Two TV sockets on one aerial lead

[Andrew May]

Not sure yet where I want the TV To go so was planning on putting two sockets one end of the lounge so that I have a choice without having to trail the aerial lead.

I have an amplifier in the loft and in general am feeding a separate lead to each socket in the house (using CT100 cable) but that seems overkill here where all I want is a choice of locations.

So, is there a 'correct' way to wire two sockets so a single piece of cable given that a TV will only be plugged into one at a time. To be accurate these will probably be diplexers so that I can get FM as well and I guess it is possible that the TV will end up plugged into one and the receiver into the other. I already have the FM aerial installed and the head amp takes this as well.

Many thanks for any advice on this.

Andrew

[The Natural Philosopher]

In all probability you can get way with simply daisy chaining, and hpe that teh stub cable does not resonate too badly...but teh pukka way is a

3db pad to each socket. Works if you have already boosted

Another slly idae that would work is to make one socket a double, - Antenna in one, connection to other (separate) socket from second socket on double.

Then use a short link of coax connected between them.

[RichardS]

My parents had a simple arrangement to solve this problem for years, and that worked well (only pre-req for a quick and simple solution is that you have a suspended floor with access...).

They had two alternate locations for the TV - left or right of a fireplace. There was only one socket, to the right. So, drill two coax-sized holes in floorboards either side, and thread some coax through and under the floor and up the other side. Put two standard connectors on each end and you now have a long extension lead that can be plugged into the socket one end and directly into the TV/Video/whatever at the other end. When not in use, push cable down through hole so you're left with only the connectors sticking out, and if they're in a corner or near to the wall they are pretty unobtrusive.

They also used this arrangement to route the aerial to my bedroom across the hallway, with a simple Y-splitter on the socket in the living room.

Dunno whether it would have sufficient integrety to feed a digital box though.

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[Parish]

Why is it overkill? When I had my extension built I wanted two aerial points, but since the runs to the loft were >20m it was cheaper to buy a

100m reel than 50m by the metre. Since I would never use the other 50m I put 4 runs in, two per location, wired two to the sat dish and the other two to the aerial via a splitter/amp, and fitted a dual aerial/sat faceplate in each location. Also, the amp I used has an FM input so either of the aerial sockets could be used for FM if I ever put an FM aerial up (I'm not sure if way the splitter/amp works would allow a diplexer at the room end to allow one socket to be used for TV and FM).

If you really don't want to run two cables up to the loft (it was easy for me as I laid them while the extension was being constructed) then you could run the cable to the first socket and put a 'Y' splitter behind it, running the second output to the second socket. Signal strength may affect picture quality though.

[David Pashley]

Definitely run two wires. Remember, you will still only use one output from your amp, as you can nip up into the loft and connect the cable required when you change the room round. Or use a splitter in the loft which you can remove from circuit if a higher quality signal is needed.

The reason is that if/when you exploit digital terrestrial, you will likely need the signal quality that separate cables will afford.

In fact, if it's only a matter of the cost of the cable, I would run two or more cables to each location. This will give you the future capability to link a post-set-top-box signal back to a distribution point. etc.

Of course all of this may be overkill for you, just what I would do if I had the luxury. Also, don't forget to run high-quality speaker cables everywhere.

And then there's networking...

David

[tony sayer]

No don't daisy chain unless you want some frequency/amplitude funnies. Run seperate cables from the loft and do it right. How much will that cost relative to the cost of the TV and the amount of time you will use it?.

Apart from that you can run another cable of to the bedreoom/s study/kitchen in case of need.......

[Lurch]

[..] I'll second this one, straight forward and exactly the way I have done it in the past. ..

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[Andrew May]

This looks like an overwhelming vote for multiple cables. Not so concerned about the cost of the cable, I already have a 100m reel. Only problem might be how many I can run down the conduit that is already in place to run cable from the attic to the ground floor ceiling space. This is already in place and has been plastered over. Will investigate and see if I can squeeze three in there. Thinking about it I should be able to do so since I can just get two 2.5mm2 T+E in the same size.

As for speaker cable I'm planning on leaving that out and just installing conduit so that it can be upgraded as technology changes. Oh, and the network - who needs cabling when 802.11 is so cheap and it means that I can use the laptop while slouched on the sofa with a drink.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Andrew