Which cable to which socket?

Wally Runs

I had the house renovated last year and as part of the renovation I had each room wired for satellite and terrestrial TV. That is to say a double socket in each room (six rooms in total). Additionally four cables run from the satellite dish and one from the terrestrial TV aerial. All the cables run to the basement but are not marked up, so I not know which cable goes to which room or indeed which part of the double socket.

Now aside from the fact that I asked for them to be marked up before the electrician went off site and all things I should have done, I am keen to find out how to now identify each one. I am just the homeowner, so if you could keep any suggestions in basic terms.

I had the notion of connecting one end to an old VCR and playing a tape and at the other end connecting a small TV to see if I get a signal. I think there must be a simpler way without having to buy too much kit? Also as I will have to join up cables, aside from preparing the ends correctly is there much difference in the quality of connection pieces? I assume the more connections I make the more I will impair the signal?

All suggestions welcome and thanks in advance

STB

1. Four sat cables come in and an aerial connection. Presume you have those identified ? The other cables how many are besides those 5 ? Another 6 ? The other 6 are the individual feeds for each room. The signals are combined into 1 cable for each room and then split at the wall plate in each room.

2. What are you using to distribute the signal around the house ? Nothing presumably ?

You need a multiswitch that takes 5 in and 6 out to junction this set up.

Each OUT cable is connected to the output on the multiswitch which combines the aerial and sat to each of the rooms room. The wall plate in each room does the splitting back to sat and aerial.

3. Does the satellite dish have a QUATTRO LNB. This would be required for 6 rooms.

The Cush

Wally Runs wrote: »

[FONT=CalibriI had the notion of connecting one end to an old VCR and playing a tape and at the other end connecting a small TV to see if I get a signal. I think there must be a simpler way without having to buy too much kit? Also as I will have to join up cables, aside from preparing the ends correctly is there much difference in the quality of connection pieces? I assume the more connections I make the more I will impair the signal?

The VCR will do the job or simply connect the TV aerial cable to the room cables one at a time. Did a similar job recently but from an attic so it was a little easier. Regular co-ax plugs will do the job. A 6 output distribution amp will be required to feed the 6 rooms.

Wally Runs

STB wrote: »

1. Four sat cables come in and an aerial connection. Presume you have those identified ? The other cables how many are besides those 5 ? Another 6 ? The other 6 are the individual feeds for each room. The signals are combined into 1 cable for each room and then split at the wall plate in each room.

Yes I have fair idea which are the sat and TV. Everything is one to one, as in for each double socket there are two cables. No combined cables. So in total about 12-14 cables (must count them to be sure).

STB wrote: »

2. What are you using to distribute the signal around the house ? Nothing presumably ?

For the sat I was going to make a direct connection, besides I only really want two of the four that I have.

STB wrote: »

You need a multiswitch that takes 5 in and 6 out to junction this set up.

Each OUT cable is connected to the output on the multiswitch which combines the aerial and sat to each of the rooms room. The wall plate in each room does the splitting back to sat and aerial.

That would four sat and one TTV in, I guess. Would it be better (signal wise) to keep the sats seperate and connected directly to each other and have a 1 in 6 out for the TTV or use a multiswitch set up? Better have another look at my wall plates too.

STB wrote: »

3. Does the satellite dish have a QUATTRO LNB. This would be required for 6 rooms.

Yes and thanks.

The Cush

Wally Runs wrote: »

For the sat I was going to make a direct connection, besides I only really want two of the four that I have.

STB wrote: »

3. Does the satellite dish have a QUATTRO LNB. This would be required for 6 rooms.

Yes and thanks.

If you are going to make a direct sat connection from LNB to room output you will require a Quad LNB i.e. (4 independent outputs) not Quattro which is used to split a satellite signal into it's 4 constituent sub-bands for use with a multiswitch.

For example a Sky dish is fitted with a Quad to feed Sky+, multi room etc. independently.

STB

So you are sure you are not counting your cables coming in from the satelitte and aerial among that 12ish number ?

If you had 11 cables in that room in total it would make perfect sense and it would also mean that there is only one cable to each room, fed according to my initial post on one cable and then split back out to 2 by the wall plate.

If its what you are suggesting (ie more than 11 cables and 2 to each room) and what "the cush" is explaining then you must remember that 4 into 6 wont go for the sat part.

It is a quad LNB rather than a quatro that you are using ?

Put it this way - . If you want to put a satellite receiver in up to four rooms (or Sky+ in two) you use a quad lnb, running a separate cable to each receiver.

If you want to distribute to say every room in your house, you use a quattro, feeding all four cables into a multiswitch which then distributes down a single cable to each room. As far as any connected receiver is concerned, it effectively sees a single LNB. The advantage is that you can also feed terrestrial tv into the multiswitch and so only need a single coax to each room for both satellite and terrestrial (the mulitple wall-plate extract the different signal). The multiswitch handles feeding the correct hi/lo/hor/vert signal to any of the receivers.

Octo Lnbs are probably a cheaper alternative (though requiring more cables). If you need a terrestrial distribution amp to feed your tv signals around the house, then a quattro, via a multiswitch would proably be a better bet.

It is down to how many cables have been run to each room.

Wally Runs

It is a quad, my mistake, I have something to consider here, I guess I could set it up either way. Many thanks