I am in the process of building a house and as part of the process have designed in a central media cupboard. From the cupboard I have a Clipsal Star Serve unit distributing the aerial signal via RG6 and phone line via Cat5e. I also have a router here with 2xCat5e to main bed & lounge and 1 Cat5e to the other bedrooms. I am aiming to have a HTPC in the cupboard and want to be able to play streamed content across the network but am not sure as to the best method of getting this to the TV's. I am in the market for some new TV’s, but LCD’s with built in LAN connectivity aren’t available yet. I don’t want to spend an extra $1000 on a pc for each room. I do want to be able to select and play media house on the central HTPC without having to walk down there.
Is there a unit that is able to be networked via the Cat5e and then output the streamed content to a LCD TV?
What is the normal method of streaming content from a central HTPC to TV's distributed through the house?