Running Digital Cable throught my panamax?? (1 Viewer)

[Mike Mace]

Hi, I was wondering it it were possible to run my coaxial digital cable through my panamax 1000+ surge protector? Will the digital signal still be sent through to the set top cable box?

I planned on running the coax first into the panamax....then out to the input of the cable box....then using the composite connection on the cable box to connect to the tv.

The people at comcast told me you could not run the digital signal throught the surge protector and said to go straight into the cable box, then to the tv. If I do this, is their any chance that surges could cause harm to my tv since the signal isn't connected through the protector? Or if their was a surge....would it just fry their cable box and not make it to the tv?

Thanks for the help.

 

[David_Rivshin]

I would look closely at the "guarantee" against surge damage that came with your Panamax. I can bet that it says that everything must go through the unit, or the guarantee is void.
This is even if you can prove the surge that did the damage went through the unit, for instance if your power lines got hit by lightning, and a big surge went right through the panamax unit and fried your receiver, they'd say that because your cable TV wasn't hooked up through it they aren't going to cover any of the damage. Think of it as a big Mac truck loophole....

And yes, theoretically a surge in your cable could blow up the cable box, and then your TV, and then anything connected to the TV, such as the receiver, DVD player, etc. For most people, however, the likelihood of that is pretty low.

The reason your cable company probably said that was because they were covering themselves against those who use lower quality surge protectors. You know, the $10 ones you find at your local home depot. Those ones probably don't have the bandwidth to pass through the digital cable signals they use. I would expect that any path that's rated for "satellite" use would be fine, however, as that should be at least 1GHz, and probably 2GHz safe.
I'm not familiar with your particular unit, but if it has a protected coax passthrough labeled "satellite", I'd hook up your digital cable through that. If not, try it anyways, and just make sure that whatever digital stations you get come through without obvious problems (dropouts, especially bad MPEG artifacts, etc.

Good Luck,
-- Dave

 

[PaulT]

Mike, as long as the coax connection in the Panamax is bi-directional there should be no problems. What the cable company is worried about are people hooking non bi-d splitters / gear to the line and then calling for help when nothing works properly. The Set Top Box talks back to the provider as well as receives the signal.

Give it a try. If you get a signal, then power down (unplug) the set top box and see if the online menu (Guide) comes back after about 30 minutes. If so, you have no problems with your hookup.

I'm running a Monster HTS1000 as you want to run with your Panamax and it works fine. I have cable input to Monster, then a 3 way bi-d splitter going various places including the Set Top Box. From there I use S-Video to my receeiver which does my switching.

 

[Mike Mace]

Well presently it is running smoothly....have the cable split in the basement......goes to panamax and bedroom.....from panamax to cable box.....then to tv.

It was like this when I first hooked it up and it worked fine for about a month...then all of a sudden it said I was not "subscribed" to the digital stations....and I could not get them to pop up on the screen.

After calling the station and having them try different solutions over the phone they sent a tech out. He said it was the panamax. Hooked it up without the panamax and still didn't work. He then installed a booster/amp in the basement on the line coming in. This fixed the problem and it worked fine...but was still hooked directly to the box. After he left, I switched it back through the panamax and it seems to be working fine as of yet. I guess I'll only worry about it if it stops working.

I'm going to try the "power down (unplug) the set top box and see if the online menu returns" test now.

 

[Chu Gai]

i think they were thinking along the lines that the portion of the protector that the cable went into might've been of high capacitance and resulted in a severe insertion loss. but that's great that it's working.