200' - 250' cable run?

[. Raine]

I just picked up a 12' dish and I'm going to set that up in place of my 9' Radio Shack dish. I'm going to take the RS dish and set it up for my parents next door and it looks like the cable run will be between 200' - 250'. Is this too far?
I'll be using a V Box 7 to move the dish.

I could put the V Box in the new garage and cut the length of the motor wires down to about 50' but the coax will have to be the 200' to 250' still. Correct gauge wire of course, I'm not going to use cheap crappy wire and I'm thinking RG11 for the coax.

I can't really move the dish closer because my parents live down a hill from me and have tons of trees in the LOS almost all the way across the arc, it'd be a major pain to get it any closer.

 

[beavs2112]

Hi A Raine. For that length RG11 is definitely recommended.

 

[pdiddy]

I've got about 100ft run,from now on I'm using rg-11,my thinking is bigger is better,even though the rg-6 seem to work for that length.If you can afford it,use solid copper core.

 

[ancient]

There actually is another way that is more work but has additional benefits.

The first thing is to get you and your parents on a common shared LAN. You can do this by running a fiber optic cable from your house to theirs. This may initially be a bit more expensive than RG-11, but not that much more once you figure in all the costs, including the costs of lightning/ground loop protection. You can use this to share Internet or just to send video, that is up to you. If you only use it for video then only the

Then you set up some kind of home theater PC for your parents, preferably running Kodi/XBMC. This could be something as simple as a Raspberry Pi running RaspBMC or XBian or a similar program, but you are likely going to want something capable of handling higher bitrate streams, and the Raspberry Pi just doesn't quite cut it. By the way, I do NOT personally recommend OpenELEC unless you have no Linux experience at all, because the inability to do common Linux tasks will frustrate you to no end. Something like a CuBox-i might work but I can't say for sure. If they will be trying to watch any high bitrate feeds then something even more hefty in the video processing department might be needed. I really haven't fully researched the newer devices so can't say much more about it.

And then you need a backend system, and for that you can either use something like a TBS MOI+ with an attached SATA drive, using the included TVHeadEnd software, or you can build your own backend. If you go that route I'd suggest running Debian or Ubuntu, and a TBS tuner card, unless you are a true Linux guru, in which case there are many more options open to you - not necessarily better ones, just additional ones. And use the latest TVHeadEnd unstable release for the backend software - unfortunately the latest stable version is rather dated and apparently does not contain support for certain aspects of DVB-S/S2 reception. Whether you buy something like a MOI+ or build your own, the MOI+ article I linked to gives some installation tips for TVHeadEnd that may prove useful. If you do build your own backend and use a TBS card, you will have to install the TBS drivers which does involve a compilation step, but the instructions are pretty clear.

Then you put the backend inside your home, and run your coax from your satellite LNB to the tuner card. Then you use XBMC to watch the signal live, or schedule recordings (you can also schedule recordings via the TVHeadEnd web-based interface) which can be watched later. If you and your parents want to watch the same show, just agree that neither of you will delete it until you know the other has watched it. The obvious advantage is that both you and your parents can watch the live or recorded programs from any room in your home where you have a computer, which could be a home theater PC connected to a HDTV set, as mentioned above. It's just a much more flexible solution.

Plus, you avoid the very real issue of running copper between homes that may be at different ground potentials. If you decide to go that route, please use a very good lightning protector at each end; the article I linked to on running fiber explains why, and one of the comments in that article expands on it a bit more. And on that fiber run you can connect to gigabit Ethernet at both ends and use the full speed of the connection, and unless you physically damage the fiber or one of the fiber converters fails, it will probably work well past the point where the technology is obsolete. And once the satellite signal hits the tuner in your home, there will be no additional degradation of signal between your home and your parents' home.

There also the option to use a tuner card with multiple inputs, and/or LNBs with dual outputs, if you think you and your parents might want to watch different transponders off the same satellite at the same time.

It does take more effort at the beginning to do it this way, but if you and your parents both get addicted to free-to-air satellite TV, you will be really glad you made the effort!

P.S. As a bonus, if either of you has a decent TV antenna that picks up OTA channels, you can probably add them into the mix by adding a HDHomeRun Dual to the network that the TVHeadEnd backend is connected to - I say "probably" because I am not 100% sure it can be done, although if not, there is doubtless some other ATSC tuner that will work. But, a HDHomeRun device could be at either house, since it will send the signals over the network to the backend. If you have the better antenna, then you have the option to use any TVHeadEnd-compatible HDTV tuner card in your computer.

