Your HDTV investment is not just the HDTV itself, but also your A/V receiver, DVD, DVR, CD jukebox, and all your other audio/video gear. That's a lot of money, and you want to use it smartly.
Half the HDTV home-networking equation revolves around getting video content from different parts of your home into your HDTV. You may need to bring in content from the Internet, play content that you've stored on your PC's hard drive, or simply get TV signals from an antenna, satellite dish, or cable-TV feeder line into the room where your HDTV lives.
Tapping into PC/Internet content
PCs can be great sources of video content (and content created as other media, such as still pictures and music) for your HDTV system. This content can come from a couple of sources:
- Within your own home: Home movies from your camcorder, content that you copy onto your PC from CDs and DVDs, and pictures from your digital camera
- Online sources: Through your Internet connection
In either case, you need two network elements to get media from your PC into your HDTV:
- Media adapter: It connects to your home network, "reads" media stored on your PC, and converts the media it finds to a format that your HDTV can read.
- Computer network or LAN (local-area network) connection: This connection hooks up the PC with the media adapter.
Using a wired LAN
The traditional way to create a home LAN is the "wired" alternative - stringing together a LAN with a special type of cabling known as UTP (unshielded twisted-pair).
UTP cables are classified by their capabilities - these classifications are known as "category" classifications. Choose UTP cables classified as either Category-5e or Category-6.
You call a LAN using this kind of cabling an Ethernet network (Ethernet is the protocol, or underlying logic, that makes the network work). You find Ethernet NICs (or network interface cards) pretty much standard in all desktop and laptop PCs, and you can also find them in media adapters and other devices that help connect PCs and HDTVs.
You can wire up an Ethernet LAN pretty simply. The hard part is getting the wires inside your walls. At the center of your network, you have a device known as a hub or switch that connects each "leg" of your network together. These legs of the network consist of individual lengths of UTP cabling, connecting a PC or other device on the network back to the hub or switch.
Most home LAN builders use a device that combines a switch and a router(which can receive and distribute Internet communications to computers and devices attached to the network). These handy widgets are known as home routers or broadband routers.
Using a Wi-Fi network
A wired LAN is a great way to connect PCs into your HDTV, but it isn't always a convenient way to make that connection. You often can't easily run wires from your den or home office (or wherever you keep your PC) to your HDTV viewing room (unless you're building a new home and have open walls).
You can best get around running these wires by using a wireless LAN system. These systems use radio transmitters and receivers to send Ethernet data over the airwaves instead over wires.
When you go shopping for a wireless LAN (or Wi-Fi, short for wireless fidelity) system, you can choose from three common, standardized systems for Wi-Fi (standardized meaning that equipment from different vendors can work together, as long as its design is within the same standard) - 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. Each system has its advantages:
- The big advantage of 802.11g is that it's "backward-compatible" with 802.11b.
- 802.11a is less susceptible to interference because it uses a different, less crowded radio frequency than the other systems.
Revving up your RF distribution
Most homes have some minimal system of coaxial cables in the walls carrying HDTV (and standard-definition) programming from your antenna, satellite dish, or cable-TV feed.
Running an extra RG-6 coaxial cable into the room where you keep your HDTV can pay big dividends. You can use an extra coaxial cable to create your own "in-house" TV stations that let you access all the gear that feeds into your HDTV from other parts of the house.
If you're installing a distribution panel or buying a home that has one, make sure that the panel can handle HDTV. Over-the-air DTV broadcasts use higher frequencies and have larger variations in signal strengths than do regular broadcast and cable TV stations. HDTV requires a high-quality distribution panel and amplifiers that are rated for HDTV. Panels that handle higher-frequency DTV signals are clearly marked - usually with an official DTV logo authorized by the Consumer Electronics Association. Companies like Channel Plus or Leviton offer such amplifiers and distribution panels.
