well guys, it had to happen. Here I am now looking for answers at the last minute.

Anyhow, the electrician who is doing the basement will "run" AV cables for me (which I did not know, was not told until now that he's started and was not expecting it to start so soon !).

So, I wanted to check here some of the basics.


The equipm "closet" is going to be on a side wall towards the back (under the stairs) so I will need:

3 speaker wires for the front and I guess 2 or 3 for the back (surround)
2 cables for the sub which I can only assume will be somewhere in the front

Then for video, the PJ will be ceiling mounted and I guess I will need hdmi and may be component also or is hdmi all I need ?

I imagine that the problem here is that I have no idea where the PJ will be placed since I don't know which pj I am buying. Should I just decide now what to get ? not easy though....it's a mess!

Also for the electronics I don't know yet what I will get but I guess that is less important with now.

What do you think ?

I will post some pictures but unfortunately not until the w/e and the electrician wants this info by friday (oh well, I do what I can) he is moving fast...

And by the way, should I let the electrician provide the cables ?

thanks !

I wouldn't let the electrician provide my cables, but there may be some that are HT savvy.

The speaker wires are okay, other than I might suggest four for the back (2 rear sides and 2 on the back) which is for 7.1. You just as well wire for it, even if you don't use it yet.

The projector should have hdmi, component and any other possible connections, since it will be very hard to add these later. Most of us run plastic tubing with pull-strings for future requirements. The projector location is critical and you need to know distances, etc for that before you run cables.

The electrician may be too far ahead of you to do all this before friday. Maybe you should do this part yourself?

I would specify what cables (gauge, type, length, location, etc.). Just have plenty of slack for your projector. And also consider putting in conduit.

I would also run CAT5 to the front and projector location(s). You never know what you need it for going forward.

Two wires for the sub? Dual subs or a passive sub with the amp at the rack?

I ran 2" flexible conduit to the front and to the PJ. I couldn't find 2" flex anywhere so I ordered it online from smarthome.

I then ran 4 speaker wires to the side and rear surround locations. I didn't run wires for buttkickers/bass-shakers, which I have mixed feelings about. I also didn't run the wires for the front speakers and PJ and leave the conduit empty, which I also debated.

My electricians did do my coax runs, and I was told in another thread, based on the pictures I posted it was a cheap chinese version of RG6 which was of lesser quality and could impact PQ down the line. Can't think of everything.

thanks guys, good points!

yes, this guys are a bit ahead of me, fact is I was supposed to be there this week but had to abort for work...whatever.

I do think I will have to ask them to hold on to this part, actually I think I had told them that I would want to provide the cables.

Figure out your potential projector locations and do as others suggested and run conduit that is at least 2" thick. I went with 3" to two different locations. I had the electrician install a power outlet at my most likely location, and I ran 1" conduit to the other.

I also ran quad shielded RG6 w/ a solid copper core to several potential sub locations. A couple to the front of the room, one to each side, and one to each rear corner.

For speaker wire, I just went w/ in wall rated 14 gauge. 3 to the front for the LCRs. For the side surrounds, I ran one to each side close to the floor in case I went with tower speakers, and one hanging behind the drywall up around 6' high in case I went with wall mounts. I wasn't sure where I was going to mount my rear surrounds, so I ran a couple of wires to the potential locations, and just left them behind the drywall.

Run some cat5 to the front for an IR receiver.

Now that was just for the theater room. I also ran speaker wires to in ceiling speaker locations in the common area of the basement, cat5 to wall pad locations and network/phone drops, bundles of 4 or 5 RG6 (3 for component video, 1 for digital audio or 2 for LR stereo... or antenna, or satellite...).

Topped that all off w/ some 2" conduit from the equipment closet to the unfinished area of the basement, so I can run more copper to other areas of the house at some point in the future.

I suspect your electrician would charge you an arm and a leg to do all of this, especially if he is going to terminate the wires as well. Mine let me do it all, and he just came by to look at it before we got the electrical inspection.

projector location is easy, run conduit both horizontally and laterally (Or just one of those if only 1 is in play).


In other words, it costs very little to have conduit running up and down the joist cavities, so if you know about where it will be, run 2 conduits in the joist spaces....even if the sheetrock goes up, you will just need to cut an access hole, the cut your conduit at that point, easy.

hey guys, a quick last (I wish) check:

my room (HT area, no back wall) is 19x15 (equipment closet in rear corner, so for:

speakers: I was thinking I might need say no more than 300' total assuming 6 speakers (the fact that I don't have a wall makes it difficult to imagine a 7.1 system, not impossible of course, using ceiling speakers but still). This is easy, plain 14 or 12 gauge speaker wire.

sub(s): I would like to plan for two of them. So assuming both in the front area I will need say about 70' (lenght of room + width +20'slack for each cable). What are these cables called ? coax, rg6 ?

