I'll also start building my house next month. The planning of the media distribution has already been more than a nightmare.

I've pretty much got it covered now, except for regular TV. This would not have been a problem up to a couple of years ago, in the days of analogue TV. Then you simply needed a good amplified splitter and presto: TV in every desired room.

No more the case. Today there's digital TV. And while it also brings some advantages (mainly in image quality and number of channels) it's also a pain in the neck getting it distributed all over the house. I'm still not sure how I'll go about this...

For now I've planned it like so that every room in the house will have (at least) two Cat 6 drops. (Andy's made me doubt now, since he advises to run at least 4 cables to every room) Those cables are meant for internet access, data transfer and media streaming (both video and audio) and maybe also VOIP phoning. Aren't two Cat6 cables sufficient for all that? I can always use a small unmanaged switch on those cables if two cables don't cut it, right? But that's not really the problem. UTP cable is relatively cheap, so I might end up with four cables to every room anyway, I don't know...

As said, the main problem is the TV distribution. I have the choice between TV over ADSL (which I will not use since it's an inferior technology and -even more reason- I don't use ADSL but cable), digital TV via my cable provider - Telenet- (DVB-C) or Satellite (DVB-S). If I choose DVB-C, I need a proprietary decoder + smartcard from Telenet for every TV in my house. I don't really think this is a particularly good idea, installation-wise or cost-wise, since this would also mean I would have to pay a digital TV subscription for every TV.
DVB-C is still my preferred option, but knowing the aforementioned make it a difficult choice.

Another option is satellite TV, which I'm totally willing to install, but I'm not really in the know with. For one, is the coax cable used for connecting a TV to cable the same coax cable which is needed for satellite? In other words, if I run one of these cables to the room, will I still have the choice of connecting them to either a dish or cable? Or is this a different type?

So for both technologies, you need a set-top box. But my main question is: aren't there decoders out there which can distribute the TV signal, once received, to a number of TV's in the house? If this would exist, I would be saved. I mean, there must be some technology that does this? Or how do all those hotels with their dozens of rooms + TV's go about this? They also don't place a decoder per room? Or is that all still based on analogue TV?

Why of why do cable distributors require you to use their own set-top box hardware? This is like returning to the seventies when everybody who switched to cable also had such a box on top of their TV! Wouldn't it be a LOT simple if there simply was a smartcard slot in every Tv, in which you could then slide your smartcard, and then would be given access to all the channels? It probably is, but my guess is cable companies also make a lot of money on those set-top-boxes, even if they annoy the pants off of their customers. You also can't use a Myth box with digital TV, because all the channels are protected. (I'm guessing it does work with Satellite, which is another pro for that technology?)

Does anybody have a solution for me here? I'm hoping you don't mind the slight thread hijack Tahir, but I'm guessing this might also be interesting for you.