Recomendation for new house wiring

[Smwoodward]

I am having a new home built. What typer specifically of coax should I have put in each room and how many runs 1-2? I assume the type of coax is important? What about the connectors and wall plates? The contractors I've seen just use the typical stuff from Lowe's.

What about data ... should I have regular phone or something better?

From the outside should I have them run 1-4 coax lines to a central distribution point and then feed each room or what is the best way?

Is there some type of "manifold" or something to connect all the coax together at the central point? Do I need to use any typer of amplifier?

I want to get this "right" on the first try and it won't cost too much extra to do it in the build stage. Links to equipment so I can look it up would be helpful.

Thanks

I would try to future proof your wiring as much as you can. I did my whole home in with a central wiring myself. I put 3 drops in each room everywhere I could possibly want a TV, even if that's not where I have it currently. Makes the wife happy to be able to rearrange things. For the bedrooms I only dropped 1 coax and one cat6. I do 100% agree, go ahead and do cat6 over cat5 if this is a new install. In the living room I dropped 1 coax and 3 cat6.

Now, as for conduit or no conduit. This depends on your construction, and location of the plate on the wall. If you want a jack under a window or somewhere that the wire is not a 100% straight down drop from attic, 100% yes, put a conduit there. If you are required to have fire blocks added into the walls, then yes, put conduit in. If there is going to be insulation in the wall that you want the drop put in, I would go ahead and add conduit. If the wall will not have insulation, no fire blocks, and the hole in the top plate of the wall is nearly straight above where the plate is and you use a low voltage old work box, then you could get buy not putting conduit in as it will save you $$$ and wouldn't be a pain to replace the wire in the future.

Cat6 can be re-purposed to work as a phone line also, so again that is kinda up to you on what you want. I would say that even if you have just a phone line drop, go ahead and use the cat6 wire to do it for two reasons. One if you ever have a need or want to use a digital phone system in the house, you could, and 2 depending on the cost and how much wire you would have to buy, you would only buy 1 spool of cat6 vs buying cat6 and phone cable.

Make sure the coax is rg-6 3ghz as others have mentioned.

I might go ahead and do 5 lines to the outside, 3 for Dish, 1 OTA antenna, and 1 coax for possible cable internet? If you would never use OTA, then 4 would be ok and use the 4th line for cable internet. osu1991 has a good picture of a cabinet that can be used, but you have other options. What he used is a much cleaner look, but if you have a closet that you won't mind seeing wires in, you can purchase things like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Panduit-Pan...S_Networking_Patch_Panels&hash=item2c6e8bb481
They make them in SOOO many different sizes so you can get one that suites your needs. I have a smaller house and only had 12 total drops of each cat6 and coax that I did so I used this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Panduit-1pc...479?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27cd7960df as the jacks in it were modular and I could use 1 for coax and one for cat6. I mounted these to the wall and mounted the router, modem, wireless, switch, and the node for my Dish to the wall and ran patch cables over to the block.

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll help you out as best I can.

 

[osu1991]

My sister just did the 2 hopper upgrade a couple of weeks ago, the same week I was going to do mine, before changing my mind. They didn't say a word about the existing Quad Shielded RG6 that I had run in my sisters house from 5-6 yrs ago. I used whatever was the best at the time, however I don't remember if it was rated to 3ghz or 2.5 but anyway he didn't look at it.

I told him I pre-wired and installed everything that was currently there when the house was built and showed him which wires went where in the media closet and he started replacing the LNB and installing the node, then I changed the jumper from the house distribution to a straight run to the node for the 1 joey. Both Hoppers w/sling and the joey are working great or believe me I would have heard about it.

 

[rexlan]

dont forgot a coax and cat5/6 outside for incoming cable/dsl internet. I usually run minimum of 2 rg 6 and 2 cat5/6 to each location with everything feeding to a central location and I have 4 rg6 running outside to location of Dish and then I have a coax running to the attic for antenna. I also have some cable running to some door locations for cameras, and speaker wire run in the walls for the surround systems and a set outside for the back patio.

Here are the wiring cabinets from my dads house and my house from a few years ago when I was finishing the connections.

View attachment 87333View attachment 87329View attachment 87334View attachment 87330View attachment 87331View attachment 87332

Pictures are too fuzzy ... what cabinet did you use?

 

[Bobby]

Brian,

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by 'auto hop isn't working on your key'. On my hoppers when I watch a show that was recorded on a hopper it's asks if I want to skip the commercials. No such message appears on the Joey's. Is there something I have to special on a Joey to get auto-hop to work?

Auto Hop should work on a Joey, they do on mine. Remember that the Joey is simply a slave off of the Hopper, if the Hopper has Auto Hop, so should the Joey. Are you sure that you are selecting a PTAT prime time recording? Sports and News are not included in Auto Hop, all the rest should have a Kangaroo in the DVR tile for that program. That said, the only thing that doesn't work on a Joey that does work on a Hopper is PIP...

 

[Brian Fuller]

Brian,

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by 'auto hop isn't working on your key'. On my hoppers when I watch a show that was recorded on a hopper it's asks if I want to skip the commercials. No such message appears on the Joey's. Is there something I have to special on a Joey to get auto-hop to work?

