Are these RJ6 cables any use?

Grumpypants

Sorry if this sounds daft but i know very little about this.

We bought a new house that was pre wired. There is a front and back sitting room and each room has 5 of the satellite cables sticking out of the wall. From googling i think they are RJ6 (sky box ones). But they just stick out about 3 feet and have no connectors on them.

They run up into the attic where there is a big ball of cables.

Then each room in the house has one of these cables running to it, these do run to a tv wall socket, but the sockets only fit the old fashioned TV aerial cable? So i can't connect a sky box? So not sure how to use them.

The previous tenants put a dish on the wall of the back sitting room and drilled a hole to run the cable to the sky box. So never used the cables.

There is another dish on the back with two cables into the attic that connect to one of the black cables for the front room. But that came off in a storm.

From my limited understanding of satellite you kinda need one cable from the dish to one box. If you have two boxes you would need 2 cables to the dish.

The wife hates the wires sticking out and wants them gone, but before that i want to make sure they aren't going to be important down the line.

My question i guess is, why is there 5 in each sitting room? How would i make use of them to have TV in each room. And the sockets? Do i need to change them or how would i use them?

Currently i have 1 dish with one cable coming in. Ive an old sky box and an old free sat one. Neither are being used as we have vodafone tv in the front room.

Vic_08

Do not cut off the cables, at least not until you are sure what tv setup you want in each room.

That's the first thing you need to decide, what do you want?

With 5 cables to each living room and one to other rooms you can run 2 twin tuner satellite boxes (or twin satellite/single terrestrial) and 1 satellite/terrestrial tv in each room.

The best way to do this would be get the dish connected to the attic repaired and have 4 satellite cables run from it to the attic (a terrestrial aerial either outside or in the attic would be a useful addition to give you the irish channels). A multiswitch would then be required to distribute the satellite and terrestrial feeds to each point in each room from the attic.

A decent multiswitch will combine the terrestrial input onto the satellite feed so one cable can be used for both, a splitter in each location required will feed both tv inputs or recording boxes.

The wall sockets can easily be replaced for the correct type and the bare wires in the living rooms cam be terminated with wall sockets to appease the aesthetic concerns of your wife although cables will have to be run from them to wherever you site your tv/boxes.

That setup will allow you to run free to air/freesat tv and/or sky+, skyQ would require a slightly different arrangement, if you think that would interest you now or in the future then getting a hybrid LNB put on the satellite dish and running 6 cables to the attic would be needed to allow skyQ run alongside a fully functional free to air/freesat setup.

Grumpypants

Thanks for the reply, i think ill defo look at tidying up the cables with a faceplate.

I opened the sockets in the bedroom and the cable is connected. Would it be fair to assume if i had a Saor view aerial in the attic connected to these cables. Then i could use the old fashioned TV aerial cable from socket to tv to get the free channels (provided the telly has a built in saorview tuner).

Grumpypants

The plan, for now, is to tidy up the RJ6 & Speaker cables in the sitting room, and while i'm in the attic connect the rooms to a saorview aerial.

I've ordered a new modular faceplate with 5 F-type connectors for 5 of the satellite cables. and 4 AV speaker connections. That will at least get rid of the mess sticking out and keep them for future use. (there are 3 speaker cables so I really would need 6 connections but I can't seem to find modules to take 6).

I'll leave the TV sockets in the rooms in place. I opened one (pic attached) and the satellite cable connects to the UHF socket. So I guess at the very least this will send the Saorview signal to each room and I can just use a normal cable to TV/box.


This is the shopping list.

• Saorview attic aerial.
• 8 way passive splitter, to send Saorview to each room.
• New faceplate.
• 1 X 2 port F-Type module
• 1 X 3 port F type module.
• 2X 2 audio connector modules.
• 20 x F type connectors.

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Johnboy1951

• Saorview attic aerial.
• 8 way passive splitter, to send Saorview to each room.

I would be concerned that the aerial signal could be passively split into 8 and still maintain signal strength over the runs to the TVs.

I expect you intend an outdoor aerial placed in the attic.

Grumpypants

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I would be concerned that the aerial signal could be passively split into 8 and still maintain signal strength over the runs to the TVs.

I expect you intend an outdoor aerial placed in the attic.

Yip it's an outdoor one but all the reviews say it works great in the attic. There is only one (maybe two) rooms at the moment that will use it so hopefully the signal is fine. It's mainly to tidy up the cables.

Does it split the signal in 8 even if if only one tv is watching? Might be worth grabbing a 4 way as only 4 rooms have tvs now and for the foreseeable future. Was only going with the 8 to do the job once.

Johnboy1951

In the attic you only need to connect the ones you want to use.

The Cush

Grumpypants wrote: »

Yip it's an outdoor one but all the reviews say it works great in the attic. There is only one (maybe two) rooms at the moment that will use it so hopefully the signal is fine. It's mainly to tidy up the cables.

How well an aerial works in the attic will depend on the signal strength/quality where you locate it, the roof tiles/slate will attenuate that signal before it gets to the aerial. What is the nearest Saorview transmitter to you - https://www.saorview.ie/en/get/coverage

Like Johnboy above, I would be concerned using a passive splitter with an attic aerial. I would suggest using a distribution amp instead of the splitter, fitting it close to the aerial, to give the signal a boost before going down the cables.

Grumpypants

Thanks, It says I'm 20km away and coverage is Green. So I assume that's good.

I'll see how i go with the passive, it's ordered now and was only a few quid. If it isnt working ill look at the powered options.

The Cush

Grumpypants wrote: »

It says I'm 20km away and coverage is Green. So I assume that's good.

A high powered main transmitter or a low power relay?

The coverage prediction map is modeled on an outdoor aerial at 10m above ground level.

Vic_08

It is always a good idea to check out your neighbours, if they need an outdoor aerial then you will too.

Grumpypants

Nearest one is [Site:MAGHERA] not sure what it is.

The Cush

Grumpypants wrote: »

Nearest one is [Site:MAGHERA] not sure what it is.

High power main transmitter, at 20kms the attic reception should be OK.

Grumpypants

Got the attic aerial installed today and put the F type ends on all 15 tv cables in the attic !!

Didn’t need to change the tv sockets in the room, I found an old fashioned tv aerial cable and plugged directly into the socket and tv and it picked up all the saorview channels perfectly.

It Works great I have 100% signal and 100% quality on the tv upstairs. If I use the passive splitter the quality on RTE1 drops to about 30% and gets some stutters, RTE 2 is about 60% and perfect. But for now I don’t have any need for it in the other rooms. So I’ll just use a connector and keep one cable with signal. It is set up to take a powered splitter down the line.

I got a new faceplate for the surround sound speaker cables hanging out of the walls. So tidied up those cables as well. If I ever get to putting those in I just need to plug directly into the new ports.

The sitting room is nice and tidy now.

I found 12 cat5e cables too while I was up there. Turns out the whole house is wired with it, but it had the old landline phone sockets in each room. I changed those faceplates and crimped Ethernet connections to the ends of each cable in the attic. I Put a GB network switch in the attic and ran a cable from the router up through the new socket to the switch.

So now each room has a working tv and internet socket. No more dodgy WiFi I have get 90mbps upstairs !!

Wall mounted everything in the attic then so even the attic is tidied a bit. Made a nice job of it all. Thanks for the tips, delighted I didn’t just hack them off now.