Recommendations on new equipment install

[Stevenje98]

I need some recommendations on equipment for the Dish Network TV satellite setup. Dish(s) Switches etc.

My first question is should I get the equipment from Dish or buy it myself? I visited the sponsors on the site and they seem to offer all the equipment at a good price.

Location-Albuquerque New Mexico. USA. I mention this because I’m not sure if the types of dishes available are specific to the region of the country.

The Available Sky.
146 Deg. Se. To 249 Deg., SW. Aim is high.
209 Deg. Sw. to 246 Deg, W.
246 Deg. Sw. to 291 Deg. W.
291 Deg. W. to 331 Deg.Nw.

The cabling runs are done. Being a licensed electrician, I have run my own cables already. 4 cables of Shielded RG6 –UF from a large media center inside the home to a media box outside the house in the detached garage. The cables are under-ground when leaving the main house to the garage media box. The Dish(s) will be located on the garage roof. The two 8 foot grounding ferrous rods are dedicated for the dish (s) with a compression coupling under-ground with #6 bare copper tieing in the main grounding system. Bonding is achieved at the media box to the garage location power panel. There is an additional grounding bond in the main home media low voltage center to a third ferrous 8 foot rod for equipment grounding and bonding to a sub power panel. RG6 cables from the dishe(s) will be brought into the media box in the garage and bonded. They can be connected to a switch or coupled to the long 40 foot run to the house media center.

All the rooms have two runs of RG6 shielded cable each along with cat 5e cable. These cable run are from the main home media center spanning into 4 rooms. I figured I had all this RG6 cable and cat 5e from some electrical jobs over the years. I would use it and install two runs to each room of RG6. Dedicated surge breakers have been installed for the satellite equipment at the media panels. Tuners and TV equipment etc. also have surge breakers. The branch circuits and breakers were figured at the load calculation of the home.

This has passed inspection by the AHJ and is good to go.

Anything I’m forgetting on the cable? I will be rocking soon to close up all the walls.

The Rooms. Four rooms will have television. Two rooms with HD and, two without HD. I figured I would save some cash by installing some standard receivers in the two bedrooms.

I need one recorder. Buy or lease ? I would rather buy one if I can.

Equipment: Dish or dishes, Tuners, Switches, I need some help here, not my expertise. I can connect them, I just need choose the right equipment.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Sounds like you did everything right. Might want to consider running 1 more Cat5 or Cat6 to each location for analog phone service, and maybe possibly just an empty conduit to each wall plate incase you ever need to fish more wires.

As far as leasing Vs owning, I think your going to be better off just setting up a new account with Dish and going with all leased equipment. There is no cost savings on a monthly basis owning the equipment opposed to leasing.

 

[Stevenje98]

Sounds like you did everything right. Might want to consider running 1 more Cat5 or Cat6 to each location for analog phone service, and maybe possibly just an empty conduit to each wall plate incase you ever need to fish more wires.

As far as leasing Vs owning, I think your going to be better off just setting up a new account with Dish and going with all leased equipment. There is no cost savings on a monthly basis owning the equipment opposed to leasing.

thanks for the input. I did run some Sch-80 3/4 in the wall for other cables but not the cat 5 good point. I will doi this I still have some cat 5e left. speaking of phones would I need a landline form the local telco for the receivers boxes? becauce I dont have a land line anymore just a cell phone.

I was also wondering will dish charge me for coming to my house and setting up the dish , I could do that myself. Or do they just send you the equipment.

I told dish last night if they send a crew be ready to be inspected on the the dish instsall the next day after they install it. meaing there supports and distances from high voltage will be looked at by me and the AHJ. The dish distance is 7 feet from high voltage on the NEC. Does dish pull permits for their own work?

 

[articos]

Definitely run the cat 5 like Claude suggested, as many set-top boxes now have ethernet and use it for various functionality. Not just Dish, but also DirecTV, Tivo and cable, and even some TV's. In Dish's case, if you have broadband run to one or more of the boxes, you don't need the landline to the boxes. RE: buying v. leasing, many here will say it's generally better to lease now, as you don't save anything on monthly fees any longer - you get charged the same monthly receiver fees whether you own or lease. Dish will probably install for free for what you're needing, since you've already run your own cabling, and they'll bring everything you need - likely a western arc dish and your receivers. They usually want an installer to do the install, and won't let you do your own, in order to assure it's done properly. (I'm assuming you're a new customer for them.) I'll let others here who are installers answer the code questions, but you shouldn't have anything to worry about there if you get a good installer. If you don't like the way he's doing it, don't sign off on it and have Dish send someone else.

 

[gadgetguru63]

You don't need permits for a dish install. Dish required to be 10' from overhead electrical lines by Dish Network standards.

 

[Lord_Vader]

Definitely +1 on the extra Ethernet run.

I would also mount a small Ethernet switch near your TV.

Something like:
Newegg.com - D-Link DES-1105 10/100Mbps Desktop Switch 5 x RJ45 2K MAC Address Table 64KB Buffer Memory

Everything wants / could use an Ethernet port nowadays.

Xbox / Dish / Blu-ray / wii / TV / ...etc.

I like the D-link above because it will mount to wall or cabinet and has a sort of AV look to it.

They do have rebates / better sales now and then.