[chbot] OT....what should it cost?

[Brett Davidson]

> Hi Team,
>
> I'm trying to get a quote for wiring my house for multi room AV. I get a
distinct feeling that what I'm getting is a "go away" price.
>
> The longest run is about 20m and I want to do component video over that
distance.
>
> What should a suitable coax cable cost per meter?
>
> If anyone is experienced in this area I'd really like a chance to chat
off the board about it.
> Thanks
> Carl.

I'm "experienced" in that I've just done this sort of thing myself. In a previous life I was an Electronics Tech, too.

Running component or any form of low power signals (audio included) across long distances is a mugs game - you can do it but it's expensive as you need good shielding - esp. if around noisy power cables - think fridges. Proper cable layout is important too. (Run cables away from each other and only cross at right angles). With multiple cables it also turns into a nightmare to manage at the switchplate.

You can go HDMI to reduce the cable clutter but this also has maximum length concerns (over 10m starts to be a problem). Expensive repeaters or converting to Cat5/6 and then back again solve this but at a high cost for quality. (Two cat5/6 cables are needed per HDMI run, too).

The cheapest and best solution I found was to use Cat5/6 in multiple runs back to a central switch and run everything via MythTV/MediaPortal/VNC to push everything out to an AC-Ryan mediaplayer at the front end connected to the TV. (Wife wanted very discrete front-end systems next to the TVs).

For TV/Satellite, I just used an 8-way splitter and sent those via some good RG6 to each room. If you want Sky, then run 3 RG6's to each room - one for normal TV, and two for Sky (SkyPVR needs two cables). You can include more for lounge devices and also to act as a return. I did this for resale reasons as I use MythTV/Tivo but not everyone else will want to do this as yet.

Having said that, I am convinced that digital distribution (look at the Internet) is the way things are going and so mucking around with the complexities of analog cabling is limiting yourself too much.

Brat.