MykeH

prewire my house

i'm a first time poster so you'll all have to bear with me. my wife and i are looking to built a new house. well, she wants the new house and i just want a home theater. anyways, what i'd like to do is have the following in this house:
1. audio throughout, w/volume & source selectability.
2. a home theater in the bsmt (projector set up).
3. small ht's in the family room and master bedrm (preferably using the equipment in the main theater).
4. future tie in for home automation.

what kind of wiring should i have included during the construction progress. i had initially thought of speaker, coax, phone, rj45 and video feeds from the bsmt to all areas that would receive the a/v equipment. i'd like to plan all of this ahead so as not to cut into finished walls and ceilings later.

regarding the theater setup, is it possible to send the video signal to 3 different displays. whatever displays we choose in the end, component video or better will be a requirement. i've seen splitters for audio signals and composite or s-video, but didn't know if there exists something for component video. how about the audio. i'd like to dedicate 3, 7ch amps, for each of the theaters. how can i split the audio to feed these 3 amps. can 2 y splitters (per channel) be used to split the audio signal 3 ways or is there some other device that'll perform this very task.

i know that there are a gazillion other questions to be answered but this is just something to start with. i'm sure i'll be making many many more visits to this forum. also, i forgot to mention that i'd like to do all or most of the set up myself. thanks for any assistance.

mike

Greg_R

Mike,

I would strongly suggest running all cable to a central location. This will be an equipment closet where you can hook up your switchers, etc. (drive multiple lines with the same signal, etc.). Electrical supplys sell an all-in-one low voltage cable which contains the types you've specified. This will save you a lot of $$$ in labor (just run one large cable to each room). Also, either run conduit (allowing for future expansion) or run double the amount of wire you think you may need.

As for video and audio distribution, you may want to consider a media server (with all your DVDs and CDs ripped to hard drives). This will allow you to distribute all your recorded audio and video over Cat5 (thus eliminating all the component video and speaker wire runs). You would then just run RG6 coax for the live video and audio.

If you are intent on distributing component video, go check out pro video devices (used in the broadcast industry). You may need BNC connections on your cables but the products exist to do the distribution with excellent quality (Extron, etc.).

Greg
My DVD Collection

Adam_mmm

Greg,

I have a similar situation in the house I just moved in. It is prewired in the living room for a dolby 5.1 setup. There are 2 coax connections in each room as well. My question is what do I need on my computer (or what do I need period) in order to push the music on my pc to my ht system in the living room. Will i need a digital coax card for my pc I really do not know where to start. Thanks in advance

Bryan G

One option you may want to consider that I use is the Turtle Beach Audiotron. The Audiotron is a digital music player. You plug it into your network via cat5, (there are options to connect it wireless). Upon it has connections to your A/V receiver by either digital toslink (what I use) or RCA left/right out. Obviously your PC with your music has to be on the network as well. Any music on the network in either an MP3 or WMA file format will be found by the Audiotron for playback on your home theater system. All you music is at your fingertips. The audiontron streams the music from your PC. The impact to your pc when your are playing music is minimal. The beauty of the audiotron is that any music on any pc in your network becomes available to the audiotron. So as your family grows and ads more PCs, you add more music which available to the audiotron.

We use it mostly to play music in our backyard in the summer months. We have everyone of our CDs in a closet because they all have been ripped to the PC hard drive.

As you can tell, I am thrilled with the Audiotron.

Like I said this is one option to consider.
Bryan

Bryan G

Paul Fernandez

Also, consider air flow if you create a media closet. My friend built his house and wired it to a central location - a small closet near the center of the house and conveniently on the other side of the wall to the living room. The only thing he regrets is not having air-conditioning duct directed to the closet. With all of the components - audio, video and computer network - it gets really warm in there. At least have some way for air to be carried away from your equipment wherever it resides.

Paul