Here's some thoughts about running wiring:

A/V wiring

The bad news is that wireless distribution is super-expensive, far from rock-solid, and you're better off running wires. You can do this easily if you're lucky enough to be tearing it down to the studs for a remodel, or you have craftsman-style 1 floor houses like mine where there's extremely easy access via either the crawlspace or the attic.

Even if this doesn't interest you, it really is something you should consider as it won't add much to the cost of your remodeling job, and will clearly seperate your house from every other one during resale.

There's 2 ways to run wiring:

1. Run the type of cable required for each application. I.E., component video, HDMI video, analag or digital audio, etc.  The problem with this approach is that many times the wires aren't re-usable for a completely different application. For example, you can't re-use audio cables for component video as there's not enough (1 or 2 wires needed for audio, 3 needed for video).
2. Use Network cable (aka, cat5e) and use "baluns" on either side to convert to whatever you need. Network cable has 8 actual wires inside it, so you can get a balun to send almost any type of signal.

Here's a picture of a component video balun, you'll see the network cable plug on the front, with the 3 component video cables on the other side.

For rooms with TVs
Most builders/architects run 2 CAT5e and 2 RG6 wires to each TV location and charge you a ton of $$, as this is what's been done for years. While this may be adequate for a 1980's/early 90's style setup, it is woefully inadequate for the 21st century.

Assuming you have all your video (DVD & TV) centralized, and are just sending the signal to each room, in each major TV location you'll want to run at least 7 cat5e. (assuming approach #2)

• 2 for video (only 1 needed for component, but 2 will be needed for HDMI in the future)
• 1 for sending audio to the room (ie, you may choose to have your stereo receiver in the room).
• 1 for sending audio from the room back to the wiring closet. (ie, during a party you may have an iPod that you want to plug into the living room, but want to listen to throughout the house)
• 1 for internet
• 1 for phone
• 1 for each item you want to control, like your local TV or stereo (for those of you interested in getting into home automation, there is some very cool stuff possible here for almost zero cost, but I won't confuse you for now).

7 CAT5e cables to each location may sound like overkill, but keep in mind that if you were already going to run the 2 CAT5e/2RG6 bundle as above, it'll probably only cost an additional $150-$300 to run the rest of the stuff. If the walls are open, this stuff is really easy and fast to run.

For rooms without TVs

For rooms without TVs, you may still want to have that local audio source (ie, iPod) sending audio to the whole house. You're safe running 5 CAT5e to those rooms, although that is overkill for most:

• 1 for sending audio to the room (ie, you may choose to have your stereo receiver in the room).
• 1 for sending audio from the room back to the wiring closet. (ie, during a party you may have an iPod that you want to plug into the living room, but want to listen to throughout the house)
• 1 for internet
• 1 for phone
• 1 for each item you want to control.

Don't forget about the speakers!

You'll probably want to mount in-ceiling or on-wall speakers, so that's even out of the way. In that case you'll want to run speaker wire to the speaker location.  Don't run it directly from the wiring closet to the speakers though, you may want to have these cool little keypads that are available with certain whole-house audio amplifiers:

Some of those keypads require speaker wiring to be run through them, so what you do is run your speaker wires from the ceiling location, to the location you'd want the keypad, then back to your wiring closet.  Also run 2 CAT5e from that keypad location back to the wiring closet. Some keypads only need 1 cat5e (ie, the one pictured above), others need 2 (one for power, one for network). By running two, you'll be covered and not locked into any given keypad type.

Home Security & Automation Wiring

Ok, this is REALLY where you want to call in a pro, but here's some thoughts.

1. Occupancy: Motion sensors for every room, run 18/4 for that.
2. Usage: Door sensors for every closet door in case you want to do auto-lighting-on, run 22/2 (or CAT5 to a central location) for that.
3. Security: Siren/CO/Smoke/Heat/Glassbreak sensors, most of them use 18/4, heat may use 22/2.
4. Driveway and or/fence gates for open/close status: 22/2 or CAT5.
5. Window sensors: 22/2, or if you have multiple together you could do CAT5 to the middle one and 22/2 to each window.
6. HA Speakers: Due to it being irritating to have audio pause to hear HA announcements/etc, I personally chose to mount a 2nd set of speakers just for HA (doorbell/phone/HA announcements/intruder alerts), and got the single-gang Elk $7 speakers. I ran CAT5 to the Elk, and put each of them on a relay so I can turn each of them on/off. Don't forget outside speakers too, such as patio and front door.
7. Doorbell: If you get an Elk panel, you could use CAT5 for the doorbell and have an Elk-based doorbell rather than a generic chime. Plus that way you'd be setup in the future to automatically pop up a frontdoor camera on doorbell ring, and not rely on the doorbell detector.
8. HVAC: 2 CAT5 to your thermo (one for integration with PC, one in case you want remote thermos)
9. 1 CAT5 to irrigation
10. Temp: 1 22/2 or CAT5 to any room where you want to mount a temp sensor to get temps in each room
11. HDTV Antenna: 1 RG6 for external antenna on roof
12. XM: 1 RG6 for XM signal cable to an external antenna (unless you use online sirius like I do via a Squeezebox)
13. DirecTV: 1 RG6 per concurrent tuner you want, only one for digital cable I believe.
14. Safety/Elk:Water Sensors near hot water heater or other flood-prone locations. CAT5 I think.
15. Security Keypad, prox sensors, pin readers. CAT5 I think.