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What type of wire for 40-foot attic run?

318 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by nobail, May 10, 2002

Glen Graham

Discussion Starter · May 8, 2002

I am needing to run 3 wires through the attic from the living room to the bedroom.

I'm looking for "decent" quality; it's purpose is to watch the TiVo or a DVD on a TV in the bedroom (about 20-25 inch- haven't bought one yet).

In the living room, I've got everything piped into my Sony STR-DA5ES, and I plan on running the Zone-2 to the bedroom. So, I'll need to run left & right audio, as well as the video (RCA jacks on all).

What wire do people recommend? The total run will be about 40-feet, and I've read about using co-ax (RG-6?). Since I've never seen coax used as an RCA-type cable, I'm not sure if I need any special type of cable, and where would I get the RCA plugs to put on it?

Additionally, I plan on putting in a wire for a Xantech remote sensor in the bedrom that will feed back to a small 2-zone connecting block in the living room (the other zone from the block will go outside to the hot-tub, for the 3rd zone of the Sony amp). It is my understanding that for the Xantech, all I need is 3 or 4-strand wire, so I plan on just running a long stretch of telephone wire.

Thanks!

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phyre3

· #2 · May 9, 2002

Yes you should just use RG6. Anything more for your application is just a waste of money.

There are many solutions for the connectors. I have about 100 f-rca connectors which is what I use. You put a good quality F connector on the coax and then screw them onto the RCA adaptors. The tools to make really good connections (such as cable-pro and Digicon as well as a good coax stripper) cost a bundle (about $150) but your local radio shack will have some cheaper solutions like twist on connectors which are not as good but may be just what your looking for. You can buy some intermediate tools at the Shack or Home depot as well for about $50 if you think you'll be using them again I guess.

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Glen Graham

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 9, 2002

Thanks! It took me a little to figure out what a "f" connector was -- I did not know that was what the standard TV coax plug was called

Any recommendations on where to get the RG-6 cable? I'm only going to need it for the one time (so, like about 150 feet) and then the 6 f and 6 f-rca connectors.

Thanks,

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goodconsumer

· #4 · May 10, 2002

Check with your cable company. My friend's wife worked for Mediaone (before Comcast and all that) and said that they would give out cable to make sure you had quality cable.... and it helps prevent people from calling them with quality problems that are due to cable quality. They are supposed to be really good quality RG6

Now having said that, one of my friends tried that and it's a hit or miss. Sometime he got great cable, other times not so good rg6.

If that fails you can try Home depot (that's where I got mine). It's a good price AND decent quality RG6.

FYI: I wired up my house... about 2 port in each room with each port having 2 catV and 2 rg-6. 6 Rooms total. I didn't have a "capper" to finish up the ends, but what I did instead is ask mediaone over to hook up my cable modem. And while they were doing that I got some caps (f connector) from them and attached them to the end of my cable while they were working outside. Then they just quickly used their tool to snug up the caps. Volia! very professional finish. FYI: if you do this get a stripper to prep your wires ahead of time.

And finally.... if you don't like any of these options... shop for wires online. I go through milestek (for wall plates only, not wires), but others might have better suggests.

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nobail

· #5 · May 10, 2002

If you are not using an upstairs receiver and you have a home run coax system, you might want to consider the use of a modulator. I use this for my Tivo. If you are not familar with modulators you basically plug one of the outputs of the Tivo (generally there are at least 2 sets of audio and video outputs) into the Modulator and set the modulator to be a cable channel. Then with a cable combiner and 1 run of coax to the home run system, you can view the Tivo on any TV in your house by turning to that channel. There are also modulators for 2 devices, so you could do this for your DVD player as well. The cheapest modulators combine the R/L channels into a mono signal. So, if the audio quality is not that important, then you get these at Radio Shack (around $60 if I remember). Stereo ones cost more $$$'s.

Anyway, I like the modulators, because I can watch the Tivo on any tv in the house, however I only have the IR integration up to the bedroom (I use the Xantech stuff too). So if I want to go downstairs and exercise (not to frequently unfortunately), I have to pick what I want to watch then run downstairs. Oh well, someday I will install another IR zone in the basement. Oh, and the mono audio is not an issue at all on other TV's.

Regards,

Hal

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