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No wires, no money, no go? The art of making the tv room wife friendly
AbuChris
DenmarkRegistered User regular
DenmarkRegistered User regular
prehistory:
I just spent the better part of my lifetime allowance, building an additional 645 square feet to my house. I am now the proud owner of a high ceiling living room, where I will be watching movies and tv.
However, it is not possible for me (in any way wife-acceptable) to pull wires to and from the front and the back.
So I needs me some wireless.
The house:
North wall will be tv wall, onto which my projector will throw its image
South wall will be behind the sofa, where the projector will be physically located
west wall has three windows which go all the way to the floor, so no cabling is possible along that floor
east wall is 42 feet away from the west wall, and past the living room. In other words a long rectangular room with several uses. and several open spaces to cross, so no cables along the floor there either.
now, running cables from front to back involves going to the corner, going 7-8 feet in the air, then following the ceiling and going down in the opposite corner. Not a thing the wife approves.
The electronics:
Sanyo PLV-Z3 projector
PS3
Wii
PS2
Apple TV
occasional laptop
Logitech z5500 speaker "system"
Please, audiophiles, dont hate on me... I'm poor and it has worked nicely for many years
The questions:
Is there a way (and a list of products) which allow me to either:
1: set up all the electronics in a cupboard behind the couch, with wireless audio to three front speakers?
1a: possible run the audio signal through powerlines? I know it's possible for network transmissions, but is it for audio?
2: set up the front of the room with a speaker system with wireless rear speakers, and a way to transmit video to the projector, wirelessly?
You're more than welcome to suggest hardware changes, I am under no illusion that my current setup can do this.
I hope I've made my situtation and questions clear, and I look forward to being elevated to higher level of confusion. Thank you
I just spent the better part of my lifetime allowance, building an additional 645 square feet to my house. I am now the proud owner of a high ceiling living room, where I will be watching movies and tv.
However, it is not possible for me (in any way wife-acceptable) to pull wires to and from the front and the back.
So I needs me some wireless.
The house:
North wall will be tv wall, onto which my projector will throw its image
South wall will be behind the sofa, where the projector will be physically located
west wall has three windows which go all the way to the floor, so no cabling is possible along that floor
east wall is 42 feet away from the west wall, and past the living room. In other words a long rectangular room with several uses. and several open spaces to cross, so no cables along the floor there either.
now, running cables from front to back involves going to the corner, going 7-8 feet in the air, then following the ceiling and going down in the opposite corner. Not a thing the wife approves.
The electronics:
Sanyo PLV-Z3 projector
PS3
Wii
PS2
Apple TV
occasional laptop
Logitech z5500 speaker "system"
Please, audiophiles, dont hate on me... I'm poor and it has worked nicely for many years
The questions:
Is there a way (and a list of products) which allow me to either:
1: set up all the electronics in a cupboard behind the couch, with wireless audio to three front speakers?
1a: possible run the audio signal through powerlines? I know it's possible for network transmissions, but is it for audio?
2: set up the front of the room with a speaker system with wireless rear speakers, and a way to transmit video to the projector, wirelessly?
You're more than welcome to suggest hardware changes, I am under no illusion that my current setup can do this.
I hope I've made my situtation and questions clear, and I look forward to being elevated to higher level of confusion. Thank you
AbuChris on
0
Posts
There are stereo to bluetooth adaptors which can bridge a distance wirelessly. But I am sure there are more professional solutions or dedicated wireless speaker systems as well. I will check if there is something for you thats affordable. In the worst case you have to switch out your speakers for wireless ones.
2: I wouldn't recommend this setup. Wireless transmission of video is bound to all sorts of problems. The only solution I can think of is a video capturing device (expensive) which transmits a stream (I dunno if this even possible) which is routet to a wireless NIC, which is picked up by another smallform PC (laptop for example) which is in turn connected to your projector. To expensive, to error-prone.
They do make wall cord covers to hide wires jutting out and hanging about. You can even run them into junction boxes and all that (we use them at an office to hide network/cat5 cables. You should be able to pick them up at hardware stores, I've seen them at home depot specifically.
