DVR in another room??

churchy · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 3:15 pm Post subject: DVR in another room??

Does anyone know how to set it up so that you can watch your DVR recordings in another room? My main DVR is in my living room, and I would like to be able to watch the recordings on it in the bedroom or bonus room. I think there is a way to do it through your network.

Rocko · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 3:17 pm Post subject:

I'm assuming you have some sort of dish?

churchy · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 3:23 pm Post subject:

Direct TV

PS.. trying to find something other than a slingbox type option.

Rocko · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 3:27 pm Post subject:

Lol, that was the only think I was coming up with. Slingcatcher/box.

Also, as the cable guy I'm obligated to tell you to go F yourself. Laughing

churchy · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 3:35 pm Post subject:

I found this... if this works decent, I could get several receiver units and get rid of all my boxes. It would pay for itself fast as i am paying $5 for each additional box per month plus $10 a month for my other DVR ($25/month).

http://www.x10videosender.com/wireless_video_sender_dvr.html

Rocko · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 3:40 pm Post subject:

Interesting. Let me how it works out for you, i'm a little skeptic.

edrex · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 3:40 pm Post subject:

churchy, considering that is the web site equivelent of a late night info-mercial, I would be wary that it will actually solve your problems. But hey, if you act now its only $49.99 (WAS $79.99!!), so you should definately order within the next 10 minutes. Laughing

churchy · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 3:46 pm Post subject:

Ya.. not necessarily thinking that is the right way to go, but I know there are options out there. Just looking for suggestoins.

Blue22V · Soul Rider Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 290 City: Double Oak

What you are looking for is called a rabbit. It is a mini 900 mhz. wireless sender/receiver for your house. here is a link to one I used a few years ago before I bought a multi room DVR system from Dish Network. -

http://www.x10.com/products4/google/wireless_video_sender_vNOX.html

finkle · Wakeboarder.com Freak Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 4067

Blue22V, is that a joke or did you even look at churchy's link?

That kid a tubbo but the mom is a total milf

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 06, 2009 6:43 pm Post subject:

I used one of these http://tinyurl.com/3adfes
and ran a couple of HDMI cables. I used remote extenders to control the DVR.

Haven't tried the x10 box, but I'd guess it would work. What DVR do you have? SOME will allow viewing over the network, but most do not.

Ohioboarder · Addict Joined: 18 Aug 2005 Posts: 520 City: Over there

One of the reasons I went with DISH over D-TV ,plus D-TV pissed me off at my other house, is the Ability to watch the DVR in more than one room.

Dave Twisted Evil

churchy · Posted: Jan 07, 2009 7:30 am Post subject:

OK guys, I thought about it, and I think I have it figured out. I am pretty sure that my DVR has a coax output (if not, i think my stereo if feeds into does). My house was wired with both coax satallite and coax cable in each room. Therefore, one of the cables isn't used. So, I think I can just hook up the spare coax to the output. I can then go into the "brain", and jump the signal to any of the rooms I chose. Going online to pull up the DVR manual to see about the output now.

churchy · Posted: Jan 07, 2009 7:41 am Post subject:

Crap, just looked at the manual online, and there doesn't appear to be a coax output. Looks like I will need to find an S-video or RCA to coax cable.

Tbonez · Posted: Jan 07, 2009 8:28 am Post subject:

Super simple - On the "out to TV" coax use a cable splitter on the back of the DVR box. Then run Coax cables runs from splitter to coax inputs on the back of both TVs - RF remote to controll DVR in multiple rooms.

Depending on your DVR you might be able to take HDMI, Components or SVideo + RCA audio to your first TV and then use Coax out to your second. It doesnt work on my DVR but my friend has his set up and it does work on his. He is DISH and I have an old Direct TV Tivo...You will obviously get much better picture on the first TV...

Tbonez · Posted: Jan 07, 2009 8:33 am Post subject:

actiondcpd · Posted: Jan 07, 2009 10:36 am Post subject:

If you buy a HDMI splitter from monoprice they are very reasonable.

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 07, 2009 10:56 am Post subject:

the monoprice one is what I use and it works great. I was worried that I was going to have to pay over $300 to accomplish what I needed to do, but monoprice came through at $60.

churchy, the s-video to coax might be a bit of a challenge since generally you need 2 coax for s-video (1 for luminance and 1 for chrominance). The other issue that you wil run into is that you are not going to have sound at the second destination if you extend the composite or s-video feeds.

