On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 18:31:25 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Hello all.
Finishing my basement.
My wife wants a 50+" tv on the basement wall ..."whenever I'm done." We're NOT trying to make a "media screening room" with perfect seating and acoustics. Just a big tv with some comfy sofas.

My question is, is it worth the effort to extend the cable tv wire to this location from the main floor tv/cable/dvr box? Or are today's tvs and perhaps a dvr box upgrade so fantastic that I can just as well do everything via my local wifi network in the house? I haven't stayed current with the latest A/V tech and I just don't want to go through all the trouble to run the cable wire for nothing.

Related follow up question: my wife wants surround-sound and is asking me to install speakers in the walls and ceiling. Is this sort of thing done anymore? or strictly a 1990's thing? Again, I don't want to install something that is obsolete or even regrettable.

Experienced opinions greatly appreciated.
Online references and guides appreciated too.
Thanks
Theodore

I ran cable throughout the house when I moved in 30 years ago, and I'd
do it again. Besides 18" long bits, which are easy to get, they also
sell flexible drill bits 3, 4, and 6 feet long, that can allow you to
cut a hole in the sheetrock and insert the drill and drill up to the
attic or down to the basement. I bought them at a telephone store,
but both of them have gone out of business. Now they even sell them
at Home Depot, though the selection was less. Probably the most
popular sizes and what you are most likely to want.

Originally I only had cable, with a box in my bedroom and the
basement, wired by the cable guy, but I got a VCR and stopped using
the basement box as much. I ran the output of the VCR, and not the
DVDR, to all the other rooms, and I found that every second splitter,
one needs a signal amplifier. So I have two signal amp/splitters and
they've been running 24/7 for 29 and 32 years and still work fine. One
was covered with clothes for a couple years but it didn't seem to
matter.

But you won't need a signal amp if you don't have splitters.

When the cable guy came, I asked him if, instead of putting the cable
box on top of the tv, he could put it in the closet, 8 feet away. I
don't know if he was serious or not, but he said he wasn't sure the
signal would go that far. A little later, when I was running the
cable to the kitchen, for some reason, I had the cable going down to
the basement 9 or 18 feet, then forward, back, and forward 35 feet,
for a total of 114 or 123 feet, and the picture and sound were fine.
Of course this is standard def, that's all there was then. But I
don't think 123 feet would be a problem for hi-def either. You can
check on that yourself.

So why did the installation think 8 feet might be a problem?

I have a TV in my bedroom, one cable up to the attic where I put a
spare TV, and a phone (in case the ladder gets knocked down again and
I want to call for help) a tv in the office bedroom.

The other line goes through the closet floor behind or into the corner
of (I forget) the built-in bookcase, where there's a splitter to the
living room TV, then through the floor to the basement to the work
shop TV, through the celing to the laundry room/wood shop for a tv,
and up to the kitchen for the kitchen tv. I live alone and can play
the same program whatever room I'm in. I'm going to connect it to
the computer in the next few months.