TV/SAT setup

[tarmacadam]

Hi all, I'm about to rewire my house and would like to put in 1xTV/sat point in living room and 2xtv points(1 in each bedroom). I currently don't have sky tv but in the future i may do and if i sell on in the future i would like it all wired in now.
I receive digital TV with 100% signal strength on all channels and my house sits very high up.
Do i need an external diplex unit http://www.brymar.co.uk/acatalog/TV_Satellite_Combiners_Diplexers_and_Attenuators_14.html
If so how do i split to three separate rooms because i don't think you can split from this unit.

Basically i would like an external unit supplying upstairs from outside and downstairs from outside using 1 cable preferably to the TV/Sat point.

Any ideas would help greatly.

 

[gblades]

SKY
I would not use one of those combiners for the SKY signal. They are not supported by SKY so if you ever have a problem with poor signal the engineers may say that the box is at fault and refuse to do anything or insist they run a new direct cable.
Also bear in mind if you get Sky+ or HD then you need two cables from the LNB to the sky box.

Freeview
The best approach is to feed the output of the aerial into a X-way signal booster and then from it down individual cables to each TV point. Without using a booster you can get termination issues causing signal reflection which traditionally causes slight ghosting on the picture but in digital it causes far more problems.

 

[tarmacadam]

OK, thanks for the reply.

Could i maybe use good quality sky approved digital cable( http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CAPF2100B.html ) and run it from an external box to a sat output in the living room, that way it's there for the future and just needs connected up outside.
I could have a seperate x way for my freeview co ax going to the living room and the bedrooms.

Q. is it better to use sat cable for freeview signal too?

Thanks guys

 

[gblades]

That cable tlc do is pretty good but not the best you can get due to the part aluminium shield it uses which is not such a good conductor. The combination of aluminium and copper can react together in the presence of moisture.
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CAPF100B.html is a better cable but only single.
Satcure also sell WF100 cable (http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page8.htm) which is the same spec but available in many colours. They also sell the high quality dual cable but only on a full real.

Considering the small difference in cost between normal TV cable and digital satellite cable I would use the satellite cable for the TV aswell. You could use the same F connector and faceplates for TV aswell and just use an adapter which screws on and turns them into an aerial socket. NTL/Telewest used tons of these when they had analogue cable TV so they should be easy to come by.


The important thing with satellite cable is to keep the number of bends in the cable to a minimum and to never have a sharp bend. Normal CT100/WT100 etc... cable is good for up to about 30m in total from disk to receiver. If you need a longer length then you can get CT125 spec cable which is thicker.

 

[tarmacadam]

sorry to be a bit of a div here.
I was looking at one of these http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GU7040.html in the living room and one of these http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GU7010.html in each of the two bedrooms.
or if i'm along your lines here i'd prob have one of these http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GU7030.html in the bedrooms for tv and a double in the living room.???
I'm thinking one external box for the 3 tv outlets and a separate external box with a sat cable run between it and the point in the living room so that if 1 day i get sky i just need to connect it up outside the house.
Do i need one of these boosters?? for the tv signals.
looking around i don't know where to start. also i'm unsure about getting power to one of these outside as i think they need it. I'll be channeling all these cables in the walls inside the house before the house gets plastered so that's why i would like all future upgrades etc to be able to be done outside.
g blades, thanks for your replies..any way you can provide links for the products required and i cdan take it from there.

Cheers.

 

[gblades]

Personally I would have a look at.
http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page15.htm#plates
Get the single F plate for upstairs and the double for downstairs.
Then for the cable between the TV/SAT and the wall plate just use the same cable with a F connector on both ends. For connecting to the TV screw on a 'TV to F adapter' (http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page7.htm)

For distributing the TV signal from the aerial around the house ideally what you need is called a masterhead amplifier. See
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/amps.htm#masthead

You can also distribute the RF output of the Sky box to the other rooms and even pass the remote control codes over the cable. This starts getting more complex!

 

[tarmacadam]

cheers, what i'll do is study their website and get what i need from these guys.
I'm placing an order for electrical goods elsewhere and if i can get these plates in white with the screw covers the difference will be negligible (aesthetic wise) I'll come back to you with my results.
Thanks once again for your help.

 

[gblades]

They post on forums quite a bit (mainly about satellite repair kits) so they generally seem helpfull. It would probably be a good idea to sort out what you think you need and then give them a call to see what alteration they might suggest.

 

[tarmacadam]

Right I'm going to use this,

http://www.satcure.com/pdfs/Vision_Data_sheet_V20-1420.pdf

to get the freeview to liv/rm, bed1 and 2 ( and possibly kitchen to make use of fourth output).

WF100 cable,

F plates also from Satcure,

In the living room i will also run (from the f plate) a separate wf100 cable outside to a joint box, should some day i require sky i can connect the dish up externally without disturbing interior.

Q. Where can i get such a joint box????

 

[gblades]

Just use any box you like to keep the rain off the end of the cable. Then get a coupler to screw onto the end of the connector (http://www.dastv.co.uk/F_Back_to_Back_146.php) and a terminator (http://www.dastv.co.uk/F_Terminator_386.php) to screw onto the end of that.

 

[breezer]

gblades means

this

and

this

see forum information to see how to do the above