Please help! Can't figure out wiring

[kdousharm]

My good friend recently tragically lost her husband. They had just finished renovating their house. He did the wiring for an equipment closet, located adjacent to their great room. There are no records of what he did. Right now, my friend has a flat screen TV mounted on the wall with cables running down the wall in a big mess. Its pretty sad looking.

I was wondering if someone could tell me how to figure out what needs to be done to get just basic equipment working in the equipment closet. I'm an architect and I have a pretty good knowledge of electrical wiring, but not all the specifics of low voltage.

There is an outlet and a phone jack behind the tv... I'm assuming he ran some kind of CATV, but I haven't pulled the plate off yet to find out. I'd like to hook up the cable DVR box and a DVD player in the closet.

I'm familiar with IR repeaters and I know they can be used to control the equipment without wiring, but I'd rather try to use the wiring that is already set up, if possible.

I really appreciate any advice. Can someone tell me what wires should have been run and the configuration of them to the equipment in the closet?

Many thanks.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Sorry about the bad news.

A list of all the equipment and brands/models would help a lot here.

 

[Johnd]

Sorry about the bad news.

My condolences as well.

A list of all the equipment and brands/models would help a lot here.

Yes. Additionally:
1) what you have (equipment, existing cabling...if any. "Telephone jack and outlet" is not audio related);
2) what you want (cable/sat, in wall wiring, etc.); and,
3) what you need.

Cheers.

 

[mtrycrafts]

My good friend recently tragically lost her husband. They had just finished renovating their house. He did the wiring for an equipment closet, located adjacent to their great room. There are no records of what he did. Right now, my friend has a flat screen TV mounted on the wall with cables running down the wall in a big mess. Its pretty sad looking.

I was wondering if someone could tell me how to figure out what needs to be done to get just basic equipment working in the equipment closet. I'm an architect and I have a pretty good knowledge of electrical wiring, but not all the specifics of low voltage.

There is an outlet and a phone jack behind the tv... I'm assuming he ran some kind of CATV, but I haven't pulled the plate off yet to find out. I'd like to hook up the cable DVR box and a DVD player in the closet.

I'm familiar with IR repeaters and I know they can be used to control the equipment without wiring, but I'd rather try to use the wiring that is already set up, if possible.

I really appreciate any advice. Can someone tell me what wires should have been run and the configuration of them to the equipment in the closet?

Many thanks.

On top of the other posts, is this system working right now? If so, what is working? TV? Is there a surround sound system connected? Is that working? A VCR?
The outlets behind the TV, are they connected to the TV in any manner? To which TV inputs? This would tell us what signals are set to the TV, etc.

 

[kiwiaudionut]

Sorry to hear about your friends loss. To get you started, a simple way to unscramble the speaker wiring and find out what wire goes to what speaker is to take a AA battery and flash the two wires on the battery terminals. When you find which speaker makes a light pop, you can then decide polarity by having someone watch the woofer cone and see which way it moves.
Connect all the speakers polarity correct.