I can only respond to the computer/internet stuff.

Where are you building? If it's in a very congested area, there is value in having ethernet cable wired throughout the house, because your wifi may conflict with your neighbor's wifi, and that may make your wifi connections frustrating. However, if you aren't building in a very congested area, you can do all your networking via wifi, and there's no need to run ethernet cables.

I built a custom home a few years back for a product evaluator for a major computer peripheral manufacturer. All I can say is that he wasn't a fan of LAN WIFI. So he specified CAT 6 in every room. (Now it might be CAT 7.)

I also want to have a little extra in case there is anything in the future we want to add but I don't know what that extra should be.

@worthy - that has been what I've been reading...is it just b/c wireless isn't as secure and slower?

HDMI cables are unreliable over 30 feet. Running 2 cat 6 cables would be equivalent to a single HDMI cable and much more reliable.

If you want to keep all the devices in the basement and access them from all TVs, you can get a HDMI switch and splitter.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?c_id=101&cp_id=10113&cs_id=1011310&p_id=8151&seq=1&format=2#description

HDMI can work over 30 ft, you need an amplifier (simple wallplate type) though. My Sat boxes are connected to TVs 50ft away by HDMI.

At each TV, I have a power outlet (need to say that because they are mounted high on walls), a CAT5 and an HDMI. I use CAT5 for an IR Repeater. One CAT5 had two broken lines, and the remaining ones couldn't handle the 50+ ft, so I now have an RF repeater for that TV. One TV created too much interference with my first IR eye, but a plasma shielded variety fixed that.

We used a whole house audio that homeruns the speakers and CAT5 for wall plates to one location.

Then we put COAX and CAT5 in each room.

Also, some Satellite stuff will need up to 4 Coax from the roof to you media distribution. I got lucky there.

@bdpeck-charlotte so would you suggest an HDMI plug at each tv location? or if I wanted to simplify just another cat6?

and just to clarify, you ran all your speakers from the speaker to the central location (for us it would be in our basement) and then ran the volume control in each room from control to the central location using a cat5?

So we might need 4 coaxial from attic to basement for satellite, should I call the satellite company and find out?

Thanks for spelling it out for me :)

@ demolitionlab
Maybe that is what we should do. We are in NC, how do I find someone like that? Do you think most would be willing to design it and let you run the wires?
How much did you pay for the design?
and how much for the finish work?
Are you doing it in a new build? Just wondering what time frame and window of opportunity we'd need to schedule in to do it ourselves.
Thanks for the great info!!

This post was edited by tulips33 on Tue, Oct 22, 13 at 17:32

I am incorporating almost everything you listed into my new custom build along with a high degree of home automation and a home theater.

Your list is extensive and I highly recommend you consult (and better hiring) a custom home theater / electronics company to help you. They interface with your builder and work along side you in the design process.

You are looking at a very complicated wiring network throughout your whole house which will need to include a central hub (where you will house a majority of your source electronics), amplifiers, complex electrical grids, with the addition of grids of speaker wire, HDMI, Cat7, etc. What they will do is develop a new set of electrical blueprints and diagrams for your home that depicts how much wiring you will need, what type, and their placement within your house's framing / drywall.

Technically, you can run the wire yourself once you have a full blueprint depicting location and amount of wiring. These companies can be hired (in the OH area) for around $99-125 per hour and blueprints usually take around 8-15 hrs of work, dependent on house size and complexity. They can also recommend appropriate speakers and other types of electronics for your budget.

I am currently wiring my house. My father is doing the electrical (I'm putting the boxes and fixtures everywhere) and I am wiring the low voltage.

Don't forget to run thermostat or speaker wire for your doorbells. You can do it wirelessly, but might as well put in the wires.

Make sure the low voltage doesn't run with the line voltage. They need to be separated by at least 6 inches, and it is best not to run them parallel at all.

I'm running 4 cat5 to my TV areas. Two for HDMI, one for internet (my TV connects directly) and a spare one for whatever I can think of. I'll probably figure out some way to run my Xbox connect through it, but you could do a skype camera.

I would also run empty conduit from the basement to the attic for whatever you may need in the future.

@LawPaw What will your 2 hdmi cat5 cables connect too?

