Need Quick Answer - Cable Guy is Here

[XEagleDriver]

TW cable guy here to trouble shoot a cable box not working.

He is claiming the cable signal is TOO HIGH. Is this possible/rationale?

Last cable guy (contractor hired by TW) installed a cable amp due to the signal being too low (grainy and snowy).

Previous fix worked, I suspect the box is a POS.

Thanks,
XEagleDriver

 

[highfigh]

TW cable guy here to trouble shoot a cable box not working.

He is claiming the cable signal is TOO HIGH. Is this possible/rationale?

Last cable guy (contractor hired by TW) installed a cable amp due to the signal being too low (grainy and snowy).

Previous fix worked, I suspect the box is a POS.

Thanks,
XEagleDriver

Tell him to make sure the cable is grounded at the demarc point. He knows what that is and if he says it's not necessary, tell him that it's part of the National Electric Code and it's not optional.

The amp may be too hot for what you need but attenuators can be used, either as drop taps or just inline at the amplifier. The system should only need one splitter with all runs going to that location.

 

[njedpx3]

If you have a lot of cable drops and splitter you mgiht need an amplifier. When I had cable I need an amplifer to be able to drive all the cable outlets; I think I had eight.

However, the first fix probably was not correct. Correcting grainy or snowy with amplification is not the correct fix. If that temporarily fixed the problem, then something else was wrong. Saying the signal is too hot.. iffy answer.. take out previously installed amp.

However my answer for what it is worth, is to replace cable as fast as you can with either Satellite or Fiber Optics. You will have far superior PQ on the standard channels and your HD, depending on your TV, will blow you mind in terms of PQ. DishNetwork now broadcasts some HD channels in 5.1 Dolby at 1080p.


Peace, Good Sound and Good PQ,

Forest Man

 

[XEagleDriver]

If you have a lot of cable drops and splitter you mgiht need an amplifier. When I had cable I need an amplifer to be able to drive all the cable outlets; I think I had eight.

However, the first fix probably was not correct. Correcting grainy or snowy with amplification is not the correct fix. If that temporarily fixed the problem, then something else was wrong. Saying the signal is too hot.. iffy answer.. take out previously installed amp.

However my answer for what it is worth, is to replace cable as fast as you can with either Satellite or Fiber Optics. You will have far superior PQ on the standard channels and your HD, depending on your TV, will blow you mind in terms of PQ. DishNetwork now broadcasts some HD channels in 5.1 Dolby at 1080p.

Peace, Good Sound and Good PQ,

Forest Man

Thanks Forest Man,

FWIW: The cable dude, bypassed the amp to the drop in question and also replaced the cable box. Thus far, it is now working and no longer needs the constant soft and/or hard re-boots the previous piece of FOD cable box needed!

The intelligent wiring backbone in the home (cable and CAT-5) are a nightmare of a DIY project gone wrong. They were installed during the house construction by the previous owner! The attic and under house crawl space are a whores dream of splitters, connected to other splitters, un-terminated cable wires, etc. The main junction box for all the cable and CAT-5 is a plain UGLY mess!

Every time I look at it I am so tempted to rip it out and start over!!


XEagleDriver

 

[highfigh]

Thanks Forest Man,

FWIW: The cable dude, bypassed the amp to the drop in question and also replaced the cable box. Thus far, it is now working and no longer needs the constant soft and/or hard re-boots the previous piece of FOD cable box needed!

The intelligent wiring backbone in the home (cable and CAT-5) are a nightmare of a DIY project gone wrong. They were installed during the house construction by the previous owner! The attic and under house crawl space are a whores dream of splitters, connected to other splitters, un-terminated cable wires, etc. The main junction box for all the cable and CAT-5 is a plain UGLY mess!

Every time I look at it I am so tempted to rip it out and start over!!


XEagleDriver

If you have cable runs that are too short to reach the head end but you can get to them, I would install weatherproof F connectors and F81 splice connectors so you can make the runs longer. It's not the best way but if the cables can't be re-run, it's the best alternative. No splitters should be in a crawl space- all splitters should be at the head end, period. Daisy-chaining is a useless way of cabling a building and it's damn near impossible to reconfigure. Bring it all back to one place, preferably near the cable entrance and hopefully, that will be close to the phone and electrical service entrance. It all needs to be grounded as soon as possible at the point where it enters the building and if not outside, as soon as it gets inside, either to the breaker panel or a cold water pipe within 10'.

This way, you can use one splitter and if you really want to clean it up, you can get a small structured wiring panel with distribution blocks, etc.

 

[XEagleDriver]

If you have cable runs that are too short to reach the head end but you can get to them, I would install weatherproof F connectors and F81 splice connectors so you can make the runs longer.

It's not the best way but if the cables can't be re-run, it's the best alternative. No splitters should be in a crawl space- all splitters should be at the head end, period.

Daisy-chaining is a useless way of cabling a building and it's damn near impossible to reconfigure. Bring it all back to one place, preferably near the cable entrance and hopefully, that will be close to the phone and electrical service entrance.

It all needs to be grounded as soon as possible at the point where it enters the building and if not outside, as soon as it gets inside, either to the breaker panel or a cold water pipe within 10'.

