Home Sports Bar multi displays

[LoJack101]

Hello everyone, my first post here not really sure where to add this post but here goes. Basically this is what I'm trying to do,
Spruce up my home bar with 3 displays, I haven't bought any tuner card yet but most likely it will be the Infinitv 4 (internal).
I just purchased a video card with 4 video out puts ( 3 are just being used for now). It's connected running smooth, now I would like to be able to watch 3 different live tv channels (1 on each display) hence the sports bar theme. Since the infinitv 4 works with media center, I just notice that it will not display on all 3 displays ( media center). To my thinking, I thought it was going to be easy as starting media center, and just click which tv channel to send to either display. Now remember, I haven't purchased a tuner card yet, so I'm really not sure if buying a tuner card will work like I wanted to. I'm not trying to rent 3 cable boxes and I could careless about recording a tv channel, shows, episodes...etc. just want to watch 3 live TV channels simultaneous to each display. Hope someone has done it or even any thought, ideas would help.

I'm just trying to use a windows 7 PC
PC specs:
I7 920
12 gigs ram
Gtx 670 video card
3 displays: (2) using DVI, 1 on HDMI
Comcast Cable (it's all there is in this area)
If u need any other info, I will reply
Football season is starting soon, would like to entertain the fellas with different games at once...lol
Thx all for taking the time to read this and really hope someone can help, maybe it is easy and I'm just over thinking this.

[richard1980]

What you'll need is one PC and two extenders. The PC will output to one TV, and each of the extenders will output to the other two TVs.

[MinistryOfMagic]

You can accomplish this by creating a home network (wired preferred) and add either three Xbox 360 4GB Consoles ($199.99 each) or three Ceton Echo's ($179.00 each) and use them as Media Center Extenders with your Windows 7 Media Center PC and the InfiniTV4. Attach one Media Center Extender to each LCD/Plasma display and then you'll be able to select a different channel to view on each display.

[foxwood]

You can display multiple live streams of unprotected content, but not with WMC. A player like VLC can access live streams from a TV tuner (though picking a channel can be an issue!) and you can run multiple copies, each on it's own screen. If you want to do that with the InfiniTV, you'd have to use Linux, though - as far as I know, no one has written the necessary software to manage this in Windows. As you haven't bought your tuners yet, the SDHomeRun tuners might be easier to work with.

But if the channels you're interested in are copy protected, the extender approach is your only option.

[LoJack101]

Thx guys for the info, was really just trying to use pc but I do have xbox 360 laying around, and to think of it... i just pretty much wasted money on that video card.

[LoJack101]

By using a HDHomerun...would I need to have..basically 2 other pc....1 PC for each TV

[barnabas1969]

With the HD HomeRun, you can either use a PC at each TV, or an extender at each PC. Your choice. The advantage with the extenders is that they give you a shared recording schedule and shared recordings. If you don't care about that, you could use a small PC at each screen.

[staknhalo]

You're also maybe gonna wanna look at the Ceton My Media Center app to control all the devices from 1 unit individually. If you try using a remote, you can't controll them individually. Every time you press a remote button, all the units would respond.

[barnabas1969]

You're also maybe gonna wanna look at the Ceton My Media Center app to control all the devices from 1 unit individually. If you try using a remote, you can't controll them individually. Every time you press a remote button, all the units would respond.

Not necessarily true. It is possible to change the device ID on the PC's and on the Echo extender. I would imagine that the other extenders (XBox, HP X280N, and Linksys DMA-2100/2200) also have a way to change the device ID.

Changing the PC's device ID is a simple change in the registry. Changing the Echo's device ID entails a sequence of buttons pressed on the remote control.

[staknhalo]

Hm. Did not know that. Could you link/PM me more info on that? Thanks.

[barnabas1969]

I posted the instructions for the Echo at this post:
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 287#p36287

The instructions for changing the codeset in Windows can be found at the link below (See item # 4, I've also posted it in the quote below just in case that site ever disappears). The instructions for changing the ID of your remote (the part about press-hold the DVD button) is for the original Microsoft MCE remote. It doesn't work on all MCE remotes. However, if you have a programmable remote like mine (Acoustic Research AR-RX18G), there are already settings for multiple MCE code sets. I assume the same is true for the Harmony remotes.

Here's the link:
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/ ... ter-614592

And here's the text:

If you have more than one Media Center system in a room then you may find that one remote will control all the systems at the same time. If you don't want this then there's a way of pairing a remote to a specific system.
To enable your Media Center to respond to a specific remote control ID do the following: press and hold the DVD Menu button on the remote control, then press a number button (1-8) for five seconds. Remote controls with visible LED signal indicators will blink twice to confirm the change. Then start up your PC, open Regedit again and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da
and in the key, CodeSetNum0, enter the number you entered into the remote.

CodeSetNum0 = 0 means to respond to all remote codesets.

CodeSetNum0 with a value of 1 thru 8 tells Media Center to respond only to that specific codeset ID.

EDIT: Some people also recommend deleting the keys named CodeSetNum1, CodeSetNum2, and CodeSetNum3. It can't hurt to delete them, but I don't know if it's necessary.

[staknhalo]

Thanks, appreciate it.

[barnabas1969]

Oh, and a reboot after changing the registry keys is required.

[LoJack101]

Thx for the info everyone, wasn't tryin to use more hardware but looks like for what I'm trying to achieve, have no choice in extenders. I do have the My Media app for ipad, but can't say how we'll it works until I have a ceton tuner. So basically the infinitv 4 only works with media center? How will it work with XBMC?

[staknhalo]

I do have the My Media app for ipad, but can't say how we'll it works until I have a ceton tuner.

