I am building a house and plan to move my DirecTV service with me. I have pretty much verified line of site with the Dish Pointer app on my iPhone. I have purchased a CommDeck and the builder has agreed to install it for me. I am planning on running a conduit from the attic down to my home run panel in the basement and at least one coax. I don't see a need for more, especially since I will have the conduit. All rooms are going to have dual coax and dual cat6 cable. Any reason to have more? All coax will be quad shielded solid copper core. I currently have two HD DVRs and one HD receiver. I plan on getting a Genie, probably as a replacement for one of the DVRs, but I haven't decided yet. I'll probably only have three or four TVs. I'm toying with the idea of getting an HDMI splitter so I can connect the second HDMI port on my TVs to one input and show the same thing, but that might be overkill. Is it worth home running HDMI through the house? Any other ideas? I'm not looking to break the bank, but it would be nice to put all the infrastructure in so that I can add stuff later without having to tear out the walls. Thanks.
I'd go to one of the OTA antenna location sites and see what channels you might be able to get in your area and find out which LOS you'd need for an OTA antenna. Then install the appropriate wiring from that location to your panel.
Will you be using WiFi in your new house? Then I'd find a central location and ensure a CAT6 cable outlet and power source are located there. Our kitchen is the best location in our house and it would be ideal if we had the outlets on top of our kitchen cabinets.
The single coax from the dish configuration only works up to a total of 8 tuners (a DVR has 2, Genie has 5, receivers have 1). So if you were to replace the HD receiver with a Genie, you would be over 8 tuners.
Once you need to support more than 8 tuners, you need 4 coax from the dish. At your home run panel, you would install an SWM16 mutliswitch, which would then continue to provide single coax feed to DVRs and receivers (and Genies). The point is, you could easily get to the point where you need 4 coax rather than 1 from the dish. Either run them to start with, or make sure your conduit is sufficiently large to easily accomodate 4 coax runs.
For the rest of the house, two per room should be sufficient, but I would put two sets in for some rooms (on opposite walls). That way when the wife wants to rearrange, you can connect up to the other set on the opposite wall. Wire is very cheap to run during construction, very expensive afterwards.
I would go ahead and run 2 dual coax with messenger ( ground ) from dish location ( 4 lines total ) to home run panel. Make sure there is a coax available close to your internet modem/router ( or at least a way for the tech to be able to use ethernet from modem back to home run closet ) . Make sure there is a place for the installer to be able to ground the system. Would also be handy to have a electical outlet in the home run closet.
As a cable, telphone sat installer and service tech for over 40 years, (and yes I did work for A major DTV contractor) and have been a quality control tech. Have been my own contractor for over 10 years.
HERE"S MY TAKE
1) Why does EVERYONE want to run cableing thru the attic? There are installers out their that have hard enough time doing ANYTHING at ground level, put them in a attic and you are asking for trouble.
I have refuse to go into attics for over 7 years do to all kinds of problems, to include, no matter how careful a person is, there will
always be a mess and most customers get very upset about it.
2) If you are installing a central panel, then run all outlets (cable and cat5) to that panel and mark them were they go, and run 6 RG6 from the panel to the outside wall within 5 feet of were your main electrical service is. And do not forget a cat5/6 for telephone.
WHY 6 RUNS? 4 for the sat dish, 1 for over the air, one for local cable ( if that is your internet service, or future cable service)
3) Put a 12"x2ft shelve next to or over the com panel to be able to place cable or phone company modum.
Use the Leveton 16x48 com panel with AC outlets as this will allow enough room for all you cables and the SWM switch.
Good point on the OTA. I currently have rabbit ears on my primary TV, but haven't watched an OTA broadcast in ages. The rabbit ears aren't going to fit in the new location, though.
trh said:
I'd go to one of the OTA antenna location sites and see what channels you might be able to get in your area and find out which LOS you'd need for an OTA antenna. Then install the appropriate wiring from that location to your panel.
Will you be using WiFi in your new house? Then I'd find a central location and ensure a CAT6 cable outlet and power source are located there. Our kitchen is the best location in our house and it would be ideal if we had the outlets on top of our kitchen cabinets.
Good point on the SWM 16. I should have caught that. I currently have a SL5 with a SWM 8 connected. I'll make sure the builder at least gives me a large enough conduit.
carl6 said:
The single coax from the dish configuration only works up to a total of 8 tuners (a DVR has 2, Genie has 5, receivers have 1). So if you were to replace the HD receiver with a Genie, you would be over 8 tuners.
