Need help setting up home theatre, please

[avnewbie]

Our home had a home theatre setup when we moved in. The previous occupant took all of the equipment (to be expected) except the built in speakers. I cannot figure out how to connect the TV to the speakers.

The speaker wires are threaded through the wall into a utility closet. There are 3 pairs of speakers and thankfully the wires in the utility closet are labeled (SUB, Front L/R, etc.). Our internet modem is also in this closet.

In the TV room:
1. The only wire coming out of the wall where the TV mounts is a yellow CAT6 wire. This is labeled "Theatre".

2. Two other wires which are blue CAT6 are coming out of a the side wall down near the floor. They are labeled "Theatre 1" and "Theatre 2".

3. There is also a white wire that appears to be the outbound for the subwoofer.

I purchased a receiver, subwoofer and the internet guy suggested a 16 port gigabit desktop switch.

I'm typically quite capable of figuring out the standard setups for dummy's but this is beyond my skill level with the type of wire connections available in the TV room. I would love to be able to figure this out with your help.

 

[lovinthehd]

Generally tv does not connect to external speakers without the interface of another unit. One of the saddest issues we see here are people who inherit systems without any details of setup/wiring.....

Overall you might describe if the current speakers are even desirable or what setup you might find as an ideal, with details of each room appropriately.

One of our best guys for these "home" installations is @BMXTRIX so he might have some ideas/questions for you....

 

[TLS Guy]

Our home had a home theatre setup when we moved in. The previous occupant took all of the equipment (to be expected) except the built in speakers. I cannot figure out how to connect the TV to the speakers.

The speaker wires are threaded through the wall into a utility closet. There are 3 pairs of speakers and thankfully the wires in the utility closet are labeled (SUB, Front L/R, etc.). Our internet modem is also in this closet.

In the TV room:
1. The only wire coming out of the wall where the TV mounts is a yellow CAT6 wire. This is labeled "Theatre".

2. Two other wires which are blue CAT6 are coming out of a the side wall down near the floor. They are labeled "Theatre 1" and "Theatre 2".

3. There is also a white wire that appears to be the outbound for the subwoofer.

I purchased a receiver, subwoofer and the internet guy suggested a 16 port gigabit desktop switch.

I'm typically quite capable of figuring out the standard setups for dummy's but this is beyond my skill level with the type of wire connections available in the TV room. I would love to be able to figure this out with your help.

It is very difficult to be certain, how the previous owners set up was configured.

The speaker wires are pretty obvious as I think you know. They would need to be connected to the speaker outputs of a receiver. One thing that begs an answer is what is the quality of those in wall speakers and their locations? The sub connection should be an RCA cable, one end goes into the sub out of a receiver and the other to the input of a subwoofer.

At the TV location I suspect that the distance was too great for the HDMI cables available at the time of installation. I suspect they used HDMI over cat6
To do this you will need HDMI Cat6 converters at each end. These days we use hybrid wire/optical HDMI cables. The copper caries the audio, and the optical the video. Unless the wiring is in conduit, which it should be, but probably is not, then you are stuck with this HDMI over Cat6.

What the other Cat6 cables were for is anyone's guess.

More often than not previous owners systems are a gigantic mess and it is best to start from scratch.

I think in your situation the best thing to do is to asses the quality of those in wall speakers and whether their locations are correct. If the locations of the speakers are not to Dolby specs, then I would just forget there was a system ever there, and start from scratch. You need to ascertain if those speakers are good enough to warrant further investment. From previous post of this nature, I would not get your hopes up very high.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I know you sent a PM, but I will leave my same comments here that I did in my response to you on PM...

What are you trying to use as a source for your television?

It's very unusual not to have additional cabling at the television location, as the TV typically has HDMI, cable, and other feeds to it from a central closet location, or from an equipment location. But, different builders do different things.

It would be helpful to have some photos of your setup, and if you posted on the forums, with photos, I may be able to provide more information.

