RG 6 or RG59 TV cable?

OhPinchy

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I had my house recently rewired by my girlfriend’s brother who is an electrician. I have NTL coming on Friday to install our digital cable TV and broadband and I have to add some cable into a room he forgot to do. Electrician lives miles away so can’t look at it so I will do add cable myself – I just need to be sure I use the right cable.

Electrician says he has used RG59 cable, though another lad that looked at it said its RG6. Electrician wasn’t sure if its RG59 or RJ59 – looking on the web it seems RJ59 cannot carry a digital signal.

Whats the difference between RG6 and RG59 and should either carry the NTL digital signal ok, and would RJ59 (though I doubt it is this as he clearly said it was satellite cable) do the same?

Thanks
 
RG59 has a small center conductor, circa 20AWG in American sizing terms, foam (usually) dielectric and single (usually 80 - 90% coverage) braided shield.

RG6 has a bigger diameter core, around 18AWG, a thicker dielectric and usually a 100% coverage foil shield which is then covered by 80 - 90% braided shield. Hence, it will offer a better performance than RG59.

However, the correct (IMHO) cable to wire a house (for digital satellite or digital cable) is 'CT100-spec' cable. This has a honeycomb (5 distinct 'hollows' running lengthwise) dielectric core. It gives a slightly better performance than RG6 over longer runs, but is quite stiff (but who cares, it's probably going to be tacked down anyway...)

RJ59 is only for analogue signals AFAIK...

Choice is yours - but I have over 40m of CT100-spec cable from my 0.2db satellite LNB and the picture/sound is always spot-on. :thumbsup:

Paul.
 
cool- thanks for the info Paul.

Unfortunately I'm stuck with what he has in, though the runs are relatively small (max 10 metres) - will the RG6 he has in do the job for routing the TV signal throughout the house with a fairly decent quality? Likewise if it is RG59 he has put in will that be able to carry the signal?
 
RG59 is small coax without a honey comb - its sole use is for CCTV aplications - using it for a RF TV signal would be very lossy.

RG6 is the cheapish TV "downlead" which has been available for years but is being used less and less nowadays as it is fairly lossy over long runs, there is a RG6 satellite cable aswell which has an extra foil sheild which was comonly used for analogue satellite and nowadays used for cheap sky digital installs.

You want to look at CT-100 or similar cable for future proofing.

Look at http://www.satelliteonline.co.uk/cable_large.htm for more info

Regards, Alex.
 
too...

http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page8.htm

Plus, a head-to-head for various leads here

http://www.netcentral.co.uk/satcure/cable.htm

These tests were I believe based on a 50m continuous length of various cable types.

Just make sure the NTL engineer brings 'CT100-spec' cable for the main connection (whatever length that ends up being) and not RG6. The last place you want a lossier cable is in the main connection run. RG6 will be fine for the remainder of the connections - each <10m run is within the minimal loss operational parameters for the RG6 specification. You can always change it for CT100-spec later if you really are unhappy - most likely in the rendering of black levels - and of course depending on any redecoration implications...

Paul. :rolleyes:
 
Thanks guys - unfortunately we're stuck with what he has run in - I'll check the name on the cable tonight but I'm sure its RG6.

The sparks is in for a bollocking so - youd think that hed use the top stuff for kitting out his sister's place now wouldn't you? And he runs his own fairly successful business and all.

He has all the cables run to the attic so the NTL guy will have to run CT-100 spec cable up to the attic and then I/he can connect it to all the RG6 cables up there. I'm not too fussy on picture quality as long as it's decent enough, which it'll hopefully be due to our runs being under 10metre but the thought of doing even more renovations to get better cabling in makes me wanna do this :suicide:
 
RG59 and RG6 is a Cable TV cable and is not soley used for CCTV applications. Millions of houses arround the world work perfectly well of both RG59 and RG6.

Unfortunately there are many types of RG59 and 6 and vary in quality, just as it does with CT100 ranges.

RG6 is fine for domestic runs and infact it will be preffered by the NTL engineer who installs your systems. The problem is between the RG range and CT ranges, although technically they are similar in performance they are incumbants in each of thier uses. CT for Satellite and Off Air signals and RG for CCTV and Cable TV applications. It used to be that engineers would walk off site if they found the wrong cable type installed. Less so now, but it is getting harder to spot the differences.

Chris
Designer of Budapests' Cable Tv system!
 
Thanks for the info :thumbsup:

So it looks like the RG6 he has in will do just fine, though I could doubtless get a better signal with CT100 hopefully the RG6 will provide a fairly decent picture and that would keep me happy - don't need perfection.

I have to get the cable in before the NTL guy comes on Friday. I have a mate who can give me some RG59 for free but would have to buy RG6 if I need that.

This additional run (actually two runs to the same place) I have to put in is to the box bedroom which is where my Windows Media Center PC will be and I need this to be as good a signal as possible as it will hold the broadband connection and the TV signal from here will be routed round the house via Media Center Extenders.

Can I get away with RG59 here or do I need RG6? If I am buying the cable should I just get CT100 - will that be able to hook in with the rest of the RG6 cables and the RG6 NTL will install?
 
If we are talking a sub 10mtr run from the box room into the loft RG59 should be ok, but check it first.

Open it up and look at the braid, if it looks thin then it will be a bit ropey, if it seens fairly think and almost matted to should be fine.
 
These numbers are just basic spec and there is a HUGE difference in quality on actal prducts. All go from iffy to great cables in say RG59. Belden 1505a is awesome cable but is also RG59, some of the old aerial leads stuff in RG59 can be really BAD. All are suited to analogue and digital and all are aimed at slightly different markets. If RG6 was installed I would look at the quality rather than the number RG6.
 
Nic Rhodes said:
These numbers are just basic spec and there is a HUGE difference in quality on actal prducts. All go from iffy to great cables in say RG59. Belden 1505a is awesome cable but is also RG59, some of the old aerial leads stuff in RG59 can be really BAD. All are suited to analogue and digital and all are aimed at slightly different markets. If RG6 was installed I would look at the quality rather than the number RG6.

You are right Nic, as I said in a previous post. It is all down to the coverage of the braid and the type of shield used.

Unfortunately the same is also try for CT ranges, regardless of whether they have been tested / approved by the CAI!
 
When I had NTL cable modem installed (as my backup) a couple of years ago the installers told me that they ordinarily used RG59 but my install was unusual because it required RG6.

Runs 3Mb with not problems at all.

StooMonster
 

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