Home Theatre resurrection

Content:

1. Introduction, old Home Theatre
2. New big Screen TV arrives
3. Setup receiver and BD player
4. Connect HTPC
5. Setup HTPC, MPC-HC
6. 4K test pattern and Android TV apps
7. Test with a Raspberry Pi4 as a HTPC
8. Chromecast and Raspberry
9. 4K player, PC, Xbox
10. HiFi rack
11. To be continued

Note:
I take no responsibility or liability for what are written here, you use the information at your own risk!

10, HiFi rack:

I'm satisfied with my Home Theatre equipment, but one thing is very unpractical. When I have to add new devices and its cables it's a nightmare, very difficult to reach in behind the equipment. To solve that problem I bought a HiFi rack.

HiFi rack:

A four level rack will be enough for my equipment. The dimension of it is (HxWxD): 90x62x58 cm, a bit deeper than the normal 40cm.

The brand is Audio Magic production, not too unknown. As new they are a bit expensive but I bought mine used and saved some money. Looks great to me.

Installation:

Most practical is to have the rack in front of you. You need to see the displays of the devices and what's going on, IR remotes works better too. The cables to the front speakers will be shorter. I moved away the sub and will place it in another place later. Where the sub woofer stood I placed the book shelf to the left. And at the book shelf's earlier place I placed the HiFi rack, right side.

Moved over the 4K UHD player and the Xbox One console, at the bottom the NAS servers.

Bottom floor, behind the two NAS servers are lot of cables, I had some shorter cables I could use here to make it look a bit cleaner. In the background the 8 port Gigabit switch.

The second floor will held the receiver, prepare with the HDMI cables. Most devices can deliver a 4K signal and the cables must handle this.

The tubes are very practical when connecting the cables between the different floors. I have to add some protection around the sharp edges of the tube's openings. No power cable in this tube.

At the third floor, the 4K UHD player and the Xbox One, both deliver 4K signals. Behind these devices is a Windows computer and a music media box, a Raspberry with Volumio. A mess now but I have ordered shorter cables. Even here is a switch, it's a 5 port Gigabit, but have another 8 port switch if it's not enough. Most devices nowadays needs a LAN connection, in some cases a WIFI connection will be enough.

Top floor, here I want to place a fancy looking turn table. For some strange reason my girlfriend said that she reserve this place for the Christmas light, I don't understand anything.

More devices and cables:

I had to add one or two more switches to handle all new LAN cables. Both can handle Gigabit speeds.

The subwoofer needs a signal cable to feed the amplifier. This is the old which is of high quality, but I'm not sure if it's long enough. It depends where I place the sub woofer.

I bought a new longer speaker cable, it's a 2x2.5mm2 10 meter oxygen free copper cable. Many speaker cables nowadays are made of aluminum with copper outer layer.

These cables are for the main speakers and are of a huge 4.0 mm2 area. To make it easier to connect them to the terminal I added cable fork shoes on the cables, it also minimize the risk of getting short cuts.

Three remote operate switches and one manual to disconnect devices that's normally not in use.

Keyboard:

Earlier I had controlled the Windows HTPC computer with a remote desktop keyboard. This little keyboard will replace it and be more practical. It has a touch pad and the keyboard is back lit. Work great but I have to connect an extension cable between the USB transmitter to avoid disturbance from the computer.

Projector:

In earlier days a projector was the only choice when in need of a big screen. Our TV is 65", good but it could be a bit bigger, or ? I bought this little projector for 50 Euro just to have something to do test with.

Less than 2 kg and full HD, 1920x1080. But how is the image quality ? To my surprise, it not very bad, it's good enough. The brightness can handle a 80" screen or maybe even more in a darker room. Remote operated focus and digital keystone corrections.

The projector will stand on the opposite wall of the receiver, it's a bit complicated to have a cable between them. I bought this, a wireless HDMI cable. It works between my laptop and the projector, but no success yet to connect between the receiver and the projector. It can only handle resolution up to full HD, not 4K, maybe my receiver convert the signals to 4K and cause this problem, or something else. Later I found the problem is when the receiver deliver the signal to both the TV and projector.