Noob with a queston..

Contact Dennis Erskine (Erskine Group), aka the "AVS Theater Layout Service" here on the forum - they do wiring designs.

Look at the Wiring Your House wiki over at cocoontech.com, too.

Not sure what you mean by "RF" in this case, but regardless, the general answer for video distribution in the HDTV age is going to be multiple cat6 or cat5e home runs to each potential display location. 2-3 runs minimum for maximum flexibility.

Whole House Audio - home run speaker wire, looping through a switch-height keypad location, run a cat5e control wire in parallel to that location.

EDIT: You should also run at least one, perhaps two RG6 to each potential display location in addition to the Cat5e/Cat6 runs. Having both sets you up for most anything we know of.

For "key" locations and/or places impossible/impractical to retrofit - run flexible PVC conduit to an attic / basement location so that the cable-of-the-future can be added relatively easily. These conduits should be installed empty (anything you run should be outside of them - reserve for the future!). Flex conduit is the only futureproof cable.


Jeff
Edited by jautor - 7/3/12 at 9:36am

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but how do you get 'video' over Cat5/6 cables?

Thx!

Generally, "HDMI over Cat5e" extenders. Best solution on the market now will be products based on the HDBaseT 'standard', which transmit HDMI, RS232, IR, and Ethernet over a single Cat5e cable up to 100m. Atlona has incorporated this technology into a suite of HDMI matrix switch products. Monoprice even has an inexpensive (single run) extender for <$200.

Jeff

Well, if we are talking about a HDMI video signal, because a Cat 5/6 cable is composed of twisted pairs with 100 ohm characteristic impedance, and a HDMI cable uses 100 ohm twisted pairs to transmit video/audio, all you have to do is connect each of the twisted pairs in the HDMI cable to a twisted pari in a Cat 5/6 cable at both ends. You lose the benefits of the shielding of the HDMI cable if you use UTP, but it works. Doing it so that it is reliable at longer distances and cramming in all the other signals on the HDMI cable takes some doing, though. Even if you use a second Cat 5/6 cable, some of the signals need to be multiplexed.

If we are talking about an analog video signal, like component video, all that is required are baluns at each end. They can be as simple as transformers that convert an unbalanced line (coax) to a balanced line (twisted pair). It can also be done with active circuitry.
Edited by Colm - 6/29/12 at 6:01pm

RF video would be the lowest grade of video signal distribution--RG-6 terminated with standard 75 ohm F-connectors.

Yeah, I'm aware of that - but didn't know if he meant RF as in "wireless" or something else from the context of the OP... Although he hasn't been back since, so may be a moot point...