Hook Up For Free Tv With House Wiring

  

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So you’ve joined the 21st century and upgraded your TV’s tinny-sounding built in speakers. Now what? Time to make the connection and match up your inputs with your outputs. Whether it’s a soundbar, a stereo, or a surround receiver, let us help you connect speakers to your TV.

Editor’s note: this article was updated on March 11, 2021, to include more technical information.

Step 1: Look at the back of your TV

If you can see and access the panel where your TV’s inputs and outputs reside, then great! Move on to step 2 immediately.

If your TV is already mounted to the wall and you can’t see the outputs, you may want to check the user manual or do an online search for your specific model. This way, you can reference the paperwork and rather than go through the process of dismounting your TV.

Pay close attention to the ports on the back of your soundbar or receiver. You’ll need to match them to your TV.

Of course, you may just have to take the screen off the wall. Grab a blanket and place it on a flat plane like a floor or a table that’s big enough. If you don’t have blankets, find an area of clean carpet devoid of clutter. Now unlatch the TV from the wall mount, place it face down on your prepared area, and take a look at what outputs it has available.

Step 2: Identify your audio output options

What we’re looking for is something that says “audio out,” or any other port that sends audio out of your TV. This could be HDMI, optical, coaxial, RCAs, or a 3.5mm socket—it just has to be an output port that your receiver or soundbar also has available for input. Here are the types of ports we’re looking for to connect an external audio system to a TV:

  • Digital audio: HDMI, optical, or SPDIF (single coaxial RCA)
  • Analog audio: “Line Out” RCAs, “Aux Out”(3.5mm TRS), or a “Headphone Out” (3.5mm TRS)

Note: If your TV and external audio system have more than one of these connections in common, you only need to pick one. They are listed in order of preference above. Digital connections are preferred over analog as they allow for cleaner signal transfer, and your external sound setup can better handle audio processing, rather than just using the TV’s analog feed.

If your TV or receiver are of the older variety, an analog connection may be your only option. Keep in mind that if one only offers RCAs and the other only offers a 3.5mm TRS socket, all is not lost, adapters do exist.

Step 3: Reconnect your TV

An optical cable is the best way to transmit audio data over short lengths.

If you’ve had to remove all the cables from your TV in the first step, now’s the time to make sure everything’s back the way it’s supposed to be; with the addition of whatever cable you will use to transfer audio to your sound system. Once you’ve plugged in the audio cable to the right audio output port, we can get a better sense of the best place to put your receiver or soundbar.

Step 4: Connect audio system to TV

Placing your audio system close to the TV helps hide unsightly cabling.

With the audio output cable connected to the TV and presumably dangling in the breeze, we’re ready to connect your receiver or soundbar of choice. The cables these products include are likely short, so putting your hardware directly underneath the TV on a stand, shelves, or entertainment center will be ideal. This also has the added benefit of fewer cabling rat’s nests.

If you have a soundbar

Congratulations! After you hook up the power cable and the other end of the audio cable to the appropriate input, you should be basically ready. All that’s left is for you to follow the manufacturer’s instructions and setup notes. If you have a Dolby Atmos or MPEG-H enabled soundbar like the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar, you may need to do a little more setup to enable the 3D sound features.

If you’re hooking up a receiver

Ensure you’ve hooked up your main channels and satellite speakers using the provided cables. Place your speakers the way you’d like them to be arranged, then use the shortest length of speaker wire you can to connect them to your receiver. You probably won’t run into any power issues, but read up on it first just in case.

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Once you’re done with this, you should be all set with the physical connections.

Step 5: Check the audio out in the TV’s menu settings

For Samsung TVs in particular, the audio output menu is easy to find.

On many TVs, the back panel audio outputs will be active by default. Ideally, you won’t need to do anything except turn the volume for the TV’s internal speakers all the way down. If you don’t decrease the TV speaker’s volume and sound plays through the TV and external audio source simultaneously, you can run into some strange and unpredictable audio effects caused by interaction between the two which can sound weird.

If your TV can’t send an audio signal to your external device, locate your TV’s audio settings through the “menu” button on your remote. Once you’ve done this, look for the “sound options” or “sound” menu, and select an item called “sound output,” or just “output.” From there, you should be able to toggle which output you want the TV to use to feed your system.

When the settings on both the TV and the system are correct, slowly turn up the volume on your new system until you hear whatever’s playing on the TV, grab some snacks, and you’re good to go.

