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Why is our network expert friend suggesting HDMI cables to tv's


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8 hours ago, tuftythesquirrel said:

Sorry for the sarcasm but haven't you forgotten the direct links to NASA and GCHQ?

Always possible. The proposed site has access to Ultrafast 1Gbit FTTP...

 

8 hours ago, tuftythesquirrel said:

Could you tell my why all these are needed?

Need is such a strong word... 😉

 

My experience tells me that if I put the minimum amount of cabling into key locations and then *in the future* need to do something else, it will be far, far more costly and difficult rather than paying a small price premium for cables I may not need at the point where access is easy.

 

You only have the think about the various interactions of technology and the choices you might make. The first streaming sticks were capable of just plugging into your HDMI port and working over wireless. Then you started needing to add USB power to them as the power requirements for additional features increased, and some TVs didn't have USB ports that could provide the power. Then TVs started having powered USB ports. Then it was suggested you might not be able to stream at high-def at high frame rates. Then the sticks started using quicker wireless standards and wireless network speed caught up.

 

I have USB extension cables from my media hub to two current TVs in the lounge and playroom (though the kids are too old to call it a playroom now). I put them in because it allowed me to do some clever things with the Wii and Playstation at the time. Since we don't use the old Playstation any longer and the Wii will work quite happily on radio frequencies, they are no longer required, but they are also not doing any harm stuck behind a wall.

 

Of course, if your personal circumstances or the design of your house make routing cables difficult or expensive, then you can make a personal decision about what you want to do.

 

But for me, when it's easy and the cost is low, I'd over-engineer the solution every day of the week.

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An example of "under engineering"  In the tv's I only put power, 3 * coax and a cat 5 cable to the bedroom tv points.

 

We then decided we wanted sound in the bedroom, from the same  Pi Music box  as downstairs.  A quick bit of lateral thinking I repurposed the 2 spare coax cables as audio left and right to the bedroom.

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26 minutes ago, ProDave said:

3 * coax

Possibly another good example of how things change. Probably thinking about terrestrial TV, Satellite, and UHF radio at the time. Then you could buy adapters for either end of one cable that multiplexed all three into a single cable at one end and broke them back out again at the other meaning that you only needed one cable, but when the multiplexors first came out they would cost more than running three cables! But they were valuable if you only had one cable because the cost of ripping stuff out, running new cable, and redecorating was higher.

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1 hour ago, ProDave said:

We then decided we wanted sound in the bedroom, from the same  Pi Music box  as downstairs.  A quick bit of lateral thinking I repurposed the 2 spare coax cables as audio left and right to the bedroom.

 

Depends what you're using for your Pi Music box but wouldn't it have been easier to put in a Pi Music player and simply synchronise the living room and the bedroom?

 

Simon

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1 minute ago, Bramco said:

 

Depends what you're using for your Pi Music box but wouldn't it have been easier to put in a Pi Music player and simply synchronise the living room and the bedroom?

 

Simon

It is used for streaming internet radio (mostly Radio Caroline) playing music from it's own memory, or from a phone (via Hi fi Cast)

 

I would not know how to set up two Pi's to talk to each other like that, but the advantage of a hard wired audio link is they all play in sync throughout the house, no lag between one and another.

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4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

no lag between one and another.

Ours uses an LMS server - there are several implementations of this (look on one of the Pi suppliers websites) - we stream radio (mostly radio 6) and a lot of our music has been ripped to the server. LMS supports players which can be based on Pi Zeros and you can synchronise players (there's no lag) or play different things on different players. Ours also sees our Google minis as players as well as the TV soundbar.  And there's no wires, it's all wifi.  A very cost effective multi-room hi-fi system (OK, it takes a bit of reading up and investigation to set things up but for some of us that's a bonus!).

 

Simon

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2 hours ago, Bramco said:

Ours uses an LMS server - there are several implementations of this (look on one of the Pi suppliers websites) - we stream radio (mostly radio 6) and a lot of our music has been ripped to the server. LMS supports players which can be based on Pi Zeros and you can synchronise players (there's no lag) or play different things on different players. Ours also sees our Google minis as players as well as the TV soundbar.  And there's no wires, it's all wifi.  A very cost effective multi-room hi-fi system (OK, it takes a bit of reading up and investigation to set things up but for some of us that's a bonus!).

 

Simon

It funny, I used LMS server back when it was Slim device Squeezebox (I got one in 2006/7, the hardware still works really well) but I've gone back and forward between that and using Chromecast audio groups several times.  In the end the multizone amplifier was the best investment, but I still have a couple places like the gym where we ended up using an additional IP player to fill in the gaps and it's all great until it isn't. Current iteration is we gave up on LMS as the Spotify plugin kept breaking, but now giving up on Chromecast as every time my wife uses it it comes up at a random (super loud) volume then mutes to homeopathic levels of noise when she tries to adjust it

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I used to have the original squeezebox players also . Been using lms on pi’s for years ; some running continuously for over 4 yrs now .

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