Best way to display PC in different rooms

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askman

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I have a PC which I mainly use for gaming. Currently my PC desk / monitor and main TV are in the same room and I have a long HDMI cable trailing between them, and a long USB repeater with a bluetooth dongle for the Xbox one controller that I use.

To date this has not been flawless (I've had issues with the length of the USB cable - originally it was a hardwired 360 controller and a 10m extension cable, albeit that I didn't need the full length, which stopped working - hence converting to a wireless XBO controller, however this still only works if i plug the bluetooth receiver into an active repeater cable in order for the controller to point in the general direction of the receiver) but it's been manageable mainly due to the PC being in the same room so it's not too much effort to get up and sort it out.

The tricky part comes now that i'm getting my house renovated and will be moving the PC upstairs. I do not want to trail cables down the stairs to display the PC on my TV as it's a) dangerous, b) I'll have to get up and pull them down / plug them in every time, and c) I'm not convinced that the USB signal will hold up over the distance.

What I am liking the idea of is installing AV wall plates - one will go upstairs behind where the PC will be, one will go behind my entertainment unit to take the outputs from my playstation, sky box, etc. and the final one will be hidden behind the TV which will provide an output from all of my devices nice and tidy. There is a potential concern over the distance of the furthest two plates which will be around 5m including the drop down a floor, however I would think that this is fine.

Has anyone done anything like this?

I'd have (at a guess) upstairs - 1xHDMI, possibly audio, ethernet port, at least 2xUSB 3.0 inputs, downstairs behind the unit - at least 3xHDMI, possibly audio, at least 2xethernet, at least 2xUSB 3.0 outputs, and behind the TV - the other ends of the HDMIs and an ethernet port.

Apologies for the long post, I wanted to try and be as clear as possible!
 
The (technically) best way to do the job is to install some nice big ducts between these points (the flat stuff you get for tumble dryers is a good size). Then you can pull through the cables you need and in 5 years time when the next version comes out you can just pull a new cable through plus you aren't restricted to whatever length the AV wallplate supplier supplies.

USB 3 has a limit of 3 metres- if you want more than that you need some active cables. The audio runs (unless your kit runs balanced) will probably be too noisy for normal use. Use CAT5 extenders for that job

The most useful thing I did when I wired my old house (in 1996) was to stuff Cat5 everywhere along with twin coax and audio runs. The Cat5 is slightly redundant now cos Wifi but still handy for chucking telephone extensions around and setting up ancient LANS without Wifi cards. Coax got used for Freeview. Audio runs were too noisy.
 
foxhole said:
Why do you Need to see pc display downstairs when pc is upstairs?
Click to expand...
oldbutnotdead is pretty much there (although I can't stand Call of Duty). Upstairs on the monitor is fine for working, etc. but I play games on my PC and it's far more enjoyable on my 50" TV vs my 21" monitor
 
Sitting at my desk my 21" monitor is same relative size as sitting across the room from 50" plasma.
 
whatever you do, add ducting as suggested.
IRL I work in studios and run cables all over the place
i often run a mac with mirrored display through very long VGAs and extended USB.
so a Mac upstairs can be seen downstairs and controlled - you don't even need to unplug the spare controls.

but connectors change so don't build cables into a wall without the ability to rip them out and change them.
VGA is old hat now but HDMI has limitations on cable length. Normally I'd convert to HDSdi and back
 
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