Cabling for Sky/freesat in new build

basill

We have a new build house (in North Dublin) that we will be moving into shortly. I am looking to centralise all of the AV stuff including sky. There is a central point under the stairs that looks like the most logical place to put everything. I understand the limitations of running HDMI over lengths of 10m so it looks like we will need to run two lengths of Cat 5 for the baluns as well as another length that will go back to the network switch (probably in the loft) for the DLNA on the TV. Then there will be powermids to run the IR remote side of things.

Now I don't want an ugly install at all costs. We are going for nice clean lines and no clutter hence how come I want all of the unsightly boxes and stuff hidden away under the stairs.

So what considerations should I give to the coax cabling to make it easy for the sky installer. I have heard horror stories about guys running cables over roofs and others not wanting to get into a loft to connect up a cable or generally taking the easy route.

My mate is a spark and is going to run whatever we need. I was thinking of getting him to do 4 runs of coax cable to supply the two sky boxes (one will be a new HD box and the other for now will be our old pace box (non sky plus) which I intend to use as a freesat until we have the cash for a Humax HD PVR). We would leave enough length of coax in the loft and run these cables down to the stair cupboard. Then the installer will only need to:-

- bolt on the dish on the back wall
- drill through into the loft and connect his quad LNB and coax to our coax
- supply and install the new box and I can plug in one of the two remaining feeds to my old pace box to get freesat

Any suggestions on anything I have missed? Would welcome any suggestions on better ways to be doing this type of thing.

Cheers in advance.

pelisor2000

i connect 25 m of hdmi cable with no problem....
you can use a powerd spliter for hdmi..:)

Dr. Nick

I ran two 25m hdmi cables in the wall with the intention of using a powered splitter, but not working satisfactorily. got a neet splitter, i explained the problem to them and they were very helpful but said the problem was most likely the quality of the cables - I went for what I thought were decent ones, not cheapies, but they said you need top quality cables for the length and to use with the splitter.

get a local installer if possible, don't rely on the one that sky might pick.

pelisor2000

the one i used is Triax.
i have myself 15m triax hdmi cable..
i use 15 m true a LABGEAR 2way HDMI SPLITTER and i add a 10m cable...no problem with the picture...was for sky 3d

Tony

I use a 25m HDMI run with a labgear HDMI splitter with no problem. I use tx100 with a tv link to control the box using remote control

Dr. Nick

would you guys rate labgear ahead of neet?

Tony

Its the only one I've tried and it works.

Liameter

Here's a tip: buy the cable and equipment and TRY it before you commit to burying cable in the wall.

- drill through into the loft

He probably won't do that and he certainly won't go in the loft unless it's got a proper floor.