CATe: someone mentioned this and I have read about it many times here. I am not sure what it is but I am quite confident it is good to have (remotes, repeaters!?!?). Do I only need them run to the front (screen) wall and projector ?

PJ: this is a mess because, as I mentioned, I don't really know what it will be and stuff so I will have to ... I don't even know.

Sorry again guys, but now I know why the rush: the contractor has scheduled inspections for next week so he wants everything in by the end of this w/e. This also means that I have no choice other than going to HD for the cables which I would not have not done. While I am not a cable dude, had I had the time I would have ordered everything online (monoprice, bjc or something like that).

I might still be able to buy some time: do the inspectors actually care about a/v cables as well ?

thanks for hints, suggestions !

Is there a reason the contractor is pushing the inspections so fast? I'd be tempted to push back and tell the contractor that your theater design isn't complete and that you as the homeowner aren't ready for the inspections.
Better to take the time to plan the cable runs you need rather than throwing them into the walls. That's just a recipe for forgetting something and regretting it later.

-drin

Lots of info here but I would also consider the following

RG6 = Coax and Coax can be used for almost any application as long as you can find the right connector - coax is your friend!
for example
you can run your sub with it
you can run component and composite
you can run s-video

so to be safe I’d run RG6 from...

your receiver to your PJ = 6 runs
PJ to TV = 6 runs
receiver to TV = 6 runs
receiver to computer = 6 runs
and 2 runs of CAT5e to all

It would be hard to say how much cable you need. If you are getting it from HD though, if you don't have enough, just run back and get more. I can't remember if the sell it by the spool or not, so you might be able to get a better price by buying a 400' or 500' spool (I can't remember what the spool sizes come in either).

14 guage should be plenty for your speaker wire. You'll want to make sure what you buy is inwall rated though... should say CL2 or CL3 on it (or something like that).

Why not wire for a 7.1 system even if you are not sure if you will use it or not? If you don't have a back wall, in ceiling (or on ceiling) will likely be your only option, so just run some wire up there and leave it coiled up above the drywall.

For sub cables, you should pick up some RG6. Get Quad Shielded RG6 w/ a solid copper core if they have it. I'd buy a big spool of it, and use the leftovers elsewhere. You can use RG6 for subs, component video, LR audio, cable, satellite, antenna etc.

Get some cat5 or cat5e to run between your closet and somewhere in the front of the room if you are going to want to put in some sort of IR repeater.... i.e. if you have a closet towards the back of your room, and you want to control things via a remote pointed at your screen, you will need a IR receiver at the front of your room to tranfer the signal to your closet. You can use a few of the wires inside of a cat5 cable to hook this up.

For the PJ, run some conduit.

Some inspectors inspect the low voltage cables for whatever reason.

If it were me, I would just have the electrician run the minimal setup, and after the inspection go pull some more cable myself... or go figure out exectly what you want done, and tell them to hold off.

Hi Everyone,

Picked up a spool of RG6 500ft from Home depot...

Where do you recommend buying the Component, Sub, Audio etc terminations? Which tool do you recommend to terminate the wires with.

thanks!

What is the easiest way to run cables in an already finished basement room? I will have In Wall speakers in the rear surrounds, Towers, Center and Sub in the front of room. I want to mount a wall plate and run an assortment of extra cables/jacks to equipment rack and PJ. Another idea for the wall plate is to mount it on the riser and run the cables through the riser, then through the back wall where equipment might go (haven't decided on exact location yet). The problem with having my room completely drywalled already is that I would have to rip down a lot of the drywall to hide the wires/cables then patch it back up again which sounds like tedious work. I have heard about those paintable baseboards that I could mount to the wall and run my cables in there but I don't know how that would look with a chunk of cables coming from that wall plate down to that baseboard molding unless I had something to conceal them... Now that I sit here and think, I could possibly run some crown molding around the room and hide the wire in there. The only thing with that idea is that on one side of my room is a soffit.

I am open to any ideas or suggestions for wiring/cabling an already finished drywalled room!

Thanks

Don't mean to steal this thread, but I have a question about RG6 going to subs. I also am going to install conduit from back where my rack will be to the front two subs, but I was going to use monoprice RCA cable to run my subs. Is this wrong? The length I will need is for 16 foot long room plus 8 ft. up and 8 ft. down (plus slack). Is this too long to run a RCA?

Also, as far as conduit goes, I agree with 'bigger is better' approach...you never know what you'll be threading through those things in the future!

Speaking of crown molding in my #13 post, can it be mounted to a soffit? I have a soffit that runs the complete right side of the room. It has to vents in it to let heat or AC into the room. However one of the vents is positioned at the top of the soffit darn near touching the ceiling. I wonder if I could get that one vent relocated to lower section of the soffit so I can run crown molding up at the top part of it. The sole purpose of the crown molding would be to run/hide my cables/wires and perhaps add a light rope.

