New home install - How to approach

In my experience, if you want to send copy-protected HDMI over Ethernet, you're going to pay through the nose to get a solution that works, and I was never able to find a direct-to-consumer solution that we liked. There are products out there that work well, but from what I've seen, you have to source those through an integrator. What we settled on was a TiVo network over Cat6 (two DVRs and four Mini TiVos). We started with MOCA (multimedia over coax) but found Ethernet to be more stable. We have dedicated Ethernet home runs that all run to a separate Unifi switch so the traffic between units doesn't clog the rest of our network. That switch is connected to the LAN for streaming traffic.

I'm just glad that we don't have to pay UK Television Licence fees--we'd be on the hook for nearly £1,000 per year...

I second Dave’s concerns over video distribution- i think it’s hard to keep pace with the current rate of change in HDMI/HDCP. Heck, I had to use fiber hfmi to get a UHD signal from my receiver to my projector. I ran two in case one fails, and I ran conduit for whatever the next iteration of hdmi might require.

Also I am pleased with Tivo for simple tv watching. I keep most of the Tivo traffic on the MOCA side of the network.

CAT6E seems like a safe choice to run. Talked to a friend of mine whose uncle ran fiber throughout his home 30 YEARS AGO because he wanted to get ahead of the curve. I cannot even imagine the cost of that back then.

[jay (support)]

Any Liftmaster or Chamberlain opener with MyQ support works with the MyQ plugin (http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/77/). But keep in mind it's a reverse engineered cloud solution, so no control if you loose Internet (or MyQ is messing with their servers and changed the API).

For a while (a year or two) I was super disappointed with the MyQ solution - not because the plugin (which has worked very well) but because it was clear those guys had never run a cloud-based system. It was unavailable for long periods, most often coinciding with when I needed it to work.

However, for the past year or so it seems to have gotten much better. I don't even recall the last time it was offline (at least when I needed it to work). Hopefully they won't break anything and it will continue to just work. The downside is that if the cloud solution stops working reliably I'll have to completely replace the unit as it won't work with simple I/O devices like the I/O Linc (the open/close commands are more complex than just a standard NC/NO connection).

I have a Chamberlain belt drive which works well and is very quiet (though it is ceiling mount). You'll definitely want to get a separate sensor to tell you if the door is open or closed as you don't get that kind instantaneous status with the plugin itself because of the cloud-based nature of the integration. The plugin allows you to specify a separate sensor device though so the Indigo device will always have the right status.

Video over digital? What is that? I started with hdmi over 2xcat5 but was cheap so upgraded to a proper spec hdmi over single cat6. It’s mostly stable but interested in other options.

I can get the equipment model number if interested, but it basically injects a channel onto the RG6 (and won't interfere if you choose a channel not already on your OTA or Cable). TV just tunes to that channel; I have one that injects two channels so we can have two sources. There were single and up to 4 or 8 I believe. My particular model does not do 4K.

Feeding INTO those is a single HDMI, so I have a couple of relatively inexpensive HDMI selectors feeding them. A full on HDMI matrix with dual outputs would be better but after having several different brands fail, and not wanting a $2k nice matrix, I went with two different (individual) HDMI selectors from, IIRC IOGear.

If interested further I can get the brands.

Adam

I need to eat a bit of crow because I thought the TV license was per screen, but I'm told it's per household.

Now it seems like a bargain!

Not sure about a bargain but it’s certainly cheaper than cable.

I’m really satisfied with my HDBaseT extenders. They are that spec but not the brands that installers use so a lot cheaper.
I had 3 pairs of Neet ones at £120 that worked well but one failed after 2 years so I’ve replaced with another brand that I think was a bit more. The

I also have a 4x4 4K matrix that was £150-200 if I remember rightly. Maybe £600 vs £2000 for the installer option or ongoing monthly fees for 2 extra cable boxes.