For DirecTV, to have more than 9 tuners, you need 4 COAX from the dish to the distribution point. We're an old account, and older equipment. So I have 5 DVRs and one non DVR, for 11 tuners. If you started new or in the last couple years, you'd have one whole house DVR and then a bunch of "satellite" boxes that have one tuner and can grab from the main DVR. That whole house DVR might require 2 COAX runs, one for supply and one to distribute DVR to the other TVs. That set up only needs 2 COAX from the dish to the distribution point.

Our whole house audio didn't use simple volume controls, but keypads that choose the source and volume (and can even turn every zone on "Party Mode") and include an IR eye to change the station or disc of the source. That system ran the speaker wire to the basement and a CAT5 from the keypad location to the basement and all hooks into the back of the amp unit. It's the BreatheAudio Elevate unit (made by NUVO). Some have the speakers go to the keypads, but ours was a homerun type.

You can use CAT cable to move audio and video, but I found those systems to be expensive, that's why I chose to use HDMI cables. I had some trouble with the long ones at first, but after I put the amplifier wall plates on, it works perfectly.

IR repeaters were much tougher to get worked out, it wasn't until I bought a CAT5 tester kit and figured out when I'd made a bad RJ45 connection or had a break in the line that I got it all straightened out. I did have to double up the wiring on the longer IR repeater lengths, which is why the one that has a break in the CAT5 had to be switched to an RF system. And the RF works well, I bought it from Firefold, right up the road in Concord, NC. They have ones that work on differnt hertz so you can use more than one. I got the in wall rated HDMI from them too.

And I forgot to talk about security, whoever you want to use for monitoring, just bring them in for the wiring too. Almost all companies have wireless versions now too.

@bdpeck Hey, we're neighbors :) I'm not too far from you in Winston Salem, NC and I have some good friends in Kannapolis.
Thanks for the great info. Looks like I need to research systems and wire for what I want to do, so I'll do that.

@tulips33 - My 2 Cat5 cables will terminate into a gang faceplate with a HDMI and IR output. 2 Cat5 cables can run a single HDMI and IR signal much further and cheaper than using an HDMI cable. The faceplates that terminate Cat5 into HDMI range from $20something to $40something a pair depending on whether they also carry IR.

You can also get an exterior pair of Cat5 to HDMI converters for probably around $15.

I don't see the need to use Cat6 unless you are doing really long runs. My media closet is centrally located in my basement, so none of my runs are very long.

For whole house audio I am using a series of old Airport Express base stations that allow me to control each zone over itunes from my iphone/ipad/computer. It gives me a scalable multi-zone system for only about $30 a zone plus the cost of an amp for each zone.

Lawpaw

Is there any drop in quality if you use cat 5e cable to HDMI? So install a plate on each end to essentially achieve a cheaper hdmi cable? This is brilliant.

Is this the type of plate you are talking about?

Here is a link that might be useful: HDMI plate

This post was edited by Happydoc on Wed, Oct 23, 13 at 12:21

Another option for independent TV/DVR/Video over multiple rooms:

We had originally intended to build our house with all the wiring necessary to stream data & video to each room but budgets came in the way & so we only got 1 coax &1 Cat6 ethernet to each room.

Not to be deterred from being able to watch TV +Movies in each room independently: we chose to use TiVo's Roamio 6 dynamic tuner DVR & an associated TiVo mini's in each room.

This allows each room to be able to switch channels, record content & watch paid/free video content streaming from 3rd party providers like Netflix & Amazon - all over coax which has the MOCA standard that can carry HD signals with no problems over long distances.

The cost is about half what a multi switched HDMI carried over Cat6 setup would cost for us it was $2500 equipment vs. $1200 for equipment + lifetime tivo subscription.

We haven't done the NAS yet to be able to use our available Cat6 ethernet because we haven't researched in detail the proper boxes for that application but that should be easy too.
Our internet & smart TV's have plenty of WiFi bandwidth to work with for us 2 & the occasional ipad sporting family guests so the Cat6 would only be used for streaming to a couple of areas.

people dont generally do hdmi over cat5e/6 unless there is a setup where you have a big a/v rack with alot of equipment where all your tvs are connected... i dont think it's necessary

people tend to have a couple of spots and/or media room where they do tv/movie watching

*I* dont want surround sound or whatever on every tv in the house

just plan out your rooms and wire accordingly, then for the other rooms put at least 1 coax and 1 cat drop in em

if you have the option get 6pr cat5e instead of 4pr..

tulips33,

We have a three story house that we've divided into two units (basement and first floor, second and third floors) for owners and tenants.

