atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring New Construction Residential Cable Install

I may be a little late here, but you may want to consider just running multiple (4-5) cat5 drop to ever tv location. Then centralize all of you cable/sat boxes in one spot, lets say the basement. Use the appropriate baluan to send your signal to your tv, then use in IR repeater to control everything. It may cost a bit more, but looks so much better when you are using flat screens hung on a wall. If you plan on using HDMI this gets a little $$$ but can still be done.

Hal could you explain a little about details of why it isn't so simple? I do have access to a coax db meter from work. I am not really sure what it is called but you can "change the channel" and see what the reading is. Could I use that to help make sure my install goes well? Oh, and my runs are from about 35' to 90' in length.

Mark

Anthony

That is a great idea, and trust me I have thought about doing that. However at this time I just don't have the time and money to get that tech. That is one of the reasons why I decided to install the electrical tubing to the wall plates, so later I could easily add wire.


Currently I don't own a Flat Screen, I am still working on my wife for that. So I am fine with the traditional setup. In the future though I want to put the cable box, and Home Theater PC, and receiver in the Den. (adjacent room) Wiring would be easy because it is so close.

I won't get into it but if anyone is interested in whole house systems check out LinuxMCE. It is really for a new topic though.

If your wife is like the wives of builder friends, she just wants the walls back up so she can decorate and invite friends over. That was always my mom's complaint anyway.

So tell her you need the TV to finish off the project, but only if you are about to finish off the project anyway.

Hal could you explain a little about details of why it isn't so simple? I do have access to a coax db meter from work. I am not really sure what it is called but you can "change the channel" and see what the reading is.

Not so simple because, to put it bluntly- you don't know anything about it. That meter you have at work is probably destined for the dumpster because it's analog, it doesn't properly measure digital modulated signals. Further, you have reverse levels to contend with and just throwing in splitters and an amplifier may take care of the forward levels but cause problems with the reverse. There are amps that do have gain in the reverse direction but that can be a very dangerious thing if you don't know what you are doing and have the proper tools. In essence, you are also transmitting back to the head end. Docis set top boxes and cable modems will negotiate the proper level but there is a window. If you disrupt the process by adding loses and gains that are not expected you risk losing your service or most importantly disrupting the service of many other subscribers on the optical node because your reverse signal overloads the RF to optical converter that is shared by everybody else.

So contrary to what you may think, what you do in your house can effect may other people on the system.

-Hal

Hal pretty much nailed it. As a cable tv guy for a living, I can tell you it doesn't take much to screw up a whole neighborhood. I have seen where someone strips back a cable and shoves it into an old tv without a fitting on it. It killed every modem and digital phone line we had in the whole node. Not a good thing. As far as your meter, unless it has been set up by the cable company for your local channel plan, its about worthless. With the digital boxes, channel 3 is not always channel 3. Most companies use SEMs now so they can actually put a bunch analog channels on one digital channel. Therefore channel 3 along with a few other channels may actually be coming into your digital box on channel 120. Best bet is to pull the cable and leave the rest to the properly trained people.

Thanks guys for the explanation. My main objective in the coax install is to make it somewhat clean. I have 16 runs of coax coming to one location. That is the reason I wanted to use the panel. I wanted to terminate them all there using Snap n Seal connectors and "F" barrels on a panel. Then use 18" jumpers from the panel to the splitter. Doing this would simply add one "F" barrel in each of the lines going from the splitter to the TV/modem/digital box. I can't believe that if the connections were done correctly that this would be detrimental to the overall performance. Would it???

Cable guys hate that stuff, despite the fact that I appreciate your efforts for a tidy installation. I tried this and it worked for years, but the guys from "es Comcastico" came in and blamed everything in the neighborhood on me.

Look closely here and you'll see what their solution was:



Of course, they ripped my stuff out and put in a standard 8-way splitter. It is hard to see in the picture, but the one white cable indicates the direction where the splitter is located as opposed to the original amplified splitter on the rack. Yep, it is just hanging in the breeze. The reported problem never went away, so I think I'm dealing with a fox/hen house situation.

By the way, the trouble reported was the loss of the TV Guide channel. Despite their repair efforts and three trips out, I found the problem out on my own. They had moved it from channel 2 to channel 100 in an effort to force customers to a higher rate tier and to rent converters in order to find out what is on TV.

I wanted to terminate them all there using Snap n Seal connectors and "F" barrels on a panel. Then use 18" jumpers from the panel to the splitter. Doing this would simply add one "F" barrel in each of the lines going from the splitter to the TV/modem/digital box. I can't believe that if the connections were done correctly that this would be detrimental to the overall performance. Would it???

You are not understanding me. Detrimental or not that's NOT what they want to see. It represents an unknown quantity. They DO NOT want to see work like that done by DIYs and will remove it if you want service. You also cannot have any jacks connected that are connected to something.

Do yourself a favor and just leave the cables hanging.

-Hal

A note about DIY cable: around 3pm yesterday, not one but 3 Cox bucket trucks were out on the pole near the house. They have been out before several times in the past weeks. I talked to one of the cable techs for a few minutes. I asked if the problem was in the "box", or in the aerial line. "Neither".

One of the other techs was trying to bet more money than the guy I was taking to that the problem was inside a residence. He said ~80% of their service calls are from bad DIY jobs or inside premise cabling, which can screw up service to numerous other customers.

Briggs, you're going to have two 8 way splitters, panel keystones and jumpers or not. Bypass the whole rack-for-coax idea. Besides what Hal has already said, 16 unnecessary coax keystones, an additional unloaded keystone patch panel, and 16 jumper cables are a waste of money.

Although the barrels connectors would have negligible loss if installed correctly, having more connection/splice points in any system is generally a bad idea. I'm not saying that can't be done correctly, I'm saying it shouldn't be done at all.

Jack