 

[richyrich]

over 100 feet of cable needs a testable wire sized for the distance; involves system level wire (like a good commscope copper and 10, 12, 20 at gauges; each for the functional length and voltage/amperage required at the dish; 24 vdc motor; 5 vdc sensor; 18/14 vdc sw; 22 khz; etc.. Electrically RATED! Most coaxes will go to 200-350 feet and beyond, but the receivers (V Box) PS may also overwork a little more than normal; or not be able to supply.
If the wrong wire is installed; the motor may move slower,

but enough amperage to move a heavy dish may not be available and other "voltage problems" can also occur. Copper/Zinc coax goes to 300-400 feet however; and the scene at the receiver just shows a lower signal level with the same quality.

This allows a 4dtv receiver to provide the same great pictures at a low input level (-32) in t of analogue he old days; because on one side is it's ability to go over 300 feet easily at the coax; and keep a full analogue bandwidth (20) as signal and level; while at the same time being able to make a large number of channels digitally from the same bandwidth; very sensitive tuner and 10-20 channels are accrued digitally for each analogue bandwidth!

but with today's PS designed with such small bandwidth aggressions; the system only responds to the ability for the quality to be achieved; system level multi-pointing using motors is really just that; the need for the same preciseness IN WIRE AND SIZE REQUIRED; and it IS THE PIE (POWER formula)...The problems then are the required sizes! The coax and the motor wire then is the type and size!

 

[. Raine]

There actually is another way that is more work but has additional benefits.

The first thing is to get you and your parents on a common shared LAN. You can do this by running a fiber optic cable from your house to theirs. This may initially be a bit more expensive than RG-11, but not that much more once you figure in all the costs, including the costs of lightning/ground loop protection. You can use this to share Internet or just to send video, that is up to you. If you only use it for video then only the

Then you set up some kind of home theater PC for your parents, preferably running Kodi/XBMC. This could be something as simple as a Raspberry Pi running RaspBMC or XBian or a similar program, but you are likely going to want something capable of handling higher bitrate streams, and the Raspberry Pi just doesn't quite cut it. By the way, I do NOT personally recommend OpenELEC unless you have no Linux experience at all, because the inability to do common Linux tasks will frustrate you to no end. Something like a CuBox-i might work but I can't say for sure. If they will be trying to watch any high bitrate feeds then something even more hefty in the video processing department might be needed. I really haven't fully researched the newer devices so can't say much more about it.

And then you need a backend system, and for that you can either use something like a TBS MOI+ with an attached SATA drive, using the included TVHeadEnd software, or you can build your own backend. If you go that route I'd suggest running Debian or Ubuntu, and a TBS tuner card, unless you are a true Linux guru, in which case there are many more options open to you - not necessarily better ones, just additional ones. And use the latest TVHeadEnd unstable release for the backend software - unfortunately the latest stable version is rather dated and apparently does not contain support for certain aspects of DVB-S/S2 reception. Whether you buy something like a MOI+ or build your own, the MOI+ article I linked to gives some installation tips for TVHeadEnd that may prove useful. If you do build your own backend and use a TBS card, you will have to install the TBS drivers which does involve a compilation step, but the instructions are pretty clear.

Then you put the backend inside your home, and run your coax from your satellite LNB to the tuner card. Then you use XBMC to watch the signal live, or schedule recordings (you can also schedule recordings via the TVHeadEnd web-based interface) which can be watched later. If you and your parents want to watch the same show, just agree that neither of you will delete it until you know the other has watched it. The obvious advantage is that both you and your parents can watch the live or recorded programs from any room in your home where you have a computer, which could be a home theater PC connected to a HDTV set, as mentioned above. It's just a much more flexible solution.

Plus, you avoid the very real issue of running copper between homes that may be at different ground potentials. If you decide to go that route, please use a very good lightning protector at each end; the article I linked to on running fiber explains why, and one of the comments in that article expands on it a bit more. And on that fiber run you can connect to gigabit Ethernet at both ends and use the full speed of the connection, and unless you physically damage the fiber or one of the fiber converters fails, it will probably work well past the point where the technology is obsolete. And once the satellite signal hits the tuner in your home, there will be no additional degradation of signal between your home and your parents' home.

There also the option to use a tuner card with multiple inputs, and/or LNBs with dual outputs, if you think you and your parents might want to watch different transponders off the same satellite at the same time.