Sorry autocorrect made joey into key. If you're auto hop isn't working on the joey there is a problem. Bad cable or node most likely

Sent From My Samsung Hercules

 

[Stargazer]

That eBay link does not seem to work??

The link is fine, I just checked it.

 

[osu1991]

Pictures are too fuzzy ... what cabinet did you use?

Sorry I think I took those years ago with my original iphone. My dad's house and mine were built within a few months of each other. It is all Open House products from Parts Express.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=182-704

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=182-710

I don't see the hinged door at Parts Express but this is what I used

http://www.homecontrols.com/OpenHouse-Hinged-Door-Depth-Extension-Kit-LNHDx?sc=23&category=194220

 

[rglore]

You can do this, but if it doesn't say 3Ghz on the cable, it's not. And if you use non-rated cable, most likely you will lose the 3rd tuner. It uses that high frequency band(2500-3000Mhz) for the 3rd tuner.
And whether the guy had a strong russian accent or not.... Call up an electrician and ask him how much to come and run that cable the way you want it, to the MBR. He'd charge you $100 or more for the cable, plus another $100+ for labor. So you shouldn't expect a Dish tech to do it for free.

All RG6 is rated for frequencies greater than 3 Ghz. The marking just means it was tested to verify the rating with no defects. None of my Hopper RG6 has the marking and some of it is 18 years old and works perfectly.

 

[Scherrman]

I think shielding can make a big difference and if it copper clad or solid copper.

 

[rexlan]

Thanks for the links osu1991

 

[Jim5506]

When the installer put my 2 Hoppers in, he did not replace the RG-6, but he did put some kind of terminator at the end of each line and connected some type of network tester (like a Fluke for cat-5), only this was to test the coax. I guess my coax passed the test.

 

[agentc13]

When the installer put my 2 Hoppers in, he did not replace the RG-6, but he did put some kind of terminator at the end of each line and connected some type of network tester (like a Fluke for cat-5), only this was to test the coax. I guess my coax passed the test.

He was probably toning out the lines (to see where they went), not testing them.

 

[TheKrell]

He was probably toning out the lines (to see where they went), not testing them.

Not necessarily; he could have been using an SWR.

 

[agentc13]

Not necessarily; he could have been using an SWR.

Yeah, but I said probably. Not certainly.

Most installers tone out the lines on an install, and so I would assume that was what was being done. I haven't heard of any techs actually testing the lines, but maybe some do.

@Jim5506 - did the testing device look like this?

 

[Jim5506]

He may have been toning the lines. Each "terminator" had a different number on it.

It was similar to the picture, but it was orange, IIRC.

 

[bookworm370]

As feedback:

I moved the Hopper w/o Sling from the Den back up to my Master Bed Room on the existing Quad Shield RG-6. Before I did, I did a point dish and recorded signal levels on all 3 tuners, all 3 satellites, and 2 transponders on each satellite.

No issues at all with Tuner 3 and after it got a stable lock, I rechecked the signal levels.. All of them were mostly unchanged, in fact, the only change was in the Spotbeam on Tuner 3 and it had a 4 signal level 'higher' reading!

So again, agreed, just because it doesn't say 3ghz doesn't mean it won't support it if you installed quality cable. 3ghz means the roll was swept before shipping up to 3ghz. If you have high quality compression connectors, the blue barrel interconnects I wouldn't get my pants moist.

You can do this, but if it doesn't say 3Ghz on the cable, it's not. And if you use non-rated cable, most likely you will lose the 3rd tuner. It uses that high frequency band(2500-3000Mhz) for the 3rd tuner.
And whether the guy had a strong russian accent or not.... Call up an electrician and ask him how much to come and run that cable the way you want it, to the MBR. He'd charge you $100 or more for the cable, plus another $100+ for labor. So you shouldn't expect a Dish tech to do it for free.

 

[dvrexpander]

Dish gets really tight on installers if they use a certain branded cable 3Ghz vs others or dish approved cable. I know of many types of cable that have 3Ghz swept that you can not use from the dish to the node to the hopper, the joeys can have anything and work and are allowed on whatever type or brand of cable which is dumb but that is what it is.

As for the requirements for wiring a new home - people already said 2 RG6 3Ghz cables Digital Electronics is a good approved brand to use and a Cat6 cable to each location you "THINK" you will ever put a TV so that would mean in large rooms two drops on each side of the room all ran back to a central point in the home where you can get to from inside and outside - stick to south western side of home too as that is where you normally aim the dish from so shorter run outside.

 

[osu1991]

Another thing I did as I had access and had told the builder I would be doing everything and not to touch it without telling me. When I did all the wiring and such for in wall speakers and the wiring cabinets, I already knew where I was going to put the Dish outside on my house and my Dad's. I nailed 2 2x12's between the roof rafters underneath and flush with the roof decking inside, so I knew I would have something very solid to screw into for the Dish base plates.

 

[Bob Haller]

Run empty conduit to all locations you may ever want to have anything, route it all to a central location your new headend perhaps a closet somewhere. this future proofs your new home.

when the new upgrade to rg X9 occurs just pull out the old cable and install the new. plus conduit is cheap put boxes with blank covers at each possible future location...