Multi room solution

[pwcornish]

I understand that SageTV uses Ethernet or WiFi to support multi room capability. My house is not wired for Ethernet and running cables to all rooms with TV is not practical. I am concerned that even with a Wireless N router the performance over WiFi may be spotty and susceptible to interference. Two questions:

Is the signal reliability concern on WiFi justified?
Is it possible to route a signal from the central PC to a TV through coax using an RF modulator to put the signal on channel 3 for example? Can this approach support HD?

Many thanks!
Pete.

[jptheripper]

Using an RF modulator you could only encode to NTSC/PAL resolutions (SD). To do HD, the only way I know of would be to encode to unencrypted QAM and then decode with the tv.

Problem is the equipment to encode to QAM would be more expensive than paying someone to wire you house.

How many rooms and distance to router? How many simultaneous streams?

[wrems]

IMO, wireless is not a great way to go. I have yet to get wireless streaming to work reliably. You're better off looking into alternative hard wired solutions like ethernet over powerline or ethernet over coax (moca). I have no experience with either, at the same time, I've heard good things about both. IIR, MOCA can be a bit better...

I would go either one of these routes before attempting a wireless distribution.

[wrems]

Or, like jptheripper said, pay someone to wire your house.

[Fuzzy]

Though, really, for performance, as well as future proofing - hard-wiring really DOES start to become 'practical'.

[wubdich]

I'm running powerline to my living room. It's working great - even with HD. CoaxLAN is also an option. Just to give an example - have a look at: http://www.corinex.com/in-building-solution-2.html

[pwcornish]

In answer to jptheripper's questions, I have a total of two HDs and two SD TVs. Longest run probably 100 feet. All four could be running at once with different content - so four streams.

I will certainly investigate the Ethernet over power and coax options. Thanks to all for the replies.

[ericscottf]

If you've got coax, consider tying one end of an ethernet cable to the coax and pulling the ethernet through. If it wasn't stapled inside the wall, you're set.

[wayner]

I use an ethernet over coax adapter to my master bedroom as it was hard to run cabling to that room. It works fine except when you try to SkipFwd multiple times in a row you may get the circle spinning for a second or two.

[Wrx4me]

I use ethernet over powerline specifically these, from my server feeding 2 wired connections and I get 140MB at the switch and 175MB at the adapter. I normally have 2 hd streams going at the same time and I am only using 30% of my bandwidth with not stutter in the picture. It works very well for me.