Red J Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 Layout: Main floor has four ports. Basement has five ports. All are split off the main line from the utility pole outside, with your standard Radio shack splitters. We have two TVs, one cable modem, and a TV tuner card in the computer with one more planned. Using a splitter to the cable modem kills it. Signal on one of the TVs sucks, unless it's the only thing connected to the main feed. I am *assuming* that I could put a cable line amp to good use. Am I right? Or is three tuners and one cable modem no problem for a standard cable feed? J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demon Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 I have a line amp on my digital cable. Works great. we have 5 tv's and one cable modem hooked up to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman_40 Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 If I'm not mistaken there are two types of amps. One way or two way, one way just amps the incoming signal, two way does incoming and outgoing. I was told you need two way for modems never got one at the time I got DSL instead. Might want to check on it I might be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John01XX Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 Slit the main line coming into the house and run one side directly to the cable modem. Allow the modem to have its own line. Then run the other side of the main split to a small gain amplifier. Run the balance of the TV's off the amp. Don't be misled into thinking a big gain amp is needed. From what you described you only need about 5-7 db gain to take care of your needs. A cheap 10 or 15 db gain amp will do the job nicely. Line tech with 15 years in the Cable Industry with Cox and TCI. Pm me if you have any questions that I can help you with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXMAN Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 I complained to my cable company that one of my tv's didn't work like it should. They came out and checked the signal and said it was too low. Then they upped the signal no problems now cost me nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXBIRD Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 Not my word but the guy who installed my Dish who had an MSc degree in computer engineering told me that most of the time amplifiers reslut more problems than they would solve especially when you have data transmission as well. His suggestion was using a top quality splitter. Me knows nothing about it, just relaying his BS talk if it is indeed a BS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skull Posted September 5, 2006 Share Posted September 5, 2006 Run one line into the house. Use a 1GHz bandwidth (not 900MHz) splitter and hang the modem off one port and a signal amplifier/multi-splitter off the other one for the TVs. Digital cable boxes might require a two-way amplifier, but I can't confirm that since I don't have (or want) any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John01XX Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 Run one line into the house. Use a 1GHz bandwidth (not 900MHz) splitter and hang the modem off one port and a signal amplifier/multi-splitter off the other one for the TVs. Digital cable boxes might require a two-way amplifier, but I can't confirm that since I don't have (or want) any. +1 except that cable boxes do NOT need a 2way amp. Only the modem does and that is why you split the incoming line before the amp with one side going straight to the modem and the other to the amp for the TV's. Done John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redd Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 If your cable is going through two splitters before hitting the modem...it will not work. you need to have a "home run". Main line coming into the house should go to the main splitter and from there to each device. You can buy an unbalanced splitter as well. Hook the modem up to the port with the least amount of loss. Unhook all of the ports you are not using and bring all the feeds into the main splitter and you should be fine. cap the ports on the splitter you are not using...open ports on a splitter leak signal causing problems as well. Amplifiers are a last ditch effort...because they amplify the good with the bad. there are other factors too. Like how old is your drop? (the line going from the house to the pole?) What kind of connectors are on your lines in the house? (crimped metal ones? Or snap and seal ones?) What kind of cable is routed through your house? (RG 6?, or a smaller guage?) Are there bends or crimps in your lines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John01XX Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 If your cable is going through two splitters before hitting the modem...it will not work. you need to have a "home run". Main line coming into the house should go to the main splitter and from there to each device. You can buy an unbalanced splitter as well. Hook the modem up to the port with the least amount of loss. Unhook all of the ports you are not using and bring all the feeds into the main splitter and you should be fine. cap the ports on the splitter you are not using...open ports on a splitter leak signal causing problems as well. Amplifiers are a last ditch effort...because they amplify the good with the bad. there are other factors too. Like how old is your drop? (the line going from the house to the pole?) What kind of connectors are on your lines in the house? (crimped metal ones? Or snap and seal ones?) What kind of cable is routed through your house? (RG 6?, or a smaller guage?) Are there bends or crimps in your lines? I am inpressed Accurate info. When designing Cable systems there is suppose to be enough signal feeding each residencial drop to handle one 4-way splitter, ( 7db loss each port) using RG6 cable. Many older systems are still using RG5.6 cable which has a much greater amount of loss per foot than RG6. Number one cause of signal loss is corrosion at the fittings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warpster Posted September 20, 2006 Share Posted September 20, 2006 Home run to the modem is absolute, I found out the hard way. I bought a $50 4 way amp at Radio shack that is absolute shit. The best thing i did for my cable needs was to buy a 1GHz gold spliter and blow up the shit from radio Shack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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