DIY Whole House Audio Video Systems
The cost of a whole house audio video system can range from a few hundred dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars. A great DIY system can be built and configured relatively easily with a few computers, a TV and a speaker system (or multiple speaker system). Using individual computers for each "station" or access point, you can access all your music and video from any room in the house with ease.
Setting Up Media Server
Don't let the word "server" intimidate you. A server is just that, something that serves up content to other computers in your house. Note that you will have a much easier time networking everything if you are using the same operating system on all machines, preferably Windows. You should dedicate one computer in your house for storing all your music, photos and video content. This computer can also serve as a main computer for your house; it can function as a server even while someone is on it surfing the Internet or watching a video. Depending on your storage needs, you should buy at least two hard drives for storing all your content. One will be used for backup, so that you don't lose all your data if one drive fails. A good choice would be two 1 TB hard drives, which will run you about $200. Install these and then load your content onto the drives. Set up the drives so that anyone can access them, and add content from any other computer.
The best place for the server is near you main home entertainment set-up. If you have a living room with a big TV and surround sound speakers, you should also install your server there. You may also want to invest in a wireless mouse and keyboard so you can control the computer if it is hidden inside a cabinet near the TV so you don't have to get up off the couch to control the computer (See Resources).
Networking
To stream high quality video to other computers from the server, you will want to invest in fast cat5e or cat6 cabling, as opposed to wireless. The best of both worlds is to use a wireless router that also has physical ports for Ethernet cables. Music can easily be streamed over a wireless connection, so if you don't want to wire a computer that is very far away from the router you can probably get away with it if the Wi-Fi signal is strong enough.
A standard consumer wireless router will have four Ethernet ports, meaning that you can connect three other computers to your server, with the server taking up the fourth Ethernet port. Remember, anything connected to the router can connect to anything else plugged into or wirelessly connected to the router.
Other Computers
Other computers can be used as music jukeboxes, additional home theater setups, or just regular-use computers that you want to have access to the family's music, photo and video collection. This set-up also saves space on all other computers because all the content is stored on the server, so there is no overlap between other computers. You should encourage everyone to copy there music, photos, and video to the server so everyone can access it.
Connecting Computers to TVs And Stereo Systems
Computers don't always use the same connectors as TVs and stereo systems. To solve this problem you will have to purchase cable adapters. If you have a newer flat screen TV it should have a DVI or HDMI port, which can be adapted to connect to a computer VGA port. If you have a surround sound system you may want to buy an audio card for your computer so that you can output full surround sound from your computer, as opposed to just stereo.
You can save a lot of money if you always buy adapters and wires online (eBay is best), as many retail outlets try to take advantage of the fact that most customers don't know how much cables and adapters cost to make (very little).
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