VeeshanVault

I am finishing my basement (still) and am up to the wiring part of things. On one side will be my computer and on the other side will be my future big screen TV. I am trying to decide what kind of wiring I should lay through the walls between these two spots so that I can run stuff on my computer and have it show on the TV. Right now I am thinking that I will need 1 Composite Video Cable and 2 RCA Audio cables and 1 S-Video Cable. Anyone have any ideas for what else I should run while I have the chance. I was looking at HDMI and/or DVI as well but I think that would be an unnecesary expense. There is also the Component Video Cables that might be useful as well.

My main goal is too avoid my current system of laying wires across the floor.

Another question I have concerns surround sound stereo systems. I noticed at Best Buy that in their surround sound display they had a rear center speaker. I have never heard of that and am wondering if I should run an extra speaker line for this speaker in case of future need. My current stereo receiver doesn't have the output for that channel though.

Deward wrote:I am finishing my basement (still) and am up to the wiring part of things. On one side will be my computer and on the other side will be my future big screen TV. I am trying to decide what kind of wiring I should lay through the walls between these two spots so that I can run stuff on my computer and have it show on the TV. Right now I am thinking that I will need 1 Composite Video Cable and 2 RCA Audio cables and 1 S-Video Cable. Anyone have any ideas for what else I should run while I have the chance. I was looking at HDMI and/or DVI as well but I think that would be an unnecesary expense. There is also the Component Video Cables that might be useful as well.

My main goal is too avoid my current system of laying wires across the floor.

Another question I have concerns surround sound stereo systems. I noticed at Best Buy that in their surround sound display they had a rear center speaker. I have never heard of that and am wondering if I should run an extra speaker line for this speaker in case of future need. My current stereo receiver doesn't have the output for that channel though.

Sounds like you've got your computer stuff set up, but I'd recommend running some Cat 5 or Cat 6 just so it's there. Since you're running cable anyway...

<a href="http://www.swhowto.com/">This page</a> is a great story of how a guy wired his house for tv, phone, and network. It's less of a commercial for someone's products and seems to actually have decent information.

Hoarmurath wrote:<a href="http://www.swhowto.com/">This page</a> is a great story of how a guy wired his house for tv, phone, and network. It's less of a commercial for someone's products and seems to actually have decent information.

Is HTML code on this forum fucked for anyone else?

yup. "Disable HTML in this post" is checked by default for me and most other people, I'd guess...

Sorry about that, I'm a bbcode retard so I default to html, never thought it might default to off for others.

I considered running network cable but decided not too. I run two machines right next to each other off a linksys hub. If I get more machines later then I plan to go wireless. I helped my father wire his house for network and he never ended up using it.

My plan for the room is pretty much just to have those connections that I might need to connect my computer to my TV (about 20 feet away). My TV will have a surround sound system but my computer probably won't.

Just thinking of devices like... Xbox 360, PS3, Slingbox, Some type of network music player...

360 doesn't have built-in wireless LAN capabilities?

masteen wrote:360 doesn't have built-in wireless LAN capabilities?

No but you're getting 1K plus worth of video card and CPU for 399.00, not to mention the rest of the electronics packed into the console.

You probably should throw a couple of Cat5 cables between the two if your doing a hard ceiling instead of a drop ceiling. These days you can run damn near anything through Cat5; phone, video, audio, data. Its cheap insurance for future expansion.

Dont forget an incoming phone line near the location of your A/V equipment, between satellite boxes and Tivo needing access to a phone line it cant hurt.

Demags

Cat5 at sub $0.35/ft bulk is a really cheap way to go... definately run some between computer and TV locations. (Did you think about a telephone line to the TV location? how about cable? You should have at least 2 x coax and 2 x Cat5 to the TV location, this will enable you to use TIVO, or if you have DirecTV, to use thier DirecTIVO service (out of the box it requires 2 sat feeds, and a telephone feed) make sure the cable and telephone feeds go to wherever the cable/sat/telephone feed comes into your home.

Also, DVI would be a damn good investment. Eventually, if you dont already have an HDTV that will be the prefered method of running a digital video signal to your display... S-video, composite, component are all analog, huge difference in picture quality.

Check out http://www.keydigital.com for a nice 30 or 50ft DVI cable, you can even put HDMI ends on it if you need to...

Ideally, your trying to future proof yourself in new construction, the extra $200-300 you spend now, will be OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS less than trying to do it in the future.

Also, as far as surround goes, theres 3 flavors. 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1. 6.1 adds a rear center channel (I dont use unless I have a wide viewing area to cover) 7.1 adds side surround and rear surround speakers (think two speakers on either side of the seating area, and two in the rear of the room) I generally go 7.1 when I have a skinny long room. Really, if your rooms not huge, 5.1 will get you by. What are the rooms dimensions?

I don't do anything online with my xbox but I can see the value of having it in case I ever decided to go with vonage or something similar.

My room isn't really big. Maybe 15ft by 20ft. The TV will be along one of the 15ft walls. That is just the TV portion of the overall room. I have a side section (split with one of those big 12X12 support beams) that will contain the computer section. I will probably just go with the 5.1. anythign more will just be overkill on a room this size.

I am definitely trying to cover my bases so I don't have to try adding anything later at added expense.

I looked at those dvi cables and they are nice but I just can't justify spending an extra $300 dollars for a single cable that I may or may not use. That $300 will go better towards the new TV I am shopping for. Most of the stuff on my computer is probably low quality anyways.

I think you could get by just using Cat 5 in the walls, setting up XBox Media Center on your xbox, and have it access your desktop machine. That's what I do and all I have is the ethernet cable in the wall and then the component video and optical audio going to my TV/stereo. Seems overkill to have a 25' (or whatever) composite/component/rca cable running behind the walls.

If you want to pipe your computer video to your TV, but not use it for gaming or anything... one of the Linksys, or Dlink media servers for $100ish bucks will work either wirelessly, or over cat5..

They will allow you to stream any media content to your TV/AV system.