# HTPC help



## shananigans (Dec 21, 2012)

Can anyone help 


I want to have my HTPC in my home theatre equipment rack with movies on it.
I will also have a server with more storage. 



My question is what connections can I use to allow me to access they all and play movies in my theatre as well as a tv in family room approx (20m ) away and even a bedroom tv as well 


Family room tv will need to be able to control the HTPC that's in the theatre as well as watch movies with audio from the HTPC as well

Without having to have another PC in the family Room or bedroom.



I have been looking at KVM EXTENDERS via CAT 6 or is there another way??? 

Any ideas what KVM EXTENDER is good and affordable.

Would need to be able to handle a USB wireless mouse and keyboard 

Hope to hear your responses

Only other thing I have come up with is using XBMC and ipad to control it.


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Moved your thread to the HTPC forum to get a more directed response - hopefully, a more knowledgeable person than I will chime in....


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

okay... i think you should drop the kvm idea. 

how many movies will you store? what is your budgets? are you going to build your own HTPC?

there are many ways to skin this cat. 

think about a HTPC with some extra storage and then use 2 extenders. you will want a nice little cat 6 network with a switch or a good wifi router if you plain to stream blue rays from the main htpc. however nothing beats a physical cable.

if you are into DIY... go with a core i3 with integrated graphics to get started. ASRock makes nice HTPC MB's

look at WMC, Media Browser, MPC-HC to get you going on the software side.


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## shananigans (Dec 21, 2012)

I already have the HTPC which contains over 700 movies.

This will be networked to a home server with even more movies stored on it

That's not the issue, the issue I'm having is how can the HTPC be controlled from another room of the house (family room)

I can use a VGA EXTENDER to get picture to the tv even audio but I need to be able to control the movie

HTPC will run XBMC


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

y not just build or buy a little HTPC for the other TV? the vga cable extension makes no sense to me.

plus your first post says " I want to have a HTPC in my home theatre with movies on it."

but you just said you already have an HTPC.... with movies on it and you have a server...


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## Dotball (Apr 4, 2012)

I think you should be looking at one of these.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=920

HTH
Cheers,


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## ericzim (Jun 24, 2012)

Dotball nailed it with the WD TV Play. You might also look into other DLNA capable devices that will allow you to stream from your HTPC over your network directly through to a HDTV anywhere in your home that has either N standard wifi or a hardwired category 5 or 6 cable. There are several good DLNA server software programs you can run directly from the HTPC.


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## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

From the HTPC in your rack you could run the HDMI cable into a splitter like this with your shortest runs to your display equipment with standard HDMI cables. The longest runs (over ~25-35ft) will need a cable like this or an HDMI extender like this. As far as controlling the HTPC you can use something like this RF keyboard which can be extended further using something like this.

Good luck!


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