Moving my Virgin HD box

[jim_1985]

Hello,
I currently have two Virgin boxes in my house, a Tivo in the front room and a Virgin HD in the back room. I am wanting to move my HD box to my summer house at the bottom of the garden, is there a specific grade of coax cable i need to move the box or will standard coax suffice? The total distance of the move is 27 metres (approx) and what connectors would i need to get?(if i cant re-use the ones on the existing cable)
Thanks

[rhyds]

How are you planning to run the cable to the bottom of the garden? Direct burial or via trunking? The choice here is the biggest factor in deciding which cable you'll need.

Personally, I'd get the best quality shielded coax cable you can find (WF 100, or HD 100 if you're feeling plush) and run it inside some buried ducting (plastic pipe, like drain pipe, will do) out to the summer house. Don't be tempted to just bury the cable directly in to the ground, unless you've paid a lot extra for gel filled waterproof cable.

You'll also need to check the signal/power levels once you've run the cable to make sure you're not loosing too much power in the longer cable run. I'm not sure what VM charge for call outs (£99 springs to mind), but it might be worth calling them up to enquire about the charges for a move like this (offer to do the ducting yourself and it'll probably be reasonably cheap). If the run's too long, you might find yourself having to call VM out anyway.

The plugs you need are F connectors.

[jim_1985]

A friend recommending running the cable through a standard garden hose and either burying it or just mounting it along the bottom of the fence. I did ring VM and yes £99 was what i was quoted, thought id ask the question on here as im confident a cheaper option exists

[rhyds]

Garden hose might do it, but personally I'd dig in some rigid plastic drainpipe, as you've then got extra space to run stuff like phone extensions in if you need them. I take it the summer house is powered, how does that cable get there?

The problem with taking the DIY option is that VM installations are very sensitive to interference and power levels. A length of dodgy coax can cause interference not only to your equipment, but to other VM customers nearby. If you're careful however you should be OK.

[jim_1985]

The power comes from an already buried armoured cable that was pre exisiting when i bought the property,but thank you for your advice i will give it all some thought before i make a descision

[nodrogd]

I wouldnt touch a 27m run with a barge pole. It will cause serious disruption to the signal levels (would probably need a drop of one or even two taps in the local cabinet). The longest runs from VM cabinet amps are 200m max, so if you any distance away already this will be even more likely to cause issues.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by nodrogd

I wouldnt touch a 27m run with a barge pole. It will cause serious disruption to the signal levels (would probably need a drop of one or even two taps in the local cabinet). The longest runs from VM cabinet amps are 200m max, so if you any distance away already this will be even more likely to cause issues.

25M of Webro HD100 (the correct cable to use) would only loose an extra 4-6db or so so IMHO the HD box can handle this unless the signal is very marginal to start with.

Salient part of datasheet below:



You can get a 25M length with 4 "F" connectors here on Ebay for £25.49.

IF you get the cable try connecting the entire length into the box BEFORE you install it perminently. There's a status page in the tech part of the box setup where it shows you the signal strength, compare the before and after values. Someone with better tech knowledge than I can say what the worst case value is for the box to work reliably.

webro_HD100.JPG

[heero_yuy]

I've looked up the required signal levels for the HD box:

Press "Home" select "technical stuff".

Page 2/8 SNR value should be > 20db, ideally >33db (Mine shows 37db)
Page 3/8 Return power <55 dbmv, ideally <50dbmv (Mine shows 50dbmv)

T counters, pre and post RS should show 0

HTH.

[fatmat8]

wow that is some info to deal with !

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by fatmat8

wow that is some info to deal with !

Just like to be thorough.