Speaking of crown molding in my #13 post, can it be mounted to a soffit? I have a soffit that runs the complete right side of the room. It has to vents in it to let heat or AC into the room. However one of the vents is positioned at the top of the soffit darn near touching the ceiling. I wonder if I could get that one vent relocated to lower section of the soffit so I can run crown molding up at the top part of it. The sole purpose of the crown molding would be to run/hide my cables/wires and perhaps add a light rope.

If you are going to run rope light, I would think you would put the crown molding on the side of the soffit along the bottom. This is what I usually see done and makes for a really cool effect. Of course you could run your wires in here as well if they are not too bulky.

Don't mean to steal this thread, but I have a question about RG6 going to subs. I also am going to install conduit from back where my rack will be to the front two subs, but I was going to use monoprice RCA cable to run my subs. Is this wrong? The length I will need is for 16 foot long room plus 8 ft. up and 8 ft. down (plus slack). Is this too long to run a RCA?

I am running 2 different runs of coax of about 35' to two different subs w/o a problem. One run is using some of Bluejeans Cable sub cables, and another is using Quad Shielded RG6 with a solid copper core that I terminated with RCA ends myself. No problems whatsoever.

This may be considered overkill by some folks but other folks might outgrow it.

This was for a newly framed room.

Equipment location at left rear corner. (Wiring would have been comparable if equipment went under the basement stairs just outside the framed room near the left rear).

Two speaker cables (12 gauge Romex tm) from rear corner to left front corner.
Two RG6 coax cables from rear corner to left front corner.
One multiconductor phone type cable from rear corner to left front corner.
One speaker cable from rear corner halfway down left wall for a left center speaker. Continuing to left front corner.

Two speaker cables from rear corner around in the rear to right front corner.
Two RG6 coax cables on same route.
One multiconductor phone type cable on same route.
One speaker cable from rear left corner to rear right corner.
One speaker cable from rear corner around halfway down right wall for right center speaker. Continuing to right front corner.

Extra short vertical speaker cables so front left, front right, and rear left all have both knee level and eye level terminals. (Other speaker positions are eye level only)

Given the routing of the cables over doorways and some other obstructions, the back to front runs are up to 35 feet for the 20 foot room.

All enough for 7.1 speaker system without bi-amping (or bi-wiring), or a 5.1 system with bi-amping. Also enough to support equipment at a front corner although some extra cables would have to be strung on the floor behind the screen since front to rear lines on both sides have to be used.

All 12 gauge speaker wires terminate at the wall surface with combination banana plug and free wire binding posts. The RG6 cables also require jack terminations (not chosen yet) at the wall since they were not run with several extra feet coming out at each end.

Actually limited bi-amping of a 7.1 system could be done using the ground wires in the cables for which no binding posts have been added yet.

This setup has a ceiling mounted projector so video cables will take a different route, along the ceiling. A theater with a box TV or panel TV and a rear equipment rack would need many video cables following the route of the aforementioned audio cables. Our expectation is to have just one HDMI cable and one computer VGA cable (25 feet) for the projector as a de-interlacer processor will be switching and upconverting all the other kinds of video.

Running this much 12 gauge Romex in a baseboard or other outside location to avoid tearing open walls is difficult since the cables are very stiff. But an installation such as this could be done in a finished room with flexible speaker wire under a wall baseboard or a crown molding.

Two switch controlled lighting circuits with can lights and one circuit with sconces have been installed. Three switch controlled AC lines for rope lights, etc. were also installed with eye level outlet boxes, the latter unused with blank covers so far.

There are severe restrictions on notching and boring of joists so cables let alone conduits can be installed in the ceiling. As I did not relocate any pipes which will necessitate leaving room for them between the ceiling panels and joists, I will likely mount any needed conduit to the underside of the joists in the same manner.

The whole story: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/theater.htm

Aaron,

What kind of crown molding is that called where its open to place cables or rope light? If I go with this idea, do I put the molding completely around the room on all walls including the screen wall?

Aaron,

What kind of crown molding is that called where its open to place cables or rope light? If I go with this idea, do I put the molding completely around the room on all walls including the screen wall?

For me it was just 1x1 attached to the soffit side, the regular crown to the 1x1. The 1x1 made the resting place for the rope a little bigger:

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u129/dc_pilgrim/thinker.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u129/dc_pilgrim/raceway.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u129/dc_pilgrim/speakerorplain.jpg

Aaron,

What kind of crown molding is that called where its open to place cables or rope light? If I go with this idea, do I put the molding completely around the room on all walls including the screen wall?

I think any type of crown molding should work, but I've not done it, so I don't know for sure. I'd search around through some of the build threads to get some ideas of what will look good, as well as how to mount it.

Do a forum search for +crown +light and that should get you a bunch of hits.