My theater is in the basement with a drop ceiling, so adding conduit will be pretty easy. The reason for my upgrading to conduit is because at one point the video and speaker wires cross over an HVAC trunk and I think they might be laying on it. So I'd like to run conduit over the trunk.

Other than price, is there any difference in the kind of conduit you use to run speaker wire, and video cable? I see electrical conduit at the local Home Improvement store in certain sizes, but I can get PVC plumbing pipe in a lot of sizes.

Any comments welcome.

My theater is in the basement with a drop ceiling, so adding conduit will be pretty easy. The reason for my upgrading to conduit is because at one point the video and speaker wires cross over an HVAC trunk and I think they might be laying on it. So I'd like to run conduit over the trunk.

Other than price, is there any difference in the kind of conduit you use to run speaker wire, and video cable? I see electrical conduit at the local Home Improvement store in certain sizes, but I can get PVC plumbing pipe in a lot of sizes.

Any comments welcome.


For speaker wires, I used SMURF tubes...blue plastic conduit tubes that are 3/4" in size. They are available at Lowe's or Home Depot. I used these smurf tubes to each of my speakers because there are only going to be a maximum of two wires in each tube.

The conduit to my projector and the area behind my screen wall is 2" electrical conduit (gray). I used this because I'll have HDMI, Component, and the like in these tubes, so expansion is the key. I used electrical conduit because of the sweeping 90 degree elbows. These make it easy to pull wires through it.

Conventional wisdom on this board would be to warn against using PVC pipe. The elbows are too short to allow the easy pulling of wire through the bends.

CJ

There is a difference most comes down to code. I used EMI Conduit that helps with interference. I would not suggest running video and speaker wire in same conduit. Also if you do cross line voltage wires try to do it at 90 degree angle. Using the EMI metal conduit will help you reduce noise in the speaker and video runs.

Large flexible conduit if there are quite a few bends, and large gray PVC for straight runs. In either case, run some pull strings through them for future use.

Do I need to worry about how far the speaker wire and video cable is from one another?! I know about keeping AC power at least 12" away or pass perpandicular.

No, it's relatively low voltage as well. More than video cabling, but far less than AC power (and is DC). For a cleaner installation, if you need to run more than one run, you might separate them, though.

5 years from now you don't want a plumber sawing thru your white PVC thinking he is working on a waterline. Are tracing it down looking for a valve after something breaks and floods your basement.

I just don't understand that line of thinking - placement of low voltage is rarely near plumbing fixtures. If you're paranoid, use a permanent marker and write on it "Low voltage wiring - not DWV" or something repeatedly across it.

that is why you use the gray PVC and not white. It has larger radius bends making it easier to pull wires and its gray so you don't mistake it for white PVC....

Can we keep it straight guys? I see posts of people asking about running video cables in "tubing" or see posts where pics are shown of it being done wrong with AVSers commenting on it being wrong, but are not being very descriptive in how to do it correctly.

When I hear/see "conduit". I think electrical conduit (hard piping) 1/2" or 3/4" for running electrical wire to and from electrical outlets/panels.

When I hear/see PVC, I thinking plumbing.

But here, on AVS, i see post like, use conduit for running your video cables, not PVC. This confuses me!

Then I see posts to use Gray PVC?

So what is the CORRECT terms for the proper tubing to use for running video cables?
And what is the only difference between white PVC and Gray PVC?