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HomeAutomationHow To Wire a Smart Home: A Quick Guide

Have you ever felt a twinge of jealousy when stepping into a friend's ultra-cool smart home? There's no reason to stay green with envy just because you're still flipping light switches by hand. Instead, learn how to wire a smart home, and your house will become the one that everyone else is jealous of.

A smart home is outfitted with a number of systems that control a variety of functions throughout your property. These systems can include:

  • Audio.
  • Video.
  • Computer and Internet.
  • Telephone.
  • Heating and Cooling.
  • Security.
  • Smoke Detection.
  • Irrigation.

In a smart home, all of these systems are wired to one particular point in the house. Call it your control room if you wish. Some people refer to it as a distribution center or a wiring closet. The name aside, what's important about this spot is its purpose: All of your systems connect to this central location.

How to Pick a Control Center

Now, don't think that the description of it as a 'central' spot necessitates that this control center must be in the middle of your house. As a matter of fact, that may not be the best place for it at all. Select a location that:

  • Has space for at least one wall panel and at least one equipment rack.
  • Maintains a moderate temperature.
  • Is close the wall to where service feeds, such as those for internet and cable television, enter your home.
  • Keeps out dust.
  • Is easy to access. Often, a spot on your main floor is most convenient.
  • Is positioned over a section of the basement through which you can run wires.

The control area must also have plenty of electrical outlets for plugging in your gear. If your space is not equipped with multiple outlets, install them before moving on in the process of wiring a smart home.

2. Learn The Main Components

When you're learning how to wire an automated home, you must learn the terminology, so you know what you're working with. Here are some of the components you will probably be using:

CAT-5e and CAT-6 cable: These are Ethernet cables that are used for setting up networks. They connect your computer or your computer-based device to the server. When wiring a smart home, opt for CAT-5e or CAT-6 over basic CAT-5, which is an outdated technology. You can even upgrade to the impressive speeds offered by CAT-6a.

Hook Up For Free Tv With House Wiring Instructions

Patch Panel: This piece is essentially an organizer. Components plug into the front, and wires run out the back. These wires lead to terminals or devices throughout your house to distribute the signals from the components that are housed in your control area.

Patch Cable: Also known as a patch cord or a patch lead, a patch cable is used to connect one device to another. If you use a patch panel, you'll certainly need patch cables to run between the devices and the panel. Even if you don't use a panel, you'll still need patch cables of one sort or another to link your various smart-home devices.

IR Controls: IR stands for 'infrared.' It's the technology used for remote controls. Even though you are wiring your house for smart technology, there are times that you will want use remotes to control these automated systems. IR technology makes that possible.

Ideally, you are reading this how-to list when you are in the process of building your home. In that case, you can prewire your house by adding the necessary wiring during the building process. This is significantly cheaper than going back to add wiring later.

Use a Prewiring Checklist

What systems should you prewire? Consider the following systems for which you may want to use smart technology.

Computer Network: The network is the backbone of a smart house. The network hooks your devices up to your router to connect them to internet access. Much internet access can be wireless, but some devices are best hardwired to the network. Setting up your network also includes installing wireless access points throughout the home.

Video: Your televisions or home theater space needs to receive video signals from streaming services, cable or satellite services, or physical discs.

Speakers: Enable connectivity anywhere you might want to hook up speakers for listening to music. You will also need audio connections for your television surround-sound system.

Home Utilities: This category can include lighting, heating and cooling, irrigation and more. It also includes connecting your system to the point where services such as internet and cable television enter your home. You may also want to include handy helpers in this category like smart controls for adjusting your window shades or turning on your fireplace.

Security: You can run wires for surveillance cameras, smoke alarms and other security devices.

Touchscreen Controls: Many smart homes use touchpads to control the system. These pads will be located at convenient spots throughout your home and should be wired into your system.

What If Your Home Is Already Built?

You can pull wire in an already-built home, but it involves more work than doing the job up front. You may even have to tear out walls in order to install the wires. Hopefully, you can run wires in a less intrusive manner by running them through basements, closets, or ceilings. However, no matter how you cut it, it's more work and more expense to add wires after a home is already built.

Can't Everything Be Wireless?

It's true that wireless technology is great. It offers flexibility and the opportunity to equip your home with smart features without running wires. However, wireless connections are not as robust as wired ones.

Running wires to as many devices as possible provides the capacity to transmit data more quickly and more reliably. This might be a wireless world, but wired smart homes are still the way to go.

4. Use Three-wire Setups

Unlike traditional switches, the switches in a smart home usually require three wires. So, too, do smart keypads and dimmers.

