Help with New Home Prewire

[New Guy]

I'm in the process of building a new home. Will be getting either D* or E* service when we move in in a few months, depending on who is offering the better HDTV service at that time. My question is with prewiring. Will a multiswitch be able to combine the inputs from all LNBs and an OTA antennae onto one coax no matter what system I choose from either provider? I need it to handle an HDTV system and OTA since we likely will not have high def locals by satellite here for a while (small midwest community). I understand I will need two coax runs to any tv that will have a dual tuner receiver/dvr. Is there any need for more than two runs to any receivers available now or in the forseeable future?

 

[rockaway1836]

Always leave a drag line in place for future needs.

 

[angiodan]

If you are able to wire yourself, I would run 4 RG6 lines minimum from a central closet to wherever you plan to have tvs.

I'd also run at least 4-6 runs from the closet to wherever you plan to have the dishes installed.

And if you are doing it yourself, don't forget the Cat5e or Cat6 lines as well for phone, computer, and anything else that comes up.

Wire is cheap to run now, a real pain if you have to fish through walls and attics later.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Some of the satellite recievers still want two cables from the multi-switch to the reciever. I'd do a minimum of two to anyplace you might have a DVR / multi-tuner sat box.

I have 3x RG6 drops in my living room and I'm using them all. I could probably get by on 2 if I had to. 4 would be nice.

Wiring everything to a central closet is a GREAT idea as well as the cat-5 to the same wall-plates. From the closet you could setup phone / ethernet / sat / cable / OTA / whatever as you please to any room in the house.

I'll have crazy amounts of wiring in my next house if I build new.

Shawn

 

[korsjs]

welcome to the site new guy.

 

[New Guy]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am planning for extra runs of RG6 for possible video distribution as well as cat5 for internet/phone/possible future video distribution or media server. Should 2 RG6 at each tv for satellite/dvr plus 2 for video distribution in/out be adequate? Also, any special requirements of the RG6 cable, i.e. shielding, etc.?

 

[korsjs]

make sure you do at least cat5e.

 

[Bob Haller]

Ahh run empty conduit at least between basement and attic, although its BEST to run empty conduit all over the place for later use.

Things change and its easy to pull new wires!

 

[navychop]

Quad shielded RG-6 would be best. Use high quality connectors, especially outside- these look like small barrels, not like the usual small connectors. Do not install any multi switches until you know which provider you want- the equipment is different. E* has a separator that lets you use just one coax for some of their dual tuner models. This is NOT the same as a splitter. You might be ahead to figure out what equipment you will use and where. For example, you might have a E* 942 or 962 in the living room. It will feed two TVs- TV1 where the box is, in HD. The second TV could be in another room- and you'd run coax from the 942/962 to the other room (for SD TV). Of course, there are transmitters you can buy, that will take, for example, composite & RCA audio in (at the 942/962), transmit RF to TV2 in another room, where you'd get composite/RCA audio out of the matching receiver. This way, you avoid a cable run, and may get reasonable PQ on TV2. Some transmitters might use S-Video.