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Home audio, video, & data wiring: How are you doing it? |
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jdbailey1206:
--- Quote from: Dawgz Rule on April 22, 2015, 05:39:39 am ---I have a single story home and used a flexible drill bit to drill through to the basement from within the wall. Wall box and face plate finished the job. You can also route cable behind the baseboard molding. --- End quote --- Pulling carpet is never a problem either. You have tack strips so you can pull up the carpet at the border of the room and hammer it back down after you have run your coax around. One trick I learned from my days installing for a satellite company was you can always tell where the wall is by looking up and seeing where the electrical goes up (for plugs). Or in Yots case where the electrical goes down. |
BadMouth:
Thanks for all the input! Bought some open back low voltage old work "boxes" and some bulk cable face plates, along with some recessed outlets for the TVs. (I didn't care for any of the combined setups) I didn't want the extra HDMI connection at the wall plate and the bulk cable face plate keeps it flatter against the wall anyway. I'm gonna keep the holes in the floor for a couple places that it's less of an eyesore than a plate on the wall. ;D |
dkersten:
Although I did this professionally for nearly a decade, I don't really have much advice on how to run wires as every situation is different. Just be prepared to drill holes through things you can't see, and make sure you have a good fish tape to help pull wires. Try to stay in front of any insulation you encounter. Also, if you are pulling more than one wire from point A to point B and you might want something different (or to replace a cable later if one goes bad), run some heavy duty string or even an extra 16-18 ga wire along with the other wires. That way you can just attach your fish tape to the extra wire or string later and pull it through, attach your new cable and just pull it right back without all the headache of fishing through a hole you can't see. Those wall plates can be painted to match, which will help blend them in. The "open back" rings are great for anything low voltage. The only other thing I might mention would be to look into Baluns for video or audio over long distances. They aren't cheap, but if you are running more than about 50 feet, they are the best way to go, and you just use basic cat5e cable. If you are pushing that length or just over with HDMI, make sure you get redmere cables. If you can't find a filler or dowel that looks right in the holes in the floor, you can get plug cutters for a drill and you can find a piece of whatever kind of wood the floor is made from and cut your own plugs and just glue them in and sand flush and stain.. if you are careful you can minimize the sanding and blend it in so well the patch will disappear completely. The dowel thing works but you end up with end grain and not face grain, so once you stain it, it will be darker. |
BadMouth:
--- Quote from: dkersten on April 23, 2015, 01:56:20 pm ---The only other thing I might mention would be to look into Baluns for video or audio over long distances. They aren't cheap, but if you are running more than about 50 feet, they are the best way to go, and you just use basic cat5e cable. If you are pushing that length or just over with HDMI, make sure you get redmere cables. If you can't find a filler or dowel that looks right in the holes in the floor, you can get plug cutters for a drill and you can find a piece of whatever kind of wood the floor is made from and cut your own plugs and just glue them in and sand flush and stain.. if you are careful you can minimize the sanding and blend it in so well the patch will disappear completely. The dowel thing works but you end up with end grain and not face grain, so once you stain it, it will be darker. --- End quote --- Yeah, I've only ever owned two 50ft HDMI cables and both of them became unreliable within 2 years. Because of this, I'm going to locate the splitter on a joist near the center of the house (where it has been) instead of the utility corner of the basement. It's a small house and I can get away with 15-20ft cables with it located there. As for the floors, I have a lot of options. The subfloor is slightly larger T&G oak laid down perpendicular to the top finish floor (squeaky, but not much can be done short of ripping it up and putting down new subfloor). I found some leftover pieces of this and can cut them down to make replacement planks or plugs. I'm also replacing the subfloor in the bathroom with something that can support tile better, so I'll have pieces of those boards. |
dkersten:
I don't have experience with it, but from what I have heard, redmere cables that are in that 50 foot range work really well, even with full 1080p and 3D. They are directional. I would use a balun before using a splitter/amplifier, but that is me and they are still relatively expensive. The convenience of just using cat5 cable and converting it back to HDMI at the end is worth it to me... more of a "future proofed" situation. If cable technology changes (like the new hdmi standard for 4k) you can just change to a new balun and not have to pull a whole new wire. In my own house, when I moved in the basement was partly unfinished. I did a lot of renovation and wired a lot of the house before closing it up. Even as a pro I didn't do enough though, and over the years I have kicked myself for not spending the extra money to add some cat5 cables I didn't think I would need. On the other hand, there was never anything I *needed*... |
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