- Apr 9, 2009
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I rewired the coax cable in my sister's house this weekend, because she had piggy backed radio shack gold splitters all over her house, and I'm still not happy with the results (although the TWC digital cable boxes are now working correctly). By results, I mean the signal power going to the boxes, when I go into the diagnostic menus, the numbers are in the yellow/red, so I know they are going to eventually have issues with on demand or HD broadcasts, even though they look fine while I was testing. I'm not in front of the box right now, but IIRC it's hovering around -15db.
Anyhow, right now the signal goes through 1 - 4way splitter, then 1 - 3 way splitter (one on each floor) before it gets to the box in question. I'm not sure if I set up the splitters correctly, but I kept the main line between the floors on the -3.5db leg. The second splitter only had -7.5db legs for all of them, so I think that might be causing too much of a drop in signal quality.
I have a 2 way splitter that has -3.5db on both legs, but I can't find anything larger (i.e. 3 - way splitter with -3.5db on all legs). Do these even exist? Are there good websites that sell high quality splitters? I've seen some splitters that don't even have db ratings on them, but instead have leg labeled "tap", I don't know what that means. Right now I'm using Regal 5-1000mhz.
I've asked Time Warner, but they want to send a tech out to install it, and I don't really want to go that route if I don't have to. I really just wanted to go to TWC and have them to give (or sell) me the splitters.
I'll admit, I don't know what I'm doing other than what I've read on the web, so I could be going about it in the wrong way, but I was able to get the SNR and power levels decent enough on the boxes so they actually work now...these are new boxes, and prior to the changes I made they were getting stuck displaying signal strength errors. I just wanted to see if there was a way to improve them more so they don't have any connection issues later. I'd prefer not to run direct lines from a single splitter if possible, and I've read that amps aren't recommended for digital since it introduces distortion.
Any suggestions?
Anyhow, right now the signal goes through 1 - 4way splitter, then 1 - 3 way splitter (one on each floor) before it gets to the box in question. I'm not sure if I set up the splitters correctly, but I kept the main line between the floors on the -3.5db leg. The second splitter only had -7.5db legs for all of them, so I think that might be causing too much of a drop in signal quality.
I have a 2 way splitter that has -3.5db on both legs, but I can't find anything larger (i.e. 3 - way splitter with -3.5db on all legs). Do these even exist? Are there good websites that sell high quality splitters? I've seen some splitters that don't even have db ratings on them, but instead have leg labeled "tap", I don't know what that means. Right now I'm using Regal 5-1000mhz.
I've asked Time Warner, but they want to send a tech out to install it, and I don't really want to go that route if I don't have to. I really just wanted to go to TWC and have them to give (or sell) me the splitters.
I'll admit, I don't know what I'm doing other than what I've read on the web, so I could be going about it in the wrong way, but I was able to get the SNR and power levels decent enough on the boxes so they actually work now...these are new boxes, and prior to the changes I made they were getting stuck displaying signal strength errors. I just wanted to see if there was a way to improve them more so they don't have any connection issues later. I'd prefer not to run direct lines from a single splitter if possible, and I've read that amps aren't recommended for digital since it introduces distortion.
Any suggestions?
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