It does take more effort at the beginning to do it this way, but if you and your parents both get addicted to free-to-air satellite TV, you will be really glad you made the effort!

P.S. As a bonus, if either of you has a decent TV antenna that picks up OTA channels, you can probably add them into the mix by adding a HDHomeRun Dual to the network that the TVHeadEnd backend is connected to - I say "probably" because I am not 100% sure it can be done, although if not, there is doubtless some other ATSC tuner that will work. But, a HDHomeRun device could be at either house, since it will send the signals over the network to the backend. If you have the better antenna, then you have the option to use any TVHeadEnd-compatible HDTV tuner card in your computer.

I'm not looking to connect our two houses together, they already get my OTA stations, stations off one of my dishes, internet access and Netflix through our network via wi-fi connection and a media center and that's been working good for years, so I'm good there. I want to set this dish up as a normal setup for them, it just would have to have the long cable run for the coax.

Right now I have two Hauppauge HVR1600 ATSC tuners, a HDHomeRun dual ATSC tuner and the one dish that they use over the network via a X Box 360 as an extender to a media center PC. In the past [Quite a few years ago now] I've tried different things like XBMC, MythTV, etc, but it was annoying because things would change often and I'd have to fiddle with things a lot. The changes sometimes would really screw up my dad too, simple things like push this button on the remote for the guide rather than this one can take him weeks to learn, his memory isn't so great anymore, him and my mom are in their late seventies. My mom is good with the stuff and has no problem but he does if things change. There was one time, I think it was when I was using Myth, that the system went down and my dad called the cable company complaining that the TV went out, he'd forgotten that the TV comes from my house. That was funny, my Mom was gone and when she came home he asked her to call the cable company because they'd given him the run around and she told him they didn't have cable, he didn't believe her. When I got home from work he called me and asked me to call. Told him we didn't have cable but I'd take care of it. When the TV came back on for them in a bit he tells my mom that I must've called the cable company and gave them a good talking to. That was years ago and he still think they have cable TV. Lucky for the cable company, the system setup now very rarely has any issues that cuts out TV on them.

The XBMC was nice, I'd used an original X Box running Linux as a frontend to a Ubuntu setup with XBMC on it, but all the changes all the time stunk. I'd have it all setup and working so it's just like using a regular TV for them and then something would be changed in XBMC or Ubuntu and I have to mess with things. Myth and a few others I tried were the same. Compiling drivers and such for Linux isn't a problem at all, but having to fiddle with things all the time because the program has been updated or something broken because of an update is a PITA.

When I originally did the wi-fi setup ten or so years ago, I'd never even thought of using fiber. I will read up on it and might do it, depending on how expensive it will be, there would be some benefits to it if it isn't real expensive. I would have to lay about 150' more of pipe to do it too, but I do have the equipment to do that. Thanks for posting this, it's not what I want for this dish but for my existing setup, I like the idea of fiber and am going to check into it more.

 

[richyrich]

Wireless networking with lines of site are being used at up to 20 miles; but these are Providers signals; the main being a transceiver, which can put out foundational networking aggression compared to the normal distances just a "route". Wiring from a transceiver to a controlled motor, switch, or say voltage change is done using RC and a remote code already hardwired as wireless signal and function. Hardwire like optical sits at a full video bandwidth (say 1 Gb); multi-channel and carried to a switch, say from Verizon; that is then sent via coax to the home. These boxes already do this!

A satellite receiver however, is a 1000 Gb x 2 polarity; just at downconverted frequency; and needs nothing else (no transceiver); choosing; one of the pieces of the bandwidth for "the channel" it then shows on the HDTV. Netflix, Hulu, and the rest of the server formations already have "bandwidth" selected then shows on HDTV as their progression.

The dish can be set-up WITH CORRECT WIRE AND SYSTEM DESIGN at 1/2 mile or more using amps bringing the pictures so far over coax; and using a phone and wire as the control; it seems too spendy to reach for glass. They have a way to see the signals from multi-dishes over networking; but if you want to outdo them all; you might as well invent a cable company that wants localized reception; only backwards; that is using a transceiver at the consumers home. Who's picture is it that must be bought then? And whose picture is it? These details are privately held; and defined Only For Those They Say Can; And Only The "Way" They Say They Can gets in the way.

 

[Cham]

Sometimes the cable companies have reel ends of RG11 you might get for free or pennies on the dollar. You might have to know someone there though...