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I have a 50" Hitachi 1080p Plasma in my living room hooked up to Time Warner. Everything works great...
I recently acquired a Sharp Aquos 46" 1080p LCD and I now have broadband internet and 2 HDTV's. I'm starting to believe my signal isn't strong enough to support two HDTV's? I've previously had signal trouble but it's been over a year since I've had any. My Broadband is working fine too, hasn't seemed sluggish but I haven't used my computer at home much lately.
I have the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC DVR box. Using HDMI. 480 channels look like garbage, which is not out of the ordinary. However randomly I get small blocks of white that will trail a moving image or the HD channel will freeze until I change the channel and go back. Sounds like a weak signal right?
Also, still images look great - however moving images with Blues & Blacks look like a mess of blue/black hues. But - not all black and blues look bad? Some shots couldn't look any better and makes me question if it's the show... and others make me wish I never spent the money. Is this possibly from a weak signal...or is it why all my buddies told me to get another Plasma?
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Call Time Warner. You should be fine w/ 2 HDTVs. The boxes from TM are always being updated, they mayeven reboot the box. Maybe a problem in the cable line some where. Make sure you record or can reproduce the problem for the tech to see. We have had similar problems about a year ago. It turned out to be a line down the road.
its very possible that you just need a signal amplifier.
a good idea is to go cap off all the RG6 (tv cable) jacks that arent in use, as they do "leak signal" when not in use. they make caps for them of a certain resistance that keep them from dropping any signal.
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"When teams come into Philly, they aren't just playing the Flyers, they are playing 20,000 fans too."
Yeah, I would have them come out and check signal levels. It does sound like you may have a bad signal, though adding TVs really shouldn't affect it too much.
Yeah, I would have them come out and check signal levels. It does sound like you may have a bad signal, though adding TVs really shouldn't affect it too much.
adding tv's does affect your signal. the optimal signal is 0db at every tv. it all depends on how many other tv's and cable internet devices he has running. a tv cable can support up to 8 tv's in one house without needing a signal amplifier. but due to HD, and Cable internet, it may change the db drop from one tv to another. essentially running 2 HDTV's and cable internet at the same time, could bump the signal down to maybe 3-5 tv's per house.
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"When teams come into Philly, they aren't just playing the Flyers, they are playing 20,000 fans too."
Yeah, I would have them come out and check signal levels. It does sound like you may have a bad signal, though adding TVs really shouldn't affect it too much.
adding tv's does affect your signal. the optimal signal is 0db at every tv. it all depends on how many other tv's and cable internet devices he has running. a tv cable can support up to 8 tv's in one house without needing a signal amplifier. but due to HD, and Cable internet, it may change the db drop from one tv to another. essentially running 2 HDTV's and cable internet at the same time, could bump the signal down to maybe 3-5 tv's per house.
Your signal is split at a splitter. The more it's split without an amplifier, the lower the signal to each cable is. However, an established system will not lose signal when another TV is added to an already existing split, such as in another room. The signal loss was already there due to the split. That's why you see DB ratings on splitters, they tell you what each output is split to. I had one in a previous house that sent more signal to one line (that I used for the modem) than on other lines that could be used to TV.
I think what you're thinking is that a standard cable line can be split 8 times before the signal is degraded too much to be usable. Also, more splitters add more line noise, that's why you should get quality splitters. It's all about your SNR (signal to noise ratio), if your signal is too low and/or you have too much noise, you're going to get bad or no reception.
yes but if he's splitting signals again after a splitter, like a lot of people do, to save them from buying 2 cables to run to adjacent rooms at the other end of the house from the original splitter, you are going to see a definite drop in signal strength.
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"When teams come into Philly, they aren't just playing the Flyers, they are playing 20,000 fans too."
Are there any meters I could purchase to troubleshoot my wiring before TWC comes here? For my weak signal problems before, I kid you not, they made EIGHT visits before they solved the problem...or atleast fixed it enough that I wouldn't complain anymore.
The last time I took count, I have atleast 5 splitters in my home. Every tech does and says different things. One Tech set up boosters for every tv. Another Tech took them all out beside one and said I can only have 1 in the house. Another Tech changed all the splitters, another said I should have only 3 splitters per cable line coming from the street.
Is there anything I can do with the HD box that would give me signal readouts or anything? Not that they would mean anything to me, but if I gave you donkeys the information, maybe you could help me out and I could have an idea of what they need to fix.
I have 6 televisions, 2 HDTV's on HD boxes. I also found that sometimes if I touch the cable wire where it screws on, I'll get the piss zapped out of me. It sucks.
My cable is 5MBPS, but I'm upgrading to 15MBPS whenever they can get out here to wire everything.
yes but if he's splitting signals again after a splitter, like a lot of people do, to save them from buying 2 cables to run to adjacent rooms at the other end of the house from the original splitter, you are going to see a definite drop in signal strength.
My assumption was that a TV was being added to an existing outlet that wasn't in use, or is replacing another TV. I've always had cable in all rooms already and never needed to run my own wire unless I was adding more than one device in a single room.
As for your question Dan, yes, you can check the signal multiple ways. Depending on your box, you should have a way to get into a diagnostic mode and read signal levels. Also, you could go to your modem's page and read what signal it's getting as well (the standard motorola modem has a webserver running at http://192.168.100.1 ). You could purchase an actual signal tester if you want, but most devices now have something built in.
It sounds like your house needs to be rewired to remove some of the splitters. Remember, it's all downstream though, Each splitter only affects what's downstream of it. If I had one splitter connected directly to my main source of cable, then 10 splitters off one end of that original splitter, the other end of the original splitter isn't affected by the other 10... if you can understand what I'm saying.
Not quite following the splitter deal. Looking at the wires right now, the cable wire for my broadband has a splitter on it. The splitter is what my Sharp Aquos LCD is hooked to. It's an "Aneronix" CMCDT2106T-HEP. It also says -120DB RFI and 5-1000MHz The part my TV cable is hooked to is simply called 'Tap'.
I have a few gold looking splitters that the cable company left behind in the event I needed more. Maybe I should try swapping them?
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HDTV troubleshooting?
