It has been four years since I first installed the media center and I have gone through a few iterations since its inception so I thought I’d write an update on what has evolved.
The latest additions in 2014 are as follows:
- Sonos system – Play1’s in the bedroom, dining room, bathroom & 2 Play3’s in the living room
- Roku 3, Chromecast
- Belkin Pro 1000 4-Way HDMI Switch (controlled by Harmony Remote) – I had to get this because I ran out of HDMI ports on the receiver. The IR is controlled by the Harmony remote to switch between the Roku, Chromecast and AppleTV HDMIs.
- Smartthings – home automation system hooked into living room lighting and Sonos system. Awaiting heater and motion controls.
- NETGEAR GS108NA ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch – I ran out of ethernet ports to wire everything to.
- Synology DiskStation 4-Bay Network Attached Storage DS413j with 2 Western Digital 4 TB and 2 Western Digital 2 TB drives running Synology Media Server
- D-Link Wireless HD Pan & Tilt Day/Night Network Surveillance Camera – So I can remotely spy on the cats through the Synology Surveillance System
The usual equipment:
- Tivo
- Xbox 360 with Kinect
- 2 Western Digital NAS drives + 1 hidden behind the Mac Mini
- Logitech Bluetooth receiver – for streaming music from Android or other devices
- Apple TV
- Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem – so I don’t have to pay the monthly fee to Comcast
NETGEAR ProSAFE 5-Port Fast Ethernet Desktop Switch – to plug everything through ethernet- D-Link Wireless AC Smartbeam 1750 Mbps Home Cloud App-Enabled Dual-Band Gigabit Router – amazing router and totally worth the extra cost
- Logitech 915-000162 Harmony 700 Rechargeable Remote with Color Screen – my other Harmony remote finally died and I replaced it with this one
The component backbones:
- Samsung 46″ LCD television
- Sony 7:1 Receiver
- Mac Mini (HDMI)
Sound (other than Sonos):
- 2 Bose small speakers – front channel
- 2 Bose medium speakers – back channel
- 1 Bose center speaker – center channel
- 1 Bose subwoofer
I also switched out my Internet service from Comcast home to Comcast Business. It is more expensive, but I wanted a static IP address for the Synology and they also don’t throttle your speed. My hope someday is to actually cut my cable, but that has not happened yet out of pure fear.
Anything I’m missing in my setup?!?
