Anyone using an amplified cable splitter?

[Gunslinger08]

My TV is 2 splits from the main line, and my cable company charges a large fee to run a dedicated line. I'm receiving degraded quality on both analog and digital/HD channels, with major blocking and sound problems on HD channels randomly. I assume this is the result of degraded signal. I'm looking for a 6 or 8 way amplified splitter. Anyone use one? Where did you buy it and how would you rate it?

 

[BigJ]

Are you sure they charge a large fee to run it from just the pole to your house? It's free to my house, but after that it's costly/

On top of that, just put a normal signal amplifier on the line before the first split.

 

[doze]

2 splits really isn't bad. Problem could also be a bad splitter, bad wire, bad box or just the cable co's fault.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: doze
2 splits really isn't bad. Problem could also be a bad splitter, bad wire, bad box or just the cable co's fault.

Don't for get bad connector. Not a problem anymore though if you use those compression connectors.

Also, how is your cable line run? Is it run along electrical wiring? If so, that could be causing problems with the signal.

 

[mrchan]

I use a signal amplifier, but I'm splitting my cable 5 ways.... 4 TVs and my cable modem.

 

[randomlinh]

i got a signal amplifier for a 4 way split after the split for my cable modem. It did wonders for us. Granted, analog cable still looks like crap on my computer.. heh. However, it looks pretty ugly in my basement... good thing our basement isn't finished.

 

[QED]

Did you have the cable guy come out and measure the signal strength coming into your home? Most cable companies have a policy it has to be at 80% or higher at the junction box outside of your home. If it is too low, they are responsible for correcting it.

If the signal coming in is fine at the junction box, then I would look to see what specifically is causing your degraded signal-- splitting it two ways shouldn't pose enough of an issue to cause the problems you are seeing unless it was done incorrectly.

I'm guessing you have a Motorola HD cable box, right? If so, you can go into ints service menu to see what it thinks the signal strength is to see if that's the issue.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: QED
Did you have the cable guy come out and measure the signal strength coming into your home? Most cable companies have a policy it has to be at 80% or higher at the junction box outside of your home. If it is too low, they are responsible for correcting it.

If the signal coming in is fine at the junction box, then I would look to see what specifically is causing your degraded signal-- splitting it two ways shouldn't pose enough of an issue to cause the problems you are seeing unless it was done incorrectly.

I'm guessing you have a Motorola HD cable box, right? If so, you can go into ints service menu to see what it thinks the signal strength is to see if that's the issue.

No, I actually have a Scientific Atlanta HD cable box. I'll see if I can find a manual.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: mrchan
I use a signal amplifier, but I'm splitting my cable 5 ways.... 4 TVs and my cable modem.

I have 2 splitters before it gets to me - 6 ways from the initial line, then 2 ways from one of those 6.

 

[fbrdphreak]

All the ones I saw in retail stores are un-powered splitters, so while they may claim to amplify they're only hurting the signal. Make sure you get one that plugs into the wall somewhere to actually amplify and clean the signal. After enough bitching Time Warner put one on the line coming into our condo because the lines in our entire neighborhood are old as sh!t and couldn't even support digital if we wanted.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: mrchan
I use a signal amplifier, but I'm splitting my cable 5 ways.... 4 TVs and my cable modem.

I have 2 splitters before it gets to me - 6 ways from the initial line, then 2 ways from one of those 6.

I'm guessing you're in an apartment?

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: mrchan
I use a signal amplifier, but I'm splitting my cable 5 ways.... 4 TVs and my cable modem.

I have 2 splitters before it gets to me - 6 ways from the initial line, then 2 ways from one of those 6.

That'll do ya.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: mrchan
I use a signal amplifier, but I'm splitting my cable 5 ways.... 4 TVs and my cable modem.

I have 2 splitters before it gets to me - 6 ways from the initial line, then 2 ways from one of those 6.

I'm guessing you're in an apartment?

Nope, home with a ton of TVs and a cable modem, all spread out over about 2500 square feet.

 

[drinkmorejava]

we have one...not much to say, it works. Our old one got fried in a lightning strike, our current one is RCA something. I believe most just have one output line that you can then run to a splitter or whatever.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: mrchan
I use a signal amplifier, but I'm splitting my cable 5 ways.... 4 TVs and my cable modem.

I have 2 splitters before it gets to me - 6 ways from the initial line, then 2 ways from one of those 6.

I'm guessing you're in an apartment?

Nope, home with a ton of TVs and a cable modem, all spread out over about 2500 square feet.

And your sure it's not free for them to run a line just from the pole to your house? I'm not talking about running it inside, but just to the outside.

 

[Tifababy]

I called our cable company because my HD signal was going in and out. They measured the lines and saw the signal was too low. So they traced the line from where the cable comes into the house to the tv and replaced all the splitters.

The tech also showed me that most splitters have a number on them, like 3dB or 10dB and that's the signal loss of the splitter. On one of my 3-way splitters, 2 outputs had a 7dB and the last had 3dB. He told me to be sure to connect the HD box to the 3dB connection because then you'd have less signal loss to the HDTV. If you lose 10dB or more to an analog tv, your signal won't be too bad, so try to have the smallest signal loss to your HD cable box.

Also if you have a 4-way splitter, but only use 2 of the outputs, replace it with a 2-way splitter.

 

[Gunslinger08]

No luck getting into the service menu of my cable box. Nobody seems to know how/if it can be done.