I’m curious what most of you are doing these days for video distribution/sources. Most of the time these days I’m setting up a typical (non surround sound) room with a cable box in the rack plus either an Apple TV or Roku at the rack or behind the TV. I typically use Binary HDMI kit, but am looking more at AVPro.

I’m trying to standardize this, which brings me to a few questions:

1. Do you lead with Apple TV, Roku or another player? Or, are you using Smart TV streaming functions?

2. Do you tend to put your media players in the rack or at the TV? Why do you do it the way you do?

3. What HDMI kit are you using for extenders and switches?

With respect to Apple or ROKU, I let the customer lead. If they bought into the Apple ecosystem, nothing else will satisfy. If something goes wrong they'll accept the outcome easier than if I strong armed them into ROKU -- "Apple always worked." Plus, if I keep the box that they are familiar with, I won't need to give instruction and suffer push back that the other box was easier to use.

Whenever possible I locate the boxes behind the TV. This eliminates the HDMI cable/extender madness. Quite often the only inputs will be cable and Apple/ROKU and the boxes will easily fit behind the TV. In my area the cable boxes are becoming smaller and smaller. In some areas the only option will be a full size cable box.

In my experience the user interface of TV Apps is second rate at best. And, if the customer is already familiar with the Apple or ROKU interface, they'll be grumpy about learning yet another interface.

In all cases make sure that the customer understands that Apps and services on any of these modes can come and go at any time.

Also, some cable systems are offering Netflix.

There might be mild considerations with respect to control. Are you using IP, RF, or IR?

Thanks, buzz. I use Control4, so it’s RF (ZigBee) for the remotes, and then IP for the Roku and IR for Apple TV.

In my area, cable boxes are pretty big, so they go in the rack. But, I lose sleep whenever long hauling HDMI, just waiting for that “no signal” call. I’m hopeful that moving to AVPro gear will provide some relief here.

I like the elegance of putting everything in the rack, but knowing the media player will work even when the HDMI extender craps out pushes me me toward placing those behind the TV.

If there is no receiver I try to put everything at the TV. I always try to use streaming boxes instead of built in apps on the TV. Same as Buzz if they live in the Apple Ecosystem then AppleTV otherwise Roku. We have some cable companies that have large boxes that need to be in the rack or out of site. In those cases usually I would put the streaming box there too. I like the AVPro stuff better than the Binary. I have used both.

What AVPro gear do you use for switching and extending the HDMI? I was hoping AVPro had a 3x1 with HDBaseT, but it looks like they just have a 4x2, which is pricey.

We still do video distribution to extract audio from the sources for whole house audio/ supplemental audio for TV zones.

Don’t forget that Apple TV’s and cable boxes will eventually lock up and need to be rebooted!

When behind a tv that can be a problem.

We've used their 4x4 and 4x2 switchers as well as the 70m extenders. Great products and great support. A lot of the switchers have some nice features like also having audio outputs which is great for commercial 70V systems. They are bit pricey but definitely a step up from most of the cheap stuff.