Typically, a standard AV receiver is hooked up to the sources directly and then to the speakers for audio output, and to the TV to pass video on to that. If there is only cat-6 between the TV and the equipment location, then a HDMI over category cable extender is what I would use to carry the video from point to point. If you have 4K sources and everything is 4K, you need to be sure to get one which supports 4K video. This setup does NOT allow the TV to utilize the internal 'smart' functionality (streaming) stuff, but you can pick up a external streaming devices like a Roku, Fire, or Apple product to do streaming.

While there are HDMI extenders which will just carry HDMI, there are also advanced units which carry more information and may allow for you to get audio out of the TV (so you could use the internal smart apps, and plug in sources locally) as well as extend infrared control to that closet from a remote in the theater. So, something like this may work well...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RDGHVNC/ref=sspa_dk_hqp_detail_aax_0

It also has Ethernet on it so you can have a wired network connection to the TV.

Be aware, the technology used for this is NOT Ethernet. It is a tech called HD-Base-T (HDBT). So, the setup of this device truly acts like a HDMI cable, with some added breakout features. But, it doesn't reside on your network. The LAN connections on it are for you to extend networking capabilities, typically up to 100Mb/s, which is plenty for streaming.

 

[TLS Guy]

I know you sent a PM, but I will leave my same comments here that I did in my response to you on PM...

What are you trying to use as a source for your television?

It's very unusual not to have additional cabling at the television location, as the TV typically has HDMI, cable, and other feeds to it from a central closet location, or from an equipment location. But, different builders do different things.

It would be helpful to have some photos of your setup, and if you posted on the forums, with photos, I may be able to provide more information.

Typically, a standard AV receiver is hooked up to the sources directly and then to the speakers for audio output, and to the TV to pass video on to that. If there is only cat-6 between the TV and the equipment location, then a HDMI over category cable extender is what I would use to carry the video from point to point. If you have 4K sources and everything is 4K, you need to be sure to get one which supports 4K video. This setup does NOT allow the TV to utilize the internal 'smart' functionality (streaming) stuff, but you can pick up a external streaming devices like a Roku, Fire, or Apple product to do streaming.

While there are HDMI extenders which will just carry HDMI, there are also advanced units which carry more information and may allow for you to get audio out of the TV (so you could use the internal smart apps, and plug in sources locally) as well as extend infrared control to that closet from a remote in the theater. So, something like this may work well...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RDGHVNC/ref=sspa_dk_hqp_detail_aax_0

It also has Ethernet on it so you can have a wired network connection to the TV.

Be aware, the technology used for this is NOT Ethernet. It is a tech called HD-Base-T (HDBT). So, the setup of this device truly acts like a HDMI cable, with some added breakout features. But, it doesn't reside on your network. The LAN connections on it are for you to extend networking capabilities, typically up to 100Mb/s, which is plenty for streaming.

That is another good instruction for the rest of us. That HD-Base-T is a somewhat expensive solution. It reinforces the fact that AV cables should be run in conduit, so they can be changed. A Hybrid HDMI cable would be a cheaper solution, but not if you have to open the walls. We still do not know enough about this room, and he may have to open walls anyway, to get it right.

More likely than not there is a builder's mess underlying all this, which is what is usually encountered in posts like this.

 

[avnewbie]

I know you sent a PM, but I will leave my same comments here that I did in my response to you on PM...

What are you trying to use as a source for your television?

It's very unusual not to have additional cabling at the television location, as the TV typically has HDMI, cable, and other feeds to it from a central closet location, or from an equipment location. But, different builders do different things.

It would be helpful to have some photos of your setup, and if you posted on the forums, with photos, I may be able to provide more information.

Typically, a standard AV receiver is hooked up to the sources directly and then to the speakers for audio output, and to the TV to pass video on to that. If there is only cat-6 between the TV and the equipment location, then a HDMI over category cable extender is what I would use to carry the video from point to point. If you have 4K sources and everything is 4K, you need to be sure to get one which supports 4K video. This setup does NOT allow the TV to utilize the internal 'smart' functionality (streaming) stuff, but you can pick up a external streaming devices like a Roku, Fire, or Apple product to do streaming.

