New Home Cable Install Question

[BunLengthHotDog]

Have a quick question.

I am building a new home and marked throughout the house where we wanted COAX outlets, and how many lines we needed at each outlet. We have outlets in the following rooms :

2 runs in 1 outlet in Master Bedroom
2 runs in 1 outlet in Family Room (upstairs)
1 run of coax in each extra bedroom upstairs (2)
1 run of coax in extra bedroom downstairs
1 run of coax in family room downstairs.

So we have 8 runs of RG6 overall

Here is my question :

The installer ran all the lines upstairs (its a split level) through the attic, and the lines downstairs through the subflooring and in the walls.

An odd thing I noticed was that there were only 3 lines going to the exterior of the home. He had run the 2 lines downstairs out to the exterior, as well as a 3rd, which in turn runs into the attic where the upstairs runs are collected. So instead of running 8 lines outside to the box on the side of the house, He looks to be doing a homerun on the 2 downstairs runs, and then using the 3rd line to split off to the 6 lines in the attic.

Will this work with DBS...would I need 2 multiswitches here. Excuse my ignorance, but I have only dealt with 3 lines in my previous home, 1 to each bedroom. I was under the impression that each run needed a homerun to the dish / multiswitch.

Here is a REAL rough sketch of what he is doing. The box on the left is the outside junction, the ? ? is the unknown issue in the attic where the 3rd line looks to be splitting into 6 lines.

Cable Sketch

Thanks for any help

 

[nsafreak]

The satellite installer is going to have a lot of rewiring to do in order to get satellite service into each of your rooms. How much rewiring needs to be done is going to vary between Dish Network and DirecTV.

 

[BunLengthHotDog]

This is what I was fearing...it looked like he was mearly running the coax for a digital cable setup vs a satelite or DBS setup. Wonderful.
Uggh

 

[meltdown75]

I'm no pro at satellite stuff, but perhaps there is 2 lines outside to accomodate a dual-LNB setup (allows you to have more than one receiver, and therefore more than one channel being watched on the TVs within the home). Also, I think some systems require dual-LNB anyway. So there are always two on the outside, IIRC? Then of course the cable runs to the splitter, and any number of cables run from there to the outlets in your home.

I could be completely wrong though

 

[Scarpozzi]

You're not installing a home satellite...it's a Satellite DISH. Satellites are in space silly!

As for the splits, I'm extremely confused by what you're trying to say. Basically, what I gather is that you've got a few lines going in and a splitter... As nsafreak said, you may have some signal loss if it's been split too many times, but this is really going to depend on the signal coming from the LNB. One advantage of satellite over cable is the voltage that comes in on the line. It's actually a little higher.... Depending on the service, you may need 2 lines to the receiver.

He may have used a diplexer as well if there are spans where 2 lines are combined....then reassembled on the other end. I'm currently using one for my DirectTV and Comcast to run on 1 Coax from the outside to the inside of my home.

Installers aren't always the smartest people, but they know what their doing 85% of the time and will finish the job or find someone who can 100% of the time....it may just take 50% longer.
(I used to install for Primestar back in the day)

 

[nsafreak]

I work in satellite meltdown (specifically for Dish Network) and the problem is that he does not have enough runs to the outside to support all of his rooms. That and splitters in DBS are a big no no. In order for our dual tuner units to work he needs a direct run from the LNB to the receiver and then another run from the receiver to the other room in the household he wants to service. From what he described he has very few direct runs available.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: nsafreak
I work in satellite meltdown (specifically for Dish Network) and the problem is that he does not have enough runs to the outside to support all of his rooms. That and splitters in DBS are a big no no. In order for our dual tuner units to work he needs a direct run from the LNB to the receiver and then another run from the receiver to the other room in the household he wants to service. From what he described he has very few direct runs available.

Indeed. Carry on old chap!

 

[BunLengthHotDog]

There are only 3 runs going to the exterior of the house (keep in mind, this home is under construction...so this can be fixed, it's still just framing and a roof at this point). 2 of those runs are for the rooms downstairs (homeruns), the 3rd runs into the attic where the installer (electrician??) looks to be intending to split the remainder (6) of the jacks off the 3rd line. My sketch is VERY rough, but it is about as simple as I can keep it.

Oh, and I have DTV HD service with locals (Atlanta)...so I have the newer 5 LNB dish that DTV started installing for the MPEG 4 HD channels

 

[nsafreak]

What would really help would be how many rooms need their own satellite receivers? It looks like the main room is fine for either a dual tuner unit or a single tuner unit. But the technician is going to have to do some rewiring for the other 6 rooms. You can not run any satellite receiver off a splitter, won't work properly. However if you have a multiplexing switch in place of a splitter in the attic then you'll probably be fine.

 

[JinLien]

.

 

[Sphexi]

It's gonne be a bear to get that working right with a satellite setup. I'd recommend running each cable jack down to the basement, so you have a strip setup with all of the runs on it. It may sound like a lot of cable, but you can always add an amp to keep the signal strong, Motorola makes a really nice commercial one that I used for years, never had an issue with it.

If you decide to go with satellite, they'll run the cables from the actual dish down to the basement, and can hook them up there. If you get dual-tuner boxes, then put them in the rooms with the dual-jacks, you may have to run an additional line even with that setup though.

 

[BunLengthHotDog]

NSA...each "outlet" in the drawing would be a receiver. The ones with 2 lines are for 1 TIVO we already have, and in case we get a different one. So, it would be 6 total receivers, 2 of which will be dual tuner.