# How to get HD to 8 TV's?



## FatWakeboarder (Aug 26, 2011)

OK, I know the obvious answer is the HR34, but we moved into a new house 2 weeks ago, we aren't in one of the chosen 6 markets, and my wife and kids are in need of TV, and I'm in need of Football. Any suggestions on how to design a system to get HD to 8 Televisions and sharing as much content as possible? My set up is 5 TV's in the basement, home office, over the bar, projector, gym and Kid's play room, usually no more then 2 would be on with different programming. Main level has a LED and a small kitchen tv and only 1 TV upstairs. If I had to, we could use a dedicated box on the bedroom tv, but I'd like to reduce my footprint as much as possible in terms of boxes.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

The Whole Home DVR [service] and the Connected Home [DECA] networking would work, but you'll need a mix of DVRs & receivers at each location/TV.


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

Did you have DirecTV before you moved or do you have anything now? 
If you have service now what dish do you have? Sounds like you need a SWM16 single wire multiswitch installation, connects to the dish with four cables. Provides up to 16 satellite tuners with MRV possible to all locations.
We'll need to know how many DVRs you want or need to really answer your question, and also if you're willing to pay receiver fees for all of those locations ($6/each over the primary location).


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## FatWakeboarder (Aug 26, 2011)

We just moved into a new house, we were in temporary housing with FiOS while we were building this house. I'd like to have one DVR and it be a HR34, as I never need to watch more then 3 programs at once, but save that I could live with a DVR in the bedroom, one for the main level and one for the basement, assuming I could have two things on at once in the basement on two different TV's. I'm guessing that set up would look something like this:

1 HR24 feeding Master Bedroom TV
1 HR24 feeding Family Room TV with a client box on the Kitchen TV
1 HR24 Feeding Projector, client on kids play room, home office, bar and gym

The question with that set up is if I can run multiple programs in the basement, I'm assuming I could if I have the client on each TV, just won't be able to pause and rewind. In an ideal world I'd wait them out, but I don't want to get FiOS in here for 30 days and switch, but I need to have some TV and right now all we have is Netflix streaming on the TV's. Now if I knew I could get an HR34 in 2-3 weeks I'd wait, and live with it, but we can't go 2 months without TV.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

You basically need to put something (DVR or receiver) at each TV location. I would probably use 2 or 3 DVRs with the remaining locations having non-DVR receivers. The H25 has a very small footprint, which may help in some of your locations.

With whole-home service, all TV locations would have full access to the recordings on all DVRs.

If two rooms are adjacent and it would be easy to run wiring between them, you could feed two TVs/rooms from one receiver with the limitation being that both would have to watch the same thing. For example, maybe your over the bar and projector could be fed from a single receiver, as typically you would expect both to be showing the same thing.


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## FatWakeboarder (Aug 26, 2011)

And yes, I had DirecTV before, but it's been a year, and I'll live with lease fees but I'd prefer to avoid it. I love the idea of the HR34 with C30's, but it doesn't seem like a viable option right now.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

FatWakeboarder said:


> And yes, I had DirecTV before, but it's been a year, and I'll live with lease fees but I'd prefer to avoid it. I love the idea of the HR34 with C30's, but it doesn't seem like a viable option right now.


The HR34 & C30s, aren't that much different [in function] than a couple of DVRs & receivers acting as MRV clients, and if one fails, multiple DVRs means you still have one/some working.


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## DarkLogix (Oct 21, 2011)

And isn't there some limit on the number of Remote viewing sessions a DVR can support?
thus even the awsome HR34 wouldn't be able to support 7 other locations at the same time so I'd think that a multi DVR setup is needed

Of course the HR34 allows for lots of recording from one DVR at the same time but the HR34 isn't available and 3 HR24's with 5 H25's would do whats wanted plus allow you to watch live TV on them


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## FatWakeboarder (Aug 26, 2011)

Ok, I think that's the direction I'm going to head, 3 HR24 DVR's and 5 H25's. Any tricks on how to make sure that's what I get?


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## FatWakeboarder (Aug 26, 2011)

One other comment, I'm not worried about the remote sessions, I could live with never having 3 TV's on. The most would ever be three, if I'm watching a game, kids watching something and the wife watching something else.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

FatWakeboarder said:


> One other comment, I'm not worried about the remote sessions...


I think this is one of those things that before you have it, it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal and then after you do, you find how much you use it.
"For example", I setup my local network recordings between 2 DVRs, where NBC & CBS are on one and the others on another. This way there are never any conflicts, be it from the networks changing times, or days.
With the Whole Home, I look at one receiver/DVR and get to watch anything recorded from "the list". Everything is almost seamlessly working as one.


