Wiring between floors

August 1, 2005 6:44 AM

There is a ton of information at Tivocommunity about DirecTv and DirecTiVo and the requirements of having two actual lines coming into the box and not using a splitter. My question is: How do I run this second line? I have one line coming to the back of my TV now which had been split at one point but I want to run a whole new line and add a line. I'm leery of taping two lines of coax to the end of the old line and just pulling like hell. But, will this work?

Alternatively, any advice on pulling cable in the space between floors? I'm afraid the cable is stapled down and when I go to pull something that is considerably larger than just one cable, I will run into some problems.

posted by ajpresto to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

It's not even a matter of using a splitter is not optimal. You CAN'T use a splitter for satellite signals. You need to lines run from the dish to the DirecTiVo receiver. If your current coax line is split anywhere between when it comes to your house and the outlet you are using, it's useless. If your television is near an outside wall, just drill a hole through the wall, and pull the cables from the outside, and fill the hole with caulk. get some cable staples and just neatly run the cable to the dish. it will be a lot less headache than pulling cable.

oh, if you choose to go this route, don't forget to make a drip loop! basically right before the cable enters the house, have it run below the hole in a "U" shape, so that water running down the cable doesn't try to get into the hole.
posted by AaRdVarK at 6:55 AM on August 1, 2005

Response by poster: The only problem with running the wire to the outside wall is that the wall is on the opposite side of the house from the dish. It would be difficult to run the wire neatly all the way around the house to the dish - there's doors, windows, a screened in porch, all in the way of the cable run. Any suggestions on pulling the wire inside the house?
posted by ajpresto at 7:01 AM on August 1, 2005

do you have a crawl space or an attic? you can shove the cable into the wall nearest the dish, running up behind the sheetrock to the attic, pull it over to the room you are trying to get to, and then drop it down. same thing with the crawlspace.

i'd be weary of pulling the existing cable, cause the last thing you want to happen is to lose that cable run also. without conduit, i wouldn't pull a cable like that. for all you know it could be wrapped around a pipe or something in one of the walls.
posted by AaRdVarK at 7:09 AM on August 1, 2005

My house was wired with coax when it was built, and it was quite a pain to add a second line. The saving grace in my instance was that I have a basement. If you can run the cable down the wall from the dish to the basement or crawl space it is relatively easy to fish it back up, at least to the 1st floor. If your house is built on a slab, the best bet is usually to run it along the outside of the house and drill through the wall where your receiver is.

There might be other, creative ways to do this. For instance, if you can place your Tivo near your dish, then you'd have a short run for both of your satellite connections. You can then use the single line out of the tivo through your existing run to the TV. You can get a UHF extender for your remote control so that will still work.
posted by SteveInMaine at 7:13 AM on August 1, 2005

Response by poster: My TiVo is on the ground floor of a two story house. I believe the existing cable is run between the two floors. I am thinking of a couple of different ways to install new cable. I could drop a line from the second floor attic to the bottom floor, run one end through to the attic space above the garage and over to the satellite.
posted by ajpresto at 7:55 AM on August 1, 2005

You can't split it, but you can stack it. If you need more than one LNB though (some locals, HD), apparently you still need two coax runs.
posted by trevyn at 11:31 AM on August 1, 2005

And by LNB, I mean orbital slot or something. More than one white cylinder on your dish. ;)
posted by trevyn at 11:33 AM on August 1, 2005