Cable distribution

[mbaylor]

I'm wondering what the best, reasonably priced, way to split out a source cable signal to standard cable boxes to use with cable modem, without dramatic loss of signal.

My dedicated theater is almost complete, and I am running through a cheap radio shack splitter. I need to split out to probably 6 locations.

 

[markw]

Are you running digital cable or analog cable to the non-modem devices?

For analog cable that can be tuned with a standard NTSC tuner. an amplifier with multiple outputs (or an amp followed by a splitter) will work fine. I'd suggest one two way split up top with one leg dedicated to the cable modem and the other to everything else.

If you're taking digital cable, it ain't quite that simple. You most likely will need separate addressable STB's that may need to be provided by your service provider.

 

[mbaylor]

Most outlets in the house utilize analog cable. In the theater, I have an HD set top box.

Edit: I think I now realized what you were getting at with the digital question. I am not running a digital STB and splitting it out for all of the locations in my house. The one HD box I have is only in the theater, and I am not distributing that signal.

Would something like this work okay?

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=180-794

I noticed some of the boxes a level up from this have a DTV stamp on them. What is the difference?

Thanks.

 

[TLS Guy]

This should do the trick

I assume you have digital cable HD TV service. It is not a good idea to amplify these signals. This splitter is rated at 1 GHz. As near as I can find out cable operators do not have a bandwidth higher than 550 MHz generally. In that case this splitter should do the trick.

http://www.amazon.com/CHANNEL-VISION-6-WAY-SPLITTER-COMBINER/dp/B0007P5K44/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1196887512&sr=8-1

Now the signal will be significantly reduced in voltage, however the signal in, usually has a very wide margin to spare, so you should be OK. Analog will be fuzzy if the signal is too low. Digital will either not work or freeze if the signal is too low.

Check with your cable company, and see how much bandwidth you need. Splitters do not go higher than 2 GHz. I could not find a 2GHz 6way splitter but if you look you might find one.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Yes, the splitter you listed is going to work. The model listed may work as well and is a fair bit less money. Cable is a nifty thing in that it can be split throughout a home pretty easily without serious degradation issues.

I have an active splitter on my system to 8 (? I think) locations where I run two digital HD DVRs and have half a dozen drops all over the place. No issues at all, though we typically use the HD tuners at all the TVs in the house.

 

[MDS]

Would something like this work okay?

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=180-794

I noticed some of the boxes a level up from this have a DTV stamp on them. What is the difference?

Thanks.

That will work and is similar to what I use. I split the incoming feed two ways with one leg going straight to the cable modem and the other leg feeding a 1 x 8 RF amplifier (Channel Vision). A 2 way splitter will lose 3.5 dB per leg. The amplifier amplifies each leg by 4 dB so effectively every room gets the same signal strengh and it is at the level coming in from the cable company.

A passive 6 way splitter may work but you will lose quite a bit of signal strength - something like 9 dB per leg. You may or may not notice any signal degradation, it all depends on how strong the signal coming into your home is.

An RF amplifier that specifically states that it works for DTV is bi-directional and use the 5 - 42 MHz range for communicating back to the cable head end. This is required for digital cable so you can use the program guide and order pay per view/on demand movies.

 

[gus6464]

You only have 1 cable outlet for the whole house? I live in an apartment and I have 2 separate outlets in the living room, and 2 more in the bedroom. How come you have to put the cable modem and tv boxes on 1 outlet?

 

[MDS]

Regardless of how many outlets are in the house, there is usually only a single feed into the house. My house actually has two but only one is connected to the cable company at the moment. Being broadband, cable carries all of the channels at the same time as well as the data traffic from the modem - they just use different frequencies.

You generally don't want to amplify the signal that goes to the modem but multiple outlets intended for cable channels can benefit from amplification because the signal level drops from many splits and also with distance of the cable run. The best way to accomplish it is to split the incoming line two ways with one leg going unamplified to the cable modem and the other going to an amplifier to feed all of the other outlets.

 

[mbaylor]

That sounds like a plan.

Source will go to a splitter. One for the cable modem, and one for the amplified RF unit.

I appreciate the insight.