linus is on a quest to make sure that the technology in his house is as hard to use as possible

Linus: I don't want to waste money buying duplicates of each console Also Linus: so I spent $6000 on a receiver

I love that the house project has an incredibly high complexity and cost factor that is completely justified because it can be used for content.

“The Tech Adventures of Jake and Linus” Also, this seems like a setup that only one or two people would understand in the house. Every time I add something ‘techy’ to my home I ask myself: 1) Would my wife understand how to use this if she wanted to 2) Am I over implicating this?

I love watching linus and his husband working on their new house

I’m so happy Linus adopted Jake and is going to give him a good life as his new son. It’s beautiful

Love the house videos guys!! I have done the same thing in my house however only getting 4k 60hz with a HDMI matrix ran to TV's over Ethernet. The matrix is controlled with a web UI to select which screen wants what input. To solve the issues of controllers distance I took apart my consoles and extended the antenna cables to be in the roof in between all the rooms (roughly) you might find once you have furniture and everything else in the house you may struggle with distance and battery life. I found once I extended into the roof the distance I can get is a massive increase. I did the same with my PC and extended the Bluetooth card antenna cables. Thanks & love the channel Team.

The resolution of the paint document at @2:34 made me chuckle, nice

Hey Linus, I used to design and install high-end centralized AV and automation systems. If you want all the functionality you're looking for, you might look into an HDMI Matrix. The largest I installed was about 10 years ago and it was a 8x16 matrix. (8 inputs, 16 outputs) With matrixing, you can have one input go to any output or multiple thereof. You will definitely need an automation system to make it easy to use. I used RTI a lot back in the day but there are several others to choose from. Feel free to reach out of this is something you'd like to explore. My information is outdated at this point but I still have connections and would be happy to provide whatever info I can. Keep up the great work!

As an AV systems designer, It kills me a little but to watch someone put so much effort in to a consumer solution when there are professional matrix switchers that could do this natively

Now you need to have Jake or someone dive into Home Assistant and setup some IR blasters in each room, and some automations to make switching inputs etc to single button press. Add some wall mount tablets, one for each room and bam easy user interface.

Sometimes I feel bad because I feel like I spoil myself, then I just watch what Linus is up to and I instantly feel better about myself.

As someone who does video for events, there's a better way to do this... Just run everything to a central 6x6 Matrix switcher then out to a display/audio system in each room. Way less of a pain then dealing with all the weird restrictions/quirks consumer gear makes you deal with.

Linus, if it's too complicated to play Switch in a different Room, you could technically buy a second Dock to move the Switch over to a dirfferent room. Switch Docks are not a mysterium anymore.

I've done something very similar by taking advantage of remote play apps and gigabit ethernet. I think this would be much less hassle, much more intuitive, and far more flexible. Although, I acknowledge that 4K 120Hz is probably not coming to console remote play apps any time soon.

Watching Linus' house videos makes my brain turn to liquid but I love it. I want a full on tour when its done. Like 6 hours video explaining it all

HDMI Matrix boxes are cheaper than giant receivers for those watching at home! I am confused how you expect controllers to reach. EDIT: Whoop, you acknowledge at the end.

Cant belive linus made a workaround so expensive and complicated that actually made me go like "maybe streaming is a better solution here"

Solution: Just sell the receiver on Ebay or something and buy one of the new ones with multiple HDMI 2.1. Sometimes it's worth it for the better experience. It sounds like one of those would make this a lot simpler and if you're going to be living with this setup every day for years the ease of use suddenly becomes worth a lot when you're dealing with a hassle all the time

This is the content I really like to see. digging into the fine details of products to do complex things like this is the content im looking for.

This is certifiably The most first world problem I've ever seen.

Can't wait to see the receiver sitting in the corner in five years. "Yeah it ended up being too much hassle so we just put a machine in every room".

I'm anxiously awaiting Linus and Jake's new show on TLC. I'd watch the crap out of that in my doctor's office waiting room

When you're spending $5k on receivers, this seems like a lot of work to avoid buying another Xbox or two. Am I missing something?

