[utgolfer]

Hi,
I am building a new home and I am going to pre-wire for my satellite system, I am going to run everything to and from one central point. How many cables should I run from the dish and how many to each room? I might also have a HD receiver in the future.
Thanks

[HVAC888]

What you need is a distribution panel. Feed the dish output to the panel, then wire up each room from this panel. You will only need one cable per room.

Go here for some ideas. Smarthome

[kp2171]

brother in law does installs for a major dish co and I helped him do about a dozen jobs.

the recommendation that you setup a distribution panel is dead on with new construction. We had two homes setup like this and boy, it was nice! One had the panel in the garage, the other had it in the basement, in the same room, but not next to, the electrical. The dish needed to access the south to south-western sky, so line of sight might choose where you run the feed. For the life of me I can't remember his limit on how long he was willing to run a feed line before he thought it'd hurt signal. Obviously he didn't want to run any more cable than needed (cost him $) but he was also really good about trying to hide the dish from the curbside view. He also always preferred side mounts as opposed to rooftop when he had a choice, just cause he hated making any holes in a roof if he didn't have to. Sometimes you have to. Getting off topic here.

in all the installs there was just one coax feed from the dish. But... I only helped him install on type of dish. You'll need to do the footwork to see if yours is different. And most of time there was just one line to each room. The only times there were more than one line was in an old build where he had no access to the inside of walls without hours of work (not his job unless they paid him more)...

when in doubt I'd run line to each bedroom, and the living/den, basement rooms, even consider the kitchen. A small TV in the kitchen on a counter may not be in the plans, but it might be. My cousins house has this with their eat in, and they use it all the time. What about the garage? I guess that leaves out the baths. =)

I know you are limited by the # of receivers, but just cause you don't have one in the garage doesn't mean someone wouldn't use it or use it with cable.

cant help you with the HD.

brother in law bought his supplies from a local distribution site that mostly sold to installers, but also sold some to the public. You might see if you can find out who the local installers use for supplies. The supply house might tell you exactly what you need.

[dumbo4]

If I where you I would run 3-4 cables from where the dish would be mounted just in case of future upgrades in the future it is always better to have more than not enough, also run home runs to the central distribution. One last thing to think of is that many of the new dish network receivers require a phone line to them and also saves you about 6.00 if it is connected so you may want to add a phone line along with the coax. Just remember it is much easier to run this stuff now then when the drywall goes up.

[cabletech]

I agree with dumbo4 its easier to add cable now than later but I would run 2 coax cables. Some sat companies offer a dvr for 2 rooms, so it would have to be fed back to the distribution panel and then to other room. Also 2 cables would be nice in case you decide to run cable TV to some rooms like many people do, but if not for either case above then you will always have a backup just in case one cable goes bad.

[dumbo4]

Good points cabletech, but on the other hand you can use a diplexor to combine low and high frequencies on one cable (low being a backfeed from a sat receiver or cable TV, high being the sat feed to the reciever) but in any case yes two is better than one. I agree

[Stratmando]

Three LNB, 2 duals and single require 4 after going through B/C combine and aitantena for Hd Makes 5.
And with the new 5 LNB or better, that sounds like 5 anyway.
3 to each Location, 2 for TiVo or whatever.
One could be video FROM that room for baby monitor, etc. Keep house Private, not on air
Don't forget to run for cable, maybe for later. Doesn't get easier or cheaper than now.