# Home Theatre HELP setup :(



## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

Okay, we just moved into a new house and it came with surround sound system upstairs. It's a bungalow, and I'll try to give an overview of the situation.

The previous owner had a TV mounted upstairs on a wall bracket with 5 speakers built into the wall behind it. The speakers lead downstairs though where I would assume they would be connected to a stereo receiver.

My question is how exactly would they have had this setup so they could control the sound volume and TV channels/dvd player from upstairs when the receiver must have been downstairs?

Anyone got any possibilities?


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## SAC (Dec 3, 2009)

If they used an RF remote rather than an infrared remote, they would have been able to control the remotely located units.


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

Hm that's very true. Is there a way to get my RF remote to control my current stereo receiver? If not, my computer is right beside my receiver so is there any way to use the computer as a portal?


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

Maybe we can think of a good setup FoolishHeart lol. 

I also have my bigger TV and my 5.1 surround sound speakers downstairs. But I don't think it's possible to hook up 10 speakers to one receiver. It would probably be way under powered. So I was looking for a fibre optic to RCA converter so that I could hookup the downstairs speakers from my TV to my subwoofer and route the speakers that way. Leaving my receiver to be used solely for the upstairs TV. Which again leads me to an issue of how I can get a remote to work with the receiver anywhere in the house.


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

FoolishHeart said:


> lol, your wife gonna kick me if so. .


Lol not at all!

See maybe I could use one of these guys to convert the toslink to RCA 

Now I gotta figure out if there's an RF remote that has a receiver that I could place directly infront of my stereo receiver. Then I'd be golden, if I could figure out how to get the video signal from the receiver to the TV.

This is a nightmare, I have no idea what to do. Dangit! Old home owners should have just left me everything lol.


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

I'm pretty clueless myself right now. Thanks for the wishes 

If anyone else can please help me simplify my approach. This is what I'm thinking... Have the bigger TV downstairs with cable inputted straight to the TV, bluray straight to the TV, then use a toslink to RCA converter to output the sound from the TV to the subwoofer (since it has it's own receiver) which will then supply the 4 speakers with their sound. So downstairs would be setup. 

Then for the upstairs TV, I'd have to run a 30ft HDMI cable from my receiver to the TV. This would supply the video/internal speakers. Then I could use the IR to RF to IR converter and hook that up upstairs/downstairs so I could control my receiver from upstairs. The only problem with the receiver is it doesn't accept coaxial signal for the TV, so I'd have to use an old VCR player to convert the coaxial to RCA (unless I can find a converter) and then use the VCR remote upstairs as well and port it through the IR to RF to IR converter.

This sounds like a huge pain in the butt and I don't think the other home owners had this complicated a setup. I could be wrong though!

Anyone else have any suggestions? Would pictures help?


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

There's wall plates like this everywhere:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-4V2pG048...M/s400/DYNACOM-10600-MMB-VOICE-DATA-VIDEO.jpg


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

Yes, I have a couple of suggestions. First, rather than use a vcr as your tuner (which is essentially what youre considering) why not just run the coax cable up to the tv and use the tv's internal tuner? Granted you wont be using the receiver as a switcher in this case, but seems to be far less of a pain. 

Second, a simple battery-based IR repeater system will allow you to control your receiver downstairs when you are using your hdmi connection upstairs, blu ray and such. This is what Ive used for years, works great....

http://www.amazon.com/Next-Generation-Remote-Control-Extender/dp/B000C1Z0HA/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

TypeA said:


> Yes, I have a couple of suggestions. First, rather than use a vcr as your tuner (which is essentially what youre considering) why not just run the coax cable up to the tv and use the tv's internal tuner? Granted you wont be using the receiver as a switcher in this case, but seems to be far less of a pain.
> 
> Second, a simple battery-based IR repeater system will allow you to control your receiver downstairs when you are using your hdmi connection upstairs, blu ray and such. This is what Ive used for years, works great....
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Next-Generation-Remote-Control-Extender/dp/B000C1Z0HA/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b


Thank you for your input! 

I was looking at that IR repeater also. The only reason I was considering the VCR player as my TV tuner is because I wouldn't be able to reroute my TV's sound to the receiver because it requires toslink cable and to buy a 25ft toslinnk cable is ridiculously overpriced lol.


