[Troy McLure]

Hi,

I realise this kind of question may have already been answered in another thread so feel free to point me in the right direction but here is my situation:

I'm moving into a new house (a bungalow at present with plans to go upstairs eventually) which is being gutted and re-wired. At the same time I want to install all the necessary wiring to be able to watch tv, watch satellite (sky hd and/or freesat hd) surf the net etc.

I have done some reading and at the moment I'm thinking the following outlets in 3 bedrooms, living room and kitchen/dining area:

1x standard aerial (freeview)
2x satellite (sky+ hd/freesat hd and pvr functionality)
1x cat5e

From what I can make out I need an oversized quattro LNB dish, a multi-switch (5x16?) and this is where it gets a bit hazy.

Do I need to run seperate CT100 cables for both satellite feeds to each room or can you use a diplex?

Can the CT100 cable be used for freeview over the standard aerial? i.e. if freesat is in a room then I would see no need for a freeview output so can you just switch the input on the relevant multiswitch output from 'satellite' to 'aerial' and vice versa? Can you even switch between 'satellite' and 'aerial' inputs on a multiswitch?!

how do you go about converting cat5e to a telephone line? This would be needed for the set top box and pay-per-view etc. Can they just be plugged into a router and that takes care of the rest?

Can you even get an outlet socket that has all these outputs on?!

I've seen an outlet socket that comes near but has a standard telephone socket on and a UHF return?! I have no idea what a return would be required for (sky eye perhaps?).

What cost am I looking at roughly for materials?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

[billytkid]

Hiya

personally Id take a different tack as I can't stand boxes everywhere.

Choose a cupboard somewhere or space under the stairs, or even the loft as a node zero and keep all your media and players there. Then rather than have a digibox in each room they can all live there.

I've installed a wii,ps3 and sky HD in my cellar and have put a single coax and cat5 to each room. I'm using the coax for piping the sky and also the ir signals back, and the hdmi is future proofing.

If u want HD in all rooms install 2 x cat 5 and a coax to each room, the coax for normal signals and ir and the 2 x cat5 for hdmi - you can get inexpensive baluns for doing the hdmi over cat5 thing. You can then also chase the wires and new plug sockets into the wall so all tvs can be mounted with no cables on show at all

cheers

will

[billytkid]

Oh and of course install all your sat and aerial links to the node zero only

[aberdeenpaul]

Hi,
Looking at what you have done billytkid, i want to be able to do this.
I have sky HD, sky , wii and PS3 that i want to put in cupboard. I have just bought a labgear 8 way distribution kit hdu681s (i think) but i am unsure how to wire at node zero to 4 tvs throughout the home. i have 2 co-axial and 2 cat 5e's to each tv all going back to node zero. please help.

[billytkid]

Hi Paul,

I havent played with a HDU681 however I've got a similar device from Maplins for normal coax/tv delivery, with digital pass through so the magic eyes in each room will control the Sky box

I have only installed the Wii and PS3 to go to the front room over a shared HDMI with the sky, I am switching this using a Media Factory - Octava HDCMP31-UK, Wii compatible HDMI + VGA switch - which not only turns the wii into HDMI but also allows me to put the VGA from my Mac Mini over it.

If you then wanted the HDMI and everything to go to the rooms you could then use the 2 x cat5 + baluns to achieve this.

I'll do a write up soon once everything is installed and happy so others can see what I've done.

Let me know if you need more info

cheers

Will

[vex]

How are you getting the Wii bar to work?

Obviously comms from the handsets of both the PS3 and Wii are Blue Tooth, but the Wii needs to see its bar to work.

V.

[billytkid]

Hiya, I've just bought (just waiting for delivery) a battery powered wii bar, so this will just sit under the tv, link below

cheers

Will

WIRELESS INFRARED SENSOR BAR FOR NINTENDO WII on eBay (end time 21-Nov-09 21:16:52 GMT)

[vex]

Cool, thought one would exist just never bothered looking.

Is that an on / off button on the front.

Would be great to here feed back when you get it.

V.

