Pre-wiring a new house for PJ, Plasma, and 7.1 advice

[ciarancummins]

Hi,

Summary: newbie to "proper" AV equipemt, pre-wiring my new house for HC incl. Ceiling mounted projector, Wall mounted plasma, and 7.1 surround (why not..!!). I have tried to read up as much as possible, and avforums has been the best source TBH. So, from all my research here is my plan for my main living room, so unfortunately have to be semi-discrete with HW...

Initially, I am only going to put the cables in place before the plasterboard walls, ceiling and plastering is complete. Will buy hardware bit by bit afterwards as funds allow. I know quality cabling is important, so I want to make sure I do it right from the start. On a budget though...

Planned cables are (make and price below):
PROJECTOR: (I want a SP4805, and will ceiling mount it for a 10' throw)
All cables will be wired up to joists in ceiling and distributed up there.
10M component to scart. I want to be able to use my current DVD which has no component, and also to be able to display other scart sources via switcher. Will I loose alot of PQ using scart instead of component to component?
10M composite ro composite. For consoles, digitial camera feed, legacy.
5M DVI-D to DVI-D for Media center PC. Best price for good 10M DVI was
£129, is there a better supplier? Should I really push to use the DVI connector for DVD display?
5M 3.5mm phono jack wire for eventual electric screen, with 12v SW.
Power cable wired in opposite dir of Video cables.

Priced from tvcables.co.uk, any different cable, supplier recommendations?
Profigold PGV379 10m Component Video to Scart Cable £49.99
3.5mm to 3.5mm Jack Plug Cable - 5m £5.75
Lindy 5m DVI-D Dual Link Digital Cable £21.49
Profigold PGV6039 10.0m Composite Video Cable £19.99
Subtotal: £97.22

Speaker cable: center, front and rear and other 2 for 7.1 ....
CAT 5e. Is a single cable, 4 wires joined for + and - good? Is it absolutely necessary to braid the 3 cables to get good quality audio?
For Subwoofer, I will buy good cable at the time when I get it, but pobably something like: Profigold PGA4105 5m Subwoofer Cable £15.99

For plasma mount on fire-place wall, plan to chase the wall to the side of the av equipment, big enough for the dual connectors most new ones seem to need. Didn't want to buy this cable, as not sure what TV I'll get. (want a pioneer PDP-43xde, but I can dream). Need advice on this, after chasing the channel, what trunking to use? (rectangular with 1 side exposed? How is it attatched to the concrete? The side of the fireplace is plasterboard, so it's only the facing wall I'm worried about. I will leave some string pulls in the trunking for pulling cables later, as this will be plastered over until needed. I will run a power cable in a channel to the other side of the fireplace. Should I use diagonal channel for video, and horizontal for power?

Plan to wire double gang remote controlled dimmer switches for 6 spots in room, from B&Q.

well done if you made it this far...

Once this is all completed, I have the following on my wishlist, any recommendations? or people selling this HW or similar??

AV receiver
Yamaha RX-v450 or Denon AVR-1705

DVD player
Toshiba SD-340E

5.1/6.1 Speakers
At a loss for what speakers to get. need compact rear mounted and wife friendly fronts, possibly on stands. Sub and Center will also have to be visually nice as it will be mounted pride of place in the center of my fireplace wall... budget ~ £200.

Any recommendations for all in 1, dvd-AV-5.1 speaker package with a proper
receiver?

Any help is appreciated, as this stuff has taken over my life for the past few
weeks!! I have to wire before plasterers are in, probably in 2 weeks. I will post a diagram of room and some recent pictures soon...

Thanks for any advice,
Ciaran

[ciarancummins]

Basic layout and size of room in question.

projector placement, at 10'6" allows for screen size 68" diag, 59" across. from projectorcentral calculator pro.

Where and how high should the rear speakers be placed on this plan? can't figure this out.

Cheers,
Ciaran

[dorgan]

Have you considered in wall speakers? http://www.jamo.com/Default.asp?ID=1690

Grill can be painted the same colour as the walls. Not sure about prices though.

[ciarancummins]

Hi,

Yeah, those Jamo speakers look nice, but a bit pricy for just a pair of rears. Would like flexibility on being able to move around in case I change room, or move again.

Been looking at Denon SCAV-F100 5.1 Channel Flat speaker system+Sub. Nice wall mounted stuff, second hand.

Thanks for recommendation,
Ciaran

[David_of_Surrey]

What do you mean by Power cable wired in opposite dir of Video cables?

Dave

[ciarancummins]

If facing TV, video leads will go to left side of fireplace wall, power cable will go to sockets on right side of fireplace wall. If power and video cables are run in the same channel I have read it may cause interference to video signal due to power cable.

Regards,
Ciaran

[ciarancummins]

I think I have my AV hardware sorted, now it is just a small matter of chasing walls, fixing conduit, and running cables.

I need advice on what type of conduit to use in a chased wall? How is it attatched in the channell to the concete? I will run some string in this for future cable pulls btw.

I plan to use 25mm piping in the ceiling cavity for any future cable pulls to my ceiling mounted projector, and attatch the pre-wired stuff to the joists, using pipe holders and cable tie's.

Any other suggestions? I plan to B&Q it soon

Thanks,
Ciaran