Wiring for basic home theater + home network - tell me what I'm missing

So my house/pile project is moving along and I'm starting to think that I should work with my electrician on the project to get some additions made while walls are still open and there's not more pile of house in the way.  Here's what I'm thinking about doing with home theater;

Wall mount TV with an HDMI cable running down from the TV to the HT receiver below it (via in-wall conduit) and a coax cable running up to the attic for eventual connection to an antenna.  Power also behind TV.  Finally behind TV is an Ethernet wall jack with cable running over to network switch (discussed later).

Behind the HT reciever are the following jacks in a pair of wall plates; "speaker plate" with a pair of RCA jacks with cable running to a corner of the room where a subwoofer will live, and a pair of banana jacks with cable running to a plate straight across from the TV so rear fill speakers can be mounted on either sides of a couch opposite the TV.  There's also a "data plate" behind the reciever with two jacks for Ethernet runs to the network switch, an HDMI jack with cable running up to the TV (so the theater is doing all HDMI switching and related signal intake), and a coax running up to that same attic antenna for FM reception (as well as possible splitting again for OTA TV recording if I decide to do that at some point in the future, seems doubtful)  

For Ethernet/networking, there's the mentioned three runs going from the TV and whatever I drop into the HT components pile, and then two jacks each in the smaller two bedrooms.  One bedroom is planned to be an office room with a computer or two, and then two in the other bedroom for general flexibility.  All of these runs will terminate in the basement, probably at a gang box with a real wall plate for neatness, going to a 16-port switch with whatever router/modem from the internet service I eventually end up with.  I'm suggesting a 16 port because they seem cheaper than 12-port models based in about a minute of searching and eight ports isn't enough when considering the cable running to the modem/router.  I will have wifi in the house but for items that aren't really mobile and should be there long-term I would prefer the hardwire.  

I'm planning on buying all of the plates and ports/connections from Monoprice as well as the cable.  They seem to have good selection for Keystone-style snap-in ports and I can get everything at one place this way.  I was planning on using 14ga speaker wire from them as well.

What am I missing?  Do I need anything else running to the TV?  I really don't plan on going with cable TV.  The two Ethernet runs to the HT reciever area are for a game console I don't currently own (and no serious plans for one at this time, but maybe later) and a home theater / emulator PC that I do have more solid plans for.

Thanks, GRM Borg, for your assistance!

Any plans to put banana plugs in for ceiling speakers so you have future atmos compatibility?

Any plans to run in-wall wiring for your main left+right speakers?

Could be really nice to just run smurf-tube and pull cords from your low-voltage wall boxes down to the basement (hopefully unfinished space or drop ceiling).

Depends on what your TV is capable of, but if you're doing OTA to actually be tuned by the TV, you may need a cable to get the audio out to the rest of your system. 
 

My understanding is some TVs can do this via the HDMI, though you have to yet your HTR properly configured to see it. Mine didn't; so I think there's actually an optical output from the TV to the HTR. 

I don't think a room the size and layout of mine really makes sense for in-ceiling atmos stuffs.  

Without getting the room really set up I don't know if I want to put in boxes for the front speakers.  Could do it but then the speakers move around to get placement really right for the whole-room setup and now the plates are showing.  Vs. just having the cable lay on the floor.  Seems like six of one, half a dozen of the other, but kind of worse to use the plates.  In the rear of the room a couch will hide the wall plate.

Agreed on running tube down to the basement where the space is not finished.  Wires for speakers drop down through the floor at the reciever and run over to the back of the room and back up into the wall, wires for data drop into the basement and run over to the shelf where the router/modem and network switch will sit.  Agreed on pull cords to help make life easier.

Karacticus: Good call on audio signal back out from the TV to cover the case of either the TV and/or the receiver not playing well with that traveling back over HDMI.  I think right now it would be my receiver that would be the limiting factor as it's a bit older.  In any case, this sounds like the perfect time to add an SPDIF cable.  Will need to check the specifics as to what the TV outputs.

My advice is that cable is cheap, labor is expensive, and it takes virtually no additional work to run multiple cables at the same time.  I would run double or triple the number of drops to any location that you think you need because you don't want to go back later and do it again.  They don't need to be terminated or wired up, but having the cable run saves a ton of time.

As for termination, you can get small wall-mount racks, I have a 8U that's just deep enough for the switch and a small server.  The patch panel has telco-style punchdown blocks on the back, RJ-45 ports on the front, and then 1 foot patch cables to hook them to the switch.

(And yes, my cable management could do with some improvement)

codrus:  I'll throw an extra into each of the Cat6 runs going to each room, bringing the bedrooms up to three each and the living room up to four.  

I'm now wishing I had asked the crew rebuilding the kitchen to have saved a couple of the old cabinets, but I can make something myself some weekend.  For now a basic shelf or something similar will suffice.  A cabinet would be nice to reduce dust and such.  

I should probably get an order started for all this as I want to run this stuff soon.

I say just run Cat6 lines.  HDMI can run over cat6 with the proper extenders.    Svideo as well.   Ethernet?  well thats what cat5/6 is for.

