Moving the cable to another room

[royaltiger]

Just had cable installed after moving house and need to feed one of the cables upstairs, I have found an old arial socket in the wall which goes upstairs to the bedroom I need but in order for the cable to go through the wall I need to cut off the connection, what I wanted to know basically is what crimps and connectors would I need to buy to replace the cut off connection and make a perfect job on a new connector and what are the technical names for the items so I get the correct tools for the job.

[nodrogd]

I will leave one of the tech guys to tell you what you need, but the VM cables are not standard coax and using the existing cable is likley to lead to poor signal issues.

[royaltiger]

Its ok I am pulling out the old arial cable and feeding the VM cable through the chased wall just so not to get confused

[Chris]

You need to be very careful, as altering the overall cable length will affect signal levels. If you cause an increase or decrease beyond certain tolerances your service will suffer.

You also must be careful of the grade of cable you use. The standard TV aerial cable embedded in your wall between (I assume) the lounge and the bedroom is unlikely to be up to the required standard. If you pull out and replace the cable you will need to use satellite grade coax.

If you really want to do it, it's f-type connectors that you need. You can get screw-ons, but crimped make a better connection if you make them up properly. You can get the connectors and a crimping tool in many places, maplin.co.uk is where I'd start.

Be aware that this breaches your terms of service with Virgin Media; you really can mess up your service doing it and in some cases you can imbalance the whole service from your local cabinet and ruin your neighbours' services as well. If your DIY results in a VM tech visiting your house to make good repairs you will get a bill of, IIRC, around £100.

Mind you, if you ask them to come back and do the extension for you, it's the same charge, so hardly an incentive for you not to have a go. ;)

[royaltiger]

The cable I already have, has been left by engineer so it can reach upstairs, Its just a case of cutting to length, or crimping a new connector, and wanted it hidden rather than cable clipped to skirting and walls. Engineers will only do whats easy for them not what customer wants. Upstairs is only the V box not a V+ so quality should be good, all I am doing is cutting an "F" connector then feeding the cable through an existing chased hole that used to house terrestrial arial

[Chris]

The quality isn't dictated by whether it's a V box or a V+. They both require a signal that's neither too weak nor too strong. The strength of the signal in your home is balanced by the engineer during install, who makes settings at the cab and fits an attenuator on the cable near your box if necessary.

If the engineer left you a length of cable, he *might* have allowed for that extra length when he did the setup ... on the other hand, he may have set you up, satisifed himself that it worked well enough as it was, and then rushed off to his next job.

What you want to do will probably work - just be aware of the pitfalls and the consequences if it doesn't.