Hi folks,
Sorry if this question has been well covered elsewhere. My questions are fairly simple but I've been searching/reading many threads over the last few days and haven't found any definitive answers.
We're currently doing a remodeling job with a contractor, and we're thinking about prewiring the house for distributed video capabilities at some point. Specifically, our issue is that we have some very long cable runs - I haven't gone over the plans with an electrician yet, but I suspect some of the runs may stretch to the 150-200ft range. One of the home automation guys I've been talking to (from Savant) claims that their matrix switcher/module can push the digital signal 150ft over normal HDMI cable with no problems. I'm a little skeptical, given some of the stuff I've been reading here.
So my question is - what kind of wires should I run? HDMI with repeaters? (What's the effective range for 1080p? Would the repeaters fit into a conduit easily?) HDMI-over-dual-cat6? (I hear a lot of people have a hard time getting this to work? What's the range? Why do gefen baluns cost so much more than monoprice? Do they make wall-plates that act as baluns too?)
The other thing I want to keep in mind too is futureproofing my house. I'll be running conduits so that should help, but still - I don't want to waste a lot of HDMI cable in the walls if I'm going to be able to run cat6's and replace the wall-plate with HDbaseT stuff in another year or two. Frankly, maybe I shouldn't even bother wiring at all? Although I suspect wireless probably won't be ready for prime-time anytime soon?
Thanks!
Sorry if this question has been well covered elsewhere. My questions are fairly simple but I've been searching/reading many threads over the last few days and haven't found any definitive answers.
We're currently doing a remodeling job with a contractor, and we're thinking about prewiring the house for distributed video capabilities at some point. Specifically, our issue is that we have some very long cable runs - I haven't gone over the plans with an electrician yet, but I suspect some of the runs may stretch to the 150-200ft range. One of the home automation guys I've been talking to (from Savant) claims that their matrix switcher/module can push the digital signal 150ft over normal HDMI cable with no problems. I'm a little skeptical, given some of the stuff I've been reading here.
So my question is - what kind of wires should I run? HDMI with repeaters? (What's the effective range for 1080p? Would the repeaters fit into a conduit easily?) HDMI-over-dual-cat6? (I hear a lot of people have a hard time getting this to work? What's the range? Why do gefen baluns cost so much more than monoprice? Do they make wall-plates that act as baluns too?)
The other thing I want to keep in mind too is futureproofing my house. I'll be running conduits so that should help, but still - I don't want to waste a lot of HDMI cable in the walls if I'm going to be able to run cat6's and replace the wall-plate with HDbaseT stuff in another year or two. Frankly, maybe I shouldn't even bother wiring at all? Although I suspect wireless probably won't be ready for prime-time anytime soon?
Thanks!
