cable/satalite in every room

[spanker]

hi all
i've just recently bought a new house that requires refurbishment.so while the work is being done im looking to get telephone, tv/cable/sat, home network in all or most rooms and im looking for some pointers in the right direction.
i've read something about using cat5 cable
can all the systems be run of cat5?

would it be possible to get telephone line,cable installed in the garage and connect them to a hub of some sort that will feed the rest of the house.

any advice, ideas pointers would aprieciated

 

[Spark123]

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=61971

 

[plugwash]

cat5 is usable for networking and phones, there is some video sending stuff that runs over it as well but its really quite a specialist idea for highly integrated systems (e.g. avoid it unless you know exactly what you are doing)

regarding TV you have to decide what you wan't. do you wan't a seperate decoder box in each room? multiple TVs off one box or what? once you've done that you can work out your cabling needs. Either way 4 runs of good quality sat grade coax to the main locations and 2 to the less major locations should cover everything you are likely to wan't.

regarding networking and phone unless you plan to get really fancy with multiple independent networks etc two runs of cat5 to each point from your central location (where you have your dsl or cable internet equipement and your network switches and you bring the incoming phone line and if present cable internet line to) should be plenty. note that increasingly cablecos are providing combined digital TV and cable modem boxes so you should probablly put in at least one run of cat5 from the main TV point to the central location to connect the cable modem in the digital TV box to your router.

another option is to put in some big conduit (with gradual bends) running back to the central location with draw strings in. Then you can pull in whatever cables you wan't whenever you wan't to change how you do things or a new system comes along. sooner or later people will think of cat5 the way we think of thinnet now.

 

[spanker]

Thanks for the replies
Im not quite sure what would be the best way to do this so heres what im thinking.

cable and telephone feeds installed into garage
run cat five for phone lines to all rooms connect feed in garage to phone lines that have been run to all rooms. (not sure what i would need for this)

cable tv feed from garage to main digi box from digibox to all other rooms
would like to watch different channels in each room if poss (dont think its possible with just one digi box not sure)

other way main cable tv feed into garage pipe to all rooms digi box in each room.
if i changed from cable to sky i would i still be able to use it in all rooms?

pc network run to all rooms again coming back to garage were router would be situated.

can you get face plates with several outputs on one plate? ie phone, cable/sat, rj45, tv ect i dont realy want to put half a dozen face plates in each room would this cause any problems?

If using cat5 for phone line would i need an adapter from rj45 to rj11 or just connect it straight to rj11 socket?

would i need to run ariel wire coax to all rooms if i wanted just terestrel tv?
is there any special equipment i would need ive seen things like x10 modules but i would rather have every thing in one central location and just the face plates in the rooms.

with the risk of sounding extremely dim why would i need 4 runs of coax to main locations and 2 runs to the less major?

sorry its a bit long winded id just rather do it all in one go while the refurb is going on.

 

[plugwash]

4 runs was a guestimate but its the right order of magnitude.

e.g. with a sky+ box there you would have

terrestrial arial
two runs to dish
arial feed out from rf2 on sky box to other TVs

 

[Darkness]

If you plan to use cat5e for the networking and phones, you will need to get yourself a patch panel cabinet. In the cabinet you will need to get yourself a phone panel and a data panel which sits inside the cabinet.

You will wire your phone line into the phone panel and using patch cable, connect a phone port to a data port of the faceplate being used as a phone. Patch a cable to your router from the phone panel and from there patch each port of the router to a data port.

Very straight forward and is a great job once its done. Worth doing.

If you have money to spend, I'd recommend using WF100 coax cable for your tv etc. It makes a huge difference to keep digital tv at it's best and helps in volt drop prevention if distance is a factor.

 

[plugwash]

If you plan to use cat5e for the networking and phones, you will need to get yourself a patch panel cabinet. In the cabinet you will need to get yourself a phone panel and a data panel which sits inside the cabinet.

one patch panel should be enough if you think about the wiring, just wire a few ports together for the phone line.

You will wire your phone line into the phone panel and using patch cable, connect a phone port to a data port of the faceplate being used as a phone. Patch a cable to your router from the phone panel

um assuming ADSL the router needs unfiltered signal and everything else filtered signal so wouldn't it be more sensible to put the filter and branch to the router before the patch panel?

 

[spanker]

so coax is the best for tv if i run 4 lines to the lounge from the loft and one to every other room i may want a tv in
could i connect them all in the loft with some sort of splitter?

if i use a patch panel for the phones how many phone lines can you run of on feed?

thanks for the replies.

 

[Darkness]

If you are planning to split distribute the tv in the atic for example, you are best to get an amplifier. I purchased an SLX Gold 6 Way Tv Aerial - Amplifier from TLC this morning so I can run the likes of a Sky remote from an room using one of those tvlink eye jobies.

If you were to use just a normal splitter then you will kill the signal and may find if your using digital receivers, that some channels will disappear.

 

[chaosss]

Possible a bit late in replying but here goes.

I am doing a similar thing at the moment. I have a cupboard where all my AV quipment will be hidden and everything distributed around the house.

Now I have run at least 4 runs of Cat5e to each room and in some rooms 8. It is so cheap you may as well have some redundancy.

With regards to the TV/Audio you can run video/audio over Cat5 using baluns but it can work out expensive and you still need splitters.

Co-ax is crap quality. It does depends on your needs though. I have run component cable (good thick stuff about £10 a metre should do and can run HD over it although not 1080P) to the 4 main rooms (bed1, lounge, dining and kitchen) plus GOOD quality HD cables (capable of 1080p) to Bed1 and lounge.

Connect all of this to a matrix switcher along with all your sources (DVD, Sky?, Media PC??) etc. and any source will be available in any room independently of any other rooms.

Then you can use remote repeaters to control all the equipment.

 

[bernardgreen]

I think the OP may have been watching TV in the garage for the past 4 years since he asked the questions in 2006