Home, Phone, Video, Network center wiring panel-Help

[Ken Sp.]

I am going to help a friend that is rewiring his house during a remodel.

We plan to have an interior Data and video closet.

The Satellite feed from the roof will come via dual Coax RJ6 to the room. All Satellite and Sat/DVR boxes will be in the closet with Component 5 RCA cables to 3 of the 6 TV locations in the house, with single Coax going to all 6 (the 3 will be little used, and will never be HD-coax is fine, and this is a small budget thing.

I intend to have the Satellite boxes/DVR controlled from each location using wired Infrared repeaters so only the Flat screen TVs will be on the wall with no apparent wires or cables.

Main phone line will come from the Telco box to closet where it will be distributed to the DSL Modem/Router and to the phone outlets.

This will also serve as the wired and wireless network center.

I am looking for something like this, It is for Coax, and I need dual LNB coming from the dish to the splitter.
http://www.homenetworkgear.com/catalog/m...2471749F7F&pid=1207

I am sure there are good places to buy these.

I will buy the cabling from MonoPrice,com, but I need a good source for the wall plates and this structured wire connection point.

If there is a better way to do this I am open to any thoughts.

Any thoughts would be helpful---especially from those of you that got in on the latest cult deal Speck MacBook Pro cases.
http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/277...msg-277101

Thanks

[John B.]

If you have a Lowe's or Home Depot nearby, check with them in the electrical supplies department. I believe both of them have a home wiring panel product...I bought a panel that mounts between studs at Lowe's about six months ago...they have all of the wiring modules for it, but I just needed a flush-fitting box to run all of my connections into.

[bruceko]

So if I understand right you have 3 sat boxes? If so you will need a2 x 4 or 4 x 8 multi switch.
Most of the structured media boxes don't really have much for satallite.
I would suggest if you can run 4 coax from the dish to you closet.
New dishes have a multiswitch built in and four outputs.
You can check out smarthome for cabinets but they tend to be more expensive than some other sites.
You might want to throw in a HDMI cable to the three tv locations if they are less than 33' from your cabinet. At some point all the drm crap will limit the output resolution of component.

[Ken Sp.]

John--I will check Lowes and Home Depot-Local Frys has the panel I listed for less than anywhere I can find online

[quote bruceko]So if I understand right you have 3 sat boxes? If so you will need a2 x 4 or 4 x 8 multi switch. Actually 4 boxes and the signal from 1 or 2 of the boxes will serve 2 TV's via Coax.
[quote bruceko]Most of the structured media boxes don't really have much for satallite.
I would suggest if you can run 4 coax from the dish to you closet.
New dishes have a multiswitch built in and four outputs. Thanks--I had no idea on 4, I thought I was safe with 2
[quote bruceko]You can check out smarthome for cabinets but they tend to be more expensive than some other sites.
You might want to throw in a HDMI cable to the three tv locations if they are less than 33' from your cabinet. At some point all the drm crap will limit the output resolution of component. I thought it was HDMI that was getting locked down by DRM. Do the newer non HD Satellite boxes use HDMI?
Thanks for the info--I will read up on this more--and anymore info is surely appreciated.

[bruceko]

True Hdmi is getting locked down by drm but they see component as evil because it does not have control so boxes that have hdmi have the ability to disable or limit the resolution of the component outputs. I am not sure about non hd boxes having hdmi ports or not but in a couple of years it may be that hd boxes will be the only thing available.
fishing cables can be a real pia. So they to future proof.

[mikebw]

At least, I would run some extra string so you can pull more wires in the future should the need arise.

[cbelt3]

OK, first and foremost Lowe's and Home Despot are gonna sell you Leviton or other 'media centers', which are overpriced solutions. You're looking for something well past amateur hour.


Rule #0-
Futureproof your interfaces. Wiring it for the "TV you have now" guarantees the wiring will be useless in the future. Who here has one of those old flat four-wire controller cables in the wall from the Tv antenna rotator on the roof ? (raises hand). Wireless MAY work (think AppleTV's...), but that depends heavily on your internal structures. Wires still got better bandwidth.


Rule #1-
Find out what you want, then check ebay first (really). Lot of used equipment in this market.

Rule #2- Standard racks, man, standard racks. You can swap out switches and whatnot to your heart's desire.

Rule #3- RF remotes instead of IR if you're looking for galactic control.

Rule #4- Max out your wiring. To each access point, run at least two Cat5e or Cat6 lines, 2 RG59 or RG6 lines, and perhaps something else. Personally I'd love to just run Fiber Optic and be done with it, but you're talking serious coin for the interfaces. Leaving a few pull strings is a good suggestion, assuming you have room in the walls.


I did some consulting work with a company that did this ultra-high end setup in this guys house- he paid them over $2M for the job, and then decided to hook up Airport Base Stations for his Ti Books. We did a wifi survey and put in a few more ABS's to cover the whole house. The wiring for his audio/video was incredible- complex switches, software, RF remotes, etc. Real 'smart house' stuff, but it's ALL already obsolete, 3 years later. Oopsie.