At the end of the day, despite all his accomplishments and years spent studying tech of all kinds Linus is just like the rest of us; spending an entire afternoon to make his TV and AV boxes work *exactly* how he wants them to. Some things stay the same.

God I wish I had these issues in my life

The cable management alone for this house is worthy of another video

I love the father-son bonding in the family room.

The level of pettiness of the editor that actually did the tracking work to put "No" on Jake's hand at 13:47 instead of just putting the botltle is unmatched 🤣

Linus! I am a video engineer and I was gonna say watching this, you can just get a 12g SDI Video router (which supports 4k 120 on each input and output through dual link) and run one 12 G SDI to each tv and have a smart controller (BlackMagic sells them) at each station for super simple switching between inputs. SDI Carries audio over the cable so that would solve that issue as well. You can run SDI for miles with no signal loss. It gives you a really good upgrade path and is actually much cheaper.

I like how I only have a single 4K display which will never have a need to go beyond 60Hz, yet my AV processor has the same 3-out/7-in config, but _all_ HDMI 2.1.

I'll watch any video with Jake and Linus in it. Especially these. Funny stuff!

I love how they think this is a simple/elegant solution and that they are so smart for coming up with it when in reality this is one of the worst possible and most complex/difficult ways of doing what they set out to do.

This is 100% the kind of setup that works for 2 days untill one thing updates and then it bricks the entire system again.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one having issues figuring that out.

This is pretty dope. They can even do a KVM in the server room so they don't have to yell across rooms

Stuff like this never works well enough in practice to be worth the hassle.

Hey so uh, pro tip about the Switch. You could just buy a dock for each TV. Third party ones aren't too expensive, and it gives you the flexibility of carting your Switch between each TV easily or have an option for someone to bring their own and have a TV to plug into. This receiver solution is neat and all, and obviously necessary for the other devices but not so much for the Switch.

makes me happy to see someone finally use voice meter. i use it for all my audio things

I like watching Linus solving problems that I will never , ever, ever…..ever have

You can just stream the Xbox to any Windows 10/11 PC with the Xbox app and if every device is connected with Ethernet then you won't really notice any latency. So just have a windows computer in each room. Even if it's just a cheap $150 laptop it will still handle streaming the console

I looked in to an option like this, so I could let people play xbox in any room - but then I realised my kids just fight like mad over "whose turn it is" so this doesn't actually solve my real problem (fighting kids).

Love watching the home project videos. Mooooore!

linus and jake doing obscure hardware setups to various degrees of success is my favourite genre of ltt video

The home upgrade/renovation episodes are some of the most fun and interesting episodes that I’ve seen in a long time. When you guys finish, you should start upgrading everyone else’s house at LMG 😂

Honestly, just buy extra consoles and Denon S760H for the secondary zones. The zone 2 + 3 feature on AV receivers is really meant more for situations like kitchen or outdoor speakers. Even for high budget clients like Linus, I steer them towards a simple setup for their normal rooms, and then a high-end setup for the dedicated movie space.

Lately Linus videos are like an episode of the office and i love it

@ 3:27 Ba dum tishhhhh!, I liked it Linus even if you didn't get the reaction you wanted 😂😂

I like how Linus is imagining some sort of MTV Cribs scenario where he has his entourage just chilling in his house playing games in different rooms all the time

Gotta love the LTT logic... spend many 10k's on all kinds of AV equipment, but lets invest even more money so we can save 1k on consoles...

I was just watching to see them fail and find a way to jury rig something… Great job on actually making it work “as intended” 😂

With the Xbox you HAVE to have the same audio/video capabilities on both displays. You can manually turn features off to get it to work properly with both displays at the same time.

The only thing I was pondering on was how the controllers can work in both rooms on the Xbox. Isn't there a limitation on that distance? And i learned my lesson at 17 minutes. Touche sir

Linus: I don’t wanna spend another 1000 on two more Xbox. I wanna spend $6000 on a cool tech gadget that… means that even though the Xbox is in three rooms only one person can be on it at a time…

We absolutely need a cut of crab rave but with the LTT staff doing the crab dance

All this cool tech going into the house, I feel like Linus is the only one who will know how to work anything and whenever he's not home, his phone will be blowing up with family members asking how to watch TV

I love how this entire video just silently kills the Swtich's one main selling point. Also... Buying every console 3 times wouldn't cost 5000$.

