Recommendations for properly splitting signals (1 Viewer)

[John_Berger]

I'm running into a slight problem with my theater setup. It's not a big deal and one that I've been living with, but if I can correct it, that's all the better.

Currently, we have our cable (as in pay-cable-services coxial cable) going all over the house. Unfortunately, the cable comes into the house on the exact opposite side (lengthwise as well) from the HT setup.

As it comes into the house, it gets split four ways - two for direct connection to the basement and office TVs, one for the "computer room" TV, and one for connection to the HT. This is a basic splitter - it is not powered on any way.

At the HT area, it is then further split multiple ways - one to the TV, one to the digital cable box, and one to the VCR. This splitter, however, is powered and has RF filtering built into it. In all instances, I have made sure to "cap" the open connectors to continue the signal loop.

The problem that I'm seeing, and again it's not a big deal but one that I would like to resolve if I can, is that low-frequency channels at the HT area are very grainy when compared to higher-frequency channels. I'm not getting any ghosting, just a grainy picture. Adjusting the signal strength on the powered sliptter does not produce any better results.

However, the same channels that are not connected to the HT (basement, office, and computer room) are bright and clear. The one TV in the basement is also the same distance away from as the HT setup. They are both using the exact same type and length of coax cable.

As a test, I tried to put a signal booster at the main junction, but that made the picture on the HT even worse.

Without having to completley rewire the place, can anyone offer some suggestions to try to clean up the signals to the HT area?

 

[LewB]

John:
Have you tried:

• Connecting a TV to the wire that is feeding the signal booster? Maybe that cable is bad...
• Remove the amp from the equation. Amps will amplify bad as well as good signals (stuff in, MORE stuff out)
• Check the range of frequencies that the splitter will pass, this is usually stamped on the splitter itself . Use splitters that go above 900Mhz (more expensive but fixed problems I've had with bad cable signals.)

Good luck !

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

John,

As it comes into the house, it gets split four ways - two for direct connection to the basement and office TVs, one for the "computer room" TV, and one for connection to the HT.

If you have access to the location where the 4-way splitter is, this should be an easy fix.

The goal is to get the strongest possible signal for the HT area, so loose the 4-way and instead is apply a 2-way split to the main feed (use only good quality 900mHz splitters, as Lew suggested). One side will directly feed the HT system. From that point you can apply additional splits as needed for the various equipment. A powered secondary splitter, perhaps one with a variable boost, should insure all equipment gets an optimized signal.

The other side of the main splitter will feed the rest of the house. You can split this feed again with a 3-way splitter (or, you can use the old 4-way and cap the 4th output with a 75-ohm cap).

If one of the three other locations (office, basement and computer room) has a “priority status,” you could make the second split another 2-way, and send the priority room a direct feed from it. A third 2-way splitter could feed the remaining two rooms.

I had good success configuring my CATV like this.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Geoff S]

I don't know if this is the case, but if it is....

If you're using regular cable displayed on an HDTV it will indeed look grainy and there's nothing you can do about it.

If this is the case there's nothing you can do except try to force it to display at 480i instead of 480p.

 

[John_Berger]

Sweet! I'll give these a try and see what happens! Need I assume that Radio Shack will have the 900 MHz splitters, or is there someplace else that actually has reasonable prices?
Thanks, guys!

 

[LewB]

John:
Just to clarify, you want splitters that go above 900Mhz. I'm not sure on what the upper end of these are but I think I've seen them up around 2GHz.
I've seen them in Radio Shack, Best Buy and Circuit City. I actually got mine from my cable company when they came out to check my signal. The guy gave them to me for free