Expanding Windows Media Center (HDMI splitter?

[dastompa]

Hey folks

Currently:
I have a windows 7 media center in my living room, attached to the TV (hdmi) and stereo (digital audio out)
Now I want to expand this throughout my house, I have the keyboard/mouse situation handled

I'm thinking a HDMI splitter is the way to go, turning on/off tv's "shouldn't" get dicey with screen flickering during handshake or turning off and not duplicating since it is being done by the Splitter. In addition the audio can be taken care of by the hdmi in theory, I'm having a little difficulty getting that to work but I'm pretty sure its just configuration on the media center.

So anyways question is: is this a good idea? I've seen HDMI splitters for reasonably cheap, but they only output 25 or so FPS output, and make little or no mention of audio. What should I be looking for?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Ideally, you should be looking at a Cat 5/6 wired networked home and Media Extenders at each HDTV location.

-Wolf sends

 

[dastompa]

Hey wolf, I've looked into that and its doable, however I'm not clear on the functionality of these boxes.

It seems from what i've seen that you can stream media center output, but thats it, to these devices, I was looking for something more through, for screwing around on youtube, surfing the internet, ect.
I'm not worried at all about streaming different media to other locations at the same time

 

[Wolfshadw]

Yeah, I'm not overly familiar with Media Extenders. I've looked into the Ceton Echo and while it can stream media over the network from your main HTPC, it's not capable of surfing the web or playing Hulu media. For that, you're probably looking at a lower-end HTPC. Perhaps, something like this running XBMC or MythBuntu:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($47.38 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard ($92.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($43.64 @ Amazon)
Case: nMEDIAPC HTPC 1080P HTPC Case ($57.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS30 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($34.99 @ TigerDirect)
Other: Windows Media Center Remote Control ($24.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $350.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-01 11:48 EDT-0400

-Wolf sends

 

[dastompa]

Yeah, thats really seemingly excessive for what i'm doing, I'm going to give a shot at a 20 dollar splitter, usb extender, and a cable, see if that works then we'll maybe get exotic.