This seems too overkill, I’m imagining how much a PITA just having my Xbox in another room is when I have to reconnect a controller etc.

I love this series. I watch it like a TV series. They are so good 😊

linus thanks for solving the dual audio output problem for me

I just can’t see this as a good solution honestly. The amount of time you will probably spend troubleshooting it when any little thing changes or goes wrong in software or if someone unplugs something without you knowing will be a nightmare. Running from room to room to check video and audio signals. Throw in the price of the receiver and the other exotic hardware it hardly becomes a cost saving measure. And then you’re limited to playing split screen across rooms rather than each person having an entire display to themselves. Like what is the point of split screen when you aren’t next to each other? Also the advantage of buying more than one Xbox is you will have more than one Xbox. What if more than one person wants to use it but doesn’t want to play the same game or just wants to play on their own? Overall it’s a cool concept and project but not something actually useful.

I'm an A/V nerd from way, waaaaay back, like back when the first surround receivers hit the market in the late 1980s and currently rock a damned healthy home theater setup that would be the envy of most cinemas. I love your setup but, like mine, have to grudgingly admit it's overengineered and far too complex for what you're doing, especially considering you have family in the mix that includes young children. It would be more flexible, easier to use, and about the same price to put a mid-level receiver and gaming console in each room with the features best suited for that room. The current gen of receivers, even lower mid-range units, are super-capable so you could buy based on each room's needs, an inexpensive unit where more comprehensive features aren't needed and a higher-end unit where more power or features are an advantage. It would also be much, much easier for users in each space to use and control versus the complexity of an integrated system with its inherent eccentricities. You could then use the multiple outputs on the PC's graphics card to feed each room independently via simple boosted HDMI runs to an input in that room's receiver. That would let you use some type of simplified customized interface that makes the setup complexity transparent to the end-user while leaving other options in a more straightforward local control configuration. This discrete by-room methodology also adds flexibility for future upgrades in each space. For power draw concerns, set the receivers, TVs, and consoles to do full power-downs rather than low-power standby when "turned off". Power draw when not in use won't be an issue, though you will have to occasionally do manual checks for firmware updates. In all honesty, though, from my experience most current electronics have hibernate power strategies that are amazingly efficient. They draw almost nothing unless they are processing an update, so power settings may be a moot point. I say this because I've tried multiple times to do an integrated whole-home setup. When it's just me using it, no problem. I know the system. If anyone else tries to use it, problem. They give up and don't use it at all. In every case I ended up going back to discrete room-specific installs that were more straightforward and user-friendly.

You got my thumbs-up with the "Arc Reactor" quip.

There are actually projector screens that are grey instead of white to give better contrast at the expense of a little bit of brightness. In a light controlled room that added contrast would most certainly be worth it.

Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to buy three Xbox’s than a 6k receiver

It feels weird that Linus & Yvonne are so close to finally moving in, this series has felt like a journey. Hopefully we’ll get to see more updates to the house even after it’s completed.

Instead of a Harmony-like remote, you could probably control all this via Home Assistant! Once everything's integrated, just add a page per room with big buttons that set everything up.

Watching this video (I just got past the intro 1:40) I have to say a few things, 1. Why not just buy multiple docks for the Nintendo switch? 2. Why not just use a steam link for your computer? 3. Why do you need to play Xbox in multiple rooms?

Lol I love Jake being the project manager of the house and living vicariously through all this amazing tech. Well who am I kidding, he’s probably gonna move in!

Curious to see how the $5000 receiver will fix the wireless controller communicating through walls, shit ass experience.

I eventually want a home theater set up in my house one day. But then I see complicated stuff like this and cower back to my TV and default speakers.

pretty cool bc i want to set up a vr setup in a different room then my PC so knowing how easy the powered cables are to use is nice

so excited to see the full house completely done soon!