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## DarkLogix (Oct 21, 2011)

with WholeHome DVR with 3 HDDVR's and 5 plain recivers you could watch live on all 8 at the same time

the HR34(which is not likely to be recived) can handle 3 remote viewing sessions (I can't find the limit on the others) but with each being an actual reciver it would be able to watch live from any and then watch recorded from a reciver while also watching a differant recording on the DVR that has it


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

DarkLogix said:


> with WholeHome DVR with 3 HDDVR's and 5 plain recivers you could watch all 8 at the same time.


With 3 DVRs, your options are:
view recordings locally and up to 3 remotely, but each of these has to be from different DVRs, as each DVR can only supply streaming to one remote location.
With 3 & 5, all can watch live TV, but only 6 can watch recordings at the same time, leaving 2 for only live TV.


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## DarkLogix (Oct 21, 2011)

Ok I wasn't sure on the number of remote sessions

so with 3DVR 5norm
you could watch recordings on the the 3 DVR's and 3 norms and live on the other 2

I've edited my post to add live in there


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

FatWakeboarder said:
 

> OK, I know the obvious answer is the HR34, but we moved into a new house 2 weeks ago, we aren't in one of the chosen 6 markets, and my wife and kids are in need of TV, and I'm in need of Football. Any suggestions on how to design a system to get HD to 8 Televisions and sharing as much content as possible? My set up is *5 TV's in the basement, home office, over the bar, projector, gym and Kid's play room*, usually no more then 2 would be on with different programming. Main level has a LED and a small kitchen tv and only 1 TV upstairs. If I had to, we could use a dedicated box on the bedroom tv, but I'd like to reduce my footprint as much as possible in terms of boxes.


For those five in the basement, there are HDMI distribution boxes in the marketplace if they can all be on the same channel at the same time.


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

Drucifer said:


> For those five in the basement, there are HDMI distribution boxes in the marketplace if they can all be on the same channel at the same time.


I have an HDMI Splitter so I can View 2 HD TVs off of one of my DVRs and it doesn't matter if they are on the same channel, in fact we prefer it because one of the TVs is in the Bathroom and the other in the Master Bedroom and she is either in one or the other watching TV while getting ready for work in the morning and it works just fine.

Also, Great is you have an RF Remote which I can't use because I am using a Harmony One Remote and it will not let you use it in RF Mode.


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## DarkLogix (Oct 21, 2011)

ya the only issue with going the video splitter route is providing a link for the remote to the shared reciver

I know I'd rather just pay the extra $5 (it is $5 right, I haven't looked that closely at my bill in awhile) to lease an extra reciver than muk about with video splitting


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

DarkLogix said:


> ya the only issue with going the video splitter route is providing a link for the remote to the shared reciver
> 
> I know I'd rather just pey the extra $5 (it is $5 right, I haven't looked that closely at my bill in awhile) to lease an extra reciver than muk about with video splitting


Well, it is $6 now but if you can swing a Free DVR or Receiver then I would go that route.

I got 5 DVRs for $99 during some Special Promotions and I now have a Total of 5 HR24-500s and 2 HR23-700s.

I can Record 14 Programs at once so I Never have Scheduling Conflicts and I have 13,000 Gigabytes (13 Terabytes) of Storage Capacity and a Total of 350 Series Links so I Never experience any problems scheduling games or whatever.

I do have to perform a ton of Daily Maintenance to get rid of recordings I no longer deem necessary to keep.

So I have 7 DVRs powering 8 HDTVs so I am Good To Go!!! :lol:


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## DarkLogix (Oct 21, 2011)

Ok thanks on that
I better check to see if I'm being billed for the 4th reciver on my account (which isn't in use but they don't want to remove it or take it back, its a D11)


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## TheJackal (Sep 24, 2008)

I have very similar requirements as the OP. 4 viewing areas in my basement while allowing viewing at least 2 different live streams at the same time. Theater, Bar, Gym, and Family room area. I also wanted to provide viewing of Blu-ray/DVD, video games, etc at every location without buying 4 of everything.

I have 6 sources: 
two HR24s
PS3
Popcorn Hour C-200
Wii
Win7 64-bit PC with 45 Terabyte eSata RAID6 Array.

Everything is stored in a single rack located in the Family room. The two D* receivers, the PS3, and the Popcorn Hour are hooked up to an HDMI matrix switch and can be viewed in any location. The Wii and computer can only be viewed in the Family room or Theater. All rooms and components including lighting is controlled via a Control4 system.

Here is a pic with the rack about 50% complete. 
















Some basement pics near completion:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=20557697#post20557697


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