Anolog Cable Splitters (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Swope]

Hi! This is my first post, I'll start with something basic. Does using splitters on analog cable downgrade the quality? I have one cable line, delivered to two separate boxes via a splitter. I find that often, stereo cable signals are quite noisy, and I have to turn the tv to "mono." I never needed cable boxes before, but I recently upgraded from basic to premium and then this problem started. Any explanations/suggestions would be much appreciated. (By the way, I know it's not the TV, because when I record a VHS straight from the cable box and play it back at a friend's house, the signal is still noisy and we have to turn off the hi fi on his VCR)

 

[Jeff Swope]

Anybody?? Come on, help a newbie out! :frowning:

 

[Bill_Weinreich]

Jeff,

First a few questions:

How do you have the stereo lines routed. From the cable box, vcr, or TV?

Is the problem on both sets?

When you had the service upgraded, were the wiring and spliters replaced or changed in any way or just new boxes?

Interferrence can be coming from many sources. Through the cable, AC power, outside sources (RFI & EMI).

Bill

 

[Bill Will]

Yes, splitting the cable can downgrade the signal especially if the cable runs are long. The first thing I would do is contact the cable company & tell them if they can't correct your problem that your going to get rid of their premium service, that should get them out to your house.

Ask them to bring a signal strength meter with them so that the signal coming into your house can be measured & then have them measure the signal after the splitter on each line. Also have them measure the signal that comes out of each cable box to see if there is a drop off in signal.

If they tell you that the signal is strong enough to meet their specs. & there is nothing they can do then you can buy your own cable amplifier & see if that corrects the problem.

You just may have a bad splitter or a bad cable box. Is it doing it on both cable boxes? I've seen that happen more than once with a just bad splitter. Again, I would drop this in their lap to figure out first it's their cable & their gear & your the customer.

Now something I always reccomend, if the cable tech. does figure out your problem & your happy with him, take the time out to write a letter to his company telling them how happy you were with his knowledge & their service.

I did this once when I was having a problem that no one seemed to be able to figure out & the head line tech. finally came out & got it solved by just running a whole new cable to my house. That summer like a dummy, I was doing some digging & I cut right through the underground cable wire. I called & I knew they would come running because they were going to be able to hit me with a good bill for the cable. Well who do you think turns up? Yes that's right the head cable tech. & says thanks for the nice letter it really helped him out with his boss & he wasn't going to charge me for breaking the cable. So it does pay to write companies about their employee's.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Yeah, coax lines can be a pain. At my last place, they installed digital cable line and forgot to ground it!

However, if you can run the cable straight to your TV and it is good, then you either have a bad cable or a bad splitter. The cable company splitters are usually ok, but once in a while, the Radio Shack ones aren't all that hot.

You might try wiggling the cables at the connectors to see if that does it too. I have my CATV line split to 7 lines. They are all short, and all ok, but if one goes bad it is a mess, believe me.

Glenn