Cabling without known equipment

[dsrdsr11]

I am building a home theater on a budget and will be cabling way before I can afford the AV equipment. I would appreciate help anticipating my in wall cable needs as
my TV will be ceiling mounted and AV equipment on floor shelves with cables behind the walls from floor to ceiling.. I plan on a minimum of a dvd/bluray, direct tv, sound bar and possible game console and
internet connections. What set of in and outs floor and ceiling would make sense? I know I'll forget something. Much thanks!

 

[BMXTRIX]

Ceiling mounted TV? Like a projector or a TV just hanging from your ceiling?

You should run, at a minimum, 1 HDMI from the equipment to the TV location. Put Ethernet at your TV location, and run 2-3 extra pieces of cat-6 wire between the TV and the equipment location.

I would strongly recommend against a speaker bar if you are doing wiring for the first time. Speaker bars truly are the 'cheap' solution, but they bring a long list of headaches with them and it's not a lot more to just get speakers in the right locations. WIRE properly, then buy speakers/equipment as you can afford it. A pair of 8" in-wall speakers and a cheap receiver are just a few hundred bucks and will sound better than most speaker bars.

That said, I would recommend 14 gauge in-wall speaker wire to the speaker locations (5 or 7 locations based upon room size/layout/preferences) and one RG6 coaxial cable to the subwoofer location.

Don't forget power outlets near the TV and subwoofer and equipment locations.

At the equipment location, make sure to have an Ethernet drop as well.

 

[jpcamaro70]

I would suggest running two HDMI's through the wall to the TV you never know if you got a bad one, I also put an optical and coax just because cables are so cheap. Run 14 gauge wire to the speaker points, run a subwoofer cable or two if you plan on multi subs. OH, and label everything!!!

 

[alumiu90]

I recently wired an area in my basement for projector and 7.1 sound using an area under the stairs for my equipment storage. I ran two HDMI cables to the projector location, 2 CAT 6 cables and a serial cable so I could hook up my laptop to show photos, etc. or just to mess around with a super large "computer" screen. This gave me redundancy if something should fail. For speakers I ran in-wall cabling to all my locations including my subwoofer cable from the equipment room. Then from the equipment room to my storage area I ran 3 separate RG6 cables and three CAT 6 cables so that once again I had redundancy for Satellite or Cable TV plus could hard wire my network into the AV receiver, Xbox, DVD player, etc. Last thing I did was to run 2 more CAT 6 cables to my office which is adjacent to this theater area so I could also send information from my desktop computer to the equipment room also. Also in the remainder of the basement I ran 1 RG6 cable and 1 CAT 6 cable to a few locations so that if I wanted to add a wall TV for a separate area for my kids or for a big sporting weekend we could have multiple screens besides the projector. Once suggestion I have is you may wish to run the largest diameter piece of PVC conduit in the ceiling if possible to your main locations so that if you should ever have to pull additional wires, etc. it will be really easy to feed them and pull them through. As stated above label everything and also draw yourself a schematic so that you will always know where everything is located.

 

[ImcLoud]

from another post...
Heres what I use and havent had any issues as of yet, pretty future proof...

behind the tv... Arlington ARLTVB712 Recessed Steel TV Box (ARLTVB712) from Solid Signal

at the equipment rack...
Arlington TVB613-1 Recessed TV Outlet Box with Paintable Trim Plate, White, 4-Gang - Amazon.com and install 1 of these for the speakers {even though I only run 5.1 rite now, just incase I ever want to go 7.2 I ran the wires and kept them in the wall behind the sheet rock}
Amazon.com : Pyle Home PHIW71 7.1 Home Theater 14 Post Binding/Banana Plug with Dual RCA Subwoofer Posts Wall Plate (White) : Electronics
2 of these Amazon.com: Vanco 120614X Custom Two-Piece Bulk Cable Wall Plate (Single, White): Electronics one side gets piped rite to the tv and the other to the utility room in the basement...

then for power to the equipment rack {I keep them separate} I run one of these... Amazon.com: Vanco TVB2GW Recessed Dual Gang Indoor InBox for Plasma and LCD Televisions: Electronics , on one side I run the std 110v double recept and the other side I run a single 220v {the small 15a plug with the 1 sideways prong} but that is just because I run 220 to some of my amps...


also I this looks interesting but never used one, I use the above unit behind the tv Amazon.com: Datacomm 45-0031-WH Recessed Low Voltage Media Plate with Duplex Receptacle, White: Electronics


As far as conduit, I used the thin pvc they use on central vac systems {its huge} to go to the tv, then I used 3/4 to go to the utility room which I regretted when I had to run an HDMI cable from the sureillance box to the avr, I figured that conduit would only need an ethernet and a coax at the most, but nope I started wiring the camera system and then had to fight the hdmi all the way to the avr, if I put something bigger it would have saved me 3 hours and a lot of swearing, the head on the hdmi plug is big to push through small pipe... Also dont forget your string, I run a few lengths of srong string through the conduit and tie them in the boxes for later... This stuff changes all to often..

When the inspector seen what we did for the HT setup he said it was bar for the most extravagant he ever seen, but I have seen much nicer, a freind of mine has a built in power regulator filter unit at his rack that cost $1000 then he recessed his TV in the ceiling with one of them tv lifts, and all the wiring is in his attic where the tv hides when not in use... Pretty sick... He was trying to figure out how to make the speakers be disappear too, his equipment is all in a closet behind the HT...

One more thing to remember, {I learned the hard way} mark up your tv bracket first, and buy a bracket that does a large array of sizes, like 24-60 depending on what sizescreen you are using} I had to move mine because we couldn't get the tv centered, had to pay the plaster to come back and repaint the entire wall because sherwin williams decided to discontinue the line we used for that room after a couple months and the touch up didnt match, not to mention I had to hear my wife complain about dust after the house was built... To this day she swears the house gets more dusty because we opened that wall back up, even though its plaster and there is no sanding involved...​

 

[highfigh]

For any cabling that could change in the future, which probably doesn't include speaker cable), I would install flexible conduit from the head end to the projector/TV/external pieces of equipment. The only thing that would keep me from doing this is if I had access to the backside of the walls or above the ceiling, so I would be able to make changes without opening walls. ANYTHING that uses HDMI WILL need at least one cable changed, IMO. I think they're trying to do too much with a cable that should never have been used in the form that was adopted. Once media converters come down in price to make them competitive, fiber SHOULD replace just about everything but speaker and power cabling.