Tech Help: Is this possible? Use my PC in another room without moving it?

[Sabiancym]

I'm not sure if this is even possible, but I figured here would be a good place to ask.

I have a home theater set up in my basement. It consists of a 3D 720P projector, a 106" electric screen, and a speaker setup. Attached to it are all my consoles.


Two floors up, I have my gaming pc.

Intel I7 920 @ 3.6ghz
Radeon XFX HD 5970 Black Edition
ASUS P6T V1 Deluxe Mobo
Corsair Dominator DDR3 6GB RAM
Corsair P256 256GB Solid State Drive
WD 1TB 7200rpm HD
Some Soundblaster Sound Card
850W PSU
3 - 26" ASUS VW246H Monitors in Eyefinity

The system is watercooled and in a big case (corsair 800D) to fit all the rads and tubing. So it's heavy. Needless to say, moving it is a pain and scary. Dropping it or knocking a water-cooling component loose would damage an expensive rig and I don't want to risk it.



So is there a way to stream my PC output (video @ Sound) to my projector in the basement and be able to control it with a mouse and keyboard and/or Controller? I would love to be able to play all my pc games on the projector, but I can't be moving the rig back and forth.

I can't think of anyway to do this, except for running extremely long wires through the floors. Which according to the girlfriend....is not allowed lol.


Thanks for the help.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Wouldn't your games look worse and lag a bit with a projector

 

[Luftwaffles]

You can just move your rig permanently to the basement and make it your man-cave. No girls allowed.

 

[Sabiancym]

Wouldn't your games look worse and lag a bit with a projector

No, why would it?

 

[Sabiancym]

You can just move your rig permanently to the basement and make it your man-cave. No girls allowed.

Can't. It would be in the way down in the theater room, plus it's in my office and I need it to do some work up there.

 

[Tharwen]

Wouldn't your games look worse and lag a bit with a projector

No, why would it?

Because the time it takes for the mouse movements and the screen signal to get through the house would add to the visible response time. It wouldn't be very noticeable, but it would make a slight difference.

Also, wires are the only way I know of. You wouldn't be able to get that much data through a wireless network.

 

[Sabiancym]

Wouldn't your games look worse and lag a bit with a projector

No, why would it?

Because the time it takes for the mouse movements and the screen signal to get through the house would add to the visible response time. It wouldn't be very noticeable, but it would make a slight difference.

Also, wires are the only way I know of. You wouldn't be able to get that much data through a wireless network.

He asked if the projector would make games lag. Not what I want to do.

I don't know if what I want to do would make any noticeable lag.

 

[Tharwen]

Wouldn't your games look worse and lag a bit with a projector

No, why would it?

Because the time it takes for the mouse movements and the screen signal to get through the house would add to the visible response time. It wouldn't be very noticeable, but it would make a slight difference.

Also, wires are the only way I know of. You wouldn't be able to get that much data through a wireless network.

He asked if the projector would make games lag. Not what I want to do.

I don't know if what I want to do would make any noticeable lag.

Well... no, but getting the signals up and down your house is the main issue, isn't it?

If you could put the PC in the basement, it would work perfectly well. Otherwise, you'll have to leave it where it is or pay to have wires installed and then out up with slight input lag.

 

[Keava]

Yeah you can do it. There are some wireless PC -> TV connectors on the market, don't know what's the price on it or how reliable it is tho. Might not really handle 2 floors of difference tho, same with wireless mouse/keyboard, you might be out of range.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Yeah you can do it. There are some wireless PC -> TV connectors on the market, don't know what's the price on it or how reliable it is tho. Might not really handle 2 floors of difference tho, same with wireless mouse/keyboard, you might be out of range.

Most wireless devices choke way before that. The wireless isn't like wireless ethernet where it can cut through an average wall or two before dying. Hell, I haven't seen a wireless keyboard on the retail market guaranteed for more than about 15 feet line of sight.

