# Need help with planning RG6 retrofit



## shortskoolbus (May 18, 2012)

Hi Guys,

I'm totally new to this and don't know anything about satellite and home wiring, etc... so please bear with me here. 

I currently use cable but am planning to make the switch to satellite some time in the future. 


I'm having an electrician come wire RG6 to the house but i'm having a hard time knowing exactly needs to be run where. I've been doing a lot of reading but still don't have all the answers. I'm having everything brought into the house into a central distribution center and then distributed out to the rest of the house.

From what i read initially, typically you need 2 RG6 cables for satellite DVR, so when i asked him to quote me i initially told him to run 2 RG6 to each room and terminate at the distribution center. However based on what i'm reading maybe that's not necessary... so i have a few questions

1) How many runs do i need coming in from the satellite? I've seen some diagrams with 3, some with 4, and some with 5. I would like to be able to get OTA and HDTV also. I guess i need that and also one additional run coming from the street for cable internet.

2) Since i'm still using cable now, can i ask him to pull all the runs to the outside of the house to where the cable connections from the street currently are?I would of the runs to the cable line from the street for now and continue to use that one for the time being. I plan to continue using cable for internet in the future so one of those runs will always be connected to the cable from the street. And down the line when the dish or DTV installer comes, I assume it should be fine for him to run his cables from the satellite down to that point in order to patch into the house. 

3) In the distribution center I will need a multiswitch, i don't know if i need a 3x4 or 5x8, depending on the answer to #1 i guess. 

4) From the distribution center it looks like i only need 1 run to each room coming out of the Multiswitch. Then in each room i'll need a diplexer to split the signal again. is this correct? 

5) I guess at the end of the day I want to make sure i run the right number of RG6 from the hub to each room, and right number of runs from the hub to the outside of the house for the satellite. 

I drew up a small diagram to try to visualize this. Hope the diagram is clear... Any help is appreciated!


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

shortskoolbus said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I'm totally new to this and don't know anything about satellite and home wiring, etc... so please bear with me here.
> 
> ...


D* will do all that and more for you for a whole lot less than an electrician will charge you (I'm an electrician, we charge way too much for simple things). Get the Multi-Room Viewing (or whatever they're calling it these days), it's simply wonderful and D* will install it all for a very small fee. You'll get Single Wire Multi-Switches, all the cabling, a new dish and you'll be able to watch all your programming from any TV in your home that has an HR or an H hooked up to it.

Rich


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Prewire is nice as you control where the wire goes ... I did my own rewiring in my house with coax and Ethernet everywhere (before wi-fi became popular).

In new construction I'd consider conduit. Then whatever is needed could be added and replaced as technology continues to change.

The electrician is going to be more expensive than a "free" DISH, DirecTV or cable installer's work. But you will have more control over what they do. An electrician will be limited by what is code for your state/city but not by some television companies rules.

At work we have separate contractors for electrical work and low voltage wiring. The dedicated low voltage guys do a better job with phone, Ethernet and coax wiring. The electricians do a good job with 110v and above. Most of our electricians deal with conduits of various sizes with wires pulled in conduit. In a home they would probably use Romex.

Breaking an electrician away from the 110v state of mind into the low voltage world may be a challenge unless that electrician regularly does low voltage work (coax, audio systems, alarm systems, etc).


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

James Long said:


> Prewire is nice as you control where the wire goes ... I did my own rewiring in my house with coax and Ethernet everywhere (before wi-fi became popular).


Didn't sound like the TS was talking about pre-wiring a house. Much more difficult and costly (labor) to use an electrician to wire a completed home.



> In new construction I'd consider conduit. Then whatever is needed could be added and replaced as technology continues to change.


Assuming you're gonna put the conduit on the outside walls, EMT is much cheaper and easier to work with, as is PVC.



> At work we have separate contractors for electrical work and low voltage wiring. The dedicated low voltage guys do a better job with phone, Ethernet and coax wiring. The electricians do a good job with 110v and above. Most of our electricians deal with conduits of various sizes with wires pulled in conduit. In a home they would probably use Romex.
> 
> Breaking an electrician away from the 110v state of mind into the low voltage world may be a challenge unless that electrician regularly does low voltage work (coax, audio systems, alarm systems, etc).


I was taught that "low voltage" was voltage below 600VAC (DC has different values regarding safety) because of the safety factors. Wikipedia puts it at below 50VAC, which I don't agree with, but is at least a source that I could find quickly. They also use 1000VAC as the upper limit of "low voltage", which I also don't agree with.

We had a craft called Instrument Men that worked on our really low voltage equipment, but any of our electricians could have done their jobs, while none of them could have done ours.

But, it's always easier and quicker to use a mechanic (electricians are mechanics) that does the same job every day, and electricians will probably not do quite as good a job as a D* installer will do. For instance, I can change the belt on a clothes dryer, but a guy that does it everyday can do it a whole lot faster than I can. And they usually have the parts on their trucks. Not many electricians are gonna have coax with them on a normal electrician's job. Or any of the parts.

Rich


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

With a new install, you'll get a SWiM system, which means that even though the DVR's have two tuners (and used to need two cable runs), they only need one cable.

So, you really only need to run one RG6 to each room where you'll have a receiver, unless you play on having multiple receivers in a single room. That being said, I'd always run two runs of RG6 just to be prepared for anything else.

Everything else you need (multiswitch) will be done by the D* installer.


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