[mythtv-users] Wiring new construction

Gregory Gulliver gbg at eclipsegrp.com
Tue Dec 2 17:25:53 UTC 2008


 As been stated, you do not need conduit for low voltage wiring.  Thus,
you just need to drill holes in allowable spots (building code regulates
where holes can be drilled in headers and man-made joist).  I would put
plastic boxes up where the wires will come out of the wall. If you do
that, you will not need mud rings.  Mud rings are typically used with
metal electrical boxes and are what the screws on face plates screw
into.  With the plastic boxes, the screws will just screw into the
plastic box.

In my house, I did all the low voltage wiring.  I found that Belden's
banana cable was great to work with, but a little more expensive than
just cable.  The banana cable had two cat 5e, to RG-6 Quad shield, and
two fiber optic cables in one bundle.  This made it easy to pull.  Each
outlet is called a drop and I put at least two drops in every room.  In
my office and phone nook, I pulled additional cat 6 cable with the
banana cable.  I also did two RG-6 Quad shield runs to the attic for an
antenna and two RG-6 Quad shield with two cat 6 to an external box for a
satellite mount.  Do not forget to pull at least two cat 5 wires for the
incoming phone line.  I you ever plan on having a door phone, pull a
wire for that also.  The other thing I would highly recommend is a 2-3"
pipe run from you basement to the attic for future wiring use.

If you are looking for a whole house stereo system, take a look at
Russound's A-bus systems.  IT is cat 5 from the hub where you plug in
normal RCA jacks from your stereo or other device and run it to a wall
amplifier that fits into a normal light switch box.  From the wall
amplifier, you run speaker wire to the speakers in the room.

Ok, now onto the face plates.  I like Quick port and keystone jacks.
They allow me to configure 1-6 jacks for each drop depending on the face
plate used.  You can get most types of ports (i.e. RG-6, Cat-3, Cat-5e,
Cat-6, RCA) for both Quick ports and Keystone.  Often you can buy bulk
Quick port or Keystone ports and face plates on flee-bay.  For
terminating the RG-6 Quad Shield, I used snap-n-seal compression
fittings.

Now for server room where all the wires are home run to, you can use
Quick ports or keystone ports in panels that make them like patch
panels.  Or you can buy actual patch panels and wire everything
together. 

Another nice feature is if you a distribution amplifier to put MythTV
and a satellite or other video devices onto regular TV channels.  Often
the distribution amplifiers will work over the cable with IR receives
and blasters and have 5 or six TVs that can be connected.  Once analog
TV goes away, you can put a converter box tv signal onto a channel and
still use your old TVs without a box at each TV or tying up Myth using
"live tv"

I hope this gives you some idea's on wiring and devices.

Regards,
Greg



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