"Cable Guy"

[mvallevand]

For over a year I've been struggling to fix an intermittent audio problem on some of the digital channels from my cable STB. Four times a different "Cable guy" has knocked at the door tells me my signal is within the limits and there is no problem. Then I show him the stations that don't get sound. They go through drill of jiggling cables etc and the sound comes back and the guy leaves.

Anyway on Wednesday # 5 comes "fixes" the problem and I come home to find that the cable to my computer isn't working, in fact 3 of the 5 cableco installed lines aren't working.

Finally yesterday, number 6 comes and he solves the problem. First of all brainiac # 5 had switched the input signal to the output line on a splitter. He said that was because in their sealed junction box I had a 4 way and 3 two way spliiters and he was able to remove 2 useless splits. On top of that he said the 4 way splitter was old and needed to be replaced AND it was only rated to 600 Mhz when digital cable needs 1 Ghz.

Now everything is great. The big side effect is my HVR 1600 now gets clear QAM reception, no dropouts or pixelation with an 8db signal gain some of which I've been blaming on bad drivers. Sorry Hauppauge.

Martin

[stefan]

congratulations

[HtV]

Well I guess the mvpmc/pch projects come to a halt now, since you will be looking tv all day. Congrats anyway.
I know that splitting cable can deliver unexpected results. Not long ago I found out that "unused splits" have to be "closed with a 75 ohms resistor.
Never too old to learn I guess.

Hans

[User]

Every split drops the signal strength by the number of splits, just 2-way will give 50% on each line. Sounds like you also had essentially a filter there with a splitter not rated for full frequency spectrum as well. Whenever I have had to split I use an amplified splitter. Glad you finally got what you are paying for.

[mvallevand]

Actually number six went as far to say that the wiring in my house was old enough that to get a proper signal he was going to order a complete re-wire with higher quality cable. I hope he is number 7 too. I just wish I could have seen inside their junction box.

Martin

[whurlston]

I just wish I could have seen inside their junction box.

Nothing special in there, just a regular tap. If you have any neighborhoods with cable on the power lines, it's the same thing. It's basically just a big splitter.

[mvallevand]

Nothing special in there, just a regular tap. If you have any neighborhoods with cable on the power lines, it's the same thing. It's basically just a big splitter.

That is where all the mess was though, in their box on my house.

Martin

[whurlston]

Ah, I misunderstood why you wanted to see it. :o