This way, you can use one splitter and if you really want to clean it up, you can get a small structured wiring panel with distribution blocks, etc.

Thanks Highfigh,

Sounds like you have been down this road a time or two before.

If I understand correctly, if this system was properly configured each cable wall plate cable outlet should have its own uninterrupted cable run back to the Leviton Media Center (LMC) which is where the cable feed initially arrives in the house for distribution and splitting as necessary.

The previous owner went CAT5/Cable wall plate crazy and each room has 3-4 cable wall plate outlets (i.e. almost one per wall per room). It is a 3,300 sq ft home with 3-4 cable wall plates in each of 10 rooms. Therefore, conceivably 30+ cables would run into into the LMC panel if each is a separate uninterrupted cable.


Are there any other legitimate ways to manage this cabling problem with less than 30+ separate cable runs into the LMC? In practice, we are only only use one of the 3-4 available wall plate outlets in each room.

For example, is it advisable/permissible to reconfigure this mess to have one uninterrupted cable run per room (i.e. no attic or crawl space splitters!) and then either:

1) "connect" this cable run to one "active" wall outlet in each room using an inline F-81 Double Female splicer? This would leave the 2-3 "unused" wall plates in each room with cables into the attic, but they would not be connected. Obvious disadvantage is any changes to the "active" outlet would require a trip to the attic and a manual disconnect/reconnect of the appropriate cables.

2) Or, "connect" each room's 3-4 outlet cables to a "Coax Switch" (again located in the attic),

such as: http://www.showmecables.com/viewItem.asp?idproduct=1861

and connect this switch to an uninterrupted cable back to the LMC.
The room's "active" outlet would be selected with this switch? Changes would still require a trip to the attic, but only to push button.

3) Any other ideas?

4) Is this mess too &@$%ed up for a DIY fix, and best addressed by a professional home automation installer?


Thanks in advance,
XEagleDriver

 

[highfigh]

Thanks Highfigh,

Sounds like you have been down this road a time or two before.

If I understand correctly, if this system was properly configured each cable wall plate cable outlet should have its own uninterrupted cable run back to the Leviton Media Center (LMC) which is where the cable feed initially arrives in the house for distribution and splitting as necessary.

The previous owner went CAT5/Cable wall plate crazy and each room has 3-4 cable wall plate outlets (i.e. almost one per wall per room). It is a 3,300 sq ft home with 3-4 cable wall plates in each of 10 rooms. Therefore, conceivably 30+ cables would run into into the LMC panel if each is a separate uninterrupted cable.


Are there any other legitimate ways to manage this cabling problem with less than 30+ separate cable runs into the LMC? In practice, we are only only use one of the 3-4 available wall plate outlets in each room.

For example, is it advisable/permissible to reconfigure this mess to have one uninterrupted cable run per room (i.e. no attic or crawl space splitters!) and then either:

1) "connect" this cable run to one "active" wall outlet in each room using an inline F-81 Double Female splicer? This would leave the 2-3 "unused" wall plates in each room with cables into the attic, but they would not be connected. Obvious disadvantage is any changes to the "active" outlet would require a trip to the attic and a manual disconnect/reconnect of the appropriate cables.

2) Or, "connect" each room's 3-4 outlet cables to a "Coax Switch" (again located in the attic),

such as: http://www.showmecables.com/viewItem.asp?idproduct=1861

and connect this switch to an uninterrupted cable back to the LMC.
The room's "active" outlet would be selected with this switch? Changes would still require a trip to the attic, but only to push button.

3) Any other ideas?

4) Is this mess too &@$%ed up for a DIY fix, and best addressed by a professional home automation installer?


Thanks in advance,
XEagleDriver

If you can collect all of the runs in one place, like the attic, go ahead. Then, if you have enough runs going to the same place, you can make the connections to each room there. Home runs are the best way and provide the most flexibility. If you can't do that and you can make reliable connections in one secondary central location, that can work, too.

#1 Yes- use the F81 to connect the feed to the room's cable. If possible, bring everything to the attic's scuttle hole so you don't need to crawl through the attic. Murphy's Law says that you'll need to go up there on the hottest day of the millennium.

#2 Skip the switch. Murphy's Law says it will go bad before you need to use it.

#3 Find the person who wired the house and....What? I can't tell him to do that? Crap!

The only things you need to do are:

Think logically

Label all cables and make a list of all cables and their locations. It's a pain, but you'll need to use either an actual cable toner or a multi-meter to identify each cable if you expect to use more than the one you're choosing now. If you don't plan to use any others, don't bother. If you never plan to use the rest of the cables, you could remove the wall plates and cover with blank plates. If you do go up to identify all of the cables, group them by their location e.g., Master Bedroom, Kitchen, Living Room, Family Room, Patio, Basement or any other room that has more than one cable.

Don't look at, or think about, all of the cables at one time unless you can do it without freaking out. I know people who look at 6 wires and latch up, so just look at one at a time. Also, only deal with one type of cable at a time.

You shouldn't need any kind of home automation guy- this is just cable TV. If you had speaker wires, coax, Cat5e, Lutron wire, Crestron wire, fiber, fire and security wiring in one place and someone chopped the ends off so they would be the same length, I'd think about calling someone in.