Do you have cat-5 cable with RJ-45 jacks in your rooms? You mentioned in the original post about running this through the network. If you have the correct cabling, there are some extenders that work very well for not too much money.

churchy · Posted: Jan 07, 2009 2:14 pm Post subject:

jjaszkow, the S-video modulators I saw had a seperate input for sound. However, I think they go the wrong way (coax to S-vid).

Yes, I have seperate cable and sat. lines as well as cat-5 in every room. Can you give me more info on your solution?

I can't believe Chavez hasn't chimed in.

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 07, 2009 7:54 pm Post subject:

churchy, I can't think of an S-video over coax solution that does sound, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist.

I think Intelix makes the products that you need. They convert all kinds of media to cat5 for multi-room applications, and work very well. http://www.intelix.com/products/balun.htm

If you want to send the signal via S-video, you can use the AVO-SVA2 to extend to the second room. If you want to send component video, you could use the AVO-V3AD. Just plug a balun in at each end, and cross connect at your distribution box ("brain"), the same as you were planning on doing with coax. The S-video and coax baluns are a bit more versatile, since you can attach them to a distribution box and send the signal out to multiple TV's.

There are also HDMI over cat5 extenders, but those all require 2 cat 5 (the second one carries DDC). Monoprice sells some that are a bit less expensive than the Intelix solutions, and I'd probably go that route if you have enough cat5 cables in the rooms. I can't speak for the quality of that product since I haven't used it in an installation, but I've had good luck with other products from them.

Since you will probably want to control it from the other room as well, I've been playing around a new type of RF remote extender recently, and I am very impressed. http://estore.websitepros.com/1373698/Detail.bok?no=8

churchy · Posted: Jan 08, 2009 8:56 am Post subject:

jjaszkow, you are the man... i think that component video solution would be perfect. I just thought of another potential problem though.... I currently have the cat5 running into my xbox360 from the source. i would guess that I could just use a hub or something to share the line, correct?

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

WHAT?!

J/K

Dude I've been busy, sorry. JJ's solution is good. My cousin used a similar setup at his house a little while back. Worked very well.

I think the cat-5 line has to be dedicated to the A/V purpose, though.

You may be better off using one of the "Rabbit" solutions. I've used them in the past with success. Don't expect perfection, but it does work.

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 08, 2009 10:59 am Post subject:

churchy, unfortunately it uses the wires rather than tcp/ip over ethernet, so you won't be able to use a hub. The extender baluns need to be connected via cable end to end with no electronics in between.

You could get a wireless adapter for the Xbox to free up the port to use for the extenders.

The slingbox solution you had mentioned earlier would work fine with a hub.

The "rabbit" solution is easiest (no wires), but they are prone to interference. I'd suggest considering the RF-Link AVS-5811 in addition to the X10 one mentioned above. I haven't tested them in detail, but it seems that these generally have shorter than advertised range, and the picture quality is not always stellar. HD versions of these products (Belkin FlyWire, Gefen extenders and others) are NOT cheap and don't have much range.

If I build a house, this is precisely why I will be asking them to put extra low voltage wiring in. Much easier to run the wires with the walls open than after the fact.

churchy · Posted: Jan 08, 2009 11:42 am Post subject:

jjaszkow, I thought I may need a wireless extender for the xbox. Also, since I am using the cat5 part of the distribution center to run my internet, it sounds like I will have to find another splitter for the A/V cat5.

churchy · Posted: Jan 09, 2009 1:10 pm Post subject:

jjaszkow, I think I am in luck. Looks like I have 2 CAT5E in each room. Therefore, I should be able to use one for internet and the other for A/V.

It looks like I will just need to get 3 of those baluns then, correct? 1 component video balun to send the signal from the DVR, and 2 to receive in the other rooms?

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 09, 2009 10:08 pm Post subject:

churchy, I guess I didn't catch that you needed it in 3 rooms. You will need three baluns and a splitter (Intelix AVDA-8-F). The baluns are point to point. The splitter is kind of expensive, and only supports composite and svideo. A more cost effective solution would be to use a CE LABS AV 400SV for S-video at your distribution center ("brain"). http://www.beachaudio.com/Ce-Labs/Av-400sv-p-19593.html Or a http://www.beachaudio.com/Ce-Labs/Av501hdx-p-116006.html# for component video + digital audio.

Keep in mind that for the component (HD) solutions that come from Intelix require all of the tv's to have digital audio inputs which not many have. The s-video baluns support standard stereo.