Need help with planning RG6 retrofit

Hi Guys,

I'm totally new to this and don't know anything about satellite and home wiring, etc... so please bear with me here.

I currently use cable but am planning to make the switch to satellite some time in the future.


I'm having an electrician come wire RG6 to the house but i'm having a hard time knowing exactly needs to be run where. I've been doing a lot of reading but still don't have all the answers. I'm having everything brought into the house into a central distribution center and then distributed out to the rest of the house.

From what i read initially, typically you need 2 RG6 cables for satellite DVR, so when i asked him to quote me i initially told him to run 2 RG6 to each room and terminate at the distribution center. However based on what i'm reading maybe that's not necessary... so i have a few questions

1) How many runs do i need coming in from the satellite? I've seen some diagrams with 3, some with 4, and some with 5. I would like to be able to get OTA and HDTV also. I guess i need that and also one additional run coming from the street for cable internet.

2) Since i'm still using cable now, can i ask him to pull all the runs to the outside of the house to where the cable connections from the street currently are?I would of the runs to the cable line from the street for now and continue to use that one for the time being. I plan to continue using cable for internet in the future so one of those runs will always be connected to the cable from the street. And down the line when the dish or DTV installer comes, I assume it should be fine for him to run his cables from the satellite down to that point in order to patch into the house.

3) In the distribution center I will need a multiswitch, i don't know if i need a 3x4 or 5x8, depending on the answer to #1 i guess.

4) From the distribution center it looks like i only need 1 run to each room coming out of the Multiswitch. Then in each room i'll need a diplexer to split the signal again. is this correct?

I drew up a small diagram to try to visualize this. Hope the diagram is clear... Any help is appreciated!

Hi shortskoolbus
when you have the electrician come out and do your coax runs it is his labor that is going to cost you, cable is comparatively cheap. It is really not much more labor to run two or three wires than it is to run one so I suggest you future proof your house by running two coax and two cat6 cables to each room (i would include the kitchen) from the distribution center and just make sure every terminaton is labeled and set aside for when you need it. In the rooms any unused wiring is just labeled and rolledup and placed in the wall cavity behind the wall plate that your rg6 will be coming out of. You would also be able to have your cable modem at this location and use any room in the house as an acces point location or even hard wire an internet connection, you could use it as a location for a cctv dvr, baby room video/audio monitor, or a home intercom, you could setup a media server and have super fast HD media distributed and controlled from any location, or pretty much any thing else and you would already be set as far as your low voltage wiring goes and Im not even talking about the x10/home automation applications. Trust me you wont be happy if you run one rg6 and in a couple years you or your spouse decide to do something that requires you to have another guy come out and run another wire and pay again for the same work you already had done once and also have to deal with any head aches that may come with that depending on how dificult your runs are. also be sure to have electrical outlets available at the distribution center. anyways there is my two cents ~good luck