Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Science and Technology > Consumer Electronics
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 08-19-2008, 06:58 AM
 
Location: Charlotte. Or Detroit.
1,456 posts, read 4,124,781 times
Reputation: 3275

Advertisements

Here's what I mean:
I'm moving into a new apartment soon. It is pre-wired for cable -- there are five "outlets" in four rooms. The Time-Warner guy says that there is an installation fee of about $20/room. My question is, can he actually just turn on the cable to specific outlets? In other words, if I only have him "install" cable in the main sitting room, won't the bedroom outlets also be live? Or does he actually have to connect each of the cables in some box somewhere?

What I'm hoping for is that I can just pay $20 for the one room, and hook up the other rooms myself with some coax cable bought from Radio Shack.


Anyone know how this works?

(also posted in the Charlotte forum)




Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 08-19-2008, 10:55 AM
 
1,095 posts, read 3,984,510 times
Reputation: 664
All of the outlets in your rooms are probably wired to the same main line, and will all be active if he installs it. I wouldn't pay the cable guy $20 per room unless you have money to burn.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-22-2008, 12:51 PM
 
3,307 posts, read 9,338,293 times
Reputation: 2423
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timm View Post
Here's what I mean:
I'm moving into a new apartment soon. It is pre-wired for cable -- there are five "outlets" in four rooms. The Time-Warner guy says that there is an installation fee of about $20/room. My question is, can he actually just turn on the cable to specific outlets? In other words, if I only have him "install" cable in the main sitting room, won't the bedroom outlets also be live? Or does he actually have to connect each of the cables in some box somewhere?
Most new apartments are going to have a box somewhere in the apartment (mine's in the bedroom closet) with a 5-way splitter. The cable guy will most likely just hook up that splitter if it isn't already hooked up. Then you will have cable in all 5 outlets.

In an apartment that says it's "pre-wired", the splitter is most likely already hooked up, so in reality, the cable guy just has to go to your building's communication room and hook up the cable to your apartment. There's no way you should end up paying $20 per room for such a simple task.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-22-2008, 01:51 PM
 
Location: Lemon Grove, CA USA
1,055 posts, read 4,104,468 times
Reputation: 960
Pretty much he will only test and hookup one room. Most of the time though the other ones will work fine. If he does have a signal issue though he may bypass any room you don't tell him about. Usually not a big deal to get the other rooms going though.

I've seen everything from wiring hanging off of balconies and through windows (with splitters hanging off them) to in wall wired with a central splitter located in the apartment. It just depends on the complex.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-22-2008, 02:41 PM
 
Location: Montana
1,219 posts, read 3,156,959 times
Reputation: 687
Most newer apartments are wired in a "home run" configuration, meaning you have a coax running from each outlet to a single location where your main feed is brought it. You could hook up the rest yourself in a "home run" configuration IF the outlets run into an accessible box, some apartments are set up so that only the cable company has access to the other end of the coax runs, so if this is the case, either be real nice to the installer, or you'll have to pay the extra fee to hook up additional outlets.

Some older ones were wired "in series" meaning they pull a wire "through" each outlet, and cut/split it in that spot. (not very efficient when it comes to signal loss, as for every 2 way split you lose 3.5dB, plus the line loss)

Hope that helps,
-TW-
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-13-2015, 02:34 PM
 
1 posts, read 35,307 times
Reputation: 13
I was wondering weve got 4 apts in our building. All have sep lines total of one from each apt. They go to the box in which all 4 lines go into spliter and then one line out to the cable company. How do they know who pays for what.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-13-2015, 06:22 PM
 
Location: SF Bay Area
13,520 posts, read 21,994,134 times
Reputation: 20234
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jackie 1957 View Post
I was wondering weve got 4 apts in our building. All have sep lines total of one from each apt. They go to the box in which all 4 lines go into spliter and then one line out to the cable company. How do they know who pays for what.
No they don't. It looks more like this (someone knocked this box off its wall mount):


[IMG]http://www.juxentente.com/images/****heads.jpg[/IMG]
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-13-2015, 06:25 PM
 
Location: SF Bay Area
13,520 posts, read 21,994,134 times
Reputation: 20234
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jackie 1957 View Post
I was wondering weve got 4 apts in our building. All have sep lines total of one from each apt. They go to the box in which all 4 lines go into spliter and then one line out to the cable company. How do they know who pays for what.
No they don't. It looks more like this:

Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-13-2015, 09:10 PM
 
Location: Sarasota FL
6,864 posts, read 11,999,380 times
Reputation: 6743
I would think it would be similar to a single family home. A single wire enters the house, usually above the garage, where it is connected to a splitter, wires go from the splitter to each separate room. What installers usually do is connect only one wire. This way, most people who want to place an additional TV in another room call for the service when all they have to do is screw the wire into the splitter.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-17-2015, 04:03 AM
 
14,613 posts, read 17,277,792 times
Reputation: 7781
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timm View Post
Here's what I mean:I'm moving into a new apartment soon. It is pre-wired for cable -- there are five "outlets" in four rooms. The Time-Warner guy says that there is an installation fee of about $20/room. My question is, can he actually just turn on the cable to specific outlets?
You may very well have a live signal running to each room in your apartment right now. Most modern digital cable systems require some kind of set top box for each television, or one main box with a DVR and several client boxes that use MoCa network to run the tuners in the main box.

What you are saying is true about an old fashioned analog system. Either all the rooms work, or you can probably find a disconnected coaxial cable in your closet that you could screw in yourself.

If the set top boxes are required, and they won't give them to you to install yourself, then you are stuck with the $20 install fee. There is usually a monthly rental fee as well.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Science and Technology > Consumer Electronics
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top