DirecTV installation question

[GhostOfTomJoad]

For those who have recently had DirecTV installed, how was the internal wiring handled? Are the satellite providers able/allowed to tap into the existing coax running through the house or do they have to pull cable & install a new jack at each location?

I'm seriously considering dropping TW for DirecTV for the better signal, better options, & the (possibly) lower cost.

The only real reasons we have to stay w/ TW digital are signal stability & News 8 Austin (the reporting can be laughable at times, but 24 hour local news is a great feature & we're hooked on being able to check on things quickly before heading out the door, especially weather on the eights).

If the installation is easy & unobtrusive enough then I think we can prepare ourselves for not having News 8. But our TV in the living room is up against a partial wall which has a staircase on the other side and a fireplace directly adjacent to it--pulling new coax to that location might be damn near impossible.

Last question--can anybody suggest a local DirecTV provider/installer?

 

[Agamemnon]

I've had a separate line put in that goes from the dish to the receiver. I have a DirecTV & TiVo receiver and it serves one TV in the media room. I did plug into the existing cable wiring in my house though. I go with S-Video to the TV in the media room and I use the coax output to feed data to the cable loop in the house. That way I can watch whatever is tuned into on the receiver in any room in the house. I have to change the channel on the receiver in the other room to get what I want but it's no huge chore.

As far as using your existing coax, there's a couple of ways to do it. You can feed it the way I did or you can use it to feed other tuners in your house. Problem is, you'll have to have a line going to the dish for each tuner. If an installer wants tells you that you can't do it the way I did it and he wants to lay new lines he's trying to get some biz out of you. If he tells you you'll need new line for the multiple receiver scenario then he's right.

As far as the coax cable being good enough for a Sat tuner, etc. It's fine. I haven't had any issues with it at all.

 

[AUinAustin]

in that the TV is right next to the patio door so it was easier to pull a new length of coax. The installed used a flat wire connector from Sony to go thru the sliding door. I can shut the sliding door on the cable without cutting it so no holes through any walls. I have walked around my complex and seen several installs that drilled thru the exterior wall so these would not use existing cable.

 

[Hornin NYC]

I jsut had it done.

One thing tonote is that directv needs a direct line from the sat to each TV so if your internal cabling uses as splitter it won't work.

The guy just ran 3 wires from the sat and drilled holes.

 

[chitwood]

Hornin,
You can run the feed through a multiswitch if necessary, just not a splitter. My old house had the older satellite with only two lines, and I needed two lines from my DirecTivo and one for my regular DirecTV receiver in the other room. Just ran the two into the multiswitch and three out of it. No problem.

 

[OrangeHair]

If you can get to your splitter (probably up in the attic) then you could replace it with a multiswitch as mentioned above. You would then have 2 cables from the satellite to the multiswitch and then however many to each of the rooms from the multiswitch. Of course if you can get to the splitter then you could also splice coax to each cable for each room and run them directly to the satellite. Or if you'rer lucky you could use the the existing cable to pull new cable (assuming its not fastened anywhere). You might need this if you have direct tivo (needs 2 cables for full functionality).

 

[ajax]

Question - So if I'm going to replace one of Directv receivers with a Tivo with dual tuners, can I just put the multiswitch right before the Tivo and leave the other receiver and line alone?

 

[chitwood]

I think so, ajax, but I'm really not sure. My old house didn't have an attic, and my two DirecTV receivers were on opposite ends of the house and when installed, the guy just used the cable holes that were there, ergo, they didn't enter the house in the same place. I had to put the multiswitch out by the dish, but most of those things aren't made for the elements, so I had to drill holes in a tupperware, put the multiswitch in the tupperware and secure it under the eaves. Very classy setup, let me tell you.

 

[OrangeHair]

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[chitwood]

thanks OrangeHair, I thought I might be wrong about that. I'm not sure what configuration I have now, as I'm in a new house and I wasn't around when the guy installed it. I'm pretty sure I have 4 lines coming out of the satellite. I just had two at the old place.