While there are HDMI extenders which will just carry HDMI, there are also advanced units which carry more information and may allow for you to get audio out of the TV (so you could use the internal smart apps, and plug in sources locally) as well as extend infrared control to that closet from a remote in the theater. So, something like this may work well...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RDGHVNC/ref=sspa_dk_hqp_detail_aax_0

It also has Ethernet on it so you can have a wired network connection to the TV.

Be aware, the technology used for this is NOT Ethernet. It is a tech called HD-Base-T (HDBT). So, the setup of this device truly acts like a HDMI cable, with some added breakout features. But, it doesn't reside on your network. The LAN connections on it are for you to extend networking capabilities, typically up to 100Mb/s, which is plenty for streaming.

Here are pics of the whole setup as it is right now. Three speaker boxes on the TV wall and two speakers in the ceiling at the back of the room (forgot these two in my original post). There is just the one yellow CAT6 behind TV, nothing else. Then the two blue CAT6 in the side wall near the floor. The pile of wires are in the equipment room, and there are ethernet-looking ports throughout the house. I'm guessing that's what most of these wires are for and were never fully set up to anything for a home network. Included in that mess of wires are the 2 blue and 1 yellow as well as the labeled speaker & sub wires. I spent plenty of time sorting through that pile to determine what was there. The round white tower is our modem. The distance from the tv cable outlet to the equipment room cable outlet is approx. 12 ft .

 

[BMXTRIX]

Here are pics of the whole setup as it is right now. Three speaker boxes on the TV wall and two speakers in the ceiling at the back of the room (forgot these two in my original post). There is just the one yellow CAT6 behind TV, nothing else. Then the two blue CAT6 in the side wall near the floor. The pile of wires are in the equipment room, and there are ethernet-looking ports throughout the house. I'm guessing that's what most of these wires are for and were never fully set up to anything for a home network. Included in that mess of wires are the 2 blue and 1 yellow as well as the labeled speaker & sub wires. I spent plenty of time sorting through that pile to determine what was there. The round white tower is our modem. The distance from the tv cable outlet to the equipment room cable outlet is approx. 12 ft .

I look at that and the complete mess and lack of stripped cabling really makes it look like nothing was actually connected. This means they probably used the yellow cat cable to the TV for networking, so they could stream movies more easily.

I would use the adapter I listed. You want to be sure the closet where all those cables are going to is properly ventilated so it doesn't overheat if you are sticking a fair bit of electronics in there. Looks like a lot more cabling than just the 5.1 audio plus a few cat cables, but it's hard to tell what's what. It is worth spending a fair bit of time organizing things, and maybe bringing all the actual network cabling into a patch panel, or maybe a wall-box to keep it separate from the AV cabling. It's a mess that needs a number of hours spent on it.

Any cables you cut to length should be relabeled so that you can identify them in the future.

 

[avnewbie]

I look at that and the complete mess and lack of stripped cabling really makes it look like nothing was actually connected. This means they probably used the yellow cat cable to the TV for networking, so they could stream movies more easily.

I would use the adapter I listed. You want to be sure the closet where all those cables are going to is properly ventilated so it doesn't overheat if you are sticking a fair bit of electronics in there. Looks like a lot more cabling than just the 5.1 audio plus a few cat cables, but it's hard to tell what's what. It is worth spending a fair bit of time organizing things, and maybe bringing all the actual network cabling into a patch panel, or maybe a wall-box to keep it separate from the AV cabling. It's a mess that needs a number of hours spent on it.

Any cables you cut to length should be relabeled so that you can identify them in the future.

Do you think the hdmi extender is the only additional piece of equipment I need? I install that at the TV, connecting the yellow cat6 to the TV. The receiver would have to be in the equipment closet, right. Do I need that extender in the equipment closet also, to connect the yellow cat to the receiver?

 

[-Jim-]

Wow that's a lot of LAN Cables for a House! I'd spend the time and "ring out" and label all of them. Avoid cutting anything unless you have to. Extending cables is not an easy task, and you never know how you'll want to connect them down the road.

