New construction questions

[Sancho]

I hope to begin construction on a new house in the next month and would like to hard wire it for D* and OTA. I currently have an HR-23 and a SD receiver (don't remember the model number). I'd like to look at adding at least one more HD receiver.

What's the best way to go about making sure the house is properly wired to handle what I'm wanting? Should I contact D* when construction approaches the wiring phase or should I wait until construction is done and then contact D*?

The main reason for OTA is digital sub-channels that carry HS sports.

I know that D* will do a move for free, but I don't mind paying to get a quality in-wall install as I feel that it would be money well spent.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Always have 2 feeds at your TV locations for Satellite. More if you want OTA.

In my Living room, Game room,and Master Bedroom.
I have 4 Feeds going to the basement for what ever I need them for.
My other 3 bedrooms I have 2 feeds per room, and my kitchen I just have 1 feed.

All RG6 Solid Copper core, Quad Shield.
They All go to Grounding Blocks in my basement, Where the can be accessed for what ever services I chose.

I also have 2 cat6 and 2 phone each in livingroom, gameroom and master bedroom.
The other 3 bedrooms and kitchen have one cat6 and 1 phone each.

I made sure I was set when I built.

 

[jdspencer]

It wasn't mentioned, but all wiring needs to homerun to a central location. This includes the coax from the dish (1 if SWM, 4 if not) and OTA antenna location.

And while you're at it, run cat5e/6 to each room as wired connections are always better than wireless.

 

[scarebear]

solid copper rg6, quad shield is not necessary but don't use cable staples or romex staples to attach it and leave plenty of extra in the basement and atleast 6-8 inches tucked into the wall/workbox behind each wall plate. also please make sure your electrician leaves some of the #6 copper exposed and not completely buried in conduit so your system can be grounded easily (and properly)

 

[wildbill129]

Since you will be using OTA, you should run a minimum of three RG-6 lines to each location, plus two Cat 5 (one for phone, one for ethernet) Buy a media panel and home run all the cable and cat5 to a central location where you mount the panel. Run lines from the media panel to the general location where the dish will be grounded, including a messenger wire for ground. Personally I would run four lines plus one for OTA. If DirecTV gives you a SWM dish with your additional receiver and move, you will only need two (with OTA) but it doesn't hurt to have extra.

As scarebear said, you will need a #6 ground from the house bond ground in the panel to your central location/media panel.

Oh, one more thing, buy the biggest media panel you can find, or even buy two, one for phone/ethernet and one for sat/ota

Wiring now is a lot cheaper that wall fishing later....

 

[VT_Jeff]

I'll second what wildbill said. It's far cheaper now to pull cable when you have easy access to the interior wallspace than it will be once your walls are closed up. And, it'll look a whole lot better too. Homerun everything back to a central location, terminate in/on a media panel, and whatever you decide to do in the future should be a breeze.