Eric

If you want flexibility, your home entertainment wiring bundle should consist of:
1. 2 RG6 cables, (satellite will require 2, if you want to have both Sat and Cable, wire 3)
2. 2 Cat6 cables, (one for household LAN connection, one for telephone)

for sure use rg6 and CAT6. they can run together, but should not be run closely parallel to power runs.

I also have wired an isolated power line that ends near to my service entrance in the basement. In that way, I have all home theatre and computer locations on a single large UPS in the basement.

Pick a good location near to your entrance points for cable or likely runs from sattelite dish, for your cables (RG6 and Cat6) to end at. That will provide a lot of flexibility to reconfigure your configuration without touching individual wire runs.

There are modular outlet boxes that can contain both the rg6 and cat6 outlets for your rooms, if your contractor charges you strictly by the box, that would be the way to go.
Discuss with the contractor who will install the wires and who will make the terminations. Try to get experienced AV/computer people to do these cables. My experience has been that Electricians don't like to work with these cables and therefore are not the best to do this work.
Ask them to use compression fittings for the rg6 and rg45 connectors/sockets for the cat6.

Good luck
John

Cat6 is a waste of money. NOTHING out there todays can utilize it's speed and if something newer comes along it will likely be better than Cat6. Cat5e is MORE than enough for today's, AND tomorrow's, equipment.

Also, forget antenna TV, no matter how good the reception is now. It will be gone in early 2009.

The old TV format will go away (many-times postponed and now set for early 2009) but there will be (and probably already is) broadcast HDTV in most coverage areas.

Antenna TV does not go away in 2009. Analog broadcast TV goes away. But the Digital broadcast that has been here for 3 years will continue on. Most of it is UHF, so an old VHF antenna will be of limited use. Cat6 is preferable for Gigabit Ethernet, (not much more expensive than cat5) and who knows what new technology will be good in 2+ years. You could eliminate all LAN wires also, and count on complete wireless, but I think that it is cheap insurance to run some cat6.

Good Luck

"not much more expensive than cat5"

It IS every place I buy it.

2. 2 Cat6 cables, (one for household LAN connection, one for telephone)

Don't both Cat5 and Cat6 have 4 PAIRS OF WIRE per cable? You can breakout your phone and LAN at one outlet, and still have 2 spare pairs (e.g., for an RS-485 home automation net). The guy is trying to economize.

Thanks for all your help.

From internet search and replies on forums I thought I might do this:

2 RG6 cable and 1 CAT5E cable in the 3 locations I plan on putting television. I was told that you want 2 cable outlets for satelite TIVO abilities and a phone line for "updating" Sound right?

I'd add RG6 cable outlet and CAT5E phone outlet to all the locations I think I'd put a computer, basically one pair in each room.

Then I'd have everything "homerun" to one location.

Sound Okay?

Eric

Afterthought: Do cable companies offer Basic Basic cable of just the 5 or 6 major channels (ie CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, PBS ...) We're not big 50-60 channel tv fans, but we like our basic tv. We got 5 or 6 basic cable channel in Charleston, SC for 10 buck a month. Here in Monterey, CA they don't offer it, so we are just using the antenna. We're building a house and moving to the Memphis, TN (Arlington, TN) area next. I'm in the Navy, but we're hoping to settle down - so we want to build our house "right."

To offer some information about antennas, all existing antennas are capable to receive digital TV. Existing antennas will not become automatically obsolete in February 2009. Digital over-the-air channels will continue to be both VHF and UHF, but not necessarily in the same mix/proportion as now. In 2009, digital tuners (ATSC) will be necessary to receive OTA TV programming. Searching with Google will find lots of information.

I have some experience in this area. I'm here to tell you that you are going to be disappointed in yourself if you don't follow Carguy's advice. Every location you want a TV should have at minimum two RG6 lines (quad shield to prevent future interference issues that may pop up from items you install...or even in your neighborhood), two LAN lines and an Over the Air Antenna lead. Run everthing from a central location (A/V closet if you will). Satellite receivers and even TV's these days are being networked. I sure play a lot of video and music through my home theater system off my pc's in other rooms.

Get CAT6. Don't fool around with anything less. It is NOT that much more expensive and allows you the flexibility for future requirements. If they didn't think there would be a need, they wouldn't have brought it to market.

1) Re Cat 6 is maybe 50% more than Cat 5, but the cost of wiring is in the labor. The cost of 1000 feet of either is $100-200, but the labor for each "drop" could be $50-100 or more.

2) Leviton, among others, makes wall plates that accept modular jacks. I think they have them with up to six ports on a single plate (at least four). You can get them in different colors, and cover them with a Decora-style wall plate.

simple, why don't you run the wire yourself BEFORE the sheetrock goes up. see teh wire i linked below, it is available in different configs, and the all in 1 jacket makes for ease of pulling.

Leviton makes modular jacks that fit decora plates with up to 8 jacks per plate. we use them all the time for wiring up 911 PSAPS. you get how ever many RJ45, RJ11, F connectors, whatever jacks you need and simply attach the wires and pop them inthe plate.

pull all your wire to a central wiring closet and label them as you go. leave a foot or two of slack at each end, more in the closet. then when the sheetrock guys and painters are done you come back and put your plates on. take pictures of every location you put a jack, i guarantee at least 1 will get rocked over!

Here is a link that might be useful: this is a good wire

Consider doing it yourself. As suggested earlier put boxes in the wall before the drywall. I have at least four 6 up plates in each room, one for each wall. I have from 2-4 Cat 5 and two RG6 in each one. It was not that hard to do and the house was already finished when I bought it but it has a basement which made it a breeze. I found it more cost effective to purchase spools of cat 5 and RG6 rather then the combo wire. I also purchased a package of wire numbers and numbered each cable, made it much easier later. You can put the boxes in and just put pulls in instead of wire, I used heavy duty lacing cord. This will make it easy to install another set whenever you want. When the walls are finished just put blank plates on the unused boxes. You can always use Wi-Fi but the security just is not there.

I also ran several plastic 3" conduits from the attic to basement to allow me to add stuff later. The conduit was only a few bucks and the first time I add something it paid for itself.