R59 to R6

[Waldo1]

Hello,

I was going to have Direct TV installed today, but the installer couldn't install it because my current cable is R59. He said I would have to upgrade to R6. Is this true?

Also, I don't want cables going around my house, so he said the only way to do it would be to drop new cable down from the attic. Is this the only way to replace the R59 cable?

The house is only 10 years old, I didn't think the cable would be outdated already. Any help is appreciated.

Thank You,

 

[trehutch]

Sorry the installer is correct

Sorry but the installer is correct. If you are running any type of HDTV signal you need RG6 to prevent and signal loss. Your builder took a short cut and used a cheaper cable. The Sat signal and HDTV signals need the higher grade cable for it's signals. Go through the attic if you don't want to see the cables

 

[Long Hair]

You can use R59,but the Quality of your signal well suffer and
some channel's might not come in.It would be best to use RG6.
If your dish is on the roof, then the attic would be your best route.
Hope this helps.

 

[jdspencer]

If the builder didn't attached the RG59 to the wall studs, it might be possible to use the RG59 to pull through RG6.

Do some home work and check the attic and basement for ways to run the coax. In any case, the cable(s) from the dish should go to a common location where the mulitswitch or SWM splitter would be installed. Then the receivers would be fed from there.

 

[ccg3]

Sorry but the installer is correct. If you are running any type of HDTV signal you need RG6 to prevent and signal loss. Your builder took a short cut and used a cheaper cable. The Sat signal and HDTV signals need the higher grade cable for it's signals. Go through the attic if you don't want to see the cables

Sad part is the builder really did not save any money. You should be able to connect the RG6 cable to the RG59 cable and pull. should be able to pull the cable all the way to where it goes outside. Then you may have problem getting there.

 

[Jimbo]

It IS and recommended to have RG-6 , but many have been done with RG59, particularly if it's only a short distance.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

I'm surprised any builder still use RG59--RG6 has been the standard for cable since ~1980 and for satellite since Day 1. 59 might work, depending on the length and if one has a SWM system, but I doubt an installer would take the chance of getting a chargeback.

 

[branchbouncer]

If your house is only 10 years old I would check the jacket on the cable ( if you can ) and see if it says RG59 or RG6. Seems strange that in 2000 the builder would run RG59, but as others have said he might have been cheap, although I doubt he saved much using RG59 unless you have a hell of alot of cable run in your house!

 

[jcrandall]

10 years ago RG59 was commonly used for cable tv, quite possible the cable company did it, or the builder did it to what the cable company would ask for.

I think RG59 is more common that we think for anyone that had cable.

Satellite has practically always been RG6 required.

 

[david_gilbert]

just to give you a real world example, at the house we used to rent i had RG59 in my living room and RG6 run to the bedrooms. the LR was the only place with preexisting cable, i added the runs to the bedrooms. when it would start to rain teh LR would fade out almos timmediately and stay out for up to an hour or more. but the BR would rarely ever even blip. the LR run was about 30' of RG59 while the bedrooms were a good 75-100' due to teh way they routed.

if your cable was run in conduit or in low voltage boxes, then it should be fairly easy to swap out. i personally would leave the RG59 in place and just drop new cable. you can use the RG59 to feed in/out a second video source if needed later.

 

[HDinCincy]

It IS and recommended to have RG-6 , but many have been done with RG59, particularly if it's only a short distance.

When my house was built in 1990, I ran the "state-of-the-art" RG59 cable throughout before it was dry walled. When I switched from analog cable to digital satellite in 2002 the installer ran RG6 wherever he could (easily.) I then connected to existing RG59. it's not ideal but it still works, giving me HD signal to 3 of my four TVs. The other one has RG6 all the way. So... I would suggest that as long as you can get RG6 from the dish to your SWM or switch, you should be OK.