rewiring house, want to get sky HD

cyburger

Hi,

We're currently renovation a place and want to add Sky HD and would like to run the cables during first fix rather than asking the sky installer to do it after we're all finished.

What specification cable should we be using for Sky Plus HD? the cables will be under 20 metres from the back of the box to the dish. Are there any other considerations, like distance from mains power etc?

Would it just make more sense to get a local installer out to pre-wire? any ideas on how much it would set me back?

Thanks!

John mac

This cable is what you want

Do you only want it in one location?

Presume you're putting the Sky box next to the tv. so no long hdmi required.
and you have local power outlets for tv bluray sky etc.

cyburger

sorry, it'll be for two points in the house... there'll be plenty of power outlets at the same points for media players etc.

Gerry Wicklow

You will need two runs of coax to each location to facilitate recording one channel while watching another.

The Cush

You should also consider running a cable for an aerial, it may not be used now but there for the future.

Do you plan to feed the Sky box signal to the other TV point or points, an extra cable back to a central point in the attic would be a good idea.

Planning ahead now could save a few headaches in the future. Recently I spent a few days running co-ax for my brother-in-law around his approx 15 yr old house as he was moving from cable to terrrestrial/free satellite. It was a difficult enough job but luckily it was behind dry lined walls, wouldn't have been possible to hide with standard block/plaster walls without chasing.

cyburger

I had planned on installing an aerial for saorview too, just in case. Hadn't thought about feeding it back up to the attic for anywhere else as we're not planning on having any other points - but that may change i suppose - thanks!

Gerry Wicklow

The Cush is dead right, I forgot about terrestrial. For the sake of a few extra Euros worth of cable now it could save hundreds later

eggy81

If it was me id run 3 to each position and a phone cable to cover me for what ever may happen in future.

John mac

eggy81 wrote: »

If it was me id run 3 to each position and a phoneNetwork cable to cover me for what ever may happen in future.

oh yea, network cable (for media player, game console , Bluray player.)

asif2011

Go on to eBay.ie and look for "twin WF100" it's basically two cables joined together, it makes running them so much easier. I haven't seen any Irish provider which does the dual cable other than the RG59 junk, and if they don't say WF100 then it probably is RG59.

Link to 125m of twin WF100 - 125m is probably too much for a single point so you could just look for 30m of it...
http://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=125m+twin+wf100

eggy81

John mac wrote: »

eggy81 wrote: »

If it was me id run 3 to each position and a phoneNetwork cable to cover me for what ever may happen in future.

oh yea, network cable (for media player, game console , Bluray player.)

Actually yes,good point.cover all bases now.save yourself hassle in the future.

The Cush

John mac wrote: »

oh yea, network cable (for media player, game console , Bluray player.)

My brother is building at the moment and was recommended to run 2 to 3 Cat5 cables to each TV point for future proofing e.g. HbbTV, which he has done. Also ran 2 sat grade co-ax to every other room.

asif2011

The Cush wrote: »

My brother is building at the moment and was recommended to run 2 to 3 Cat5 cables to each TV point for future proofing e.g. HbbTV, which he has done. Also ran 2 sat grade co-ax to every other room.

If you are going to the hassle of running network cable which you should in my opinion then you should run Cat6, it's shielded cable and more easily run near electric cabling (though you should still try to avoid that wherever possible)

The Cush

asif2011 wrote: »

Go on to eBay.ie and look for "twin WF100" it's basically two cables joined together, it makes running them so much easier. I haven't seen any Irish provider which does the dual cable other than the RG59 junk, and if they don't say WF100 then it probably is RG59.

Link to 125m of twin WF100 - 125m is probably too much for a single point so you could just look for 30m of it...
http://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=125m+twin+wf100

Satcure do it but shipping can be expensive - http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/cable_reels.htm#WF100twin

asif2011

The Cush wrote: »

Satcure do it but shipping can be expensive - http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/cable_reels.htm#WF100twin

Yeah I think eBay might be the cheapest, at least you can get 30m or 50m of it there. But thanks for the link, it's some place new that I didn't know who does it...

eggy81

Can the cat 5 or 6 cable be used to carry the phone line for multiroom or would it need a phone cable ran separately altogether.?

The Cush

eggy81 wrote: »

Can the cat 5 or 6 cable be used to carry the phone line for multiroom or would it need a phone cable ran separately altogether.?

It will do, you could run 2 for future proofing.

asif2011

eggy81 wrote: »

Can the cat 5 or 6 cable be used to carry the phone line for multiroom or would it need a phone cable ran separately altogether.?

You can use Cat5e/Cat6 as a cable run for telephone cabling, as long as that network cable doesn't go to a network switch.

So you could put the telephone point in the attic and run network cabling from the attic down to the front room, kitchen etc and just have a telephone splitter in the attic.

All the cabling would run in to a patch panel, from there if it's a telephone cable it would go to the telephone splitter or if it's a network point it would go to a network switch. If the telephone point was in the attic then your broadband modem would be put there too and connected to the network switch and the internet would be all over the house then.

TVTrade also has a wireless telephone splitter as well but I prefer running Cat6 as I'm an IT guy...

cyburger

Thanks for the replies, I'll be running 2 x cat6 from a switch in the office to the tv points too, well, living room and kitchen, for media player & future proofing, there'll be phone points too...

So will WF100 be good enough for HD with cable length of about 20m?

asif2011

cyburger wrote: »

So will WF100 be good enough for HD with cable length of about 20m?

Sure, get 50m of it just to be sure and then you can use the rest of it for your terrestrial aerial...

merchantdon

What i did in my house (new build), was to run 4 x CAT5e cables from my office to the main TV point & 2 x CAT5e to other tv points, I have my skyHD box in the office and i'm using a HDMI to CAT 5 converter (€30 it cost me) to send the signal over the network which is then converted back to HDMI at the tv. All my network cables are going to a patch panel in the office. The HDMI converter requires 2 x CAT 5 cable, hence the amount of them i have put in but if your putting them in at all it shouldn't cost much more to have 4 run as to run 1 as the chasing of the walls is what cost the money.

This gives me great flexibility as i can switch my sky box to any TV in the house by simply moving the HDMI\CAT 5 converter and switch to the appropriate points on the patch panel. The beauty of CAT 5 or 6 is that you can convert almost any source to it. With my wall mounted TV's i ran 4 x CAT 5 from the corner of the room the TV was in to points behind the TV's, which using the same principle as above means i can have DVD\blu-ray player connect to the wall mounted TV's without any cables showing.

This may seem like overkill to some but my view was it was cheaper and easier to do when i was building then to be sorry later on that i hadn't done it.