little explaining please?

fatchance

I have a fta satelite dish and have just moved into my new house. the house has all the tv cables for each room going into the attic. the cables are analogue i think, black and don't look the same as the satellite cable. The connections at all the tv points in the rooms are like the old aerial type and not screw in like satellite cable endings.

Q: is it possible to connect the satellite cable from the dish to the cable in the attic which leads to my living room rather than having the satellite cable coming in the window as it is now. It'd just be tidier.

I have read about f connectore etc... but am not famliar with these.
any help would be much appreciated.

Fatchance.

Liam Byrne

The "screw in like satellite cable endings" = f-connector.

If the existing cable is satellite grade, then yes, it would work (just change the endings and screw onto the LNB - the circular unit at the centre of the satellite dish). Then connect the other end to the satellite receiver and connect from there to the TV.

HOWEVER, given that you're using FTA, that would mean that you'd lose the connection to the aerial for the 4 terrestrial channels.

The aerial & dish signals CAN be combined to come down the single cable in the living room, and split again at the socket to go to TV & receiver, but it's not guaranteed to work, particularly if the old cable might be iffy.

There will be a few posters who can expand on this, but that's the basic gist of it.

The first thing to do would be to check the grade of the existing cable coming from aerial to living room.

snaps

is it a new house? if so high chance the cable is ok. See what is written on the cable like RG6 etc. Is the cable actually connected to an aerial?

Martin_F

If the house is built in the last 10 years or so - there is a good chance the cable is good enough - I used the existing cabling in my 1999 built house - standard black coax installed to support NTL cable.

I used combiner/splitter (as mentioned in this thread) to pass sat & aerial down the single cable.

Regardless of whether the cable is 'pucker' satellite grade - I'd be inclined to at least give the existing cabling a go provided it physically looks in reasonable condition, and is not shorted between signal and screen (if it works on the aerial it isn't shorted - or you can double check with a meter). Your picture/signal quality will either be satisfactory or it won't - in which case you can still route new cable if needed.

watty

The biggest issue is screening. The satellite signal is very high level and from 750MHz (when you are tuned above 11.7GHz) to 2200MHz. It can affect Analogue & Digital TV, DECT cordless phones, GSM and 3G phones and security systems. Also all these things can affect the satellite feed.

The coax MUST have foil AND braid just under the outer covering. The cheap open weave TV cable with no foil will actually work, but in theory you could even be prosecuted for illegally transmitting with it!