I posted asking about data wiring as well and what we did was install non-metallic electrical tubing, basically plastic piping, from our various data points to a central area in each unit. That has allowed us to pull cables through as necessary.

Each bedroom has a minimum of one coaxial cable and two Cat6 lines. We figured that's what we'd need for now.

Living rooms, etc, also have speaker wire, etc. In one of the living rooms, we linked three pairs of speaker wires to ports on opposite sides of the room. That way, with 5.1 surround sound, no matter what side you have your TV and equipment on, your three front speakers can connect directly to your equipment and the couch-side speakers can be connected to the ports on one side and then the equipment on the other. All of this is done with the piping. We minimized turns, etc, to make future pulls easy. It was an absolute breeze with an electrical fishing tape.

@cfvh
That is a good idea, I'll definitely put that as our contingent plan if all of this gets too expensive and we have to cut it and do it later, at least this way there can be a later.

Tulips33,

Also, if you are using Decora (rectangular) receptacles, switches, dimmers, etc, I recommend using the Leviton QuickPorts for data. They come in plates with 2, 3, 4 or 6 holes and you can snap in your own coat, ethenet, phone, HDMI, speaker, etc ports in whichever arrangement you choose.

Also, we used the backless low voltage boxes which makes it easier to reach in and maneuver cables around. Our pipes are strapped to the studs and terminate behind or just below the boxes. You can't combine line voltage wiring and low voltage data wiring in a box without proper dividers. I recommend keeping them in separate boxes entirely.

I work in Charlotte and live in Fort Mill. I'd actually found firefold on line and ordered twice before a co-worker told me it was in Concord. Just like Monoprice, they have some great stuff.

Those CAT6 to HDMI did not exist when I built 5 years ago. That type of setup had a small box at one end that source went into and sent it over to the wallplate, and then it had a break out of Component and Stereo connectors. If that had been around, I might have done that. The price there is comparable to HDMI in wall with an amp plate.

In hindsight, I wish I'd run 2 CAT5s everywhere I wanted one, just in case I had a break in a line.

demolitionlab- may I have your AV contact? I am in King co. and will be needing services.

Happydoc, I have not seen any signal or quality drop from using Cat5. My parents had Cat5 to HDMI all over their house when it was built. Never had an issue. Cat6 can have longer runs without signal loss. I don't have the signal loss lengths in front of me, but I was no where near having an issue with it for my lengths.

My wife disdains electronics, so she wants them all hidden, even if its just in a closet.

The good thing about Cat5 or Cat6 is that someone has probably jimmied a way to use it to send any low voltage signal; so you can use them to hook up Skype cameras, video game accessories, or whatever else you can think of.

I work as a an electrician/teledata installer and can offer a few tips. Consider a central location to route all your cables in the entire house and use a residental media hub like the one Leviton sells it allows you to add various components based on your needs . Buy having all your cables and components in one location it allows for a convenient place to do all your switching, cross-connects and networking in one place, plus the ability to adjust for future technologies. You could add multiplexers for security, convert a future fiber optic internet connection into an Ethernet swich that coverts signal for distribution devices as needed and many others options.

Cat 5e/6 cables offer a lot of flexibility, baluns are the peices that can be soldered or terminated on the ends of an cat5e/6 cable allowing it to adapt to hdmi and a wide array of other connection types. Other users who offered the advice on raceways are correct smerf tube is a good way to go be sure to get a pull string or something similar (I use 16 awg thhn electrical wire) installed before closing the walls. Best of luck. Here's link to leviton home media cabinets.

Here is a link that might be useful: Inside Leviton Structured Media Enclosures

Thanks everyone for all your advice, I'm study all of them and will use them as we are starting the planning phase for this is a few days.

@ Ibewye you prefer using thhn wire vs jetline for pulling?

Hey ace_tx, if I'm pulling between two spots that has conduit run the entire way then pull string is fine, but if your your pulling through open stud cavities ,thru holes in top plates, or as a previous post mentioned smerf tube that's left short short of a low voltage ring then I like to use thhn. The outside insulation is smooth, its durable and less likely to get hung up on something the way pull string will. Obviously you wouldn't need for smerf tube if you can access with your hand.

Keep in mind I work in the electrical trade so there's alot of thhn that is leftover on reels, scrap or demoed, so it works out well.