Noob....

[Lyor]

I live in an older home that over the years has had Cable service from multiple providers at multiple times. Seems like each time service was changed there was some new cable run and old cable runs abandoned leaving a spaghetti web of cable. Well I cannot stand it any more and must do something. I want to run new cable, or have run, to all of the existing places with home runs to a central distribution point in the attic. I can reach some places that need cable without running along the eaves of the house but others areas will require it. I am looking at going with sat service in the October time frame but I will keep some cable services such as network connectivity and basic bare bones cable. The service I am considering is 3 HDDVRs and 1 HDTuner only. I believe that would be 7 tuners in total. Our local Channels will be available for Sat delivery in the September time frame (Huntsville, AL).
Given that background, my questions are:
1) DIY or have some one pull the cable for me?
2) Cable specifications?
3) Wait until I found out who the installer will be and have them do it?
4) Any pitfalls or gotchas I should watch out for?
5) Any recommendations on local company to pull cable?

Thanx,

[Shades228]

Well if you can find existing runs that you can use as pulls you could run new lines by taping the new rg 6 SCC cable to the end and pulling it through. However some old homes have splitters hidden in the walls.

I would almost recommend calling a dealer in your area and have them come out. Dealers are more apt to work with you on your installation. I'm not saying they'll do everything for free but they also won't say no.

As always do research on dealers to see what you can find out about them and have them come out and do a walk through to go through everything with you. Talk to a couple to see how they would do it and compare.

[joe diamond]

Homerun to a point near the electric meter and main ground bond.

Cable is cable until proven defective. Ypu will probably not notice any difference with new cable.

Inspect every fitting.

Buy some quick ties.

TV sats are in the SW. Figure a spot for the satellite dish near the same electric meter.

Plan where the TVs and receivers are going....You could use some of the existing lines to mirror some receivers...eg kitchen and living room from the same box. Plan this before the installer arrives.



Joe

[wildbill129]

Homerun to a point near the electric meter and main ground bond.

Cable is cable until proven defective. Ypu will probably not notice any difference with new cable.

Inspect every fitting.

Buy some quick ties.

TV sats are in the SW. Figure a spot for the satellite dish near the same electric meter.

Plan where the TVs and receivers are going....You could use some of the existing lines to mirror some receivers...eg kitchen and living room from the same box. Plan this before the installer arrives.



Joe

I respectively disagree. There is nothing worse than a bunch of wires looped up outside. Modern homes all prewire to a structured media panel. The connections are out of the weather, and it is much easier to make changes as a homeowner's needs change. I realize this may be difficult in a retrofit, but if you have access to the attic or crawl space/basement, and don't mind fishing wires into walls, I would home run all wires to a structured media panel in a utility room, garage, closet or the basement. Run a ground from the house bond or a cold water pipe to the media panel ground. Run a single RG6 from the panel to the location where the cable TV comes into the house. This way if you decide to go back to cable down the road, you can easily route the cable signal into your panel and split it from there.

Good luck, if you want more specific info...feel free to PM me.

[joe diamond]

I respectively disagree. There is nothing worse than a bunch of wires looped up outside. Modern homes all prewire to a structured media panel. The connections are out of the weather, and it is much easier to make changes as a homeowner's needs change. I realize this may be difficult in a retrofit, but if you have access to the attic or crawl space/basement, and don't mind fishing wires into walls, I would home run all wires to a structured media panel in a utility room, garage, closet or the basement. Run a ground from the house bond or a cold water pipe to the media panel ground. Run a single RG6 from the panel to the location where the cable TV comes into the house. This way if you decide to go back to cable down the road, you can easily route the cable signal into your panel and split it from there.

Good luck, if you want more specific info...feel free to PM me.

Wildbill,

You be right about the appearance thing. Folks just will not go into the expense of a good retrofit just to hide cable. When they gut out to the studs for other reasons some will remember to hide the cable.

Pics would help get a feel for the problem.

Joe

[rudeney]

Wildbill,

You be right about the appearance thing. Folks just will not go into the expense of a good retrofit just to hide cable. When they gut out to the studs for other reasons some will remember to hide the cable.



I'll second that. I tend to be very anal about not having any cable visible inside or outside my house. I have a two-story house on a slab, which can be a nightmare for fishing cable, but luckily there is an attached garage and covered porch with "mid-level" attic access so I've been able to wire the entire house with at least two RG6 and two CAT5e pulls per room (some rooms with more), plus wiring for whole-house audio and in-ceiling speakers. Other than a few feet of RG6 coming out of my dish, there is no visible cable anywhere.

One thing I will say is that I think those structured wiring cabinets are not very useful. I have all of my D* and CATV (for phone and Internet) wiring mounted neatly on a board in the attic over my garage. Not only would my current configuration not fit in any cabinet I've ever seen, I still have room need to add more switches or splitters if needed. My Ethernet connections are in a closet, but all are in wall-mounted electrical boxes using Leviton snap-in connectors and faceplates. My switches, router and a server are on shelving. Again, there is no way all that would fit in a structured wiring box.