New house wiring for 1 Sat Rec/DVR and 2 HD TVs?

[TalonDancer]

What wiring should we install in a new house to support one HD Satellite DVR receiver with 2 HD TVs -- one HD TV in the media room and one HD TV in a study nearly 100 ft away? Is this possible with Dish Equipment? If not, what about DirecTV?

Background:
We are in the final stages of designing our new house and thinking about wiring for computers, Sat TV etc.. There are only two adults. And we watch very little TV. What we do watch, is almost always off the DVR. We only want to manage one Sat Receiver/DVR. The Sat Receiver/DVR and the main HD TV will be located in a "media room" that doubles as a home office. We have never had more than one TV (6 decades and counting), so this would probably be enough. But in case one of us is working in the home office and the other wants to watch TV, we are considering wiring the house to allow for a 2nd HD TV in another room. Note we are not talking about watching different programs. And we are definitely not willing to install a 2nd receiver/DVR -- just a 2nd HD TV connected to the one Sat Receiver/DVR. Lastly we are willing to pay a one time upgrade fee from our current 622, but we don't want to pay ANY additional monthly fees (e.g. Sling, etc.).

Thanks in Advance - Talon Dancer

 

[budda]

Wireing

I would suggest at least 2 cat5 lines per room. You should also if you can run a long 100 foot HDMI cable to the second room or should I say between them. Direct TV does whole house with cat5 I believe. Your 622 or a 722k could also do it with cat5 or HDMI, for Dish it would take a cat5 HDMI box, or cat5 component box, The more you pre wire the greater your options. JMO Peace

 

[RandallA]

Actually Directv does it with coax with something they call DECA. I don't see any mention of coax cable going to the rooms. I would do two runs of CAT5 and two runs of RG6 cable to the main rooms. You could probably get away with one of each to the bedrooms, better to do two of each though.

 

[TalonDancer]

Thanks Guys. I appreciate your input.

So far it sounds like the only way to run a 2nd HD TV from a single Dish Receiver/DVR is via a very long HDMI cable. I guess we'll just wait till we really have a need for a 2nd HD TV (see More Background below).

FWIW I will be running cat 5 between specific rooms to link the data server(s) to wireless base stations and link the amps on our LINN distributed stereo system. But I don't understand the value of running RG6 coax. What (besides Direct TV's Whole House TV) would use this kind of cable these days?

More background:
We are building this house ourselves. The house is seriously custom to our specific requirements. It has one bedroom, two office/studies, a great room, and misc small rooms (e.g laundry, bathrooms, etc.). We have the whole house in Google Sketchup down to the furniture. We know the locations of servers, media components, etc. All the furniture, media components etc are in storage waiting for the house to be built

The whole house will be 'raised floor'. At any time in the future we can run cable under the house and bring it up in the floor (against the wall) at the exact location we want. So we are not very interested in installing wiring now for future flexibility. Cable goes out of fashion so quickly. And wireless options keep getting better.

Thanks again - Talon Dancer

 

[R0ss]

Thanks Guys. I appreciate your input.

So far it sounds like the only way to run a 2nd HD TV from a single Dish Receiver/DVR is via a very long HDMI cable. I guess we'll just wait till we really have a need for a 2nd HD TV (see More Background below).

FWIW I will be running cat 5 between specific rooms to link the data server(s) to wireless base stations and link the amps on our LINN distributed stereo system. But I don't understand the value of running RG6 coax. What (besides Direct TV's Whole House TV) would use this kind of cable these days?

More background:
We are building this house ourselves. The house is seriously custom to our specific requirements. It has one bedroom, two office/studies, a great room, and misc small rooms (e.g laundry, bathrooms, etc.). We have the whole house in Google Sketchup down to the furniture. We know the locations of servers, media components, etc. All the furniture, media components etc are in storage waiting for the house to be built

The whole house will be 'raised floor'. At any time in the future we can run cable under the house and bring it up in the floor (against the wall) at the exact location we want. So we are not very interested in installing wiring now for future flexibility. Cable goes out of fashion so quickly. And wireless options keep getting better.

Thanks again - Talon Dancer

If you stay with dish you are correct. The only way to have HD in more than one room and only have one receiver is to run an HDMI cable to the second room. You would also ned some type of HDMI switch to create the necessary second output from the receiver, that would be a one time expense and not a big one in the overall picture you present. I expect the 100 ft of HDMI cable will be more expensive....

Cable/FIOS still use RG6 for distribution with in the home. If you decided to switch to Direct their whole house option uses RG6. I'm certainly no expert but it might be some time before HD TV signals, of decent quality, are routinely distributed, within the home via a wireless network. At least a wireless network that the average homeowner can afford and maintain.

Ross

 

[bpstr5]

You may want to install at least 1 empty box in each room with a short piece of conduit going to the crawl space. The bigger the conduit the better. This would future proof you to some extent without having to pick a certain type of cable now, and make stringing future wires a whole lot easier.

