[mythtvnz] High quality cables

[Stephen Worthington]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2015 13:55:59 +1300, you wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>Firstly, I found a post in my drafts folder about Kodi - I've given it a go 
>running from a usb stick and it is very cool. Thanks for suggesting it whoever 
>it was all that time ago. I am sticking with Myth for my front end - I like 
>Kodi's Youtube browser but - surprising for a Linux user -  find it does not 
>give me enough control over recording schedules.
>
>Second, I am not a great believer in spending lots of money on high quality 
>cables - and I don't think wifi and emf signals are gong to kill me. Just ruin 
>my spelling.
>
>But. I am moving my Mythbackend machine and my Silicon Dust HD Tuner to 
>another room. I was using an approx 10m cable to connect the Tuner to the 
>arial wall socket. I am now trying to run the same cable through the roof 
>space to the SD Tuner box. But when I do this, I am getting low signal 
>strengths and cannot lock onto some channels.
>
>I have tried running it as far from electrical cables as I can - without much 
>(if any) improvement.
>
>If I run a network cable to the AD Tuner and use the short antenna cable that 
>came with the Silicon Dust tuner, it is fine.
>
>I also notice the Silicon Dust cable is fat, the antenna cables in the roof 
>space and the 10m cable are not as fat as this, but fatter than some other 
>antenna patch cables I have lying around. 
>
>So - would the electrical cabling affect the antenna cable? Is the stuff used to 
>wire up the house of different quality to the stuff used to make the patch 
>cables? And is there any terminology I need to use when trying to find good 
>quality antenna cable? The stuff I have seen does not look all that fat - but 
>as I am always telling my wife, size isn't everything.
>
>I am just wanting to make sure all this stuff works before I go putting in wall 
>sockets and feeding network cable to the front end and so forth. 
>
>So any help appreciated. At the moment I have cable all over the floor, and 
>I'll have to do something about it fairly soon.
>
>Cheers
>
>Don

When it comes to aerial cables, it pays to use the right stuff.  The
recommended TV aerial cable is RG6.  This is properly shielded, lower
loss, and probably costs a little more but is worth it.  It is also a
bit stiff for use in patch cables, so they tend to be lesser quality
in order to be easier to bend.  But if you can, also use RG6 for patch
cables.  Also it is best to use the screw fitting "F" connectors
wherever possible, as they have much lower loss at each connector.
Only change to a Belling-Lee connector when you get to the end
equipment if that is fitted with a Belling-Lee socket.

Most RG6 cable will have markings on it telling you it is RG6.  Other
lesser aerial cable is much less likely to be marked up with what it
is.

See here for a photo of a coil of my RG6 cable:

  http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/RG6_cable.jpg

and here for the markings:

  http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/RG6_cable_markings.jpg

For Ethernet cable, it depends on what Ethernet you are trying to do.
My Ethernet is all gigabit and I made sure that my cables were all
installed as Cat6.  There is now a Cat5e cable which is rated for
gigabit also, but it has rather less good specifications, so I still
prefer to use Cat6.  And Cat6 is needed for longer runs.

There is now also Cat7 for anyone who is planning on 10 gigabit
Ethernet, but it is pretty expensive.  If you are only needing 100
Mbit Ethernet, Cat5 is fine and Cat5e is overkill.  But I would
recommend putting in at least Cat5e as it does not cost much more than
Cat5 now and it is very likely that you will want to use gigabit
ethernet at some later time.

As a general rule, if you are putting it in a wall or somewhere like
that, it is better to use good cable, due to the problems of fixing or
replacing it later if problems occur.

However, do not be fooled into buying expensive HDMI cables for
example.  If a cable is specified as HDMI, that is a digital signal,
and if it is unable to put out HDMI that matches the HDMI
specification at the other end, it is not actually an HDMI cable and
hence does not match its description and can be taken back for a full
refund under the CGA and FTA.  And some of the claims for the super
audio cables are pretty out there - there is no need to pay for cable
that costs $500 per meter just because it claims it is wonderful stuff
when there is good cable that actually works just fine for very
reasonable prices.