I have a DirecTv dish on the roof doing nothing. I kicked them to the curb five years ago. Now I'm thinking I will put up a HDTV antenna in its place. Is the cable they used plug and play with an outdoor antenna? It would be nice as the whole house is wired for it already.

Short answer is yes although it would be smart to replace the connectors.

When replacing the connectors choose compression fittings rather than screw-on, or barrel-crimped ones. It also helps to do something to inhibit water intrusion, e.g. with heat shrink tubing covering the connection point, and any "splices." And, oh yeah, protect against UV degradation too.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
Short answer is yes although it would be smart to replace the connectors.

wouldn't it depend on what connectors were there in the first place and what condition they are in?

unless you have the exact crimpers or other tools, you likely can't do as well as the factory installed connectors.

that said, as long as the receiving location is reasonable, given to the TV transmitter site, what the OP wants to do should be fine. The RG-6 used by Dish is the right cable for over the air. Hopefully it isn't unreasonably long since ALL cables have more loss with more length, and those over the air signals might be weak to begin with, depe3nding. .

Might use Rabbitears.info or a similar site to set expectations first. If you don't know what to expect, then it's a crap-shoot.

I have an HD antenna on my roof that connects to an amplified distribution splitter that runs to 6 tv's throughout my house. You might need a similar splitter.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
...
unless you have the exact crimpers or other tools, you likely can't do as well as the factory installed connectors.
...

I think your statement is probably half right...

Likely the connectors were field installed, especially if DirecTV did it. Not saying they were not good connectors, just that they were field installed.

The half-right part of your statement is to use quality compression style connectors with the proper tools. If OP has access to these, I'd definitely vote to replace and protect per architect's advice.

quote:

Originally posted by xantom:
I have an HD antenna on my roof that connects to an amplified distribution splitter that runs to 6 tv's throughout my house. You might need a similar splitter.

Yep. Coax should be good so you can reuse it. If planning to run OTA antenna to multiple locations in the house, you’ll need an amplified splitter. I did the same thing OP is talking about. The closer runs work fine with the OTA. The longer runs I’ll get screen freezes and such. Definitely need a splitter with an AC plug. Will sort it out.

Yes. Every time you split the signal, each split gets half of the original signal. Split the signal between four TVs and each TV gets 1/4 of the original signal. If you only wanted to watch one TV at a time, you could use a switch, otherwise use an amplified splitter.

Thanks for the responses gents!