Therefore, throughout your home, run these three wires to each switch:

  • Hot
  • Neutral
  • Load

Even if you find you don't need the third wire right away, it will be there for a time down the road when it is required.

Smart home systems vary in the size of junction box that they require. Even if you've settled on a system that doesn't require much space, we recommend installing deep boxes. That way, if you decide to switch to a new system at some point, you'll already have junction boxes that will work.

Their dimensions should be at least:

  1. 22 cubic inches for single-gang boxes.
  2. 36 cubic inches for double-gang boxes.

From a wall panel, you will be able to control the features of your smart house with just the push of a button. With presets, you may be able to adjust the settings of multiple features with just one press of the traditional or touchscreen buttons.

Therefore, you'll want to put these panels in convenient locations. Near the entrance points of rooms is a prime spot. Mount them at a height similar to that of standard light switches.

No matter how much prep work you do to prewire your smart home, there will probably be times when cables or wires must be switched out. Perhaps they will go bad, or perhaps you will want to upgrade to a newer technology. Conduit provides an easy path through which you can slide wires in or out.

It's not always feasible to put conduit everywhere, but in the places where you can do so, the future you will probably be glad that you did.

8. Drop Wires Throughout Your House

Hook Up For Free Tv With House Wiring Guide

Now is the moment you've been waiting for. It's time to start running the wires!

How Many Wires Do You Need?

The short answer is that you should install more wires than you think that you need. As we've already said, it costs much less money to install wires upfront than to go back and add more wires to a finished house. It's okay if you don't use them all right away; they'll be there when you are ready for them.

For example, as you run wires for security cameras, instead of dropping one wire to each location, drop two. That way, if you later need greater surveillance coverage, you can easily hook up another camera to a wire that is already in place.

In a similar fashion, run speaker wire everywhere that you might possibly want to listen to music someday: indoors, outdoors, in the bathroom, in the basement. You don't necessarily have to hook a speaker up to each wire, but if you later want to do so, the wires will be ready and waiting for you.

What Kind of Wires Do You Need?

Throughout your smart home, you will need to use a variety of different types of low-voltage wires and cables. Some of the most commonly used types are:

How Do You Connect Wires to Your Patch Panel?

  • 16-4: Often used for speakers and other audio applications.
  • 22-4: Often used for security applications.
  • CAT-5e or CAT-6: Often used for audio and video applications and for transmitting data.
  • Coaxial Cable: Often used for video applications.

Each component of a smart home may be hooked up in a different way, so you'll need to follow directions for your specific devices. As a general rule, follow these steps to hook up wires:

Hook Up For Free Tv With House Wiring System

  1. Plug your device into an outlet.
  2. Run a patch cable from the device to the patch panel.
  3. Connect wires to the reverse side of the patch panel.
  4. Run the wires to the part of the house where you need them.
  5. If your wire will end in a jack, terminate it using a keystone. Affix that to a wall fixture.
  6. If your wire will connect directly to an outlet or device, connect the matching ends.
  7. Label your wires with the number that matches their corresponding spots on the panel.

9. Pull Ethernet Cable to Stationary Objects

Remember when we said that wired technologies had advantages over wireless ones? That's the idea at play here. If you can hardwire a device to your network with CAT-5e or CAT-6 cable that connects to an Ethernet jack, you'll usually get a more reliable signal and faster speeds.

  • Televisions
  • Entertainment system components
  • Desktop computers
  • Laptop charging stations
  • Wireless access points

As fantastic as it is to have a smart home, not every system in your home will be hooked up to automation. When it comes to your electrical system, keep those devices that are still traditionally operated, such as kitchen appliances and your washer and dryer, on separate circuits than those that run smart devices.

Now that you've done all of this work to make your house a smart home, it's wise to protect your investment from electrical surges. Unlike a basic power strip into which you must plug each individual device, a whole-house protection unit is connected to the main circuit board of your system and gives protection to each piece of equipment. Look for one that can handle surges up to 40,000 amps or more.

Wiring your home for smart capabilities is not a small job, but once it's done, you'll love the convenience and control that it provides. Now that you've learned how to wire a smart home, you can design your system to match your personal specifications.

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The main parts that you'll need are a control room to house your systems and many, many wires that you pull to the various rooms of your house. Hardwiring your devices ensures clear communication from your network to the components.

The more wires that you run, the more that you will learn about

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wiring your home

Hook Up For Free Tv With House Wiring Instructions

, so get to work setting up the smart home of your dreams.