Wiring house for A/V

[CDH]

My wife and I are in the process of building our next house. So far the foundation is in, so we're a while out from doing wiring, but I wanted to get some advice on what to do.

We plan on having Dish Network, running Cat6 data to many points in the house as well as Coax, and some runs of speaker cable to an outdoor patio and for surround-sound.

Until there is some sort of whole-house solution, I'm thinking it would also make sense to use a splitter and run HDMI from the great room to a couple of other places in the house so I can play video off the DVR, but I'm concerned about the realistic maximum length of cable runs. It seems like 50ft is common, but there are 100ft cables out there, so perhaps that could work too?

Any advice?

I figure it is best to do all this before there are walls up!

CDH.

 

[jayn_j]

There are 100 ft cables out there. Look near the bottom of this page:
HDMI Cable

If you look back 6 months in this forum, you should be able to find a discusion on max cable length. I am of the opinion that a run this long should be split into 2 or even 3 sections with repeaters, but others have reported success with 100 ft+ installations.

Since you are installing DISH, you might want to look into the new 922 and consider the LAN solution it provides. It is more flexible, especially if you distribute via 5 GHz 802.11N. Then you wouldn't need wires at all. The 922 is shipping "any day now".

A couple of years ago, I was recommending lots of cat-5 everywhere, but I am no longer so sure. I think wireless has developed to the point of being a viable option.

 

[lakebum431]

Both my dad and I have 100ft HDMI runs, his from a comcast HDDVR to a Pioneer Elite and mine from a 722k to a Pioneer 6020. NO issues at all. His has been in place 3 years. Mine for about a year.

 

[CDH]

So I could run the 922 over a LAN and have HD in other locations in the house? Would I need client satellite boxes at the other locations?

CDH.