Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Running cable in new house that is HDTV compatible from Satellite TV provider

HELP!! We recently gutted and completely renovated our home. The electricians we hired supposedly ran coaxial cable for us but when the technician came to install a new satellite tv system, turns out they only ran Com3 and Com 5. We've purchased RG6 cable to run ourselves (fortunately baseboards are not on yet) but have received mixed messages about how best to run the cable when it needs to travel a long distance. The satellite input will be coming in from the back left corner of the house and will need to travel through about 70 ft to get to the master bedroom. We were told by the ExpressVu tech to put "boxes" in the closets of each room the cable needs to run through and split the cable (one input, one output), but I'm not sure how that won't result in a decrease in signal quality if there isn't a signal amplifier in the splitter. I've read that with good quality cable you should be able to run 100ft continuously without degradation of picture quality. Can we safely just do that or do we need to put splitter boxes in each room (3 in total). Thanks in advance for advice!

FWIW, my DishTV comes in at the back corner of the house and the run to the receiver is about what you are talking about. I have no picture quality problems.

NO splitters allowed - Dish to receiver!!!!!!

( I really wish electricians knew what they were doing!...I've seen so much cat5 run in homes that will never be used. And if they run RG6, they certainly don't know how to apply a connector).

fred

The cable should be "home run" directly from the satellite to the receiver. Splices are sometimes unavoidable, but they aren't the typical hex-crimped connectors. They use round compression connectors that pass the higher frequencies used by satellite systems.

The cable from the receiver to the TV is another consideration. An HD system will look best if the receiver is within 15 feet of the main TV and uses either HDMI or component cables. If you have a dual receiver, the second receiver's signal usually runs through standard cable throughout the house so it can be connected to other TVs (which have to watch the same channel). Any splitters used for that rig should be able to pass a 1GHz signal, and all connections should be made with round compression connectors. For this system it's best to run all cables to a central location and use one large splitter rather than daisy-chaining several two-way splitters. The system's signals will be consistent at each wall drop, and you can easily add an amp if necessary.

This "home run" method also allows you to add more receivers in the future.

Don't worry about cable attenuation from the dish to the receiver. You'd have to go a lot further than 70 feet to experience any problems.

Dish Network Systems:

We've had runs from dish to receiver in excess of 200' without any signal degradation. (Dish Pro Plus technology)

fred