[billytkid]

Not sure yet, just waiting for it to be delivered.

Once its in and working, along with the VGA/HDMI/Component switcher I'll do a write up of what I've done

cheers

Will

[neilball]

The only reason for the cable connecting the original sensor bar to the consile is for power, there is no comms between sensor bar and Wii. That is why there were a few homebrew versions of the wireless bar that simply cut the cable off the original and connected it to an external battery pack. The only issue with the wireless bars is that they can eat batteries if you forget to switch them off when not in use.

[newbie1]

Hi Troy

Again, similar to my case except that although I spec'd 2xCoax only 1 has been installed. I also want to be fully flexible with freesat receivers where I want and not Sky.

In theory the satellite and other signals can be combined via the multiswitch as long as the frequency ranges don't overlap and the split back out again with a diplexer at the faceplate (don't know if you can get these integrated would be interested to know). Yesterday the advice I got from my local satellite store was that most people keep the satellite feeds separate and that it would be worth testing combining the signals before deciding and buying kit so I will do that next.

[Troy McLure]

If you cycle down the page you come to the combinational plates and it looks to me like these have a built in diplexer where necessary . . .

How to fit Wall Plates

Know what you mean though, think I'd rather run them seperate rather than mix the signals.

[vex]

Originally Posted by newbie1

Yesterday the advice I got from my local satellite store was that most people keep the satellite feeds separate and that it would be worth testing combining the signals before deciding and buying kit so I will do that next.

I'd get a different Satellite Installer if I were you.

Combining received signals off the dish, TV, DAB and FM Aerials is very common and often done both in commercial and residential applications, we do it all the time.

They can come as either a complete plate or as a 50x50 snap in module, you can have a triplexer, combining TV, FM and Satellite or as a Quadplex (not strictly true) which is TV, FM & Sat on one port and then a second satellite on a separate input.

All the above signals do sit in different frequency ranges as specified by the DTI and therefore can be easily filtered together and then filtered back out again at the other end.

HTH

V.

[sinewave]

If you are installing a fresh then you'd be better future proofing a tadge more and using CAT6 FTP.


Yes it's not overly cheap at £140 for a 305m drum but once it's in, it's in!

[neilball]

I would not go for FTP as it can be a pain to terminate properly and if the shield is not done right it can actually cause more trouble than it solves - done bad it acts as an aerial and can inject noise into the cable rather than screen it out. Also the patch panel, wall outlets, patch leads etc are all much more when shielded.

[Troy McLure]

Is all cat6 FTP? I have a friend who can get hold of cat6 for me for free along with a distribution panel so was going to go this way now but will think again if all cat6 is FTP.

Also, re the mixing of signals, while the walls are up etc. I think I'll probably play it safe and run some shotgun satellite grade cable and a seperate terrestrial co-ax purely from a redundancy/availability point of view.

[hornydragon]

Cat6 is not normally FTP but there are sheilded variants about.

[newbie1]

Thanks Vex

It looks pretty straightforward to me too. I am in Switzerland so I am sure about the local cable provider's frequencies, what I found online seemed to be OK with no overlap. Maybe I will try DIY.

[vex]

Originally Posted by newbie1

Thanks Vex

It looks pretty straightforward to me too. I am in Switzerland so I am sure about the local cable provider's frequencies, what I found online seemed to be OK with no overlap. Maybe I will try DIY.

Ok, Be careful, Cable TV is different and although it does not need power it does need what is called a 'return path' which is usually down at very low frequencies, typically 5 - 45/55/75 maybe even 100Mhz nowadays.

So the filtered faceplates will block these signals returning to the cable tv operator and could eventually result in you box being turned off!

In your unique case I would stick to different cables for the different services, here in the uk though there is no return path on the satellite or the off air tv channels so we don't have these issues.

V.

[G WOLF]

Originally Posted by billytkid

Hiya

personally Id take a different tack as I can't stand boxes everywhere.

Choose a cupboard somewhere or space under the stairs, or even the loft as a node zero and keep all your media and players there. Then rather than have a digibox in each room they can all live there.