Don't need a Ceton tuner, it works with any brand tuner/extender FYI.

So basically the infinitv 4 only works with media center? How will it work with XBMC?

It works with XBMC, just no copy-protected content. If all your channels are in the clear it's good to go. Not sure if the sharing works with XBMC though.

[richard1980]

I do have the My Media app for ipad, but can't say how we'll it works until I have a ceton tuner.

Don't need a Ceton tuner, it works with any brand tuner/extender FYI.

So basically the infinitv 4 only works with media center? How will it work with XBMC?

It works with XBMC, just no copy-protected content. If all your channels are in the clear copy-freely it's good to go. Not sure if the sharing works with XBMC though.

"In the clear" is generally used to mean "unencrypted". Encryption doesn't have anything to do with copy protection.

[smcmillan2]

I'm not trying to rent 3 cable boxes and I could careless about recording a tv channel, shows, episodes...etc. just want to watch 3 live TV channels simultaneous to each display. Hope someone has done it or even any thought, ideas would help.

I just finished mine up a couple weeks prior to March Madness. Got the idea from http://www.hdhomesportsbar.com/. I have a WMC PC in a rack in the basement with an Infinitv 4 USB and 3 DMA2100 extenders I got off eBay. Drive the large screen with the cable co's DVR, 3 24" screens above it with the DMA2100s/Media Center. Picture just after getting it setup is here: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1386351/offic ... t_23040248

Not necessarily true. It is possible to change the device ID on the PC's and on the Echo extender. I would imagine that the other extenders (XBox, HP X280N, and Linksys DMA-2100/2200) also have a way to change the device ID.

Another option is vmccontroller - http://vmccontroller.codeplex.com/. I couldn't find a way to set unique IDs for the DMA2100s so I built a web page that utilizes Perl calls to the controller and use a 7" tablet to access that page. Channel changes can be a bit slow, but works a treat otherwise. Seems to be an abandoned project and I don't know if it works in Win8.

So basically the infinitv 4 only works with media center? How will it work with XBMC?

As far as I know, at this time XBMC doesn't have it's own PVR capabilities so you would have to couple it with an additional application (eg. MythTV) to display/record TV. If Comcast marks all content as Copy Freely you could go this route, but would need a PC at each TV vs. a smaller and probably much less power-hungry extender.

[LoJack101]

First off, I got to say...nice setup! I'm reaching that same goal...minus the big screen...I'll have pics up soon.
I ended up connecting the Xbox up to one of the screen and the PC is connected to all screen but U guys know WMC is only on 1 screen...and I did find a guy on craiglist in Philly selling a DMA2200...so I will be picking that up this week.
While playing around with 2 WMC up and running...I was able to control both screens individual with the "My Media Center" app on ipad mini, so I'm guessing that this app should control the DMA2200 extender without problems. So 3 big thumbs up, no wait....that's just wood, cause I'm excited...LOL!
Thx guys for all ur help...couldn't have done it without this forum.
Pics will be up soon on the progress.

[foxwood]

If you want to display copy protected content, then WMC is your only option.

If your content is not copy protected, then you can play 4 seperate recordings at the same time, each on a different screen (if you have 4 screens connected). I can't remember off hand if you can get Windows Media Player to open in multiple Windows at the same time, but VLC will play unprotected WTV recordings, and you can get multiple videos running at the same time. (But you won't get seperate audio tracks - even with 4 screens connected, you've only got one audio track).

If you wanted to do this with Live TV, then again, as long as your content isn't protected, you can, depending on your TV tuners, use VLC to access the live stream from a Tuner, and running multiple instances, each on a different screen. The HD HomeRun devices can be set up to generate a multicast stream that can be accessed from VLC. Other tuners may be accessed as Video Capture devices. The InfiniTV tuners can't be used this way in a Windows machine, but they can be used this way if installed in a linux machine.

This would allow you to do what you want to do with the hardware you already have, (plus some tuners, obviously), but it's a not very user friendly - it's not easy to change channels, and audio is an issue. Changing channels might not be too big an issue, if you decided to always show a specific channel on each screen, and muting all the streams and only enabling audio on one at a time would be doable, but there's no doubt that using mutiple extenders (and multiple remotes) will give you a better end user experience, and will be pretty much the only way to do what you want to do with protected content.

[dtm1017]

Looking through this thread, I think I am in the right place...hopefully I can resurrect it to get a question answered.

I have a question regarding a setup I am planning on putting together in my basement.

With Black Friday coming up, I am going to get 2 TVs to mount next to each other on the wall. This TV (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-55-class ... Id=9200105) is the front runner right now.

I have a HDHomeRun that I use for our cable and a HTPC that I keep on our main floor. I have one Xbox 360 and I am planning on purchasing another Xbox 360 and use them both as extenders for the new TVs downstairs so I can watch 2 different things at once (they will be hardwired to the network).

In a nutshell, I am concerned about how I can control media center on one Xbox without controlling on the other (if I use IR or a Logitech Harmony remote I would assume all Xboxs have the same IR codesets and this would occur?).

I was considering covering the IR sensor on one Xbox and just using a bluetooth (regular) Xbox controller to control that while using IR on the other but then I was worried that the controller may not pair automatically to the right Xbox since they will be sitting next to each other...

I imagine that this will happen with the TVs as well, but I am less concerned because I will not be using the internal speakers on them (planning on doing optical audio out to an external receiver and control audio that way) and since they will both be using the same input to the Xbox, it shouldn't be a big deal if they both turn off/on at the same time.

I really like using my Xbox 360's as extenders and love not paying my cable company extra money to rent a receiver!!

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks!