HC300 or HC500

[pirotlert]

Hi I am a newbie apparenlty.

This is what my plan is.

1. home theatre (Video and audio)

NAS to store music files and movie files.

with one Netgear 9150 to stream video from NAS

1x HC 300

1x wireless dimmer

1x dvd changer (5 discs)

2. master bedroom (audio)

1x wireless lcd keypad

1x wifi speaker point

2x pairs of speakers

1x wireless dimmer

3. living room (audio)

1x remote control

1xwireless dimmer

1 x wifi speaker point

2x pairs of speakers

My questions

1. should i use hc 300 or hc500 (as i receive different proposals from dealers)?

2. because the house i have does not have CAT5 so i pretty much have to live with anything wireless/wifi. I plan for the future that we will have two more rooms (my kid room, and the kitchent area) with only audio to have the same setup as master bedroom in 2. above.. Should the original hc300 be handled this? Hc500 and hc300 is almost 2 times in price difference....

3. If we do only audio streaming throughout the house (tv ususally steals family time), how many max audio zones that we can have per one HC300/HC500 controller (each additional room will have either lcd key pad or 4" lcd touch/remote control and wifi speaker point), given the original setup we have above. this is so we know in future expansion...

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Pirot

[wappinghigh]

Part answer to Q2. Put in Cat5e. Actually put in Cat6. Get it in if you can. You won't regret it.

[CFUG]

A single 300 is more than capable for what you are describing.

[Matt]

1x HC 300 - disable navigator - will speed up the system with navigator disabled. (this will be your brain)

1x HC200 - slave controller

[RyanE]

I echo what Matt says.

I'd get the 300, and then get an HC200 to run as a slave controller.

Also, if you have a large home, or some of your TVs are further away from your home theater, I'd think about another HC200 there, just for a ZigBee repeater / ZAP (when Pro is released).

RyanE

[pirotlert]

thanks all,

my home is a 2 story. 900 sqf a floor x 2 floors = 1800 ft2

two setups;

1. current plan of 1 hometheatre (AV), 2 audio rooms

In this case, in the home theatre room, i should get 1 HC300 and 1 HC200? Having HC200 to be the slave controller to do navigator and integrate with Netgear9150, and 1 DVD changer for Audio/Video to the Lcd 40"? Will i need any video matrix switch if i have to add directv in the home theatre room (still thinking)?

2. future plan of 1 home theatre (AV), 2 audio rooms, + 2 or maybe 3 more audio rooms for the kid and the kitchen, dinning room.

In this case, 1 HC300 and 1 HC200 is still sufficient? HC200 to be the slave controller to do navigator and integrate with Netgear9150?

Any simple rules to determine how many audio or (video/Audio) rooms that each hc200, hc300 and hc500 can handle??

Thanks once again...