Until recently I had a cable company feed that was being split with a 2 way (5-1000MHz) splitter. After splitting, one feed went to my TV (not HDTV), the other to high speed internet connection. I just had my basement finished, and had my electrician run coax cable to various rooms in the basement for future use. He replaced the 2 way splitter with an 8 way (0-900Mhz) splitter. From the 8 way, one feed is still going to my old TV, one still to my high speed internet, and 4 others to various rooms in the basement for future use (none of these 4 are being used currently). My cable signal to my old TV has definitely degraded, as many channels are now "snowy". When I switch back to the 2 way splitter, everything is fine. Questions: 1) Since I will only need a 3 way splitter (old TV, high speed internet, and new HDTV being delivered next week), to improve picture quality should I replace the 8 way splitter with a high quality 3way splitter and leave all the other "future" cables disconnected? 2) Would a signal amplifier before the 8 way splitter improve the signal enough that I can use the 8 way?
If you have any other suggestions they would be appreciated. Thanks for the help!
dr, My answer to question #1 is yes. It has been my experience that an 8 way splitter is trouble unless it is amplified. So if you put a wideband 3-way on your line, you may not need a line amp.
I have heard there is such a thing a leakage, i am no expert but have read that there are little screw in plugs to stop signal leakage in unused lines...........hope somebody else can comment
Yes, leakage is a bad thing for a cable company, and if your house is causing significant leakage your cable service can be disconnected until you let them in to find and correct the problem. Any unused lines in the house should be terminated and capped off. In our system we use 75 ohm terminating caps to maintain the integrity of the 75 ohm characteristic of our cable plant. You should be able to call your cable company and see if they can have somebody drop some off...the keyword being should. On average an 8 way splitter usually causes a 12BmV loss of cable signal strength. Depending on if your cable company uses DC splitters for your cable modem, it's not a wise thing to amp the signal that is going to your modem, so a two way splitter, 1 leg feeding your modem, the other leg feeding into an amp then into an 8 way splitter would be the best configuration. If you only want to hook up the ones you're actually using you can use 3, 4, or 6 way splitters to best fit your needs. I usually recommend any splitting 4 or more usually gets an amplifier. Just make sure your amp is bi-directional. I'd even call the cable company and ask if they sell in house amplifiers, the ones we use might not be the most expensive ones on the market, but they've been spec'd out and are very reliable. Hope this helps
dr in alberta
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Had the cable company out. The tech said they should do away with 8 way splitters. He put in a 3 way splitter and said they could come out again to make changes when/if I need more than 3 feeds. Excellent service - all for no charge! Thanks to all for your input and help!
Anonymous
Posted on
I have a related question to piggy back on the first one. Can anyone tell me if there is a splitter of better quality than a 2 way (5-1000MHz) splitter? I had a 3 way splitter in place that the cable company installed and the cable modem drops constantly. I took it out and put in a 2 way and while the connected had trouble coming online, it has not dropped yet. I'm concerned though that if the signal does drop that it will again have difficulty reestablishing itself. I have trouble getting service with the cable company due to my distance I work from home. I'm interested in getting a better quality 2 way splitter to hopefully resolve the problem. Oh yes, of important note. With the connection feeding directly into the modem from the wall (no TV's connected) the connection stays up and is rock solid. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I'd have your cable provider come out and check your signal levels...One alternative would be to feed a two way to a two way....main cable input to the first two-way, one side of split use for you cable modem, the other side of the two-way to feed the second two-way...use both outputs to feed the two TV's downstream. This is a bandaid, if your signal strength is so bad that you can't have a 3 way splitter connected there are some issues that need resolved. In our system we don't use normal splitters to connect to our cable modems, we use a DC (direct coupler) that looks like a T...there is an input on the left and thru-put to the right and a "tap"leg on the bottom forming the I of the T. The DC is used to isolate the cable signal from the normal CATV signals and also pad the line down to optimal signal for the modem. I've seen a lot of people refering to the fact that they have normal splitters feeding their modems, which I can't say is wrong, we just don't do that in our division. Hope this helps To answer your question a 5-1000MHz splitter depending on who makes it determines the quality. I'd still say you need to have a service tech come out and check your levels, something doesn't add up based on your connections.
Anonymous
Posted on
www.2005cabledescramblers.com rock try them I did and am happy that I did.
CS
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I just moved into an older home with no cable. Had the cable installed to one TV and decided to do the rest of the wiring myself. Homerun line comes into basement. In basement I will be hooking up a cable modem and a TV w/digital cable. On second floor will be wiring one TV with standard cable. On third floor, wiring 3 TVs for standard cable. My plan was to split off the homerun for the cable modem. Put the other split into a 2 way booster. Run one line from booster to a 2 way split, and hookup basement TV and second floor TV. Other booster line will go to third floor, and a three way splitter will hookup the 3 TVs there. Anybody have a suggestion for a better setup??
I have an 8-way splitter with an amplifier before the splitter. I get bad ghosting and diagonal lines across certain channels on two of the lines; the others give perfect reception. Two unused cable outlets do not have termination caps and I have read that this might cause ghosting and interference. If I connect each of the two lines directly to the main signal cable, the reception is perfect. I have inspected all the connections and terminals but cannot find anything wrong. Does anyone have any ideas before I commit to a hefty service charge from the cable company?