HDTV project nearing completion

December 18, 2007
Peoria, AZ

I have no idea how those DirecTV installers do it. I’m sure, like most everything, experience helps speed things up. Anyway, I spent a couple of hours on Saturday and a couple more on Sunday moving the TV project forward. If I was getting paid for this, I’d be fired by now. On the other hand, this knowledge may come in handy when it comes time to convert the coach to HD. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Before we left for Thanksgiving, I had put up the replacement dish, so all I had to do was aim it and run the wires. Nothing is ever that simple, or course. First, I had to run a new ground wire (lightning coming into the house via the TV cable isn’t a good thing). The dish needed to be grounded to the nearest cold water pipe, which is all the way on the corner of the house. Then I had to run the cables from end of the dish back to the house. There are 4 cables, since the dish can support up to 4 receivers. I wanted to plan ahead and connect all 4, since I don’t want to take the dish apart if we add more boxes. The HD Digital Video Recorder (DVR) I’m installing uses two connections itself; it can record two things at the same time on two different channels.

I made sure that I labeled each cable so I know what connects to where, and used a test wire through the slider to verify that everything was working before I made up the final cables. Aiming the HD dish is a bit tricky, as you have to get the direction, elevation, and tilt set to “see” 5 different satellites at the same time. I used the new meter and got everything pretty good, I think. I’m seeing signal strength of low-to-upper-90s across the board.

The finishing touches were to add the over-the-air (OTA – everything has an acronym, just like when I was working) module (the DVR will pick up the local HD channels), cut and fit the cables to exact size, and upgrade the wall plug module (this wall plate needs three cable connectors). While I was at it, I added a heavy-duty signal splitter for the OTA module and ran a cable through the wall to the bedroom, so we have local HD channels there as well. I’ve tried to make the installation as professional-looking as possible, with neatly-run wires, properly-installed grounding blocks, rubber boots on the external connections, etc. This takes time, of course, but the satisfaction is worth it.

I was able to test the whole thing out with some Sunday afternoon football, and I think we’re in pretty good shape. The only remaining piece to this phase of the project is to put up some trim strips to cover the 3-cable run on the patio, and maybe to add a brace to the dish arm.

Of course, you’ll note that I said “this phase”. I need to work out something for the TVs in the kitchen and spare room. I’ll probably add another DirecTV HD box (not a DVR) for the kitchen, and just have OTA channels for the spare room, unless I can figure out a way to drive both off one box. The last phase will be to close out the cable account, which will have to wait until I add an internet dish (that’ll have to go below the back wall to meet HOA rules) or see if we can live with the Verizon Wireless service. I want to get these phases done by April, so I can cancel the cable before we head out for the summer.