RG6 Cable

[HomeTechNewbie]

Ok guys,

A basic question...

If i am going to have a video distribution system over Cat6 cable to power all my HDMI TV's, what is the purpose of wiring RG6 cable to these same spots... Everyone implies this is a good thing to do, however, I cant seem to come up with a good reason...

Any insight?

Thanks for the help...

 

[tmbrown97]

Future proofing. Basically all homes have coax run today - so if the market works on some crazy new thing, they'll make it work on what exists today... In my home currently, DirecTV runs over these single coax runs and includes multi-room viewing/ethernet/satellite over a single connection.

You can also use RG6 for other things - thanks to adapters that'll convert it to BNC or RCA it can be used to route other audio/video signals as well.

There's nothing wrong with running something you don't need - it really sucks when you need something you didn't run!

And video distribution is at a weird point right now - it's very expensive and there aren't any perfect solutions - which means it's an area that's still evolving.

 

[HomeTechNewbie]

Thanks....
Im trying to avoid all the boxes around the house. I guess i could still have all the boxes in a A/V closet and still run the signal over the Cat6 to a HDMI extender...

Id throw out there that the RG6 is going the way of the wired telephone... Cordless/Cell are making these almost obsolete in the home.... (even alarms now can be run off of cellular)

Whats up with Video distribution being weird right now? If there is not a good solution out there, id prefer to future proof but save the money....on the matrix.

 

[tmbrown97]

You might be better off asking in a thread who's done it successfully - as my experience has been disappointing and I haven't done it in my own home because the options are very expensive and tend to have their own issues.

In a professional environment, I've tried a TON of those different HDMI or DVI over Cat6 extenders - from the cheapies up to the >$500/each ones - and I've never been happy with them - they work at lower resolutions but are really pushed to their max at 1080P. It's been a year or so since I've played with them though, so I don't know if anything has changed... I just got a brand new set from one vendor but haven't tested it out yet. If it works, that same supplier makes a bunch of HDMI matrix equipment that I might look at (SnapAV). One of the most expensive ones I tried actually physically damaged the TV! Because of that, if at all possible, I'd home run HDMI and maybe even fiber optics to each TV for real future proofing - lately I'm seeing more options that use fiber and it won't have the distance or interference issues Cat6 does.

The other thing you run into with matrix switchers is compatibility; there's the EDID and HDCP to contend with and it can be a pain to get it all set correctly; especially if any matrixed TV's have varying resolutions.

On the same note, I'm kinda curious now about the new DirecTV Genie - claims to not even need a box at compatible TV's - may be something I look into in the near future. As for the media library, I've tried a few options and am really considering just throwing AppleTV's in each room and making my whole library compatible - then we can keep using content from our phones/ipads on the TV's or pull from a central repository.

 

[Neurorad]

With the whole house DVR from DirecTV (Genie), the client box at each TV is small enough to be mounted behind the flat TV, so no need to centralize DirecTV equipment. I suspect Dish and cable are going in the same direction, if not already there.

Coax can be used for satellite, cable, and camera feeds. Don't assume you'll always want centralized equipment.

 

[sic0048]

I would definitely run at least a single RG6 to each potential TV location. RG6 is NOT going the way of the telephone, at least not yet. All the major broadcast options (cable, OTA, satellite, etc) still use RG6 as the backbone of their in-home distribution system. To not run RG6 would be severely limiting your options.

 

[pete_c]

In Florida I had FIOS installed that replaced the Direct TV that originally replaced the Comcast. I did have both RG6 and Cat5E going to each TV and to a central point of distribution.

Here in the midwest I ran RG-6 everywhere. I still utilize it. IE: I have an OTA feed to the LCD TV's. I inject 2-3 channels into the feed such that I can watch both OTA HD and whatever SD is playing. HD cable is going to the network with the HD Homerun triple cable receiver; then on to streaming to HD boxes by the LCD TV's via Cat5E. I have cable, satellite and OTA live tv in the midwest.

The FIOS installer utilized the RG6 rather than the Cat5E from the d-mark to the centralized point in the center of the house. Much of this cabling was previously utilized for direct tv.

When we did the FL house tear down and rebuild I installed multiple RG-6 from the telco ingress part of the exterior of the house with the OTA RG6 cable to the middle centralized closet in the home. I did the same for the DirectTV antenna RG-6 using the then current LNB to multiple RG6 wire boxes mounted on the back of the digital dish. From that same said central point I ran RG-6 to all of the rooms in the house. I did not do any daisy chaining but had to stop the contractor's folks from doing that with the telephone Cat5E and TV RG6 cables that they were installing. It is much more difficult to work with than Cat5 cable.

I have noticed that the quad shielded RG6 "monster" cable became brittle after about one year of the installation in the attic with the outer shielding coming off exposing the braided shielding in some parts of the attic. ( I did get a deal on this wire purchasing a twin RG6 quad shielded spool of 500 feet). I am not sure of the type of quad shielded RG6 that the Direct TV guy used here; but notices that it remains soft when it is cold and hasn't broken like the monster cable has.)

The MOCA network transport frequency is above the TV transmission frequence on the same cable. That said looking at the combo do all FIOS router it shows each of the cable boxes with its own IP address. I think the speed of the MOCA 3.5 network is around 100Mb/sec; but not totally sure. It'll play HD but it'll be slow to transfer HD movies that are like 12-20 Gb in size.