it comes to hardware design.