I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?

cottonchipper wrote:

I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?

Hi,
Most loss is from connector(s). So you need to do a good job when
connector is atached at the end of each cable. If I were you, I'd go for
mil-spec cable/connector of your chice(brand).

I'd use a quad-shield cable (RG-6/UQ). Regular RG-6 will probably do
fine as well, but the price difference is small. Should you have any
interference in the house, the extra shielding will help. You can buy
this at your local home center in boxes of 500ft or 1000ft

I've used both kinds with HDTV without problems.

Some things to keep in mind:
- Splitting usually causes most of the signal loss. Use high-quality
splitters suitable for digital/ HDTV. Spend the few extra dollars for a
decent one.
- Connections are important. The screw-on connectors are OK, but the
crimp connectors are much better. I picked up a crimper and 15
connectors for ~$20 at the local home center.
- If you have severe signal issues, a last resort is an amplifier, but
these can cause as many problems as they solve.

One suggestion: If you're running new cable, you may want to think about
adding some CAT-5 at the same time. I had to run a network cable to hook
up a Slingbox, expect to see more devices needing network access before
too long.

HTH.

cottonchipper wrote:
I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?

On May 14, 1:03�pm, Bas Pluim wrote:
I'd use a quad-shield cable (RG-6/UQ). Regular RG-6 will probably do
fine as well, but the price difference is small. Should you have any
interference in the house, the extra shielding will help. You can buy
this at your local home center in boxes of 500ft or 1000ft

I've used both kinds with HDTV without problems.

Some things to keep in mind:
- Splitting usually causes most of the signal loss. Use high-quality
splitters suitable for digital/ HDTV. Spend the few extra dollars for a
decent one.
- Connections are important. The screw-on connectors are OK, but the
crimp connectors are much better. I picked up a crimper and 15
connectors for ~$20 at the local home center.
- If you have severe signal issues, a last resort is an amplifier, but
these can cause as many problems as they solve.

One suggestion: If you're running new cable, you may want to think about
adding some CAT-5 at the same time. I had to run a network cable to hook
up a Slingbox, expect to see more devices needing network access before
too long.

HTH.



cottonchipper wrote:
I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. *The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. *I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. *Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

really do it right get satellite tv with digital video recorders built
in.

Similiar to TIVO it will change how you look at TV forever

cottonchipper wrote:
I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?



Quad shield RG6 is what you need for coax.

As the other fellow mentioned, if you are going up to the attic
and pulling cable anyway, add in CAT 6, not CAT 5. The labor is
the worst part. If you are doing the labor, do it only once.

Think about the multi cable stuff. It contains CAT, coax and fibre optic.
Use that and have only one thing to pull and run, but you have all options
for the future.

I did my house about 8 years ago with two runs of CAT 5, one for network
(blue jacket),
one for phones (yellow jacket) and one run of coax; home runned them to
patch panels
I built in a lower level family room storage closet. If I had any sense
then I would
have run fiber optic at the same time. The stuff just wasn't on the
horizon then.

" wrote:

On May 14, 1:03�pm, Bas Pluim wrote:
I'd use a quad-shield cable (RG-6/UQ). Regular RG-6 will probably do
fine as well, but the price difference is small. Should you have any
interference in the house, the extra shielding will help. You can buy
this at your local home center in boxes of 500ft or 1000ft

I've used both kinds with HDTV without problems.

Some things to keep in mind:
- Splitting usually causes most of the signal loss. Use high-quality
splitters suitable for digital/ HDTV. Spend the few extra dollars for a
decent one.
- Connections are important. The screw-on connectors are OK, but the
crimp connectors are much better. I picked up a crimper and 15
connectors for ~$20 at the local home center.
- If you have severe signal issues, a last resort is an amplifier, but
these can cause as many problems as they solve.

One suggestion: If you're running new cable, you may want to think about
adding some CAT-5 at the same time. I had to run a network cable to hook
up a Slingbox, expect to see more devices needing network access before
too long.

HTH.



cottonchipper wrote:
I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

really do it right get satellite tv with digital video recorders built
in.

Similiar to TIVO it will change how you look at TV forever

Cable companies have the same DVR offerings. Better yet, stop watching
so much TV and find some outdoor activities and get some exercise.

jJim McLaughlin wrote:

cottonchipper wrote:
I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?


Quad shield RG6 is what you need for coax.

As the other fellow mentioned, if you are going up to the attic
and pulling cable anyway, add in CAT 6, not CAT 5. The labor is
the worst part. If you are doing the labor, do it only once.

Think about the multi cable stuff. It contains CAT, coax and fibre optic.
Use that and have only one thing to pull and run, but you have all options
for the future.

I did my house about 8 years ago with two runs of CAT 5, one for network
(blue jacket),
one for phones (yellow jacket) and one run of coax; home runned them to
patch panels
I built in a lower level family room storage closet.

If I had any sense
then I would
have run fiber optic at the same time. The stuff just wasn't on the
horizon then.

It still isn't for the most part. You can do gigabit on copper and
copper is easy to terminate unlike fiber. It is really unlikely that any
individual end point device you might have in your home in the next
couple decades will need more bandwidth than you can get on copper. The
only exception might be your central server and that would just have
fiber the few feet to the network switch which would still have copper
out to each end point device.

jJim McLaughlin wrote:
cottonchipper wrote:

I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?



Quad shield RG6 is what you need for coax.

