Installation assistance - multiswitches, RF distribution

[hanesj75]

Hello all,

I'm building a new home and the builder allowed me to come in and wire the house as I pleased for cable, phone, and network. We close on October 10, and I'm trying to finalize the home entertainment options. :)

I've installed a Leviton Structured Media Center, and at the time I was mostly considering Comcast digital cable, so I've got a single Leviton 3x8 2GHz bi-directional RF Distribution module installed. Every room has at least a single cable jack, but for those rooms where some serious TV watching would occur, I installed two, or even four cable jacks. The single 3x8 wouldn't cover all of these, but it's a start (those things are fairly pricey, and right now I've only got a single TV anyway).

Since then, I've been bitten by the satellite bug, and I'm thinking of ditching Comcast and going with a D* triple-LNB dish and a Hughes receiver/Tivo unit. I actually thought about this a tiny bit in advance even though I was planning on cable, and I ran four runs of RG6 up into one of the southern-facing attic corners, for "future upgradability." These four runs end up in my Structured Media Center.

Now, it is my understanding from reading on these forums (because Leviton's documentation is useless) that my 3x8 RF Distribution module won't work, and that I need a multiswitch to pass the polarity information correctly between the dish and the receiver.

My questions are:

1) Can I install a multiswitch between the dish and the distribution module and then use the distribution module to carry the signal throughout the home, but allow the multiswitch to handle the polarity switching? I kinda thought about having a cable modem and possibly a modulator for some closed circuit TV, so the distribution module could still be useful.

2) Should I just abandon my other plans, ditch the distribution module entirely and replace it with a multiswitch that serves the same purpose as the distribution module except with satellite instead of cable signals? (I'd get DSL for broadband)

3) I've heard the triple-LNB dish has a multiswitch built into it. How does this affect my first two questions?

4) How many cables come off the dish into the house, and then how many jacks are required per receiver? Since the DirecTV/Tivo unit has two tuners, doesn't it need two jacks?

5) How does HDTV affect all this? I want a clear upgrade path. Will I need a third cable off the dish, or a larger multiswitch? Will receivers still require the same number of jacks?


Thanks SOOOO much for any input on these questions. These forums are a great resource! :D

[nuke]

The phase-III dish has a multi-switch built in. It has four outputs and can serve four seperate tuners (Tivo's have two tuners and consume two wires, the rest just take one wire). Since you already ran 4x RG6 to the dish-spot, you are half-way there.

So what you would do is at the box, just directly jumper the dish wire to the room wire where you want a satellite receiver. That's all you need to do.

Your splitter is a no-go for distributing satellite signals. It's good for distributing RF modulated TV though, so you might just hang on to it.

If you need to support more than 4 tuners, then you'll need a cascadable multiswitch. The 4 feeds from the dish go to the switch, then each receiver needs a straight run to the multiswitch. You can locate the multi-switch in your structured media box.

The Phase-III dish picks up all three birds, so that's the first happy step to HD. Current HD receivers only need one wire. I'm waiting for HDTivo and I'm ordering the 50" plasma screen the day I can get a HD DirectTivo.

As far as internet service goes, get what makes sense. I can't get either cable or dsl in the heart of silicon valley, so I got a microwave link that's running 8 megabits symmetric (up/download the same).

I canned the Comcast. (my spoof of their "done wid da dish" ads)

[boba]

Close on the house order your equipment. You have prewired better than most builders. The only question I would have is did you put a telephone jack near the prewired cable outlets?

[hanesj75]

All locations where there are cable jacks have at least two runs of Cat-6 cable, one for phone (will support 4 phone lines from a single jack) and the other is set up for Ethernet (capable of gigabit over copper). My primary TV-watching rooms (living room, master bedroom) have more of both. ;)

The guy at the local HH Gregg (electronics) store here in Indianapolis today tried to talk me out of a D* system and to hold out for the new E* 921/Superdish setup coming later this fall/winter.

I've been looking into that. Now I'm REALLY cornfoosed. Maybe I should just stick with digital cable. :confused:

-John

Close on the house order your equipment. You have prewired better than most builders. The only question I would have is did you put a telephone jack near the prewired cable outlets?

[SouthernSky]

What ... no fiber??? :)

[nuke]

The guy at the local HH Gregg (electronics) store here in Indianapolis today tried to talk me out of a D* system and to hold out for the new E* 921/Superdish setup coming later this fall/winter.
-John

The PVR921 is already out. It does HD off the air and off the Dish Network. Unlike a Tivo, it doesn't do name based recording - it's basically a VCR with a hard drive instead of tape. It's also not "hackable" like Tivo, so keep that in mind.

If you already have HD equipment and are really wanting the receiver, then it might be worth it.

I decided to wait for a while anyway. I've decided on a 50" plasma, but I'm waiting for HD-DirectTivo. I figure by then, the plasma monitors will be cheaper and better and I let the early adopters debug HDTivo for a little while before I jump in.

Until then, my old 27" Sony and a new DirectTivo are working well for me.

[SpeedTrap47]

STACKER Distribution can cut down on cable runs if you are not afraid of $$$$
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=19080