I would be worried about the wireless controllers working once the rooms in the house are finished plus furnished, plus once you have many more wifi devices in and around the house and don’t forget about people in between being an issue. I predict issues with more interference :( I think multi console will end up being your final solution (plus is means two different Xbox games and/or PC games etc etc)… GL and can’t wait to see the follow up video.

I felt every inch of your pain as I have been here many times. Almost as anxiety watching, but nice not to have to be the one crawling around the floor and behind cabinets etc. every time.

That disaster looks so fun and very nerdy... It's amazing!!!💪🏾🙂

0:07 Now, back in my day we had this thing called "moving the console". I know, utter madness.

This is the definition of over engineering. As mentioned, buying multiple Xbox’s is way cheaper than this setup and would have a much greater benefit. Or if you must have every component available everywhere, get a 12g SDI matrix. Also, your wireless controllers will give you endless frustration. You are running your test in a bare house. Once you start adding in furniture, devices that clog the wireless spectrum that your controllers use…it’s just not going to work. You could go wired, however. Wire up usb extensions to the consoles. Have them go to USB wall plates in each room. That would work but be a little annoying that you would be using wired controllers again.

I would recommend to look into Pro AV Equipment (for example avproedge AC-MX-42x). Much easier, supports 4 4K120 inputs and two outputs and can be controlled via RS232 and Ethernet AND is MUCH cheaper than the receiver. I can imagine that bigger Matrix Switchers might get available soon. This might be worth a try if you don't plan on using the receiever as an audio amp as well.

have hdmi splitter and merger split around the house so you can change the input in every room with a button. Sound gona go to both rooms at the same time but only be played when switched to that input

In our hospital we use a device called Matrix, which basically has 5 inputs and outputs and lets you switch them as you wish... Awesome tech.

My father in law works for a home theatre company and is so passionate about this kind of stuff. A minute into the video and I can already hear his voice explaining all the things he's taught me so far lol. Great video!

I had to rewatch that arc reactor joke a couple times, it was so good.

4:34 amazing banter and Linus going full ball lol

Dang this was every kids dream house

“I’m going to need three Xboxes” Man you’re problems are so far away from mine. *opens $4 champagne for breakfast.

Oh god, I had to emergency exit at the "ARC Reactor" pun.

15:01 "How did you do that!" "Esc!" 🤣

This is a great video because this is actually what I do for a living and it made me realize I'm actually good at my job

I like how he didn't even acknowledge the PlayStation

Oh this brings back memories of setting up audio systems for shows/concerts. Same confusion. More stress.

Definitely wonder how many videos it will be before his house is finally furnished

The basic function here is AV matrix switching. There are stand alone matrix switches that do the same thing. As an arbitrary example, there's a 4x2 matrix switch (4 inputs to 2 outputs) on B&H for $1200 that handles 40Gb/s for 8k60 and 4k120 with all of the bells and whistles, including HDR, scaling, an audio breakout, control over IR, RS-232, LAN, and support for multiple home automation standards. To be clear, I'm not endorsing that particular product.

I feel that a simpler and definitely cheaper solution would be to get an HDMI splitter for each of the inputs and then just run HDMI from the splitter to each of the outputs

It's a great example of pushing a hardware challenge to its extreme limits. so that we can think of The setup can be modified as appropriate.

Whoever buys Linus' house is going to need this playlist to understand how their house works

I've been looking for content on "1 PC to multiple locations" for a long time - thank you for covering this - more content on this topic would be great!

Something I have learned in the past is sometimes over complicating things, while they may work, just isn't worth all the headache and effort that goes into it. And the end result is often never ideal. Pretty sure this is more expensive too if that thing is $6k. It's cool though. No doubt about that. But I actually think multiple consoles would be more ideal as it gives you way more options. Especially when you have multiple people in your family that may play games. Or if you just have friends over often. Edit: Don't even get me started on having to go back and fourth to switch out the game you want to play if it's not a digital copy. XD

So nice to see Linus help Jake put his home together lmao hahaha

I have a Sonos Arc and the eArc port on my Samsung TV is INCREDIBLY temperamental with the Sonos, took me months to figure out how to get it to work properly.