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

barqers said:


> The only reason I was considering the VCR player as my TV tuner is because I wouldn't be able to reroute my TV's sound to the receiver because it requires toslink cable and to buy a 25ft toslinnk cable is ridiculously overpriced lol.


Not sure where you looked but they seem pretty reasonably priced to me:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10229&cs_id=1022904&p_id=2766&seq=1&format=2

Make sure 25' is plenty of length, Toslink does not take kindly to bending or stretching.


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

TypeA said:


> Not sure where you looked but they seem pretty reasonably priced to me:
> 
> http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10229&cs_id=1022904&p_id=2766&seq=1&format=2
> 
> Make sure 25' is plenty of length, Toslink does not take kindly to bending or stretching.


Wow that's awesome I didn't know you could get them so cheap! I was looking at bestbuy lol.

So now I'm assuming I need a second receiver? One for downstairs and one for the upstairs TV. I can send cable coaxial to the TV then toslink back down to the receiver. I'd just have to buy a IR repeater now. Awesome!

Thanks for your help 

BTW: one question, If I want to hookup a DVD player to the system, is it possible to have HDMI out from a receiver AND have it send audio out to the speakers? So HDMI out for the monitor, and then have it still send to speakers? That way I could have the DVD player downstairs.


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

Can anyone tell me if this is an IR repeater? http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...&category=Remotes_Accessories&product=1518206

Will that allow me to use my IR remote upstairs and control my receiver downstairs?


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

barqers said:


> BTW: one question, If I want to hookup a DVD player to the system, is it possible to have HDMI out from a receiver AND have it send audio out to the speakers? So HDMI out for the monitor, and then have it still send to speakers? That way I could have the DVD player downstairs.


Im not sure, most likely yes audio will be sent via hdmi as well as to the speakers but it may depend on the receiver.


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

barqers said:


> Can anyone tell me if this is an IR repeater? http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...&category=Remotes_Accessories&product=1518206
> 
> Will that allow me to use my IR remote upstairs and control my receiver downstairs?


Thats what it appears to be. However, despite it being from a good name like AR, make sure you have a easy return policy in case it doesnt work perfectly for you. It doesnt have much in the way of user reviews and could be susceptible to interference and/or a poor design. Heavily reviewed systems are likely a safer bet for working trouble-free regardless of your environment and specific gear. With unproven gear that may not be the case, especially in regards to something as fickle as IR repeaters.


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

TypeA said:


> Thats what it appears to be. However, despite it being from a good name like AR, make sure you have a easy return policy in case it doesnt work perfectly for you. It doesnt have much in the way of user reviews and could be susceptible to interference and/or a poor design. Heavily reviewed systems are likely a safer bet for working trouble-free regardless of your environment and specific gear. With unproven gear that may not be the case, especially in regards to something as fickle as IR repeaters.


Awesome, thank you for your input. They have a really easy return policy so I'm going to give it a try since I don't want to wait for the AR system in the mail  if it doesn't work I'll return it and buy the AR system.

Thank you for all your help again!


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

No problem. And if you find the time user reviews are always appreciated, especially on new gear not otherwise widely reviewed elsewhere.


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## barqers (Sep 3, 2011)

TypeA said:


> No problem. And if you find the time user reviews are always appreciated, especially on new gear not otherwise widely reviewed elsewhere.


Yes I always leave reviews 

I'll report back to this thread. I think this is what I'm going to do. Buy the IR extender, put my receiver downstairs and the ir repeater upstairs/downstairs, then put a shelf below my tv upstairs and put the DVD player upstairs then reroute my sound via toslink cable to my receiver downstairs.

Thanks all!


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## flyng_fool (Apr 10, 2010)

barqers said:


> Wow that's awesome I didn't know you could get them so cheap! I was looking at bestbuy lol.


Ya, BestBuy is a royal ripoff when you're getting any sort of peripherals. I was there the other day and they were selling a Polk PSW10 on sale for $200! Criminy they are absolutely raping people. I wouldn't give more than $100 for that thing!


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

flyng_fool said:


> Ya, BestBuy is a royal ripoff when you're getting any sort of peripherals. I was there the other day and they were selling a Polk PSW10 on sale for $200! Criminy they are absolutely raping people. I wouldn't give more than $100 for that thing!


BB is a joke. 

Have you considered a small fee for a company to retro some wire from DS to UpS?? just 3 or 4 cat5's and there's your high def (via HDMI or Componant Balun) and IR control and xtra for additional audio sources or whatever....lddude:


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