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202049014/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053#.UBaQUKP
Something like that.
Wireless audio is doable, but your speakers still need to be near a power outlet (to power the receiver and it's amps). You'd have to buy 2 of these kits to do 3 speakers. Pretty much all the wireless kits on the market are designed to throw sound to the rear speakers of a 5.1 system, not the fronts. There aren't any that I know of that are designed to do the front 3.
For wireless video, you're looking at something like this kit from Monoprice. I have no idea how well it works, though.
Considering the minimum outlay for wireless is $450, you may want to get a quote from an electrician to run the wires anyway. Personally, I'd be willing to pay somewhat more than that (maybe $1K or so) to not deal with the inevitable headaches of a wireless solution.
The audio would probably be fine (especially with those speakers), but I am concerned about the wireless HDMI. You're right that wireguard would be way cheaper (and better), but that would be up to the OP to negotiate with his wife.
I really need for this system to be wireless front to back, or back to front due to the layout of the room and the windows.
But interesting suggestions so far, please keep them coming.
Wireless video is shit from a butt and you're not going to get much better than SD quality from it (definitely not HD streaming levels over wireless/infrared/blue tooth). The technology doesn't exist (it exists, but like I said, not video quality).
Not sure what else to give ya there broseph.
the only worry I would have is that the video and audio would get out of sync with all your signals getting passed through extra steps and most likely compressed/decompressed at each one. But that should be a solvable solution depending on the receiver or playback hardware.
expensive way to go just to hide a few cables though, raceways painted the same colour as the wall really aren't that noticable. or an electrician should be able to run you some cables with only putting a few small holes into the wall/ceiling, they won't need to cut a channel all the way along.
Unless your walls are finished with faux whatever, it isn't the end of the world to run those wires. Other than the "I told you so"
It would give me ample space for wires, allow me to change the setup according to changing standards (lets face it, I'll be living here for 40 years, but I doubt HDMI will be the same by then, and I know my projector won't).
Assuming that it is technically feasible to run the wires outside and underground, would I need to insulate the tube or does audio and video signals not care much for the weather?
Satans..... hints.....
You've essentially cornered yourself in a shitty situation. Honestly if it were me I'd tell my wife to deal with it, I'd still make it look nice with wire cover or something, but there's going to be wires and tough bologna. Honestly that's your best bet. 1/2" is potentially enough space.
Do you have a crawl space underneath the room or is it right on the foundation?
Or, you could just go through the wall up to the ceiling, and then feed it through a cable cover that runs along the top of the wall. This would save you from having to go through the ceiling, which will probably be the hardest part.
Otherwise something like this?
There's also wires running through the wall in question already, leading to other rooms, lights on the same wall and fixtures. I'd rather not have to deal with all of those.
And lastly, I have two wall up-lights on that wall, which reveals every little damned flaw in the wall, making the punching of holes thing extra difficult to pull off without noticing.
It's not that it's undoable. I just wanted to see if there wasn't a better way that wouldn't leave a brand new wall marked with my inadequacies
also, it's not the wife being against it that's the problem.. it's me not considering electronics but focusing on poweroutlets and power wiring.
the "should have done" part is only interesting if you have a method of getting me back in time to slap my former self and remind me to put in electronics wiring.
I would say that your best bet would be the wireless rear speakers, then purchase a regular flat-panel TV for the front to be wired to the game consoles where you won't have to run the wiring anywhere. I assume you can't/don't want to use the projector with a backscreen and have it at the front of the room, right? Seems to me that the projector is the problematic part of the whole setup if you can't run wiring.
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=3549&sku=13357
I bought all the lengths and corner caps that I needed, cut it to fit with a hacksaw, and spraypainted it gloss black using a high quality krylon paint for plastic. I think it looks great, my wife thinks it looks great, everyone is happy.
There are some wireless speaker solutions, but you'd be replacing a significant portion of your current setup. Basically, I don't think you can do what you want with what you've got.