Wired or Wireless?

Wired is still the way to go if you have the luxury of building a house and can get it built-in. Wires are still at least 3 times as fast as the quickest wireless and are not subject to dead spots, interference and security breaches like wireless can be. Today, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult to use wire. If you don't want to tear out a lot of drywall, you are either stuck with obsolete wiring or you have to turn to wireless. The good news is that wireless is possible, even dependable, and in most cases, quite affordable. The bad news is that there is no single unified approach, so you will need to cobble a system together and get used to the fact that everything won't work together seamlessly. Yes, total integration is not here yet, but manufacturers are getting closer and closer, and the simple solution is in sight. In the mean time, here are some alternatives to getting your house connected, and our dream system at the end.

Home Servers

The home server is clearly the anchor for the home system, which presents a challenge to any home wiring. Let's have a show of hands, now - who among you thought to put a network connection around your TV. Not many do, and the painful truth is you not only need a network connection to your components, but you need a cable or satellite connection near your server, something most people don't plan. Thankfully, with wireless, it doesn't really matter. You can put anything anywhere and still connect.

Home servers don't usually have wireless included, like laptops, so don't forget the network and television connectivity when you buy your server.

Virtually every PC manufacturer is making a home server and most also run Microsoft Windows software, though Linux and even Mac versions are available. The trick here is to try to put every component into the home server so you can minimize the connections and remote controls you will have to deal with. That means, get a blueray recorder, huge disk for recording, top of the line TV card or two, etc. The one thing you can't get in a home server yet is an audiophile-quality amplifier and speakers.

HP and Dell are easily the most popular Home Servers, due to price and availability. Sony has a serious entry in the category with the Sony ES HES-V1000 Blu-ray Home Entertainment Server, a gleaming black 31 inch tall, 105 pound pillar that holds 200 BlueRay disks, a 500 GB hard drive and a Blue Ray recorder. The Sony gives you high quality recording and playback of movies and music for about $2500. The mass market HP and Dell offerings will set you back a lot less and are more versatile, but can't match the quality of Sony.

The HP EX475 MediaSmart Home Server comes with a TerraByte disk, AMD Live processor to provide a lot of storage, backups, and connectivity, but not a lot of media handling capability. So, if you have decided to jetison all of your physical media and go with digital images on a hard drive, these are the kind of boxes to go with. They can connect to the Internet and become a repository of downloaded video and audio that can be accessed by any connected PC or the devices enumerated below.

Wireless Multiroom Systems

Wireless Digital Streamers

Digital streamers come in a variety of flavors. Simply put, they transmit or "stream" audio and video from a computer to conventional audio and/or video equipment or digital components. So, you can use your iPod or any other source device to replace more conventional forms of players, like CD or DVD decks. The optimal arrangement would be a multimedia-capable computer or gaming box as the central component, with home theater type setups strategically placed in the home. This arrangement empowers the users in every room to play music (live and recorded), video (broadcast and recorded), any internet content, as well as games, without restriction. However, such an arrangement can only be cobbled together today by configuring and buying individual components from disparate vendors and configuring and installing them with the aid of a qualified technician. Following are some of the components you can connect together for your version of the dream system.

The Sony VAIO WA Wireless Digital Music Streamer is an example in this category. This box ($199) uses an 802.11b/g wireless network to deliver music from your computer to any device in range. It can be plugged into a home stereo system, an mp3 player, or used as a standalone "radio" playing through its built-in speakers, both stored music files and live content from a computer on the network.

The Sonos BU130 Digital Music System Bundle ($999) takes a more holistic approach with a home unit and remote control that can handle up to 32 satellite units, connected to home stereo setups or standalone (speakers not included).

The SlingBox can distribute video throughout the house, with the added advantage of providing a web interface so you can watch your home video system anywhere you can connect to the Internet.

The Linksys Media Center Extender with DVD streams any source from a computer to a TV or home theatre system using Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate and an existing 802.11n network.

Wireless Speakers

JBL® On Air WEM-1 Wireless Expansion Module makes any set of speakers wireless. Although pricey at $389 suggested, and not available yet, this item will allow you to avoid buying expensive and generally under-performing wireless speakers by eliminating the wires to your current speakers. So, if you can't run the wires through the walls, and there is no way to hide them anywhere else, now you have an alternative. In addition, it allows you to program crossover frequencies to fine tune the system to your ears.

Cable Eliminators

The Belkin FlyWire AV69003 Wireless HDMI System eliminates cables to your TV. Connect all of the components to the FlyWire device and it sends the HDMI signal to your TV. All of the components can be out of sight, but you will still have to figure a way to control them. Unfortunately, this thing is over $1,000 with tax and shipping and has to go down sharply once it hits mass market numbers. It will probably be $200 or less in a year if you can bear the wait.

Remote Control

Once you have the ultimate wireless setup, you are still stuck with the problem of turning it on and off and selecting the source and media to play. If you could setup the server-based system, you only have two devices to control, the source and display. Some multimedia computers have a remote that will control both of them, but you still need to make the connection. Since you want all of the components out of sight, whether it is a hulking server with three fans and a terrabyte hard drive or a FlyWire console with BlueRay and DVR attached, you need to get that line-of-sight infrared signal from multiple remote controls through cabinet doors or walls.