Best cabling for multiroom TV/cinema

[admin_exported]

I am installing multiroom TV and cinema in new build house, so plenty of ability to put in loads of cable at minimum hassle. I want to have a central hub for a couple of sky+ boxes, DVD player, and PC, and i want to be able to show content in the games room (mainly gaming, TV and DVDs), the lounge (mainly TV) and also a couple of other rooms. [plus music but the Sonos should sort that out]. I have recently taken advice from a specialist who wants to run 4 Cat5s and a coax using an analogue feed, to cope with the remote control instructions etc needed to operate mutliple screens. Apparently HDMI cables would not allow this. However, HDMI is lauded as being the gold standard for DVD and HD so I am concerned at losing quality with analogue. Is the advice correct?

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="moonbase"]
I am installing multiroom TV and cinema in new build house, so plenty of ability to put in loads of cable at minimum hassle. I want to have a central hub for a couple of sky+ boxes, DVD player, and PC, and i want to be able to show content in the games room (mainly gaming, TV and DVDs), the lounge (mainly TV) and also a couple of other rooms. [plus music but the Sonos should sort that out]. I have recently taken advice from a specialist who wants to run 4 Cat5s and a coax using an analogue feed, to cope with the remote control instructions etc needed to operate mutliple screens. Apparently HDMI cables would not allow this. However, HDMI is lauded as being the gold standard for DVD and HD so I am concerned at losing quality with analogue. Is the advice correct?

[/quote]

It depends what the supply is feeding i.e. source box/hub. You can get HDMI in 20 metre runs which can be joined by connectors forming 40metre runs but this can be very expensive. Shop around and you can pay around £40 for a 20metre run, connectors are around £30, all 1080p V1.3 Certified.

Cat5 cable can make the best speaker cable beating anything over £100+ depending if you've got the time to make it.

AV connectivity wise I'm not too sure but in a lot of cases, you can use coax (up to 500metres) or optical (over 100metres) which is superior to coax and carries the sound leaving whatever else to carry the picture. Also make sure it's Cat5e or higher (6/7) as this in most cases has replaced the standard Cat5.

Either way cost-wise, it seems the sensible option IMO.

It's a shame WirelessHD/HDMI isn't up and running yet otherwise that would be the way to go.