I'm a fan of hard wired LAN in many applications, and obviously the previous owner was too. It's a recent enough install as it seems all Cat6. Most folks seem to be going to Wi-Fi 6 these days, as Wi-Fi speeds have improved greatly and it's far easier than running LAN cables everywhere. Of course more and more devices are wireless only too.

@avnewbie Using the Cat6 HDMI extenders allows you to centralize the system equipment into the closet. Think of that yellow one as the special HDMI feed to the TV and it's treated differently than the other ones. The extender comes as a matched pair - one at each end of the LAN cable; and then connect one HDMI cable to go to the TV and one HDMI cable goes to the Denon AVR-S760H monitor out. Of course putting the AVR-S760H into the closet also means every source you want hard wired to it must pretty much reside there as well.

Can you advise why the Front L&R speaker terminals aren't used in the photo? What make / model is your TV. If you can use it wirelessly, you can go to a much less expensive HDMI extender.

 

[TLS Guy]

Here are pics of the whole setup as it is right now. Three speaker boxes on the TV wall and two speakers in the ceiling at the back of the room (forgot these two in my original post). There is just the one yellow CAT6 behind TV, nothing else. Then the two blue CAT6 in the side wall near the floor. The pile of wires are in the equipment room, and there are ethernet-looking ports throughout the house. I'm guessing that's what most of these wires are for and were never fully set up to anything for a home network. Included in that mess of wires are the 2 blue and 1 yellow as well as the labeled speaker & sub wires. I spent plenty of time sorting through that pile to determine what was there. The round white tower is our modem. The distance from the tv cable outlet to the equipment room cable outlet is approx. 12 ft .

That is helpful. You have a terrible bird's nest of wires to sort out. But sorted they must be.

I suspect that closet was an Ethernet hub, and you likely have Ethernet cables going to different places in the house.

If you are going to use those other cables, which you probably should, then I would install a pro 10"rack in that closet and use a 19" patch bay and 19" Ethernet hub.

The patch bay is on top and the hub below. That room has another hub in the main AV rack. There are smaller hubs in the great room system, family room system and office. That is a construction photograph well before the room and house were finished.

The front speakers look promising. I don't recognize them, or see a manufacturer's name on them. It does not look as if they had grills on them or any facility for placing them.

I think there is every possibility they are home made. If so you have to hope the owner designer was an expert. You will just have to see how they sound and hope for the best. The speakers look to be all the same.

I would check the DC resistance of those speakers, and see what it is. I suspect they are four ohms, which some receivers do not like. The DC resistance should be somewhere between 3.5 and 3.8 ohms. The DC resistance will be a little lower than the actual impedance. If the DC resistance is below 3.5 ohms then don't use them.
It would be ideal if you purchased a Daytons Tester, and then you could measure the impedance curve to make sure they will not blow up your receiver.
That will tell you for sure if those speakers are lethal or not. We can help you interpret the curves. It will give you the impedance with frequency and the phase angle of the speakers. In this situation I would recommend doing this, as I have no idea of the provenance of those speakers, may be another member will recognize them, but I don't.

Ceiling surrounds is not ideal, and they in the wrong place. I would buy separate surrounds for the sides, placed to Dolby specs. That will give you a 5.1 system with a sub.

 

[TLS Guy]

Do you think the hdmi extender is the only additional piece of equipment I need? I install that at the TV, connecting the yellow cat6 to the TV. The receiver would have to be in the equipment closet, right. Do I need that extender in the equipment closet also, to connect the yellow cat to the receiver?

Yes, as above you need a converter at both ends. I agree with Jim, everything that does not move should be hard wired. That is the high road. The problem is that owner did not use conduit, like I did, and that was a huge mistake. That way you can change a cable in minutes, and there is less chance of drywaller or other artisan putting a nail through a cable.

 

[avnewbie]

Wow that's a lot of LAN Cables for a House! I'd spend the time and "ring out" and label all of them. Avoid cutting anything unless you have to. Extending cables is not an easy task, and you never know how you'll want to connect them down the road.