I've installed a wii,ps3 and sky HD in my cellar and have put a single coax and cat5 to each room. I'm using the coax for piping the sky and also the ir signals back, and the hdmi is future proofing.

If u want HD in all rooms install 2 x cat 5 and a coax to each room, the coax for normal signals and ir and the 2 x cat5 for hdmi - you can get inexpensive baluns for doing the hdmi over cat5 thing. You can then also chase the wires and new plug sockets into the wall so all tvs can be mounted with no cables on show at all

cheers

will

Hi billytkid and co!

I like the idea of having the boxes hidden in an under stairs cupboard or the loft. I have seen the different switching units like the one media factory sell for the wii and 3 x hdmi but my question is how do you control set top boxes from the front room? eg a freesat box?

Do you have some kind of receiver in the front room?

Cheers.

[billytkid]

Hi G Woolf,

yep you use a sky magic eye (there are lots of names for these) - SKY TV LINK, SKY TVLINK, GENUINE TV LINK AS USED BY SKY 5.75.

which attaches in your front room to your TV via coax, this receives the IR signals

And then use either a sky box downstairs to change channels - these have the inbuilt ability to power the eyes and also be controlled themselves

OR.. use a TVlink plus which does the same thing, but has 2 IR dongles which attach to other appliances
tvLINK®plus

thx

Will

[Tfish]

so you go

TV Ariel>>Single Coax>>SPlitter box (Node0)>>Single Coax>>whatever room

Sat Dish>> 2 x Double Coax (for Sky and Fs)>>Splitter>> ??? Single Coax to tvs?? do you keep the PVR in Node0 too?

I want DAB channeled to v/a rooms too can i do this via one run to node0 too then out to rooms?

cheers

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by Tfish

so you go

TV Ariel>>Single Coax>>SPlitter box (Node0)>>Single Coax>>whatever room

Sat Dish>> 2 x Double Coax (for Sky and Fs)>>Splitter>> ??? Single Coax to tvs?? do you keep the PVR in Node0 too?

I want DAB channeled to v/a rooms too can i do this via one run to node0 too then out to rooms?

cheers

YOu take all aerial feeds into Node 0 then you can diplex/triplex them and split/multiply if needed at node0 before sending on to required rooms

[Tfish]

where and how do i store the sky+ / PVR boxs for recording tele?

cheers

[billytkid]

Originally Posted by Tfish

where and how do i store the sky+ / PVR boxs for recording tele?

cheers

Hiya, not quite sure what your asking?

Stick them on a shelf, give them power and cabling and voila!

[Tfish]

previous poster said to create a node0 as to not have set-top boxs everywhere and just channeling the feeds to tvs from node0 saves on this. i was wondering how you use a sky + or feesat PVR in this sort of setup

[illingworth22]

Originally Posted by Tfish

previous poster said to create a node0 as to not have set-top boxs everywhere and just channeling the feeds to tvs from node0 saves on this. i was wondering how you use a sky + or feesat PVR in this sort of setup

Me too? How do you send the 1080i picture round the house? How do you send the 5.1 sound to each Room/Amp?
This is really getting hard to understand

[G WOLF]

Originally Posted by billytkid

Hi G Woolf,

yep you use a sky magic eye (there are lots of names for these) - SKY TV LINK, SKY TVLINK, GENUINE TV LINK AS USED BY SKY 5.75.

which attaches in your front room to your TV via coax, this receives the IR signals

And then use either a sky box downstairs to change channels - these have the inbuilt ability to power the eyes and also be controlled themselves

OR.. use a TVlink plus which does the same thing, but has 2 IR dongles which attach to other appliances
tvLINK®plus

thx

Will

Hi billytkid & Co,

To save double posting, I have posted more questions / replys in my thread here if you would be so kind to have a look when you get a minute.

HDCMP31-UK - Wii, PS3, Foxsat HDR Connectivity

Cheers,

G.

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by Tfish

where and how do i store the sky+ / PVR boxs for recording tele?

cheers

Where ever you want them they can be central and distributed thriough a matrix or they can be "in room" its up to you and what you want.