I want my computer to be in the basement, but to use it on the first floor. Which cables should I run through the floor? Can some be wireless or other methods?
Here are some of the options I've thought of:
Basic: Run DVI, usb (mouse), usb (keyboard), and audio cable (4 cables)
USB Hub option: Run DVI, and 1 usb, then using a usb hub split it into mouse, keyboard, maybe even audio (2-3 cables)
HDMI Option: If I get a new video card and monitor that supports HDMI, would I be able to run both audio and video through it? Would the monitor have to have an audio out? Also there is a lot of extra bandwidth in the HDMI cables, could I send two monitors on 1 cable or would I have to use 2 cables? How about sending mouse/keyboard through the HDMI cable? I see a lot of monitors with USB hubs built in, but I assume I'd still have to wire HDMI + 1 USB cable to use the USB hubs?
X Terminal Machine/Thin Client: I don't really know much about this option. Not sure if it would allow me to run graphics acceleration and watch movies, does anyone know more details about what this would allow me to do?
Other options: Any other ways to do this? Can any of this be wireless?
Best Answer
yes
Only if you wanted to use something other than your monitor for the audio (and even then, there may be other ways).
No idea, but guess only one monitor per cable.
That's not possible.
You can do this, but it seems inefficient to use two computers in this way, and I don't think you'll get the same performance as you would with just the one computer used directly.
My two cents is to use as few digital cables as possible. So that's ideally one HDMI and one USB. Alternatively you could use DVI, digital audio, and USB.
Never tried any of this though:)
Edit:
Great idea! Yeah, there are both proprietary and standard solutions I believe for doing this with audio and video. I'd recommend avoiding devices that take analogue inputs (even though they'll no doubt convert to digital before transmission). One site that popped up in Google was this one: http://www.wirelesshdmi.net/. The keywords currently seem to be WirelessHD, WHDI, and WiGig.
I was originally thinking you could do something with DLNA, but I'm not so sure. (I think it's more movie playing than just streaming a constant live signal.) Does anyone know for sure?
Edit 2:
One consideration with wireless though is that it will add extra latency to the signal, which will manifest itself as a slight lag between giving input, and seeing the result on screen. I have no idea if it would be negligible, small, or awful (and it will be affected by the strength of connection between the two transceivers).