Cable Problems

[Eazy_b97 1]

We have digital cable in my house as well as a basic package. For my basement room we have a splitter which sends only the basic (2-59 in my case) down to my room. I've always had problems with it, for the first 5 years I had a TV in my room there would be snow on channel 47 and then slowly move its way down to channel 12 then eventually turn off. If you were watching that channel its really a pain, but just recently its stopped moving down the channels and stays on channel 47. This has been about a week and it kind've stinks because channel 47 is my best channel. Any ideas on what might be the cause and what would cure my problem. I may be going to get a cable enhancer, which strengthens the signal, but I am not really familiar with them. I heard they run about $25 and am hoping it cures my problems.

[Chadd 916]

A digital cable box would probably resolve the issue. Your TV most likely still has an analog tuner in it and the split degrades the signal. A digital tuner is able to better deal with low signal levels. I know an extra cable box is only a couple bucks a month around here.

An amplifier would help as well but may cause problems if you use cable internet in your room.

[Eazy_b97 1]

A digital cable box would probably resolve the issue. Your TV most likely still has an analog tuner in it and the split degrades the signal. A digital tuner is able to better deal with low signal levels. I know an extra cable box is only a couple bucks a month around here.

An amplifier would help as well but may cause problems if you use cable internet in your room.

Is it something like This? I am a little worried about Fees and yes I do have Cable internet in my room as well.

[Chadd 916]

I've never used a filter. I've never used one with a digital signal before but something like this should work for you.

[tokes 0]

I've never used a filter. I've never used one with a digital signal before but something like this should work for you.

We have 3 or 4 of those amplifiers, the signal we got in our house is really weak plus we have a lot of TV's. It might not help thought, what you have sounds like an interference issue. I get the same problem, cept it's constant on channel 17.

[Eazy_b97 1]

Chadd - that is actually what I was talking about in my original post. I'm hoping it works out well.

[Chadd 916]

Chadd - that is actually what I was talking about in my original post. I'm hoping it works out well.

Cool, I'ce never seen one that was designed for digital cable. The only analog tuner in the house is the crappy 13" TV in my office/spare room and I only watch sportscenter on it.

[DekeHead 0]

I used to be a cable repair tech guy for what it's worth. I would immediately suspect the length of cable from the splitter to your tv. Don't worry about the analog/digital issue. It should be just fine. I run it that way at my house. One set has the converter and digital, the rest run into the barrel connector on the back of the set for standard cable.

I would check the f-connectors on the ends of the cable along with the quality of the cable itself (is the jacket cut or sharply bent?).

Since this set is fed from a splitter, I assume all is well with the other set. It's possible that the splitter has a bad tap, but unlikely. There's no signal strength difference inherent in digital over analog.

Amplifiers should only be used if necessary. 4 amps in a house is crazy and actually introduces a lot of noise into the signal. If you need 4 amplifiers, then the cable service is doing you a disservice. I've worked in million dollar homes with tvs in every room and have never run into a 4 or 5 amplifier setup. Normally such homes have their own hard wire run into the house, its own taps, and probably a line extender or brige amp. The generic amplifiers really do cause more problems than they solve. If you have 100 yards of cable in your house, I could see using one due to line drop, but you should be fine.

Lots of noise on particular channels is general evidence of a bad physical connection. Often it is referred to as egress or ingress depending on the origin of the interference. Get another cable and start there.

Oh, and the 75-ohm barrel connector on your set could have crapped out, too. If you run a VCR directly though it, you should be able to test it.

One last thing, of only certain channels are coming through, your set's tuner could be hosed. A converter box may help if it will tune to channel 3 or 4. Again, the VCR test should confirm this. See if:

a) The TV tunes into 3 and plays videos, and

B) The VCR tuner allows you to view all of the channels.

Good luck!