Goal: 4 televisions. Need input please

[shawn_a]

Well folks. My mom has finally stunned me in a big way. She dropped this idea on my lap earlier and she's dead serious about getting it done. She wants to have 4 (yes FOUR) televisions wired up in one of her spare rooms. She is a crazy sports fan and as it stands now, picture-in-picture ain't cutting the mustard on the weekends. This is just football season and I know she is wanting me to have her all set up in time for college basketball season. I know how her mind ticks after all these years.

Anyway, how would I go about audio switching for something like this set-up? In the few minutes of thought I've taken so far, I can only think of using an old receiver I have (with a remote control of course) and running the audio outputs from each TV into the separate inputs on the receiver. I have an old Sony that will do the job, no doubt it has enough inputs (which I can rename) but I'm just wondering if there is another solution out there.

Keep the flaming about the Sony down to nil please. Sonics aren't really a huge concern here and the unit still operates very well considering it's age.

Of course, this means I will have to get some speakers built up for her quickly. I will just worry about building the Advocates for her later on. Thanks for any ideas.

shawn

[colby]

Switching with the receiver is the easy way out.

This is what I envision. You have one swivel-chair in the middle of the room with the four screens in front in an arc formation. Next you adapt a rotary switch to the chair so that when your mom turns the chair to see one of the TVs the audio switches automatically depending on which TV she is facing. When she changes her attention to another game the sound switches with her motion.

You can have two chairs and just use headphones for each or build speakers into the headrests like the old Mazada MX-5 had.

[noobzealot]

> Switching with the receiver is the easy way
> out.

> This is what I envision. You have one
> swivel-chair in the middle of the room with
> the four screens in front in an arc
> formation. Next you adapt a rotary switch to
> the chair so that when your mom turns the
> chair to see one of the TVs the audio
> switches automatically depending on which TV
> she is facing. When she changes her
> attention to another game the sound switches
> with her motion.

> You can have two chairs and just use
> headphones for each or build speakers into
> the headrests like the old Mazada MX-5 had.

nice idea but he is kinda on a time budget (i think i dont realy follow b ball)

[shawn_a]

> nice idea but he is kinda on a time budget
> (i think i dont realy follow b ball)

Well yes it's a nice idea.... For one person. What do you suggest I do for the two or three other people that occasionally join her for games? LOL.

Seriously, I don't think it's too elegant of a solution for a 60 year old woman with a heart condition. Her meds alone make her dizzy enough. Maybe for the gamer types it would rock but not this time around. Thanks for the idea though. I might have to implement something like that in my own house.

shawn

[garys]

> Well folks. My mom has finally stunned me in
> a big way. She dropped this idea on my lap
> earlier and she's dead serious about getting
> it done. She wants to have 4 (yes FOUR)
> televisions wired up in one of her spare
> rooms. She is a crazy sports fan and as it
> stands now, picture-in-picture ain't cutting
> the mustard on the weekends. This is just
> football season and I know she is wanting me
> to have her all set up in time for college
> basketball season. I know how her mind ticks
> after all these years.

> Anyway, how would I go about audio switching
> for something like this set-up? In the few
> minutes of thought I've taken so far, I can
> only think of using an old receiver I have
> (with a remote control of course) and
> running the audio outputs from each TV into
> the separate inputs on the receiver. I have
> an old Sony that will do the job, no doubt
> it has enough inputs (which I can rename)
> but I'm just wondering if there is another
> solution out there.

> Keep the flaming about the Sony down to nil
> please. Sonics aren't really a huge concern
> here and the unit still operates very well
> considering it's age.

> Of course, this means I will have to get
> some speakers built up for her quickly. I
> will just worry about building the Advocates
> for her later on. Thanks for any ideas.

> shawn

Are there any good sports bars around. It would be cheaper :.)

[shawn_a]

> Are there any good sports bars around. It
> would be cheaper :.)

There is one very nearby but NO SOUND. You could watch a Charlie Chaplin marathon in there very well. Ya know though, that would alleviate my ears from hearing Bill Walton.... You could be onto something here.

Plus I doubt it would be cheaper. One glimpse/whiff of their glorious steaks and you would be ordering one up for yourself. Good cow ain't cheap and they know how to cook it up perfectly. Do that every weekend of the season and you will rack up one helluva tab. She's probably wanting to run 27" tubes (just a guess) and those aren't that expensive at all.

shawn

[madrok]

I can
> only think of using an old receiver I have
> (with a remote control of course) and
> running the audio outputs from each TV into
> the separate inputs on the receiver.

That's what I'd do. But the other say is to use those RCA connectors that take 2 in and one out, and then you sequentially blend the sound from two, thre or four TVs. Putting them all finally into one RCA input in the receiver.

You turn on, say Video 1 on the receiver, and you get the sound from all 4 TVs, using the TV remotes to turn them up or down in the mix. Thats the way to not only watch, but hear more than one game at a time. You could also leave, asy the top left TV out of the mix and give that to Video 2 instead.

[Paul O]

I must be missing something here, cause the simpliest thing to do would be to get 4 identical TV's with remote, coax splitter to all from the cable or sat dish, and she can set all 4 to different channels and mute those she doesn't want to hear. Why complicate this with AV components and audio mixers?

[ferd]

How about a cheap little pro-sound mixer.
Behringer makes a few 4 to 6 channel jobs for cheap. It would site beside her chair.

[madrok]

Sure, if she wants to listen through the TV's speakers. But we're assuming she wants to use a surround receiver.

[shawn_a]

> I must be missing something here, cause the
> simpliest thing to do would be to get 4
> identical TV's with remote, coax splitter to
> all from the cable or sat dish, and she can
> set all 4 to different channels and mute
> those she doesn't want to hear. Why
> complicate this with AV components and audio
> mixers?

I thought of the same thing Paul. The problem I see with having 4 identical TV's is that the remote signal to mute audio would then mute all of the sets, not just the 3 she doesn't want to hear at one particular time. I run into the same problem with my Pioneer DVD players. They are two very distinctly different units however they operate on the same code set from their remotes. I was laughing myself silly when it first happened. I had a CD in one deck and a DVD in the other. Go to skip tracks on the CD and whammo, I was seeing the next track on the DVD as well. Not too insult my mother, but she isn't the most technologically savvy lady. I was wanting to keep it as simple as possible but the AV receiver seemed like the next best solution to the remote control signal debacle. I'm sure she can figure it all out eventually, she's definitely no dummy.

shawn

[Paul O]

> I thought of the same thing Paul. The
> problem I see with having 4 identical TV's
> is that the remote signal to mute audio
> would then mute all of the sets, not just
> the 3 she doesn't want to hear at one
> particular time.

Ha!! never thought of that. Then you will also have the same problem changing channels on the sets, change 1 and you change them all.
To do this right you'll need an AV matrix mixer... not cheap.
Buy 4 TVs from different manufacturers then. Solves all the interferance problems and costs the least.. only looks more hodge-podge.

[colby]

Your idea with the receiver is the way to go. To make it easier to operate you might want to look into a universal remote where you can program buttons. If you get identicle TVs you might run into problems when trying to change channels with the remote unless you get creative with the IR. Also if you are using cable or sat boxes you will need four of them.

For $34 per month you can connect four Tivos to the 4 TVs then she can pause and rewind each game if she misses something. Or get a bunch of old RePlay TV boxes from ebay with the lifetime subscriptions (around $130 each now) and there is no monthly fee and unlimited buffer.