Grtechguy said:

I say just run Cat6 lines.  HDMI can run over cat6 with the proper extenders.    Svideo as well.   Ethernet?  well thats what cat5/6 is for.

This. Make sure it's 10gig-rated cat6.

GameboyRMH said:

Grtechguy said:

I say just run Cat6 lines.  HDMI can run over cat6 with the proper extenders.    Svideo as well.   Ethernet?  well thats what cat5/6 is for.

This. Make sure it's 10gig-rated cat6.

Note that in order to have a cat6 rating you need more than just the cable, all of the other wiring parts also need to be cat6-rated.  Terminal blocks, connectors, etc.

Done similar projects in two houses now and have a few tips and tricks

-First off, decide where you want to hide all the hideables.  Its super nice to have everything in one spot.  As mentioned before, cable is cheap.

-I suggest either a closet or part of your basement if you have one.  

-I would put everything, even my receiver, in my hideables closet.  With HDMI switching and control over HDMI, no need to have the receiver visible or even on the same level of the house.

-Pick a few points to run all your drops, makes moving stuff around later a little easier.  IE, one or two wall cavities to run everthing through vertically, one or 2 horizontal runs, then branch off.  Makes it neater too.  The suggestion of some in-wall PVC conduit runs (big enough to pull plugs through) is really solid if you want to future-proof stuff.  I would love to have a few runs of 2" PVC strategically placed inside my walls.  

-Develop a scheme, makes it all look nice and pretty.  IE low voltage on one side of a stud, high voltage on the other.  Outlets at the same height throughout.  Consistency counts.  

-OTA isnt dead, make sure every potential TV spot has a coax cable drop, even if its buried behind the walls

-Double-run all your ethernet unless you feel lucky.  

-Hardwire as much as possible - sounds like this is already the plan so good on you for that.

-Dont be afraid to run stuff for future use and leave it closed-in for the time being.  Speaker wiring, extra ethernet, outlets, etc.  Any high voltage stuff needs to be dead on both ends of course, not just pigtailed and taped off.  

-Before you close anything in, take lots of high-res pics.  Both up close and far away.  This will pay big dividends for future addons or troubleshooting.  

I went crazy while I had the walls and floor apart.  Keystone plates for everything.  I ended up using it for one HDMI and the five speakers.

My house is so small and wireless stuff is getting so common that I ended up not using most of it.  The A/V cabinet holds my router, my NAS, and anything that gets cat6.  Internet is all wireless.  I ended up using very little of the keystones I bought.  I figured since wireless is the new cat6, and physical cat6 will soon be replaced by something better, I didn't want to have planned obsolescence.

Speaker wire will always be speaker wire.  Definitely do that, and do extras.  Back in the day, it was all 2.1.  Then it was 5.1.  Now it's 7.1.  Might be nice to anticipate future upgrades so you can add speakers later.

Nice thing about your HDMI in conduit is that if something better comes along to replace HDMI, you can just drop a new cord.

Just thinking - keep it serviceable so it can be easily upgraded in the future, but things like speaker wire will always be around.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I figured since wireless is the new cat6, and physical cat6 will soon be replaced by something better, I didn't want to have planned obsolescence.

Cat6 isn't going away any time soon.  This is primarily an enterprise-grade business standard that gets installed into the physical plant of hundreds of thousands of office buildings.  That creates a ton of inertia and as new data link layer standards are designed there is a lot of incentive to make sure they support the older physical layer cable.  It's not like an iPhone. :)

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I figured since wireless is the new cat6, and physical cat6 will soon be replaced by something better, I didn't want to have planned obsolescence.

Cat6 isn't going away any time soon.  This is primarily an enterprise-grade business standard that gets installed into the physical plant of hundreds of thousands of office buildings.  That creates a ton of inertia and as new data link layer standards are designed there is a lot of incentive to make sure they support the older physical layer cable.  It's not like an iPhone. :)

 

This, the thing that replaces cat6 will just be a compatible cable capable of higher speeds, maybe called cat7. It's a good thing to have long-term, Apple probably hates that it's the dominant standard for wired networking

I installed an IR repeater in a single gang box on the wall below my TV. This allowed me to put the cable box and DVD player (both since removed) and the HT receiver in the basement on a shelf so there is no visible equipment upstairs in the room except the screen and the speakers.
 

The SmartTV has done away with a bunch of those devices but it's still nice to have if you use a receiver. 

I don't really want to hide the receiver as that would mean I have to use the remote every time I want to use the thing and I think I would find that limiting.  The location isn't going to be a great place for 7.1 due to foot traffic going through the HT area every time you go through the front door.  I can always fish that if I really had to in the future; I just cannot see this happening in this area of the house.

I ordered a pile of Keystone bits and cable to make this all happen.  My biggest issue now is just getting it all in from Monoprice (the order was made but hasn't been processed yet for the brunt of what I need) and trying to get this stuff installed before drywall goes up.  I should have thought of this weeks ago.