RG6 Coax for DirecTV Hookup

[Bako-Dan]

I'm getting ready to run the coax cabling from my satellite dish to the A/V cabinet (about 50 feet.) I've got about 1000 feet of RG6 cable that was given to me by a friend who used to work for the cable company a few years back. I don't have any specs on the cable - it's RG6 with foil and aluminum braid shielding (no idea of the % of braiding.)

Will this cable work fine for this application or should I out out and spend $150 to get Belden 1694A (or similar) high quality coax cable?

Thanks, Dan

 

[jaxvon]

If it's RG6, it should work fine. It might be steel core, but I really don't think it's going to make a difference. I believe the Dish to reciever is digital anyway, so it isn't as important to have super-high end cable. Besides, your installer wouldn't be putting in 1694A, he'd be using what you are, or perhaps low-quality RG-59.

 

[Duffinator]

The RG6 you have should be fine like jaxvon said. How many runs are you going to pull? Are you doing HD, TiVo, multiple rooms, multiswitch? Just making sure you have enough for future use.

 

[Bako-Dan]

Thanks for the replies! I'm running four incoming coax runs for the incoming satellite signal and two coax lines to each wall jack to allow for a TIVO DVR at each receiver location. It's a boatload of RG6 cable to run, so I'm glad I don't need to run the expensive RG6 (ie Belden 1694A). I'll be ordering the HD programing package from DirecTV (I'll wait for the HD DVRs to come down in price before ordering those.)