 

[TalonDancer]

You may want to install at least 1 empty box in each room with a short piece of conduit going to the crawl space. The bigger the conduit the better. This would future proof you to some extent without having to pick a certain type of cable now, and make stringing future wires a whole lot easier.

That's a good idea. Just conduit to a covered box in a few walls at likely locations for any future connections. The actual future wire runs could be in the 'crawl space'.

Thanks - Talon Dancer

 

[TalonDancer]

...Cable/FIOS still use RG6 for distribution with in the home. If you decided to switch to Direct their whole house option uses RG6.....

Thanks.

FWIW at our location the only options for TV for the foreseeable future are Dish & DirecTV -- no OTA (due to hills), no Cable, no FIOS, no ... So that leaves DirecTV's whole house option as the only reason to run RG6. I think I'll cross that bridge if/when i come to it. Hopefully Dish will allow us to remian dishHD Absolute subs for a good long time

Talon Dancer

 

[bpstr5]

It may be a good idea to plug the conduit where it terminates below the floor to cut down on drafts, mice, bugs etc.

 

[gadgetguru63]

With what you are describing, you will be viewing the same program on both tvs. You need 2 HD receivers to get HD programming in two rooms while being able to watch different channels at the same time.

 

[TalonDancer]

With what you are describing, you will be viewing the same program on both tvs. You need 2 HD receivers to get HD programming in two rooms while being able to watch different channels at the same time.

Thanks.

I realize that our TV viewing habits are not the norm for SatelliteGuys members. But we have managed to live over 6 decades with only ONE TV in our house. And it is only since we moved to where OTA is impossible, that have we been willing to actually pay for TV that is loaded with commercials anyway So being able to watch the same program in either of two locations seems to us to be a wild extravagance. And paying Dish even a penny / yr more to watch two different programs at two different locations isn't going to happen

Talon Dancer

 

[gadgetguru63]

Ok. Now you can run 5 coax cables from the media room to the other room and use the component output on the receiver to run the 2nd tv in hd. 3 cables for video, 2 for audio. This will have less loss in the 100' run than a 100' HDMI cable. (Those who want to argue this, look at the wires used in HDMI cables and check the loss charts for that guage wire over a 100 foot run.)

 

[harshness]

The only way to have HD in more than one room and only have one receiver is to run an HDMI cable to the second room.

This is not true. You can run HDMI many feet away over a pair of CAT5 cables and some HDMI media converters. For up to 60', you can use a $20 pair of HDMI wall plates. More than 60' and you're getting into converters with boosters ($$$).

Having the TVs 100' apart seems like an awful large house for just two people. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess.

 

[sca]

a home run from every outlet will suit you best for this or any future need (no spliiters in the walls!).

 

[TalonDancer]

This is not true. You can run HDMI many feet away over a pair of CAT5 cables and some HDMI media converters. For up to 60', you can use a $20 pair of HDMI wall plates. More than 60' and you're getting into converters with boosters ($$$).

Having the TVs 100' apart seems like an awful large house for just two people. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess.

Thanks for the HDMI - Cat 5 cable tip.

FWIW the house is less than 2,400 sq ft. But it is single level (aging in place) and L shaped (site limitations). The media/office and the studio/office where the TVs would be are at opposite ends of the L. The distance may be a little shorter 'as the crow flies' with cable runs not parallel to floor joists, etc.

Talon Dancer

 

[Lord_Vader]

I second the PVC/Conduit idea. I ran two 3" PVC pipes from the basement to the attic when I built my house. The idea was that I would eventually turn the attic into a home theater. They are still there with caps on waiting for "up-links".

Also RG6 and RJ45 are your main backbones for distribution. Once you have that in, you can do lots of options with them. If you have enough runs, you can do phone, ethernet, audio, or even video with the right adapters.

I would best guess your needs and then run a couple extra, but that's up to you. You could always buy a spool or two and put ends on later.

Monoprice sells 1000 feet of cable for about $65.

Cat 5 Network Cables - 1000ft Bulk Cable

They also have RG6 for about $45.

Video Cables- <b>RG-6 (F) type</b>

 

[Lord_Vader]

Monoprice does have a 100' HDMI cable by the way.

For only $92.69 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Standard Speed w/ Ethernet HDMI Tin-Plated Copper CL2 Rated (for In-Wall Installation) Cable (22AWG) - 100ft (Gold Plated Connectors) | Professional 22AWG HDMI Male to Male Cables with Ethernet

But it would probably be better to go with cat5 and use something like this... For only $16.52 each when QTY 50+ purchased - HDMI over CAT5E / CAT6 Extender Wall Plate (Pair) - Single Port (1P) - White (Rev. 1.2) | HDMI Wall Plates

Just my two cents.

 

[Dishman1978]

Speaking as a dish installer, the coax from dish to reciever has to be RG6 as per DishNetwork service quality specifications. RG59 can cause problems as it is not rated for the frequency range the DPP equipment uses.