March 9, 2012

Setting up a multi-TV theater system

QUESTION

Hi Kim. I've installed two 42-inch TVs in a new building at church. I want the TVs to display the same content simultaneously from a variety of sources: laptop, DVD, cable and Internet. I plan to add a third TV later. I was thinking of getting an AV receiver and installing a speaker system as well. It would also be nice if one remote could control everything, because many different people will be using the system. What would you recommend? The church's budget doesn't allow me to hire an AV company. Thanks!
-Hollis of Guntersville, AL, listens to my national radio show on WGSV 1270 AM.

ANSWER

Excellent question, Hollis. I'm always happy to help volunteers who give so much of their time to churches and service organizations.

What you want to do is actually fairly simple. You just need a gadget called an HDMI splitter.

A 1x4 HDMI splitter will split one HDMI signal into four, so you can run up to four TVs from the same signal. You can find these online for $50 to $80.

You might be tempted to grab a less expensive 1x2 splitter. However, since you want to expand the number of TVs in the future, I'd grab the 1x4 now.

Make sure the one you buy has HDCP support for protected digital content. That allows you to watch Blu-ray discs at full quality.

The other thing you'll need to buy, as you already figured out, is an AV receiver. This will handle all the input signals from your various gadgets. It will be the heart and brain of your church's AV system, so choose one carefully.

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