So I'm putting my living room back together and wiring in advance for basic home theater, it's not an optimal space, and I'm doing it on the cheap, but....

Ive alread snaked plastic conduit and 3 pair of 14ga wiring to above the fireplace plus a seperate run for the eventual vieo signal for the flat panel. I have a location where I will soon build a builtin in cabinet with window seat and some other nice features, I have run the basics to that location in a low voltage 2 gang box and a seperate single gang low voltage that is paired with surge protected outlet.

I plan on wiring for 7.1 even though my current setup only supports 5.1 plus i have a pair of recessed speakers in the kitchen. So that leaves me with 8+ pairs of speaker wire plus audio video in out coax and at least a few spares for changing video technology. I plan on using the little snap in moduoles n the leviton wall plate for most of the signal stuff and the 2 gang has 12 slots so that's plenty for everything but the speaker wire, but short of adding at least 1 more 2 gang box (6pair) i'm unsure about the best speaker approach. Basically I was looking for something a little more dense but still semi professional looking, loose wires hanging out the wall wont cut it. didn't know if any of you have done it or had it done in your house.. and could lend sone advice.

Corey

 

corey

this website should help

http://www.avsforum.com/

everything and i mean everything is covered

if it was me. i would not use gang boxes for speaker wire because the boxes are permanent - i would use just the wire because they would be covered with the speakers when mounted and if you or the next owner want something different you'll have to rip out all the boxes

also if you plan to use the fire place DO NOT plan to mount a TV above it as heat will kill a flat screen

 

Good luck with your install. There is nothing more exciting than watching movies on a big screen with a great sound system. I generally cannot wait for movies to come out on DVD (Blu-Ray and HD Dvd now) so I can experience the movie in a much better environment.

 

Yeah I don't plan on gang boxes for the speakers themselves just back at the cabinet location to keep things organized, I know how messy it can get if you arent a bit organized.

Wow that site is rediculous, i'll have to spend some time on it when I'm not at work, cause i'm sure most of it is actually for legitimate installs not budget crap like i'm doing....

 

na they have budget stuff as well!!

it's really a great resource

 

started looking and their site went down, got any others I can roam at while I'm eating lunch

 

Acutally a simple home theater involves just a large screen TV (the bigger the better, I am a projector fan myself), and a good audio system with at least 5.1 speakers, and a good video delivery system like High Def Cable or Satelite, and a kick butt DVD player. That should pretty much cut it for a basic home theater.
Even if you have a regular TV adding a receiver with surround sound would give you the basics.
Now is not the time to buy a new receiver though as the Dolby True HD and DTS-HD are not being decoded by any audio device available yet. I read that they will be available sometime this late spring to summer.

 

I've already got the basics (less the big screen) an older but capable sony with dolby digital 5.1, optical from the 5 disc dvd changer, a full set of cambridge soundworks speakers including a pair of decent Towers, a 10" powerd sub (although that flaked out on me the other day) and center and rears. My video side is lacking, as I don't mind sh#$y broadcast and by clunky 36" tube is still in the garage so, the crappy old 27 sitting next to the fireplace is currently fed over old school coax. I've considered projector and plan to make sure I leave the abillity to add it but would need to do a better job of making blocking the light pollution form the windows, besides at this point a 42" plasma or lcd would be small enough for every day use and still a step up when watching DVD's

 

eventually i was roaming around smarthome.com looking for connectors...
I ended up getting these for my wall plate behind the stereo

ICC IC107DSCWH Dual Speaker Jacks

should keep things neat, I'll end up burying an extra fat pvc conduit as well to leave more room for future expansion,
I plan to also put rca ports in for basic stereo audio signal from the computer on the other side of the room, you can ger ports with punchdowns so you can run that over cat5, that will keep it much cheaper than making a 30+ ft RCA
I havent decided on the video yet.
sssnakesss what do transmit your video over currently?

 

I currently use the RGB connectors (RCA's with one for Red, one for Blue and one for Green you know what I mean), I want to convert to HDMI but my projector has only a DVI-I and is not HDCP compliant, so a new projector is in my sights.
I bought a 30 foot cable that has RGB, S-Video, and Composite, all in one cable. That made it convenient but was a little pricey at $275.
You get a much better quality picture using the component connections (RGB) than the others and HDMI beats them all. But that would depend on what your system will support. Look at your end device (tv) and determine the highest quality connections that it will support, that will determine what video connections you can make. In quality order you would have HDMI, DVI, RGB, S-Video, and Composite.