Future proofing my TV inputs

GoneShootin

I'm soon at a stage where I will be finishing the chimney breast, and eventually placing a wall mounted flat screen. I made a slight boo-boo originally and let the electrician wire it without my intervention, such that all I have now is a standard TV coax input from the aerial. That chase has been plastered now, but its no big deal for me to dig out a chase and get the lads to re-plaster. Before I do that though, what kinds of cables should I be looking at laying while I have this 2nd chance available to me?

- Is 1 TV aerial cable enough? I'm not up to speed on the SKY Plus stuff as I'm coming from an RTE only house
- 2 x HDMI cables [1 for blu-ray, 1 for xbox - do I need more? - depends on telly I guess]
- RGB/Scart cables [are these gone with the flood at this stage?]
- Cat5/6 [are NET tv's going to be worth considering in the future?

Thanks!

ECO_Mental

Yeah I would say thats about alright, I would put in the RGB cable too as a lot of digital cameras have this as there output and the cable is cheap anyway whats to loose.

Regarding HDMI; 1 for SKY,1 for XBOX,1 for Blu-Ray player, I also have a Western Digital media player which outputs in HDMI as well so you could add that so in total thats 4. But you could consider a HDMI switch which has a number of inputs and then you only have to run one HDMI to the TV. probably a better option.

Regarding the CAT6 its up to your self but any net TV would be WI-Fi anyway so there would be no need.

Forget about scart unless you have equipment currently that need this


EM

ninjaBob

I put a Single Socket, HDMI Cable and Cat6 on my chimney breast. I have seen converters for Cat5 that will allow you to turn it into a HDMI cable etc. (but they are expensive as they are considered extenders).

In my current house I have a Server and every PC and Console can stream the media through the server (via TVersity). This is all done wirelessly throughout the house.

So when I was going over the electrics for my new house I made sure that every room had a TV Point (standard TV coax) and a network point, as this would get around signal strength.

I have a HDMI Switcher thingy, that allows me to switch between HDMI inputs. So I connect Sky, PS3, 360 into this and switch between them. The only issue is if you want to have Telly in Telly then you need multiple sources on your chimney (hence the CAT6). Handy for playing games while watching the match or vice versa.

Regarding the Sky Plus, your sky box will not be on the wall with your tell it will most likely be in some form of cabinet in the corner of the room. So 1 Coax should be fine, but where the cabinet is you will need more so that you can support multi room from the same box etc.

I am by no means a pro on this, I am personally going down the route of NetTv as I don't really watch much telly, but have a huge DVD / BlueRay collection that I hope to store on my server and stream on demand throughout the house.

RKQ

I'm no expert on tv cables. You might get some info on the Sat tv forum.
From experience, I'd say you need 2 sat cables for Sky+ or a hardrive recorded, so you can watch one channel and record another.

You will need a 3rd cable for Irish channels on aerial & future digital reception of RTE etc. Especially if you want to go freesat at a later time. Either way Quad LNB (4 cable sat LNB) are becoming the norm, so if you had 4 sat boxes, each box could view a different channel at the same time.

Or you might have a 4th cable if you wanted to run a cable from the back of Sky+ box to view in another room - master bedroom - both rooms would see same channel, remote could work via magic eye.

Not sure on HDMI. No doubt they will become the standard.

Cable is cheap so I'd rather have 1 spare unused cable than be looking for a different cable in a few years. Who knows whats coming in the future.

We put Cat5 in all rooms just to future proof it. We also ran our sat cables to our utility and have a junction box there with a cable to each room.

Talk to your Electrician, Sat installer and check out a few Sat / Computer / Hi-fi threads.

mr_edge_to_you

Throw in a phone line socket beside your sky box for box office movies when you're tired and it's wet out and you couldn't be bothered going to your local video store.

gman2k

The next gen of hi-def TV will run on twin Cat 7 IIRC. (When Cat7 comes out)
I would only run one hdmi to back of tv (if it's wall mounted) and run all other hdmi cable into a home cinema amp which in tun runs the one hdmi to the TV.

Mike2006

Just a heads up re the HDMI extenders.

I have just purchased one of these to have a look at it.

It can cover up to 30 metres with 2 x CAT5 cables and
it can cover up to 60 metres with 2 x CAT6 cables.

Point to note here is that if you want to use your cat5 or 6 as a HDMI cable then you need 2 CAT cables. I assume this is because the HDMI cables have more than 8 contacts.

