Building New Home - Recommendations

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SatelliteGuys Family
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Jul 20, 2004
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Hi All,

Hoping you can provide some guidance as I know you're all experts. As background I am a long time Directv customer in Michigan.

I am in process of building a house and had been thinking of Comcast so that I don't have a dish on the roof.

My builder thought that there would be a good view to the southern sky and that a dish could fit on the roof and be rather inconspicuous. So maybe I can stay with Directv. (He also says the picture would be better than Comcast.)

My questions to the group are:

1) If I go with Directv, is it possible to get an installer that will take more time and not run cable along the outside of my house? In other words, hide it somehow? The bottom half of the home is brick and the upper half is James Hardie siding. I'd be willing to pay more for better installation.

2) Is there anything my builder could/should do so that a Directv installer can install the dish and make minimal changes to my house? I'd be sick to see an installer drill through the wall. Maybe the builder can have some type of jack or something installed to minimize what the installer has to do?

3) I will have five or six televisions (depending on whether I put one in the home office). It looks like the Genie (not sure what model number, but one with a DVR) plus 4 or 5 wireless mini boxes should do the trick, correct?

4) Do those wireless mini boxes do a good job assuming good wifi throughout the house?

5) What am I not thinking about that could make a directv installation better?

6) Unrelated to the install, can (or will) Directv be offering 4K channels? Or is this still a novelty at this juncture?

7) Maybe unrelated, but has anyone used AT&T's home security system? I ask since directv is owned by AT&T. I have SimpliSafe and am not pleased with the quality of the hardware (frequent false alarms, CO detector reporting as faulty and then as fine, etc.).



This will be the most expensive house I've ever owned and thus I am very concerned about a poor install that results in holes in the home and/or visible cable. Obviously there are going to have to be some cables, but how do I minimize the impact?

Thanks all in advance.
 
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Honestly I'd hire a local directv contractor that does commercial work, they might be a bit pricey but they will do the job as cleanly as possible and the way you want.
I can't comment on the other stuff but Claude Greiner might be able to help you out.
 
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Also the wireless genie boxes are total garbage, I have had one for two years and they suck.
So you may want to run coax to every room in your house.
 
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Also the wireless genie boxes are total garbage, I have had one for two years and they suck.
So you may want to run coax to every room in your house.

Thanks for the information. Can you help me understand the wireless genie boxes? Is the picture bad? Slow to respond, etc?

My current Directv boxes (which admittedly are probably six years old) can take 30 seconds to respond to a keystroke (changing channel, forwarding, etc.). I've been assuming it's because they're old. But they didn't start out with slow response time.

Thanks again.
 
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Be sure to also run cat6 also.

Also screw using wireless boxes. Run the wires now!

A good idea is to install conduit for future expansion.

I can certainly run cables easily now. I was thinking that I could avoid doing so in certain rooms if the wireless boxes were robust, but it sounds like wired is preferable.

Thank you.
 
Now is the time to run wires while the walls are open.

I usually run RG6 and Cat6 to every room and have them end in a media box in an accessible closet or the garage with a power outlet at that termination point. From that termination point, I also run a couple RG6 and CAT6 to a box outside for the cable tv/internet/phone to come in on. I usually run one to the attic for an antenna and I run a couple outside to a box where I want the Dish and its connections to come in. I also have RG 6 out to my patio for a tv. Now is also the time to run speaker wire for rooms with Surround Sound or out to a patio.
 
I can certainly run cables easily now. I was thinking that I could avoid doing so in certain rooms if the wireless boxes were robust, but it sounds like wired is preferable.

Thank you.

That's the worst thing you can do is run no wires when the walls are open.

The only thing you should use wireless for is your laptop, tablet and phone. Everything else if it can be wired should be wired
 
Thanks for the information. Can you help me understand the wireless genie boxes? Is the picture bad? Slow to respond, etc?

My current Directv boxes (which admittedly are probably six years old) can take 30 seconds to respond to a keystroke (changing channel, forwarding, etc.). I've been assuming it's because they're old. But they didn't start out with slow response time.

Thanks again.

Basically if it's too far from the genie wireless client the thing that attaches to the main receiver to send wirelesss signal to the wireless receiver you will get lag/freezes.
Also even if you had the wireless genie in the same room as the main receiver the channel changing is a nightmare, it literally lags and takes several seconds for it to respond whatever you input. Rewinding or fast forwarding is s nightmare on wireless genies too.
If you google Wireless Genie lag/slow you will find tons of people complaining about it.
I live in a condo and my downstairs living room as a wireless genie because it would have been a huge hassle to run wires to the TV, if it was my own home I would have hired a contractor to run new lines to the downstairs tv.
 
Now is the time to run wires while the walls are open.

I usually run RG6 and Cat6 to every room and have them end in a media box in an accessible closet or the garage with a power outlet at that termination point. From that termination point, I also run a couple RG6 and CAT6 to a box outside for the cable tv/internet/phone to come in on. I usually run one to the attic for an antenna and I run a couple outside to a box where I want the Dish and its connections to come in. I also have RG 6 out to my patio for a tv. Now is also the time to run speaker wire for rooms with Surround Sound or out to a patio.

This, I'd run Cat6 along RG6 cables to every room that you might think having a tv or internet like a laptop or computer or any streaming devices like Netflix/Roku/Amazon fire tv.
 
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Run two coax (swept to 3 GHz) and at least two cat 6 to every room. Except the bathrooms, unless you like to soak and watch TV.

Yes, even the laundry room. Cost at this point is trivial.
 
Honestly I'd hire a local directv contractor that does commercial work, they might be a bit pricey but they will do the job as cleanly as possible and the way you want.
I can't comment on the other stuff but Claude Greiner might be able to help you out.

I'd second this for sure.

Now is the time.

Get a good contractor to come and determine your best long term mounting location for LOS.

Now, while the walls are open get your coax from that mounting location to the inside to a central location where you can manage media connections.

I'd recommend 2 RG-6 coax and 2 CAT-6 per room as a minimum all to your central location be it garage or basement.

From your living room or master bedroom you might want to plan for a couple different room layouts.

You can always connect and disconnect your cables as needed.

We mounted our dish on the ground. It's just beginning to have LOS issues because of a tree. I'll be moving soon so I do not plan to relocate the dish.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Also don't pay them by the hour, usually they will quote you a flat rate after they come do a survey and tell you how much it would be.
You can find authorized local retailers using this link and inputting your zip code: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/findRetailer.jsp?assetId=cms_find_retailer

If you live in the middle of nowhere then look up people that do home theater work and they can do the job too.
 
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Run two coax (swept to 3 GHz) and at least two cat 6 to every room. Except the bathrooms, unless you like to soak and watch TV.

Yes, even the laundry room. Cost at this point is trivial.

ImageUploadedBySatelliteGuys1497421566.672539.jpg


ImageUploadedBySatelliteGuys1497421614.006354.jpg
ImageUploadedBySatelliteGuys1497421633.378915.jpg


Yea I got 2 RG6 and cat5e run to my bathroom.

H25 tucked away in the medicine cabinet.
 
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