 

[Keava]

Most wireless devices choke way before that. The wireless isn't like wireless ethernet where it can cut through an average wall or two before dying. Hell, I haven't seen a wireless keyboard on the retail market guaranteed for more than about 15 feet line of sight.

Yeah the dongles on controllers are pretty weak, the TV connector however apparently has range of about 150 feet on average.

 

[Maart3n]

Why don't you put it in the basement, and do the remote thing from the office, you're not going to need the speed there.....

 

[Sabiancym]

Why don't you put it in the basement, and do the remote thing from the office, you're not going to need the speed there.....

Because I don't have room and just don't want to. I won't be exclusively gaming on the projector. The more serious FPS gaming will still be done on my monitors.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I can't think of anyway to do this, except for running extremely long wires through the floors. Which according to the girlfriend....is not allowed lol.

So what you're asking is if there's a wireless Remote Terminal Unit that could be used for gaming purposes?

Fucked if I know.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Wouldn't your games look worse and lag a bit with a projector

No, why would it?

Most projectors have a bit of lag, and it would look worse cause its only 720P compared to your monitor which is a lot higher(I would imagine at 26in) Honestly it doesn't seem worth the trouble if your not gonna use it for serious gaming. Pretty much anything that distance would have to run through a wifi connection which could be spotty once you started streaming so much data(even more tricky if you get any other devices logged onto it). I'd say you SOL for gaming, though you could pull of streaming movies from PC to xbox i'd say. Unless your willing to run dedicated lines to me it would be a waste of time to try to game on it just for a bigger lower rez screen.

 

[Mekado]

The video wouldn't be much of a problem to send, but 2 floors worth of keyboard and mouse controllers would be a nightmare.As far as i know you'd need cables for the controllers (and a few repeaters,USB signal won't go through 25+feets of unshielded cable)

For movies only, you could get a small computer, then network them both to have access to ressources from your gaming rig.Wouldn't give you the ability to play games though, unless of course the second computer is (close to) as good as the first (which kinda defeats the purpose...)

 

[Sabiancym]

The video wouldn't be much of a problem to send, but 2 floors worth of keyboard and mouse controllers would be a nightmare.As far as i know you'd need cables for the controllers (and a few repeaters,USB signal won't go through 25+feets of unshielded cable)

For movies only, you could get a small computer, then network them both to have access to ressources from your gaming rig.Wouldn't give you the ability to play games though, unless of course the second computer is (close to) as good as the first (which kinda defeats the purpose...)

Yea watching movies isn't a problem, I have my PS3 down there which can stream HD movies from my pc no problem.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Imma say it's a bad idea. I mean, do you really have a wireless M&KB with that kind of range?

 

[Mekado]

Imma say it's a bad idea. I mean, do you really have a wireless M&KB with that kind of range?

Definitely not consumer-grade no.The "long range" 2.4Ghz keyboard/mouse have a range of around 30 feets, clear line of sight (not counting walls/floors/interference from phones/etc)
The Pro grades advertise range as long as 100 feets (clear view) although i'm unsure if it'd do the trick for you or not.Pro grade also works with radio frequency instead of 2.4Ghz, so no interference from phone/microwaves etc...


consumer-grade (+/-65$) http://www.iogear.com/product/GKM551R/

Pro grade (=/-150$) http://www.smklink.com/presentation_remotes/products/wirelesskeyboards/wirelesskeyboard.html

 

[DeeWiz]

Just move it. I have been gaming (I play everything but MMO's) on a 1080p projector for the last 3 years (JVC RS1) its phenomonal and I will never go back. As far as a 720p experience well thats what your consoles are in, just up the AA.

But yes you can run Video and audio good lengths (i believe HDMI will due 50ft w/o a boost) but USB is limited to 25ft an wireless won't work through more than about one wall (perpendicular - depends on material/thickness), but realistically no more than 20 feet. No real solutions exist for what would basically be a wireless KVM.

just grab a cheap netbook/culv (my tablet pc is a boon to productivity) for use upstairs. It would be about the same money as the wires /wireless solution.