I'm a fan of hard wired LAN in many applications, and obviously the previous owner was too. It's a recent enough install as it seems all Cat6. Most folks seem to be going to Wi-Fi 6 these days, as Wi-Fi speeds have improved greatly and it's far easier than running LAN cables everywhere. Of course more and more devices are wireless only too.

@avnewbie Using the Cat6 HDMI extenders allows you to centralize the system equipment into the closet. Think of that yellow one as the special HDMI feed to the TV and it's treated differently than the other ones. The extender comes as a matched pair - one at each end of the LAN cable; and then connect one HDMI cable to go to the TV and one HDMI cable goes to the Denon AVR-S760H monitor out. Of course putting the AVR-S760H into the closet also means every source you want hard wired to it must pretty much reside there as well.

Can you advise why the Front L&R speaker terminals aren't used in the photo?

Yes, it's a lot. hahaha. I've already gone through and at least rolled up individually the unused cat cables. I think a substantial home network is what the previous owner planned and then they moved before he did anything with the rest of the house. Or he just did a blunt cut on the wires to disconnect his equipment (probably unlikely). Thanks for the info on the extenders.

 

[avnewbie]

Yes, as above you need a converter at both ends. I agree with Jim, everything that does not move should be hard wired. That is the high road. The problem is that owner did not use conduit, like I did, and that was a huge mistake. That way you can change a cable in minutes, and there is less chance of drywaller or other artisan putting a nail through a cable.

thanks for the clarification on the extenders.

 

[avnewbie]

Wow that's a lot of LAN Cables for a House! I'd spend the time and "ring out" and label all of them. Avoid cutting anything unless you have to. Extending cables is not an easy task, and you never know how you'll want to connect them down the road.

I'm a fan of hard wired LAN in many applications, and obviously the previous owner was too. It's a recent enough install as it seems all Cat6. Most folks seem to be going to Wi-Fi 6 these days, as Wi-Fi speeds have improved greatly and it's far easier than running LAN cables everywhere. Of course more and more devices are wireless only too.

@avnewbie Using the Cat6 HDMI extenders allows you to centralize the system equipment into the closet. Think of that yellow one as the special HDMI feed to the TV and it's treated differently than the other ones. The extender comes as a matched pair - one at each end of the LAN cable; and then connect one HDMI cable to go to the TV and one HDMI cable goes to the Denon AVR-S760H monitor out. Of course putting the AVR-S760H into the closet also means every source you want hard wired to it must pretty much reside there as well.

Can you advise why the Front L&R speaker terminals aren't used in the photo? What make / model is your TV. If you can use it wirelessly, you can go to a much less expensive HDMI extender.

Wow that's a lot of LAN Cables for a House! I'd spend the time and "ring out" and label all of them. Avoid cutting anything unless you have to. Extending cables is not an easy task, and you never know how you'll want to connect them down the road.

I'm a fan of hard wired LAN in many applications, and obviously the previous owner was too. It's a recent enough install as it seems all Cat6. Most folks seem to be going to Wi-Fi 6 these days, as Wi-Fi speeds have improved greatly and it's far easier than running LAN cables everywhere. Of course more and more devices are wireless only too.

@avnewbie Using the Cat6 HDMI extenders allows you to centralize the system equipment into the closet. Think of that yellow one as the special HDMI feed to the TV and it's treated differently than the other ones. The extender comes as a matched pair - one at each end of the LAN cable; and then connect one HDMI cable to go to the TV and one HDMI cable goes to the Denon AVR-S760H monitor out. Of course putting the AVR-S760H into the closet also means every source you want hard wired to it must pretty much reside there as well.

Can you advise why the Front L&R speaker terminals aren't used in the photo? What make / model is your TV. If you can use it wirelessly, you can go to a much less expensive HDMI extender.

I think I don't have the Front L&R terminals connected because the cable that is labeled Front L/R have 4 wire speakers included (white, black, red, green) and I didn't have a way to test which wires went to which terminal. The TV is LG 75UN9070.

 

[avnewbie]

That is helpful. You have a terrible bird's nest of wires to sort out. But sorted they must be.

