Home Theater Setup

[Yakdaddy]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up a home theater system, and am running into a few bumps. Here's the situation: I want a media hub or receiver in the living room for a dvd player, video games, sat/cable, music, etc. I would also like to be able to stream music from the receiver to speakers into my bedroom, and have the two rooms be on separate channels to independently control the music. My music is on a portable hard drive (connected through USB). Is there any way to set it all up so I can easily view my music (like putting iTunes on the TV), and still be able to have a separate channel to my bedroom? Additionally, is there any way to put a transmitter in my bedroom (voice operated would be badass) so I don't have to go to the living room to change songs in my bedroom? Lastly, if I just keep my music on my computer, is there a way to transmit my computer to the receiver and possibly simplify the whole thing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Midcow2]

Not sure how to do two separate music channels simultaneously.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up a home theater system, and am running into a few bumps. Here's the situation: I want a media hub or receiver in the living room for a dvd player, video games, sat/cable, music, etc. I would also like to be able to stream music from the receiver to speakers into my bedroom, and have the two rooms be on separate channels to independently control the music. My music is on a portable hard drive (connected through USB). Is there any way to set it all up so I can easily view my music (like putting iTunes on the TV), and still be able to have a separate channel to my bedroom? Additionally, is there any way to put a transmitter in my bedroom (voice operated would be badass) so I don't have to go to the living room to change songs in my bedroom? Lastly, if I just keep my music on my computer, is there a way to transmit my computer to the receiver and possibly simplify the whole thing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Not sure how to do two separate music channels. There are multizones but typically the same music source.

Since the music is on USB, it would be easier to make a second USB copy and have a completely separate bedroom system. Since you would already have bedroom speakers ( probably 2) a simple 2-channel system would be low cost and work !

 

[jwenthold99]

Lastly, if I just keep my music on my computer, is there a way to transmit my computer to the receiver and possibly simplify the whole thing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You can use TVirsity to steam to quite a few devices. I have it on two of my computers streaming .flac files and movies to my ps3. It works great, and I am in the process of archiving all of my CD's, 500+ of them, to hard drive.

I am not sure if it will stream to receivers... might have to do some research on that.

 

[Yakdaddy]

Multizones is fine, really anything that can can stream independently to two rooms...I know some Bose media centers can do it, but Bose always seems like not enough bang for the buck.

Using something like TVirsity to stream music from my computer to both the receiver in the living room and speakers in the bedroom would be perfect as long as I could control them from their rooms instead of having to control everything from the computer itself...not to mention the bedroom would not have a TV or screen otherwise to see the music library, as of yet.

 

[jwenthold99]

I think midcow might have been right when he suggested a separate inexpensive system for the second room. As much as some of the more advanced multiroom receivers cost, it might be more economical as well.

Just my two cents.

 

[MDS]

The two separate zones is no problem. Most receivers around the $500 mark allow for two zones with independent source and volume control for each. You'd need to run speaker wire from the receiver in the living room to the speakers in the bedroom.

For streaming music from a computer to the receiver (and by extension to the bedroom) you need a network capable receiver or a separate streaming device (the better choice), such as a Squeezebox. The streaming device is connected to the network and your receiver. You'd be able to view and select songs on the TV screen in the living room but wouldn't be able to view them from the bedroom.

You can control the receiver and the music streamer from another room if you purchase an RF remote. If you like the idea of viewing the list of songs from the remote location you might want to consider the Squeezebox Duet. It works similarly to the Squeeezebox but the receiving part and the controller are separate so the receiving part is connected to the AV receiver but you can carry around the controller to any room (it communicates with the base wirelessly).

 

[Phil Taylor]

There are now receivers that will do two additional zones - Yamaha and Denon both have new models with 2 zone capability. The Denon AVR-4308CI does and so does the Yamaha RX-V3800. And they can be on your network as well. Also take a look at the Onkyo TX-SR805 - not quite as pricey as the two others.

 

[jcPanny]

Zone setup.

It sounds like you want several different features in your new system.

1. Stream music from a PC to the receiver. A squeeeze box or Apple TV would work well for this function.
2. Main HT with zone 2 and 3. Receivers in the $1k price range offer 2 extra zones and most can reassign amp channels to power zone 2 or 3. Otherwise an amp will be required to drive the extra speakers.
3. Wiring and VC in each of the rooms.
4. RF remote to controll the sources from any room.

You might also investigate one of the wireless system like Sonos for trasmitting the music and controlling the source.