Question for the A/V gurus

[Tuna]

Ok, so I'm building a house and I need to tell them how I want it wired, soooo.....

I would like to have High Def to a couple rooms and I also plan on running media center throughout the house so my question is, what's an easy cost effective way to do this? Should I just bite the bullet and install cable and Cat5 everywhere I put a tv? I read a bit that some people have had success running video through cat5 using a shielded twisted pair, but other people have told me that's retarded (which I can understand as video isn't really designed to go down twisted pair), they said you need to use an impedence matching transformer (to bring it down to 75ohm and also to split the signal into +ve and -ve)

Also, I would like to keep my 360 hooked up to my main TV but would like to be able to play it on another TV from time to time (the wireless controller goes quite a ways), is there an easy way to do this?

And ANOTHER thing, I may at some point go with a VoIP phone, should I be doing anything different if I go that route??

Thanks for you help!! Drops are 75 bucks each after the initial 7 (which is nothing, I used that for 4 Cable drops and 3 telephone).

Sorry for all the questions but I need to figure this out by next week!

[Snoop101]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

One thing I would say is to check out linksys media center extenders. Also heres a good site. which you probably already know about.
http://http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/

[James]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

Voip phone I can possibly speak on, you wont need to do anything differently...Shaw voip is basically just another modem that they will patch into the existing phone wiring (i dont think vonyage does it this way, I think they are straight cat5 connects) so any sort of phone will work in any normal phone jack

[Chikko]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

Ouch, at 75 bucks a drop, I think this will add up in a hurry. You could check with your builder about running the cables yourself; that's what we did here and they didn't have any problems with it, just told us what day the drywallers were coming and if we didn't have everything run by then, we were SOL. Doing it this way saved alot of money, and we have 2 cat 5 and 2 coax drops in every room. (Not all connected, but if we need them they can be added easily, as the wiring is in place.)

[Tuna]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

Ouch, at 75 bucks a drop, I think this will add up in a hurry. You could check with your builder about running the cables yourself; that's what we did here and they didn't have any problems with it, just told us what day the drywallers were coming and if we didn't have everything run by then, we were SOL. Doing it this way saved alot of money, and we have 2 cat 5 and 2 coax drops in every room. (Not all connected, but if we need them they can be added easily, as the wiring is in place.)

That's EXACTLY what I wanted to do, I was just going to buy all the cable myself and run it (let's face it, it's not exactly hard). The builder said they used to allow people to do that but recently they've had too many "problems". I'm still going to try though.

Anyone else?

[Khyron]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

I paid. The main outlets were 2 cable, 2 cat 5. Smaller were just 1 or 2 cat 5s. Phone lines use the cat5, and you need 2 cable outlets with the newer PVRs. All run to the home director in the basement. Can plug in up to 5 outlets for phone (so easy to move around) and the switch takes care of the ethernet.

I have an outlet outside, 1 in the bathroom and 1 in the closet just in case I want to use it. Costs way more to do it later.

One thing I didn't do was wire the living room for 5.1 - do that before they do the ceiling. Plan your tv/sofa/speaker positions.

Khyron

[Tuna]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

One thing I didn't do was wire the living room for 5.1 - do that before they do the ceiling. Plan your tv/sofa/speaker positions.

Khyron

I will be doing that (providing they let me in to the house), I'm jst reall debating the whole drop thing as I would have at least 8.

[Khyron]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

I won't do as many next time. But for sure every room with 1 of the large 2x2 drops for future expansion. And maybe extra double cat5s for places you might put a phone. Wireless wasn't as stable when I built, though I still prefer the hard wired units.

Khyron

[Tuna]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

I won't do as many next time. But for sure every room with 1 of the large 2x2 drops for future expansion. And maybe extra double cat5s for places you might put a phone. Wireless wasn't as stable when I built, though I still prefer the hard wired units.

Khyron

Yea, well I would like to stay with wired too as much as possible. Our builder is just way behind the times, they wire everything seperately (phone, cable, ethernet) So if I want 2 cat5 drops in one spot it will cost me double.

So how do you do Hi def? Just put a receiver at each tv? And what about media center?

Also, the VoIP thing, i've heard that some phones (depending on the company I believe) require power over lan which is why I asked about it because they can't use just a regular phone jack.

[Stonewall]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

Just go to Ecol electric and buy a big roll of media cable, they have it in different flavours Ie 2 cat, 2 cable fiber etc etc you are looking at about $250 a roll but it is worth it in the long run as you will never have to worry about future expansions.

[Smarty39]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

I would strongly suggest pushing your builder to allow you to run all the cable yourself.....after all, who is paying for the house? Them saying that they've had too may "problems" in the past is bullsh!t!

On a side note....I guess I should be thankful that our builder threw in the "home entertainment" package at no cost when we bought our new place. Cat5, cable, phone, and two speaker hookups in every room in the house

[Guysmiley]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

I run that cable all the time. (I am an residential electrician) It's not hard at all if you know what you want to do.

If you are able to run it yourself I would reccomend running plaster rings to the places where you want to run your wire. That way the drywallers just cut around it and you can mount any type of plate on it(cable,tele,ether etc..) The advantage for doing this is that you will have a large cavity in the wall versus a small device box.

Don't forget it's totally worth spending the bigger dollars on the right cables the first time. My 6ft cable for my HD tv was $200 but worth every penny.

If you need any help with anything just let me know.

[Tuna]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

Thanks guys for the help, I'm waiting for a call back to see if I can get into the house before drywall. If they don't let me i'm likely going to raise a stink (I have quite a bit of ammo at the moment).

[James]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

Also, the VoIP thing, i've heard that some phones (depending on the company I believe) require power over lan which is why I asked about it because they can't use just a regular phone jack.

ya, i think vonyage uses powered network equipment...i could be wrong but they sell a linksys/vonyage package at most stores so Id imagine thats the case...and all high end VoIP solutions (like cisco) use powered switches but like I said, shaw just wires a modem into your existing phone wiring.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Question for the A/V gurus

yea my vonage is a linksys 4 port router w/rj11 ports.. but you just need to tap the phone line from the router to the house lines and it essentially powers the lines in the house.. i tapped mine into my basement block and it works great..