I suspect that closet was an Ethernet hub, and you likely have Ethernet cables going to different places in the house.

If you are going to use those other cables, which you probably should, then I would install a pro 10"rack in that closet and use a 19" patch bay and 19" Ethernet hub.

The patch bay is on top and the hub below. That room has another hub in the main AV rack. There are smaller hubs in the great room system, family room system and office. That is a construction photograph well before the room and house were finished.

The front speakers look promising. I don't recognize them, or see a manufacturer's name on them. It does not look as if they had grills on them or any facility for placing them.

I think there is every possibility they are home made. If so you have to hope the owner designer was an expert. You will just have to see how they sound and hope for the best. The speakers look to be all the same.

I would check the DC resistance of those speakers, and see what it is. I suspect they are four ohms, which some receivers do not like. The DC resistance should be somewhere between 3.5 and 3.8 ohms. The DC resistance will be a little lower than the actual impedance. If the DC resistance is below 3.5 ohms then don't use them.
It would be ideal if you purchased a Daytons Tester, and then you could measure the impedance curve to make sure they will not blow up your receiver.
That will tell you for sure if those speakers are lethal or not. We can help you interpret the curves. It will give you the impedance with frequency and the phase angle of the speakers. In this situation I would recommend doing this, as I have no idea of the provenance of those speakers, may be another member will recognize them, but I don't.

Ceiling surrounds is not ideal, and they in the wrong place. I would buy separate surrounds for the sides, placed to Dolby specs. That will give you a 5.1 system with a sub.

I bet what you have is similar to what the previous owner had set up. The speakers do have covers. Maybe they thought it looked cooler without, but we have them still in the plastic. There is a cutout template labeled TruAudio REV6; maybe that's the brand.

 

[-Jim-]

@avnewbie your LG TV is WiFi 5 (AC) capable, so you may want to try it for your Apps in that manner first before deciding on an HDMI extender is cost is an issue.

Truaudio REV6 Revolve SUR.1 6.5" Surround Speaker could be what is in your ceiling. Look around the Fronts a bit.

 

[avnewbie]

@avnewbie your LG TV is WiFi 5 (AC) capable, so you may want to try it for your Apps in that manner first before deciding on an HDMI extender is cost is an issue.

Truaudio REV6 Revolve SUR.1 6.5" Surround Speaker could be what is in your ceiling. Look around the Fronts a bit.

we are currently using wifi to stream Netflix, Hulu, etc. and using the tv speakers. connecting the tv to the built in speakers is the challenge since the speaker wires are fed through the wall into an equipment closet under the stairs and the only wire connecting the tv to that closet is the cat6. it would be much simpler, I think, if the speaker wires were fed into the tv room instead of the equipment closet.

 

[-Jim-]

I think I don't have the Front L&R terminals connected because the cable that is labeled Front L/R have 4 wire speakers included (white, black, red, green) and I didn't have a way to test which wires went to which terminal. The TV is LG 75UN9070.

I'm a bit unsure as to what you are describing here. Is it a single cable with 4 conductors, or is it 2 cables each with 4 conductors? (Some folks pull in the latter for redundancy, in case a conductor goes bad down the road.)

 

[-Jim-]

we are currently using wifi to stream Netflix, Hulu, etc. and using the tv speakers. connecting the tv to the built in speakers is the challenge since the speaker wires are fed through the wall into an equipment closet under the stairs and the only wire connecting the tv to that closet is the cat6. it would be much simpler, I think, if the speaker wires were fed into the tv room instead of the equipment closet.

IMHO if you had an HDMI cable from the TV to the closet you would use the eArc function from the LG TV (HDMI 3). I doubt it can be "fished" though the walls now. So if you go with an extender, make sure it can handle eArc, or at least Arc if you are compelled to have lossless audio coming from your TV. (Current HDMI cables allow audio to pass down the HDMI to your receiver for processing.)

 

[avnewbie]

I'm a bit unsure as to what you are describing here. Is it a single cable with 4 conductors, or is it 2 cables each with 4 conductors? (Some folks pull in the latter for redundancy, in case a conductor goes bad down the road.)