[jerrodshook]

I'll try and keep this as short as possible. I have a new 4 story home. The attic and basement are currently unfinished and I will finish all of it myself. The basement will have a dedicated HT and I'll have a separate closet area with the networking and whole house audio/video equipment in it.


For equipment, I'm leaning heavily towards the CAV6.6 because to me, it can't be beat with what it offers for the price. My main focus is to put speakers in parts of my house (basement game room, master bedroom, master bathroom, family room on 1st floor, etc). Luckily, I have access to the first floor from the basement and the second floor from the attic. I have 1 RG-6 and 1 CAT5e cable in the attic for the bedroom up there. I have a 1" pipe going from the basement to the attic for running more wires.


I'm not in dire need of pumping video to all of my bedrooms and stuff... but I want to plan for the future and since I have all this unfinished space, I should prepare now. Unfortunately, each bedroom only has 1 RG-6 and 1 CAT5e cable in it. I think I'd like to prepare to send HD signals to my bedrooms, and running another RG-6 to each room from the attic won't be too much trouble.


My questions.....


1. How can I easily get video and audio from my basement to my attic for multiple rooms? I only have that 1" pipe so I can't stuff a ton of new wires in it.


2. For network, I know I can run 1 CAT 6 (that's what I'm installing to "future proof" things) to the attic and hook it to a hub. Is there something similar I can do for video?


3. I would guess I want the capability of sending at least 2-3 different video signals between the upstairs and basement. Does that mean at least 2-3 RG-6 cables have to go from place to place?


4. Am I asking for trouble if I run CAT 6, RG-6 and 12 gauge speaker wire in the same 1" pipe I have?



I hope I've explained this in some amount of detail to make it understandable. I'm just started to read up on this stuff, and have tons to learn. I've spent that last year or more on the HT building forum and haven't thought of much else....


Thanks!

 

[robertmee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerrodshook I'll try and keep this as short as possible. I have a new 4 story home. The attic and basement are currently unfinished and I will finish all of it myself. The basement will have a dedicated HT and I'll have a separate closet area with the networking and whole house audio/video equipment in it. For equipment, I'm leaning heavily towards the CAV6.6 because to me, it can't be beat with what it offers for the price. My main focus is to put speakers in parts of my house (basement game room, master bedroom, master bathroom, family room on 1st floor, etc). Luckily, I have access to the first floor from the basement and the second floor from the attic. I have 1 RG-6 and 1 CAT5e cable in the attic for the bedroom up there. I have a 1" pipe going from the basement to the attic for running more wires. I'm not in dire need of pumping video to all of my bedrooms and stuff... but I want to plan for the future and since I have all this unfinished space, I should prepare now. Unfortunately, each bedroom only has 1 RG-6 and 1 CAT5e cable in it. I think I'd like to prepare to send HD signals to my bedrooms, and running another RG-6 to each room from the attic won't be too much trouble.

You're not going to distribute HD to all your bedrooms with a single RG6....You would need at least 4 to 5 RG6's per bedroom to distribute component grade video + audio (unless you are prepared to spend $$$ for some Crestron distribution equipment). If you only have one RG6, you could put an 8 port RF amplifier/distributor in the attic fed from a splitter in the basement that carries your main CATV feed (assuming you have cable and that feed comes into the basement). Then, in each bedroom, stick a High Def Cable Box from your cable company.


Quote:

1. How can I easily get video and audio from my basement to my attic for multiple rooms? I only have that 1" pipe so I can't stuff a ton of new wires in it.

See Above. Another option is to hold your breath for Microsoft. With a Media Center PC and HD Extenders (supposedly the new X-box 360 will act as one), you can stream HD via your cat5e/cat6 network. Then you would just need a multiport 10/100/1000 switch in your attic. However, the above is vaporware at the moment. You could do it with a regular x-box and/or the HP/Linksys extenders, but you won't get HD...Standard Def only.

Quote:

2. For network, I know I can run 1 CAT 6 (that's what I'm installing to "future proof" things) to the attic and hook it to a hub. Is there something similar I can do for video?

Yes, the single RG6 to a video amplifier/distribution hub like noted above. Something like a Channel Plus 550BID.

Quote:

3. I would guess I want the capability of sending at least 2-3 different video signals between the upstairs and basement. Does that mean at least 2-3 RG-6 cables have to go from place to place?

Not following your question here? You can modulate several video sources in the basement, inject them into your regular CATV feed with a combiner and again, send that through one RG6 to your video hub in the attic. But again, the picture quality will be Composite grade only. No HD or Component. If you want component grade video, it takes 3 RG6's + 1 or 2 for audio (depending on digital or analog)

Quote:

4. Am I asking for trouble if I run CAT 6, RG-6 and 12 gauge speaker wire in the same 1" pipe I have?

From a noise perspective, no. The Cat-6 has noise immunity from the twisted pairs, and the RG-6 has 4 layers of shielding (assuming you are using Quad Shield). The Cat-6 data or RG-6 video won't produce enough noise to affect your speakers. Also, I think 12 awg speaker wire is overkill for whole house audio. 14 is way sufficient, and if the runs are less than 50', 16 awg is fine.

Quote:

I hope I've explained this in some amount of detail to make it understandable. I'm just started to read up on this stuff, and have tons to learn. I've spent that last year or more on the HT building forum and haven't thought of much else....

Yep, I did the same when I built my HT.


PS....I'm in Apex....Good to see a local


Robert

 

[emcgrath]

Robert Mee is correct here.

This is another case for a "distributed" solution vs a "centralized" solution.


Run your CATV to the attic and down to the bedrooms. Put a settop box in each bedroom. And even a dvd player in each bedroom if you want.


It'd be decades before a crestron type video distribution system was cheaper than renting a few more digital cable boxes.