Cable type for house rewire

[DJ Rob]

My wife and I are buying a new home and I want to rewire the house for satellite and cable TV. I want to make sure each room we may use in the future is wired with good rg6 cable.

Right now from what I could see, the local cable company has wired 2 rooms for cable TV by running the cables on the outside of the house into the room walls. Not a very good install. And the bedroom I want our cable modem installed is not wired at all. I'll probably rip what they did out.

If I can do it (I never fished wires through the walls before), I want to run new cables to each room and have everything go to a wiring closet in the basement where our funace and water heater are.

Since I'm going to have both cable TV service and satellite TV, I was wondering what the suggestions were on what type of cable I should get and if there's a place to get it that is decently priced. I know I should get something sweeped to 3Ghz but not much beyond that. Is all 3ghz cable the same? Is Belden the best or does it really matter?

I also want to know if there is a guide or tips on how to do the cabling since I have never tried to run cables through walls and between different floors before.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Jared Twomey]

personally, since you are fishing the wires anyway, I would run 2 runs of 3Ghz RG6 (brand doesn't matter, just get a decent brand, belden is fine) to each room where you think you may want a tv.
Also, while you are pullin wire, you may want to pull a few runs up to where you will put the satellite dish. That way everything is nice and clean when you are done.

 

[stevenl]

Drop a cat5 in each spot to ya never know

 

[DJ Rob]

personally, since you are fishing the wires anyway, I would run 2 runs of 3Ghz RG6 (brand doesn't matter, just get a decent brand, belden is fine) to each room where you think you may want a tv.
Also, while you are pullin wire, you may want to pull a few runs up to where you will put the satellite dish. That way everything is nice and clean when you are done.

2 runs is a great idea in case I want to have different services in a room. I even read that if you use a good enough quality RG6 with 3 runs, you can use each cable to feed an component HD signal. At first I was thinking that one run and diplexers would cut it for what I would want but I might as well make it easy to begin with and run more feeds in case something comes up in the future.

I plan on running around 5-7 cables outside to the side of the house where I will have my dish(s). Right now, I only have Expressvu (which uses 2 cables) but I plan on maybe adding Dish again and doing some FTA stuff as well.

Drop a cat5 in each spot to ya never know

Great idea too!

I guess I better start looking for a deal on cables!

 

[Jared Twomey]

2 runs is a great idea in case I want to have different services in a room. I even read that if you use a good enough quality RG6 with 3 runs, you can use each cable to feed an component HD signal. At first I was thinking that one run and diplexers would cut it for what I would want but I might as well make it easy to begin with and run more feeds in case something comes up in the future.

I plan on running around 5-7 cables outside to the side of the house where I will have my dish(s). Right now, I only have Expressvu (which uses 2 cables) but I plan on maybe adding Dish again and doing some FTA stuff as well.



Great idea too!

I guess I better start looking for a deal on cables!

ok... after this post I decided i should pipe up again... You sound like you are a tinkerer and I change my opinion. If I were you I would run smurf tubing or conduit to each tv location in the house, that way you can always pull more cables later if you decide you need to.

If you don't do that, at least 2 RG6 to each location, and 2 Cat5 or 6 to each location (for telephone, and networking)

 

[Andrewwski]

Kind of hard to retro conduit in. Cables can at least be fished through walls.

Second the 2 RG6, I might even think about 3, and then 2 cat 5's (phone, networking, and you can always balun them to component/composite/VGA if necessary).

 

[harshness]

Drop a cat5 in each spot to ya never know

Drop at least two runs of CAT5e or better EVERYWHERE! With more and more CE gear (game consoles, HD disc players, media servers) coming with Ethernet support, you don't want to be installing switches and/or wireless gaming adapters in every room.

Between DISH Network's DishPro and DIRECTV's coming SWM, I'm not sure how important it will be to run multiple RG6 cables to each location (unless you have lots of legacy DVRs).

 

[DJ Rob]

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Since I will probably have Dish, Bell and Cable, I think I will be running 2 feeds of RG6 to each room/outlet just in case. And doing a run of Cat 5e as well. I'm going to have everything meet at a central point in the basement where I can hopefully be able to switch feeds easily. I need to look for a junction box I can mount on the wall for that.

There seems to be a lot of variation on the prices of RG6. Can anyone suggest a really good one for Satellite and Cable internet? So far I found 500ft of Belden 7915A for $80 shipped.

I just donated an ethernet gigabit switch to Goodwill thinking I would go wireless for everything but it looks like I'll be buying another switch. LOL

I'm going to run 8 RG6 cables outside for my dish tinkering. I think that will be more than enough but you never know! I just got permission from the wife for a big C Band dish. I wonder if she'll change her mind once I have it taking up a quarter of the backyard?

 

[DJ Rob]

Hopefully this will help others...

I did a BUNCH of reading (3+ hours) last night about coax because of all of the choices.

It looks like if you are only doing satellite in your home, any cable sweep tested to 3Ghz like the Dish Network approved Vextra brand will work.

But if you are going to have cable TV as well, most posts I read said to use a Tri Shield or a Quad Shield coax because of the possible interference from outside signals.

The Belden 7915A that I mentioned above looks like it will fit the bill for my situation since it is tri shield and sweep tested to 3GHZ.

 

[RandallA]

"to use a Tri Shield or a Quad Shield coax because of the possible interference from outside signals."

That's an excellent suggestion. Quad shield is over kill for satellite but if you ever go with cable you need quad shield to avoid ingress or interference. Since you want to run the cables once and get it done, I also suggest running Quad shield RG6 whenever is possible. I did and I'm glad I did it.

 

[red hazard]

Hopefully this will help others...

I did a BUNCH of reading (3+ hours) last night about coax because of all of the choices.

It looks like if you are only doing satellite in your home, any cable sweep tested to 3Ghz like the Dish Network approved Vextra brand will work.

But if you are going to have cable TV as well, most posts I read said to use a Tri Shield or a Quad Shield coax because of the possible interference from outside signals.

The Belden 7915A that I mentioned above looks like it will fit the bill for my situation since it is tri shield and sweep tested to 3GHZ.

I use Belden 7915A and its rated better than Belden's quad shield 7916A (60/40) for shielding so you are not giving up a thing regarding sheidling.

 

[Andrewwski]

Ugh...quad shield is a pain to terminate...tri shield is easier but not as commonly found.

But you might as well run the best stuff you can now...because it's a pain to do it again later.

But for cable TV, even dual shield is fine, unless you live really close to a broadcast tower, or run your cables extremely close to sources of interference.

 

[RandallA]

"But for cable TV, even dual shield is fine, unless you live really close to a broadcast tower, or run your cables extremely close to sources of interference"

Unfortunately for me I learned the hard way that I was too close to the broadcast towers and needed quad shield. I had to run it twice and it wasn't fun.

 

[DJ Rob]

I will be ordering the Belden 7915 cable next week. I have found that on cable TV here, local channels sometimes do bleed through because the off air signals are very strong coming from the mountain just to the west so I'm hoping the 7915 will help with that.

I've also ordered some snap-n-seal compression connectors on Ebay and picked up a compression tool at Home Depot for $17. I'll be shopping for Cat 5 in a couple of weeks.

I also have looked around to see what was available in wall plates since in some rooms I will have multiple RG6 and Cat5 runs. I really like the functionality of the keystone module plates so I can have multiple items running to one wall plate. Does anyone have any experience with them and are they any good? It looks like Leviton has their own kind that is carried at Home Depot that appears to be a little sturdier but pricier as well....