Thread: Installation Question (existing drops)

Hi, I'm currently in the process of buying a house that is less than 20 years old. I'm interested in getting DirectTv since it is a much better deal than local cable, but I have some fears about the installation process. When my sister and her husband had Dish Network installed last year the installer simply drilled holes into the side of the house, and fished new cable into the rooms ignoring the existing drops (just pulling the cable through a hole he drilled into the wall). Like I said the house I'm buying is less than 20 years old, and I really don't want all these needless holes drilled into it. The house has RG-59 running through it to wall jacks in every room.

Can installers use existing drops and holes for cable runs? I realize they can't use the old RG-59 cable and will need to run RG6, but are they forbidden from using the old cabling routes and wall jacks?

It wouldn't exactly be a big job for me to pull all the old 59 and replace it with RG6; but I've heard horror stories from others that say they did that and the installers still punched new holes and ran their own cabling.

Originally Posted by kyguy

Hi, I'm currently in the process of buying a house that is less than 20 years old. I'm interested in getting DirectTv since it is a much better deal than local cable, but I have some fears about the installation process. When my sister and her husband had Dish Network installed last year the installer simply drilled holes into the side of the house, and fished new cable into the rooms ignoring the existing drops (just pulling the cable through a hole he drilled into the wall). Like I said the house I'm buying is less than 20 years old, and I really don't want all these needless holes drilled into it. The house has RG-59 running through it to wall jacks in every room.

Can installers use existing drops and holes for cable runs? I realize they can't use the old RG-59 cable and will need to run RG6, but are they forbidden from using the old cabling routes and wall jacks?

It wouldn't exactly be a big job for me to pull all the old 59 and replace it with RG6; but I've heard horror stories from others that say they did that and the installers still punched new holes and ran their own cabling.

Welcome to the Site !!!

Installers CAN use the RG59, but it's not recommended.
IF you want to save time and money you can replace it yourself, make sure to run enough coax to each location and Cat 5 or 6 as well depending on what your planning to do.
If you have a central location for all of this to come together, thats better yet.

Many times installers will use existing cable, however, you have to be certain that it has NO SPLITTERS in the walls anywhere as they won't work with D*.

Also remember, a wall fish if you want D* to do them will cost extra as the free installation consist of very basic stuff.

Well that is a weight off my mind then. It wont take but an afternoon to pull the old cable, run new in its place, and then pull it to the center of the attic and leave a few service loops.

So for reference though, how does the Direct system work? Do they run a single cable from the LNB with a mux and demux? If I just terminate all of the drops in the center of the attic where they are easy to get at, each room will hook to a demux and that drop will run to an individual receiver right?

Originally Posted by kyguy

Well that is a weight off my mind then. It wont take but an afternoon to pull the old cable, run new in its place, and then pull it to the center of the attic and leave a few service loops.

So for reference though, how does the Direct system work? Do they run a single cable from the LNB with a mux and demux? If I just terminate all of the drops in the center of the attic where they are easy to get at, each room will hook to a demux and that drop will run to an individual receiver right?

All depends on what system your getting and what recvrs.

Typically, of late they run a SWM Slimline dish into a point with power plug in the Power Inserter (supplies power to the LNB) attaches the correct SWM splitter and attaches the cables to your recvrs to it.

IF your gonna run coax to the attic, make sure you label them and have POWER up there.

your best bet is to run all those cables out through a vent to the outside, where the installer has a clear line of site to put the dish. Also, don't terminate the cables, let the installer do it using the approved hardware. Some directv dishes require 1 cable to your junction, some require 4. If you have your junction out to where the dish will go, it will be ready for either. Also you do not need to have a power outlet in your attic...

I share your apprehension with getting a new install. My home is a lot older, but I was concerned about new holes being drilled and I did not want a bunch of wires just added. While there is a breadth of opinion on RG-59 the preferred hookup is RG-6. As stated, depending on your equipment most standard installations today involve SWM. The bandwidth that it uses begs RG-6. Since all my coax was RG-59 I rewired my setup with RG-6 myself. My installed did ask to replace the line into the attic with his solid copper core RG-6 which we did while he was here.

With SWM, the cabling is much simpler. One line from the SWM head to a spliter (mine is in the attic). From there only one line to each receiver. The SWM unit requires a power supply but that can be located near any receiver (mine is in the front room). The power just goes through the coax to the SWM unit. So you do not need power in the attic. (There are special ports on the splitter for the power connections.)