Inherited a media closet - not sure what to do. (1 Viewer)

Just bought an apt that has been wired to an inch of it's life and am now trying to decipher the set up. Have patience if I use the wrong terminology. My needs are simple: TV/movies/music in one room. I have a 5-year-old Samsung TV (may replace this), Samsung Blue Ray player, Peachtree iNova, Paradigm speakers. The TV and stereo have always sat in different rooms and I've never had a surround sound system. Place is being painted, but this is what I now have. The room has connections for front, left and right surround sound. Has two large speakers built into the walls (another two in the master bath ceiling). Also has sub woofer built in. I see no place to connect the subwoofer preamp cable anywhere near the actual speaker. I see no connection for a rear speaker at the back of the room.. The TV wall. Closer with front and right side speaker jack, power on left and component/ethernet on right. Why configure a wall like this? Close on component/ethernet. 1.5 metres to the right of FP - two etherent/one phone jacks Closer. The rack and closet. Power and preamp. Ethernet. More power. Racked pulled with ton of wires. Back of preamp with both ends of SW cable - there is no place to plug the free end. More ethernet/coaxial cables heading God knows where. Green-yellow wire? Closer. Built in modem and router. Large component heading to FP - no idea where all that coaxial is going. More ethernet and I guess phone cable. No idea what the green-yellow cable is. Random jack in another room - coaxial and ethernet? Coaxial and phone? 6 phone lines? So, how to configure what I have into this? What is the purpose of all the ethernet? Should I pull the component cables and fish HDMI cables through? Would love to move the chimney configuration to be tighter and therefore hidden. If I put all the components in the closet do I no need a RF remote to control through the door? Anyone know a NYC AV tech that can help me with all this? Thanks.

Wow, where to begin with this. First off it is internally wired for component video, given the red-green-blue panel. Most current tech uses HDMI. The phone line with each coaxial panels are for set top boxes that use your phone line to access their "on demand/pay per view menu" . In the closet you have what appears to be a signal conditioner, two surge protectors, and a switch. On the wall looks like a Verizon router and modem. I would definitely contact a professional if you are not knowledgable in a home network. I would assume all the Ethernet is for a network receiver, TV, and set top box, computer. Are all of the rooms wired as well? Are you close to these guys http://c-i-s-tech.com/, I would give them a call, price being your big issue. They may be able to integrate much of the gear you have, and trade that RGB for HDMI.

Hi David, welcome to HTF! I can't help you much but share my experience. Before wifi was as popular and as fast as it is now, ethernet was the way to go for networking. My house was built in 2000, and I had each room wired with coax for cable TV, phone jack for set top boxes, and a dual run of ethernet. I did not have the need for a component run in my media room, the equipment was next to the TV. I do have a wiring closet, but as I now use wifi throughout the house, wired ethernet hardly gets used. And I never installed centralized A/V equipment in the wiring closet, although that was the original Idea I had. Basically, let's hope someone will come along and decipher your excellent pictures.

Yep, you'll be swapping Component for HDMI. The phone line you might not use(unless you do PPV). The fact coax is ran everywhere is great. Should work for Dish/Directv as well. I'm going to wager they had everything wall mounted. Why they took the various shelves (or the mounts) down is beyond me. The "side" of the fireplace has a wall plate. Is that speaker wire? If so, is there another on the other side? On the "far right" that, it looks odd that there is power...and video, yet no audio. My guess is they were using a video controller there and the AVR was in the closet.

Thanks for getting me started. I was a little surprised at the component cables as this was all done about 5 years ago. But then I understand that they are as good as HDMI in certain situations. What are you identifying as the "signal conditioner" and "switch"? I assume I can run a signal to cable box in another room from this room. The ethernet is the confusing part - can I run a DVD signal through that cable to the TV? Oh, and what is the green-yellow cable for? Yes, there are two plates on each side of the chimney for speakers. One on the front. Nothing in the rear of the room. Additionally, there are two speakers set into the walls in the middle of the room as well as a subwoofer. I'll check out your link. Yes, cost is an issue as I'd like to simplify this.

It would help us/help you if you would uncoil the wire bunches and separate them... We don't know what the green/yellow is till we see the end connector. There is a whole lot of white(hopefully that is in-wall speaker wire). Gray and blue is typically telephone/ethernet. You could redo the entire thing and forget re-running HDMI all over and use the ethernet instead...if you are using wifi. When I link this, hopefully a lightbulb goes off... http://www.amazon.com/Vanco-280330-HDMI-Cable-Extender/dp/B004KNBGMO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1358304927&sr=1-1&keywords=vanco+ethernet+hdmi+extender Same thing, different brand...just a better picture... http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-Extender-Adapter-Single-Extension/dp/B003E7YRWS/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_4

The ethernet is old-school networking. It does not hurt to have it, but you might as well go for wifi as most new equipment supports it. Edit....Sam has just saved you having to run HDMI by using ethernet cable. Way to go, Sam!

