[depoteet]

On moving to a new home next month I plan on moving to Dish from cable. I'm going to want 4 drops to 4 TVs in 4 inside walls. I'll want the dish on the house with access through a small attic.

In my experience this type of cabling is charged out by the installer. Is this correct with Dish installers. Does the installer make a site visit first to discuss cost prior to the install? I'm going to be running some network wiring myself, but not on the same walls. I'd like to know if it makes sense for me just to go ahead and prewire the coax.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Darrell

 

[Mojo Jojo]

On moving to a new home next month I plan on moving to Dish from cable. I'm going to want 4 drops to 4 TVs in 4 inside walls. I'll want the dish on the house with access through a small attic.

In my experience this type of cabling is charged out by the installer. Is this correct with Dish installers. Does the installer make a site visit first to discuss cost prior to the install? I'm going to be running some network wiring myself, but not on the same walls. I'd like to know if it makes sense for me just to go ahead and prewire the coax.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Darrell

Do you want dvr service? If so how many TVs?

 

[depoteet]

Yes, I'm planning on getting the new Hopper with 3 Joeys. I have 4 TVs.

 

[garys]

You will only have three live feeds with this setup.

 

[Wire Nut]

It is best to have the home pre-wired before the walls are finished. One coax per tv location ran to a central location in the attic or, ideally, a media panel/data center. This central location needs to have a grounding source, ideally a #6 copper wire but at least #10 tied directly into the ground bar of the electrical panel. The coax cable itself should be on this list: http://www.hollandelectronics.com/dish-network-approved-products/Approved%20Accessories%20List%20as%20Posted%201-1-2011.pdf
Personally I recommend Belden YV45145-08, but as long as it is RG6 rated at 3000mhz you should be fine. The installer should be able to take it from there at no extra cost, provided that your pre-wire isn't too far from the dish location. If you're sure of where the dish will be mounted you can run these cables as well, you want at least 3 of them with a #10 solid copper ground wire or make sure one has a messenger wire with it.
Do your homework on the hopper, if you plan to have more than 3 people actively watching tv at the same time you may want to consider getting 2 hoppers and 2 joeys.
Standard DNS installers do not generally have pre-install consults, when the tech arrives he/she will be expecting to install your entire system and leave you with working televisions. Look for a local installer/retailer if you need advise setting up a custom installation but beware, the vast majority of such businesses are shady and do mediocre work at best.

 

[depoteet]

Thanks for the detailed reply. There are only two of us and we generally watch the same things on 1 of 2 TVs. The other two are just for convenience when we have house guests.

I'll get everything pre-wired so the installer can do his thing when he arrives.

Darrell

 

[lparsons21]

A couple of my nephews started a small company in the Kansas City area doing these kinds of low voltage wiring setups. They've found a pretty good niche in doing this. They don't actually do cable tv or satellite installations, just this kind of wiring and planning that you are looking at.

There might be someone in your area doing this although it seems that this is not catching on outside of the bigger cities at the moment.

 

[depoteet]

The only resource I've found in my area (North Central Florida) is a professional home theater company that believes $800 for 4 hours of wiring is reasonable. I've done my own wiring for years (I owned a CATV company in the '70s) and I hate to pay so much for something I know I can do myself.