Home Depot Coax......Any good?

[Greg Mueller]

Down at Home Depot the have 500' spools of RG6 for pretty cheap. Is that stuff any good?

Carol Brand by General Cable.
100% Fkexfoil Bonded
Swept to 3ghz
RG6/U-18-55FA-S500-GCC E23370
RG6CCSB55GEN

I think it wound up being about $0.09 a foot

 

[RandallA]

I have that Carol brand cable but mine is quad RG6. For the most part is an OK cable but it's a pain to work with, specially putting the quad connectors. The regular RG6 is probably easier to work with.
I'm attaching the specs for that cable and the specs are very similar to other good brands.

 

[raydio]

I bought a spool from them a couple of years ago and still have some left. It works fine for my needs.

 

[iammike]

I've bought a couple 500' spools from Home Depot. I always get the quad shielded and it seems like a pretty decent deal. The quad is harder to work with, but it's less likely to get interference from electric wire running through the same space.

Mike

 

[sampatterson]

Worked fine for me.

 

[Stats8]

Thats what I use, works fine.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I also used Carol cable from Home Depot and had no problems. I always try to use Quad if available. Home Depot also sells good Quad connectors.

 

[pb4610]

I am new to this forum and want to say HI!

I've used the 500' spool of the quad sheilded RG6 from Home Depot and have found no problems. Putting connectors on are a bit difficult though.

 

[PSB]

I am new to this forum and want to say HI!

I've used the 500' spool of the quad sheilded RG6 from Home Depot and have found no problems. Putting connectors on are a bit difficult though.

WELCOME to SatelliteGuys.US

 

[stardust1]

I'm still working on a 500' roll I bought from them years ago. No problems indoor or out. I have found that good cable is important, but the cable ends are really important. I have been using Snap n seals and think it's a really good product.

 

[rvdmark2003]

Home Depots Brand

I bought a roll from there also a while back. They were good to work with. I also use the thomas and betts SNS6Q one them. I found some cheaper ones through ebay. Try doing a local search in your areal. I picked up two rolls of 1000 foot RG6 commscope quad for 75 bucks. Shop around, you'll find a good deal.

 

[coolray1938]

Hi Fellows

I have just joined the forum in hopes of getting some answers for my father-in-law. I have no experience with the Big Dish's, but I do have some with DBS with D*. Here is a brief overview of what he has right now. Again these are not my things, so if there are any helpful questions or answers, I will have to get them to him and then come back for more feedback.

10' Mesh dish, not sure what it is made of.
Motorola 4DTV receiver [do not have the model number yet]
Toshiba C/Ku receiver [do not have the model number of this either]
Pansat 2700A FTA receiver

He may have even more than this above, but I am not sure. He made me a list of questions to ask and I am just the messenger so please be kind.

1. Is FTA the same as OTA [My gut instincts tell me that the answer is no, they are two different things, but I do not know that for sure]

I need to explain something before I ask his second question. He has had a HDTV monitor for about 4 or 5 years, but has never had a HD decoder box to display the HD picture on it. I have the same set, but I have a D* sat dish and an OTA antenna in my attic and have been watching HDTV for about 3 years. He has access to cable and I do not. This is what I think he wants to be able to do.

1. Watch HDTV from his big dish
2. Watch HDTV from his cable feed
3. Watch HDTV from an outside OTA antenna

I am trying to find out what he needs to buy and how he needs to hook it up to make all of the above possible. Again I realize that there will possibly be questions that I can't answer today, but I will get back here as soon as I have some sort of info to give him.

I do most of my question and answer on the AVS forum, but I know you guys will do a great job of getting me some options to give to my father-in-law.

Thanks in advance guys.
Tom "coolray1938"

This is probably in the wrong area, but I am not sure where I should have posted this in the first place. Help please.

 

[voomvoom]

Is FTA the same as OTA?
No, free to air refers to in the clear (ITC) digital channels, meaning non-encrypted. There are also analog channels ITC that actually are FTA, but usually people mean digital unencrypted channels when refering to FTA.
Watch HDTV from his big dish?
He will need an HDD200 decoder to do this. They are not cheap and there are only a couple handfulls of HD channels available, at this time. But, the HD is truely amazing. You say you have D*, these 4dtv HD channels will stun you.
Watch HDTV from his cable feed?
He will need to get with his cable company for that.
Watch HDTV from an outside OTA antenna?
He will need an antenna and an ATSC tuner, his HDTV may have it already integrated or he will need to get a STB (set-top box) with an ATSC tuner. They have these now with PVR's, which would be nice.
These are some things, but there are many things that can be done. Most people won't do them, it can/will be expensive.

Al

 

[coolray1938]

voomvoom

He would need a HDD200 to watch from the big dish
He would need a cable box to watch from cable
He would need a STB to watch from OTA

What would he need to watch HDTV with his FTA Panstat 2700 or will the HDD200 do that for him as well.

I thought I had heard about some STB's that would pickup OTA and also QAM cable stuff that was not scrambled. Am I full of it or is there such a beast for those two.

As you can tell I don't know much about this stuff

Thanks for the previous response

coolray

 

[tdti1]

The HDD 200 will only work for the DCII 4dtv feeds in HD, for DVB feed's in HD you will need a Integra IT912 or a Quali TV DVB receiver or a pci HD card.

 

[voomvoom]

What would he need to watch HDTV with his FTA Panstat 2700 or will the HDD200 do that for him as well?

The HDD200 will not work for FTA. It works for the Motorola 920, 922, and 905 sidecar, all of which are 4dtv receivers.
He will not be able to watch HD with his Pansat. To get FTA HD, he will have to get a FTA receiver capable of HD, or get a PC Card for HD to use on a computer. Here is where you can find the one I know about. It's not cheap.
http://mechtech.satforums.com/
http://gofastmotorsports.com/rickssatellitehome.htm
And here is where they probably get them:
http://www.quali-tv.com/index.php?op...tpage&Itemid=1
Most people go with PC Cards. There is also one called DVB World (or something like that) that is a USB computer connection receiver.

Al

 

[iammike]

I use an HTPC for all of my HD viewing/recording. I use a Twinhan card for FTA HD, a MyHD card for QAM cable recording, and an R5000HD modded 922 to record 4DTV HD via my PC's USB port.

My guess is your father may not be real "PC friendly" though, so you might be better off looking at an HDD200 for th 4DTV HD programming and an HD capable cable box for the cable channels. I suspect that most if not all of the HD channels he can get OTA will also be available via his cable system.

 

[coolray1938]

I want to thank all of you guys for your responses and I have put all of this info into a Word document and sent it to him. I usually do not see him until Sunday, so I look forward to hearing his thoughts on what I sent him. I also told him he should subscribe to this forum and that he would find a wealth of info here that would help him decide what to do.

You guys rock
Thanks
coolray1938