Retrofitting RG6 to my house, need some advice

kelvinsu

New Member
Original poster
May 18, 2012
2
0
United States
Hi Guys,

I'm totally new to this and don't know anything about satellite and home wiring, etc... so please bear with me here.

I currently use cable but am planning to make the switch to satellite some time in the future.

I'm having an electrician come wire RG6 to the house but i'm having a hard time knowing exactly needs to be run where. I've been doing a lot of reading but still don't have all the answers. I'm having everything brought into the house into a central distribution center and then distributed out to the rest of the house.

From what i read initially, typically you need 2 RG6 cables for satellite DVR, so when i asked him to quote me i initially told him to run 2 RG6 to each room and terminate at the distribution center. However based on what i'm reading maybe that's not necessary... so i have a few questions

1) How many runs do i need coming in from the satellite? I've seen some diagrams with 3, some with 4, and some with 5. I would like to be able to get OTA and HDTV also. I guess i need that and also one additional run coming from the street for cable internet.

2) Since i'm still using cable now, can i ask him to pull all the runs to the outside of the house to where the cable connections from the street currently are?I would of the runs to the cable line from the street for now and continue to use that one for the time being. I plan to continue using cable for internet in the future so one of those runs will always be connected to the cable from the street. And down the line when the dish or DTV installer comes, I assume it should be fine for him to run his cables from the satellite down to that point in order to patch into the house.

3) In the distribution center I will need a multiswitch, i don't know if i need a 3x4 or 5x8, depending on the answer to #1 i guess.

4) From the distribution center it looks like i only need 1 run to each room coming out of the Multiswitch. Then in each room i'll need a diplexer to split the signal again. is this correct?

I drew up a small diagram to try to visualize this. Any help is appreciated!

View attachment Satellite.pdf
 
I take it that it is not new construction since you say you have cable.

You might just have the satellite installer install the cable for you. For example Dish's hopper/joey system can use your existing cabling for the joeys, only the hopper(s) would need a single run of RG6. The satellite installer can run the cable when they do the install, unless you want it done in a particular way, you may as well have them do it as part of the install.
 
I take it that it is not new construction since you say you have cable.

You might just have the satellite installer install the cable for you. For example Dish's hopper/joey system can use your existing cabling for the joeys, only the hopper(s) would need a single run of RG6. The satellite installer can run the cable when they do the install, unless you want it done in a particular way, you may as well have them do it as part of the install.

Yes this is a retrofit to an existing house. I'm actually having an electrician come in and run cat 6 and coax, so it's a good time to do it now.

I want to future proof the house so it will be compatible with any provider I go with in future.

I guess the biggest question is how many runs from the multi switch to each drop and how many from the switch to the outside of the house.
 
I have 2 drops to each room. One for the SAT signal, one for OTA. You could use your existing cabling for OTA, and do just one new drop of RG6 or you could replace and do 2 drops.

It is possible to diplex in OTA over the single sat cable, but I like the extra cable, I have used it for backfeeding in the past, but now just use it for OTA antenna.
 
its best to have 2 lines to each room that home run to the main distro 1 for sat and one extra for cable internet or ota diplexing is getting less common. If you plan on sat service run 4 lines up to attic or 5 to the junction on the side of the house with the electric box as the tech should ground your sat system and also cable guy could use that location to hit your distro.
 
Recently I have rewired my entire house to have RG6 and CAT5 at every HD TV set in 4 rooms total (for Hopper/Joey install with Dish). I had no existing RG6 or CAT5 wire in place. That required a lot of wall fishing, in-wall drilling, etc. My initial plan was to hire an electrician, but after getting some quotes I realized that it's going to be expensive. So, I decided to let Dish Network installers do the bulk of the work, and only hire external help if Dish installers fail to do something. To my surprise, they did everything and did it well enough, so I didn't have to hire anyone else. Dish does offer the service of running cables through the walls, and not just RG6, CAT5 too (perhaps even CAT6 if you provide your own wire). They charge extra for these services, but it's like $50 extra, not $500 extra!

Additionally, for a couple of hundred dollars, they can even hang a flat screen TV set on the wall with their own mounting bracket and conceal the wires inside the wall.

(Not sure about DirectTV, but with Dish Network, a single RG6 is enough to deliver HD to every room.)
 
Am not up to date w/ the lastest Dish/DTv technologies, but here is what I did at my folks house (8 TVs). I had 5 lines coming from outside: 4 from the dish, 1 for OTA). In our "power room", the 1 OTA line connects to a 4x channel master splitter then off to the 4 main TVs. For Bev, each 4 lines (91a 91b, 82a, 82b)connect to 2ghz spliiters, then to 2 4x4 switches and each go to a seperate room. Lukcily my folks are "older" and not too tech savy so all the receivers are single tuners.

Am going back during the first week of July and i'll take some pictures... Its quite impressive.

Cheers, k
 
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