As the other fellow mentioned, if you are going up to the attic
and pulling cable anyway, add in CAT 6, not CAT 5.

What can you do with CAT 6 that you can't do with CAT 5?

Nothing I'm aware of.

The labor is
the worst part. If you are doing the labor, do it only once.

Think about the multi cable stuff. It contains CAT, coax and fibre optic.
Use that and have only one thing to pull and run, but you have all options
for the future.

I did my house about 8 years ago with two runs of CAT 5, one for network
(blue jacket),
one for phones (yellow jacket) and one run of coax; home runned them to
patch panels
I built in a lower level family room storage closet. If I had any sense
then I would
have run fiber optic at the same time. The stuff just wasn't on the
horizon then.


--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

CJT wrote:

What can you do with CAT 6 that you can't do with CAT 5?

Nothing I'm aware of.



Different and higher standard. If the computer and telcom industry
teaches one immutable lesson it is that the technology evolves, and that
as it evolves, old hardware ceases to be supported.

Seem a mobo lately that supports RMR (I think that was the acronym) hard
drives
lately?

The labor is

the worst part. If you are doing the labor, do it only once.

Let me repeat. The labor is the worst part. If you are doing the labor,
do it only once.

If you don't like CAT 6, at last be sure ou leave pull strings in every
cable run.

jJim McLaughlin wrote:
CJT wrote:


What can you do with CAT 6 that you can't do with CAT 5?

Nothing I'm aware of.



Different and higher standard. If the computer and telcom industry
teaches one immutable lesson it is that the technology evolves, and that
as it evolves, old hardware ceases to be supported.

Seem a mobo lately that supports RMR (I think that was the acronym) hard
drives
lately?

MFM and RLL were the ancients I was thinking of.

The labor is

the worst part. If you are doing the labor, do it only once.


Let me repeat. The labor is the worst part. If you are doing the labor,
do it only once.

If you don't like CAT 6, at last be sure ou leave pull strings in every
cable run.

Quad shield RG-6. Make a home run from each location to a central location
where you can mix and match as needed.

--
Steve Barker




"cottonchipper" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?

On Mon, 14 May 2007 15:02:07 GMT, Tony Hwang wrote:


Hi,
Most loss is from connector(s). So you need to do a good job when
connector is atached at the end of each cable. If I were you, I'd go for
mil-spec cable/connector of your chice(brand).

What do you think about gold-plated connectors and switches?

I don't know if this applies to tv coax but for whatever
configurations they do sell them.

On or about 14 May 2007 07:47:00 -0700 did cottonchipper
dribble thusly:

I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?

RG-6 (also called RG-56) should be the minimum gauge. That's probably
also the heaviest gauge you're likely to find in the store.

I wired my house when it was built with a number of very long runs of
RG-6, and it works fine with my current digital cable (which has HDTV
channels, though I don't yet have a TV to display them).

Make sure you check what you're already wired with, so you don't spend
all that time trading one RG-6 wire for another.
--
- Mike

Ignore the Python in me to send e-mail.

On or about Mon, 14 May 2007 19:38:34 -0500 did CJT
dribble thusly:

jJim McLaughlin wrote:
cottonchipper wrote:

I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?



Quad shield RG6 is what you need for coax.

As the other fellow mentioned, if you are going up to the attic
and pulling cable anyway, add in CAT 6, not CAT 5.

What can you do with CAT 6 that you can't do with CAT 5?

Nothing I'm aware of.

Nothing now, except make your wallet more empty.

But it should be CAT 5e, not just CAT 5.

The technical difference is in bandwidth. CAT 5e is tested to 100MHz,
while CAT 6 is tested to 250MHz. No current copper networking
technology uses more than 100MHz.
--
- Mike

Ignore the Python in me to send e-mail.

Ahem! RG-6 and RG-56 are two completely different cables. You may want to
review before typing. Pay particular attention to the outside diameter.

http://www.zianet.com/ebear/coaxlist.html

--
Steve Barker




"Mike Ruskai" wrote in message
...

RG-6 (also called RG-56) should be the minimum gauge. That's probably
also the heaviest gauge you're likely to find in the store.

.

The standard today is RG-6, but whatever you install make it changeable.
Standards keep progressing and what is great today is inadequate tomorrow.
Such as those recommending you install some Cat 5 cable -- while it is still
good today -- it is being replaced by Cat 6, just as the Cat 5 replaced the
former Cat 3.
Don't install the cable in such a way that you cannot pull something new
into place as you remove the old stuff.

"cottonchipper" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm planning on rewiring my home to upgrade the coaxial cable running
from where the cable comes into the house and splits, to the various
rooms we have TV's in. The longest run will probably be less than
100
feet, with most around 50 feet. I'll be running it through the attic
and pulling it down the walls where there are already outlets.
Currently we receive digital cable through a converter box on each
TV,
but I'd like to use something that will be good enough for HDTV when
it becomes available in our area. Does anyone have any
recommendations as far as the best coaxial cable for the job, or
characteristics I should look for?

On or about Wed, 16 May 2007 09:27:54 -0500 did "Steve Barker"
dribble thusly:

Ahem! RG-6 and RG-56 are two completely different cables. You may want to
review before typing. Pay particular attention to the outside diameter.

http://www.zianet.com/ebear/coaxlist.html

I guess that's what I get for listening to professionals.

The cable installer told me that RG-56 and RG-6 were the same thing.
--
- Mike

Ignore the Python in me to send e-mail.