Third picture... Nos 4/11/12. Those, to me, all look like ethernet. There is your "HDMI"...

I will be there tomorrow and take more pics. Do my best to uncoil, but am concerned about turning a mess into a bloody mess. The speakers all seem to wired up. One of the confusing things is the subwoofer. It is mounted beside the closet but with no visible way to attach a cable. As seen in pic 11 the cable is free. Appreciate the link, Sam. Sadly my lightbulbs are somewhat dim of late. What do I use the HDMI cable extender for? edit Thanks, Sam. That was probably the answer I was looking for - use the ethernet as the HDMI cable. Didn't realize they were "compatible." So, audio aside for a moment, I can have a FIOS signal come into the closet. One into the modem and the other into a cable box. I can use either the component cables or the ethernet cables to run the cable box/DVD/Roku (may drop this) into the TV. I can control these units with a Harmony 900 RF remote through the door. Then for audio I can put the Peachtree integrated amp into the closet and wire to the built-in speakers (the SW notwithstanding). Drop my paradigm speakers? If I want to I can buy smaller speakers for surround sound and mount above and at the sides of the chimney. I would be tempted to buy a simple soundbar instead and mount that over the TV. Or put the Peachtree and paradigms on the shelves and use them soley for music and get another integrated amp for the TV surround system and keep it in the closet. Or seal the whole room up and get some rabbit ears. One other thing, if you look to the lower right in pic one you can see small black dot in the lower cabinet. That is a coaxial cable. Not really sure why that is there unless he sat his cable box there. But then there's no way to wire to the TV without draping across the front of the chimney and I can't imagine he did that.

If he put his cable box there(that is why I'm confused as to why it is just video), then that is a component video input. What I'm guessing...that goes, all by its lonesome, back into the closet. My guess is that was a status monitor(like for how much internet he was chewing, heat inside the closet, what "zones" were active...and on what...)

What is "there" in this case? The shelf? There is only a cable, no other connections. No idea how he got from the box to the TV. You should see what he did with the lights in the place. Everything is categorized on a master controller by "mood." I asked the realtor which buttons I push if my mood is "I just want to see what the hell I'm doing."

If he was "that" into it...that "far right" was a video display...and nothing more. Think of that spot as "small TV" and it makes sense. And yes, there are video monitors for "what is going on". He might have even had a security system...and that was the display for video cameras...is there a connection by the entry outside?

No security system other than a grumpy doorman.

I can picture it, the doorman from the Jeffersons

The sub is a Triad. I have two of their in-walls and they are very nice subs. Based on your picture of the rack, the sub is the white wire hooked up to the back of the box that says Triad in the rack. The blue (?) cable with the RCA connecter hooked up the the Triad AMP will go to the sub output of your receiver or processor.

Thanks, Adam. Very helpful. This is the back of my amp: Where exactly does that blue cable go? "Remote out"? What is this? I really need a 12-year-old to come over and hook up all this stuff. Will try and take more pics today or tomorrow.

Today's noob question... If I use the Peachtree iNova how do I configure it for audio? Appreciate that I have never used anything on it other than the main speaker connections and I dont have the manual with me as it is in storage with the unit. This is the back: I have: > the two Paradigms, but that would mean some wall busting to hide the cables. > two built-in wall speakers and a built-in sub. (By the way, any issue with a built-in sub? Especially if I crank it to 11?) > two built-in ceiling speakers in the master bath. And as you can see from the pics there are outlets for a center speaker and two on each side of the chimney. Can I plug the PD's into the two sides on the chimney or will that extra connection degrade the sound quality? If I dont use the PDs, I guess I hook the built-in wall speakers into the main right and left of the amp. Where does the sub plug in? If I add surround for TV how do five additional speakers get pulled in? Or in this case would the three on the chimney be the "fronts" and the two built-ins (at mid-room) be the rears? Remote Out and In I assume are for headphones and a peripheral radio? Opt 1& 2 and USB for a direct computer line? What are the Coax 1 & 2 for? And finally, what are the RGB components used for on an amp? Thanks for your patience and please use small words. Much to learn.

I think you found the reason why there is a "far right" component video. It was probably used to see the Ipod while docked. I'm going to venture a guess that he might not have used the iNova to actually power anything. He used it simply as an Ipod dock. The iNova is only two channels. What you do with the right/left is your choice. I'd almost sell the thing(they are still worth money...to some people). Having it causes set-up issues. There is one on Ebay for $900. That would buy you a killer 7.1 AVR. Just realized the iNova is yours...it wasn't "left"... I would use it to power the 2nd zone and get a 2 zone AVR, then run the 2nd Zone to the iNova...then run the "line out" to the AVR when you want ipod in the main zone.

Well ... live and learn. $900 is considerably less than what I paid last year. Naturally, they discontinued it shortly afterward once apple changed the dock. I think I need a primer as that advice went right over my head. What are you defining as a "zone." So I need another hub/controller AVR? Kind of hoping to make do with what I have (and figure out what I have) before I invest in more gear.