Wiring question

[automaticbaby]

I've got Comcast cable coming into my place through the basement and into one of my closets where it then gets distributed throughout the house. I want to add DTV in 3 rooms using the cabling already inside my walls.

Is it possible to combine the cables (probably 2) coming from DTV and Comcast, send it from the basement to the closet on the existing cable, then split it into each room?

If it is possible, what would I need?

Thanks

 

[al]

You will at the very least need 2 RG6 cables running to your closet from outside Dish antenna. You will also need to mount a 2x4 multiswitch in the closet, where the two cables from the antenna are connected. From the switch, you can connect each individual cable run to each receiver.

This is only if you are going to use the 18" round dish antenna. If your locals are at 110 WL or 119 WL, or if you will subscribe to HDTV or international programming, you will need an oval Phase III antenna. If this is the case, you will need at least 3 cables (for your 3 receivers) running into the closet from your dish antenna. In the closet, you will use a barrell connector to connect the cables running from outside into your existing runs to each receiver.

Best of Luck!

Al

 

[reanime]

I've got a similar sort of question for anyone out there in the know. I've got an existing (Comcast?) cable line (A+B-pair) lines coming into my house which was likely Comcast installed. Now that the previous owners deactivated their account, it would be incredibly convenient to use these same cable lines to accept the Coax cables coming from my Triple LNB dish which wil feed into the existing coax cable lines running into the house. Seems so damn simple, but for the life of me the Sat (DirectTV) signal directly from the dish to the cable going into the house does not show continuity (no signal in the house), yet connecting my own very long coax cable from dish to TV works fine so I know I'm getting good signal and am up and running. When I connect the old comcast cable signal from the telephone pole (access channels are always on despite deactivation) there's a perfect signal travelling thru the cable lines coursing thru the house, no problem, continuity is proven here. I know my stuff and the line has good continuity with line testers (however, I didn't measure resistance or voltage drop), but even one of the known existing short coax lines (around 10 feet from house entry to the wallplate connection, won't carry the dish coax signal but carries the chB comcast signal perfectly which rules out any need for signal boosters..WHAT IS GOING ON?? My only thought is that perhaps they're using some splitter in the wall? I've completely bypassed the junction box on the outside of the house and am connecting directly to the house feed. What do I do? This is baffling me. When I connect from the Sat dish to one of these cables, I've tried the A line and the B line (access cable) to no avail. I thought of getting a Motorola signal booster but if the short line ain't working as mentioned above, I don't think that will help and would be a regretful purchase, especially if there's some splitter in the wall. I know these splitters kill the signal and I know one of the lines is being split somewhere along the way to feed 2 different rooms. Any help would be greatly appreciated on how to use what I got without having to pay some conduit expert 100's of dollars to drill more holes in my walls and studs and charge gobs for the fishtaping nightmare. Thanks

 

[wobbie]

Ran into that problem today. Six lines into the house ( 3 duals ) and then 1 dual line in 3 rooms. thought that would be simple. Upon further investigation ( taking out half of the drop ceiling) discovered that someone had cut the dual lines into a couple of splitters to split the cable signal and the only good line was used for the internet modem. You may want to look for some splitters after all. Good luck

 

[reanime]

Yep, this is definitely the problem...the dreaded splitters hidden and lurching behind the drywall somewhere, and the splitters in my case aren't conveniently located in the wallboxes (faceplate wall connection housing), nooooewww...they had to make it impossible to get to and threw em down probably b/w two studs. I seeked help for this in another post as well, and we came to the same conclusion... that splitters need to be eliminated in the circuit if possible, yet in my case they're nested deep behind the walls cause I have no attic (flatroof) nor basement where they might typically be centrally located. Solution: bite the bullet and rewire with up-to-date satellite-correct cable rather than try to use the crappy pre-existing comcast cable. Thanks for the responses