Well the replacement fibre optic ceiling kit arrived, and works, so Ill begin work on that over the next few weeks. I put my media shelving up, as seen in the pics below. Unfortunately it was impossible to get all my media in the one shot as I recently sold my wide angle lens.
So with the expansion of my A/V multi-room setup, I figured a second remote control was on the cards. The timing was good. Philips recently announced their Pronto series of installer remotes is no more. A buyer for the division could not be found. Their loss is my gain as there has been a rise in secondhand Pronto remotes on eBay. Managed to pick up a TSU9200 remote for a song. The only problem is this remote supposedly wont talk to my Philips RF Extender in the Theatre Room. So a little bit of testing is required, otherwise I may have to resort to Plan B (running Cat5e cable to and from both rooms).
So after a few days of troubleshooting like crazy to get the Mac Mini’s 1080p video to work through my Yamaha Z7 AVR – success!! All good, so I rip out the cabinet and neatly run all wires, only to find out I cannot get audio to run to my Living and Bedroom areas! Arrrgghh! Sound through the receiver in the Theatre is fine, but as soon as I switch the AVR to “TV” mode (which passes audio out through HDMI to displays) I get nothing but the sound of silence. Nights are spent trying every conceivable option in the AVR, as well as switching from digital to analogue out and back again on the Mini. It appears the AVR is assuming sound should be coming via HDMI when I switch to “TV” mode, so the only way for the Mini to work in the areas I need it to, is to somehow get the sound ‘INTO’ the Z7 via HDMI, which means some form of converter box. After a Google search, an online visit to Monoprice was called for and I managed to order this device which should do the trick. So in about a weeks’ time Ill be back on track!
So I bought a late-2006 Mac Mini recently purely as a media player (running Plex Nine). The plan was/is to have an elegant, easy-to-use interface that consolidates all my media and be made available in all areas of the home. Sounds great, but my integration of the Mini has been fraught with issues, ironically all AV issues (my supposed specialty!) and not software!
So first thing I did when I got the Mac home was plug it directly into the Pioneer, just to see the condition it was in and that it was functioning (oh, and I did spray paint the body black too!). DVI out of the Mini to HDMI on the TV worked perfectly. A few adjustments in OSX to output 1080p and we’re good to go. So next day with a bit of time I attempt to run it through the Yamaha Z7 so I can access it in all areas. No picture, just the initial boot up screen. Long story short, the Yamaha had difficulty identifying the EDID info from the Mini. I finally resolved this by using the “Screen Sharing” function of OSX and logged in via my MacBookPro, this allowed me to adjust the resolution settings remotely. A few presses here and there and it worked! So I now have a beautiful 1080p image available to me in every room. However, no sound…
This week I finally added my Philips RFX6000 RF Extender. This would free me up from having to point at my IR-RF blaster situated under the TV in the Living Room, and essentially allow me to control any device in the Home Theatre, from anywhere in the house. So first (before ripping out my previous IR solution) I tested the unit just by sitting it on the couch facing the HT equipment. Adjust the settings on the Pronto configuration, and presto, worked perfectly. So I remove all the IR gear and install the RFX6000 behind the cabinet, utilising the IR emitters that came with it. Lo and behold, it DIDNT work. Move it a few inches – kinda works. The manual does state they can be prone to interference from power cables etc etc so I can only deduce it was interference.
So after an hour of banging my head and wondering where to put the extender so it would work, but wouldnt be seen, I realised that I had installed a 25mm conduit in the back wall behind the couch during the build. So I settled on the RF extender hidden under the couch effectively blasting the IR on the equipment face on. So no cables visible and works perfectly.
