I am in the middle a new build of a house and I am making a media room (pics to come soon). The insulation goes in the walls this friday and I want to make sure that I am not overlooking anything. here is a list of things I thought about.

1) Electrical outlets on walls and floor for buttkickers
2) Spot for sconces on walls
3) spots for 7.1 speakers including sub in wall

anything else I am missing before they blow the insulation? ANY thoughts would be great -i am completely new to this

thanks :)

I'd put in more than one sub location (at least 2, maybe 4)

Using a projector?
-Outlet in the ceiling or top of the wall for projector
-smurf tubing for HDMI, composite, etc. for projector
-Will center channel go above or below screen. Might wire for both.

In addition to above:

- IR Repeater (run a cat5e or coax depending on model) or a 3/4" conduit
- You got ample dedicated power where equipment is?
- Smoke detector
- RG6 Quad to attic for HD OTA
- Conduit from equip room to telco (this saved me on a recent Verizon FiOS install)

Cheers,
Mark

-Will center channel go above or below screen. Might wire for both.

What do you think --I have 3 b&w FPM 5's and I am not sure if I should put the Center channel above or below the Panny 58"

any thoughts

Nice large-diameter conduits, for the wires which you may need to run later!

- Terry

Possibly an exhaust fan and conduit near the projector to pull the hot air away, or move fresh air to should you ever decide on a "hush-box".

If he's using a 58" Panny, he doesn't need to worry about projector airflow.

Electrical outlets on walls and floor for buttkickers
thanks :)

Buttkickers are powered just like a speaker, there is no need for an outlet but you do need speaker wire runs (one per kicker) to where the amp/switches will be located.

There is a need for outlets for power recline seats (some consider a must have)

While I have an audience, I will ask a few more questions. What is the best way to run Directv to the entire house? I will have 2 HD receivers in the house and one regular one. The 4 lines will go from the Dish to the basement, and then RG6 will run to each box? is that right or is there an easier way? Also --should I be thinking about different sytles of face plates for each room?

HELP! :eek:

Just make sure you run the cables from the dish to a hub located where you can add on later. Basement is usually good because you have access to the basement and the floor above. If you have a 2 story, it might be a benefit to get a conduit (just 2" or 3" pvc pipe would suffice) from the hub location up to the attic.

I'd run 2 coax and a phone wire (plus Cat 5 if you want to cover your bases) to every possible receiver location. If you have, or ever plan to have, dual tuner DVRs, you'll need those two separate sat feeds run to those recievers. If you are planning on an OTA antenna for your local HD channels, you may want to add a 3rd coax if you don't want to mess with diplexers.

If you are planning on an OTA antenna for your local HD channels, you may want to add a 3rd coax if you don't want to mess with diplexers.

Doesnt Directv's new dish system have 2 dishes that they install with the New HD PLUS receiver? Does one of the dished point at a satellite that will have locals in a few months(that what they said) or is it going to pick up an OTA signal like a Terk would?

I still prefer OTA because it is typically the best picture quality source but most people don't really care or can tell a difference.

However, I was only saying "if you plan on OTA". If you are in a market served by D* with HD locals, it wouldn't really be necessary. Not sure what DMA you are in, or I'd let you know. Only catch is while they planned on covering all markets by the end of the year, a launch pad explosion at Sea Launch (company that was supposed to launch one of two D* sats this year) will likely bump the launch of that sat until 2008. This may , or may not, affect when your market gets served by D*.

Those affiliates are delivered via satellite - not antenna. It's a single dish with 5 lnbs (picking up 5 different satellites).

If you plan on using the HD recorders from Directv then you may need two coax cables to each location from the satellite hub. The hub is often outside where the lines from the satellite come down to a grounding block.

this may be of use:

http://www.southernsky.com/prewiring.htm

As for OTA versus Directv HD locals. I have both and find that often the OTA picture/sound will be better. I have the old dish but I get the NBC HD feed from NY. One show I remember the DirectTV NBC show was 2 channel while the OTA was 5.1. Also DirectTV has been know to compress the program to preserve bandwidth and your local OTA signal may be better. Lastly those rain clouds do block out the Sat signal but usually I can get the OTA.

I have a DB2 (antennasdirect.com) in my attic for the WashDC OTA. check Antennaweb.org for your available channels.

bigmouth --take a peak at zip 12946 for me and let me know what you think --is it worth it only 3 channels?

andy

If you pick "show me the digital stations only" option you'll see that none of those 3 stations are digital. Sorry it appears that you live in a OTA HD unserved zone.
You are at the mercy of cable and satellite.

:( :( :( :( :( :( :(

If you check out the Burlington, VT - HDTV (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9923863#post9923863) thread in the Local HDTV forum, they may give you a better idea what stations you can expect to get from Lake Placid.

I know Burlington stations had a problem going full power because of the proximity to the Canadian border, but that may have been resolved by now. You may end up needing to wait on D* anyway.