Mike.

paddy236

Mike2006 wrote: »

Just a heads up re the HDMI extenders.

I have just purchased one of these to have a look at it.

It can cover up to 30 metres with 2 x CAT5 cables and
it can cover up to 60 metres with 2 x CAT6 cables.

Point to note here is that if you want to use your cat5 or 6 as a HDMI cable then you need 2 CAT cables. I assume this is because the HDMI cables have more than 8 contacts.

Mike.

From researching on avforums, I believe that the 1st cat5/cat6 cable is used for data and the 2nd is used for handshaking. The unit that connect to each end of the cat5/cat6 cables is called a "balun". Before you buy one make sure it has good reviews, as there are compatibility issues with with some of them. Also, you will need 2 baluns for each device (one to send the signal and one to receive). To make the decision even harder, there is now a new HDMI standard (1.4). The official press release with all it's features is here:

http://www.hdmi.org/press/press_release.aspx?prid=101

I am planning on having all my video equipment in the office (called "Node 0"):
SkyHD box (his)
Shy+ box (hers)
Computer to watch movies + internet
Blueray player (possibly PS3)

These 4 video sources can be watched from any of the 4 TV's in the house using a "4x4 matrix switcher". The matrix switcher is connected to each TV through a single HDMI cable. At the present time, HDMI cables are the most reliable way of sending the digital signal.

You can get a matrix switcher which allows you full control over your selected video source through a built in "remote extender". This setup allows me to record a program onto my sky box and then watch that program later in any room I want. If i went for the common setup (a sky box in each room), I can only watch the recorded program from one room it was set to record(hope that makes sense).

The problem with this setup for me at the moment is that sky boxes dont send audio through HDMI (unlike most video sources: PS3, xbox, blueray players). Instead it is sent through a optical out.
The second problem is that every tv will need a audio receiver (surround sound or otherwise) connected for the sound to "work" properly. Otherwise, no tv can have an audio receiver connected and must use the built in tv speakers.
I have emailed a user about this problem and when I get a response I can update this post.

The matrix switcher i am looking at costs £399, which is cheaper than 2 extra sky boxes, 3 extra blueray players, 3 dvd players etc. I also dont need to buy any baluns.
Using this system I only need 1 HDMI lead to connect from each tv to the matrix switcher in the office. I am going to run 2 HDMI cables to each TV to be sure. I am also going to run 5 Cat6a cables from each TV to the office, 2 ct100 cables. The cat6 cable can also be used to connect in a phone line if you ever need it.

This is the system I will be installing and the cables I will be running. I'm not saying it's the best way and I have no idea if it is futureproof.

Sorry for the long post
Paddy

shane1111

One thing I forgot to do which I regret now is run an optical cable,
for sound out of TV back to your amp.

I would run cat5e/6 for net TV - wireless net TV models are currently more expensive than the cost of a cable.
Also run more than one coax, sat quality - I just installed freesat TV and needed two, one for sat tuner and one for terrestrial tuner.
HDMI way to go alright for everything else alright.

seclachi

Just a side note, I think the only real way to future proof your cabling is to have some sort of ducting or system where you can insert new cable. Technology can change fast, 15 years ago networks used coax, now they use twisted pair, in another 20 years it could be optical or god knows what.

higster

have to agree with seclachi...I went mad tryingg to figure this out and in the end went with 2 cat5e/phone, 4 coax (2 for SKY+, one for terestial and one for whatever in the future) and 4 electrical plugs near floor level behind cabinet...ran what I needed (ended up with 1 HDMI from amp to TV and one power cable for TV...using an amp for sky+/surround sound/PS3 and Wii) through a conduit from near wall plugs to TV higher on wall...all very tidy in the end and leaves options open in the future...

Do-more

If you like your movies, with the price of 1080p projectors coming down all the time, you might want to run cables or a conduit onto a rear wall aswell just to keep yourself covered!

gman2k

Do-more wrote: »

If you like your movies, with the price of 1080p projectors coming down all the time, you might want to run cables or a conduit onto a rear wall aswell just to keep yourself covered!

I have a ceiling position allocated at the back of the living room, with 2 cat6, 1 hdmi and single socket.
I have an AV cupboard built in off the living room, so all gear except TV goes there, all concealed behind locked door!

slavetothegrind

good idea on the cupboard for the av kit just remember to ventilate it as all that gear gives off a fair bit of heat!

Other than that good advice above, now i'm off to research this twin cat 7 thingy mentioned above!