Once you need to support more than 8 tuners, you need 4 coax from the dish. At your home run panel, you would install an SWM16 mutliswitch, which would then continue to provide single coax feed to DVRs and receivers (and Genies). The point is, you could easily get to the point where you need 4 coax rather than 1 from the dish. Either run them to start with, or make sure your conduit is sufficiently large to easily accomodate 4 coax runs.
For the rest of the house, two per room should be sufficient, but I would put two sets in for some rooms (on opposite walls). That way when the wife wants to rearrange, you can connect up to the other set on the opposite wall. Wire is very cheap to run during construction, very expensive afterwards.
Thanks. I'll definitely specify the dual coax with messenger and I will have power at the home run since I plan to connect all of my network equipment there, save the wifi which I will put in a more central location.
cwtech said:
I would go ahead and run 2 dual coax with messenger ( ground ) from dish location ( 4 lines total ) to home run panel. Make sure there is a coax available close to your internet modem/router ( or at least a way for the tech to be able to use ethernet from modem back to home run closet ) . Make sure there is a place for the installer to be able to ground the system. Would also be handy to have a electical outlet in the home run closet.
My goal with providing the attic wiring was to eliminate the need for the installer to do anything in the attic. He should be able to connect the dish on the roof with the preinstalled Commdeck and wiring. Then he can do the remainder of his work at the home run in the basement. Was that not clear from my post? I wasn't intending to make the home run in the attic. I just didn't want cables on the outside of my house.
cabletech said:
As a cable, telphone sat installer and service tech for over 40 years, (and yes I did work for A major DTV contractor) and have been a quality control tech. Have been my own contractor for over 10 years.
HERE"S MY TAKE
1) Why does EVERYONE want to run cableing thru the attic? There are installers out their that have hard enough time doing ANYTHING at ground level, put them in a attic and you are asking for trouble.
I have refuse to go into attics for over 7 years do to all kinds of problems, to include, no matter how careful a person is, there will
always be a mess and most customers get very upset about it.
2) If you are installing a central panel, then run all outlets (cable and cat5) to that panel and mark them were they go, and run 6 RG6 from the panel to the outside wall within 5 feet of were your main electrical service is. And do not forget a cat5/6 for telephone.
WHY 6 RUNS? 4 for the sat dish, 1 for over the air, one for local cable ( if that is your internet service, or future cable service)
3) Put a 12"x2ft shelve next to or over the com panel to be able to place cable or phone company modum.
Use the Leveton 16x48 com panel with AC outlets as this will allow enough room for all you cables and the SWM switch.
The single coax from the dish configuration only works up to a total of 8 tuners (a DVR has 2, Genie has 5, receivers have 1). So if you were to replace the HD receiver with a Genie, you would be over 8 tuners.
My goal with providing the attic wiring was to eliminate the need for the installer to do anything in the attic. He should be able to connect the dish on the roof with the preinstalled Commdeck and wiring. Then he can do the remainder of his work at the home run in the basement. Was that not clear from my post? I wasn't intending to make the home run in the attic. I just didn't want cables on the outside of my house.
Due to OSHA rules and most installation companies implementation of following them, it is rare that you will get an installer off a ladder onto the roof. If he can't reach your mount while standing on a ladder, you could have problems getting your dish installed.
I read as 'the TS will be at eight tuners on day one. Any future additions will require four cables from the dish, might as well run them now'.
carl6 said:
Due to OSHA rules and most installation companies implementation of following them, it is rare that you will get an installer off a ladder onto the roof. If he can't reach your mount while standing on a ladder, you could have problems getting your dish installed.
Excellent point. TS install point should be reachable by ladder. Not sure where the TS lives, but if heavy snow is possible, installing the dish where he can reach it to clean it should be considered.
Due to OSHA rules and most installation companies implementation of following them, it is rare that you will get an installer off a ladder onto the roof. If he can't reach your mount while standing on a ladder, you could have problems getting your dish installed.
I didn't expect the installer to have to get off the ladder. The Commdeck will be installed as close to the edge of the roof as is practical and depending on the slope of the roof, which I think is perpendicular to the dish's angle of elevation, I will put it as low as possible.
one more thing to keep in mind, since you are using the COMMDECK is to install it so the dish faces the "downward" part of your roof so that a newer stubby mount can be used , otherwise, the installer will be force to use a regular mast which includes the use of monopoles (braces)
Agreed. I actually also purchased the L-Style Strut Brackets for the the Commdeck to avoid just that.
peds48 said:
one more thing to keep in mind, since you are using the COMMDECK is to install it so the dish faces the "downward" part of your roof so that a newer stubby mount can be used , otherwise, the installer will be force to use a regular mast which includes the use of monopoles (braces)
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