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SMS

wrote:
On Feb 24, 1:39�pm, SMS wrote:
Yesterday I wired a relatives house for cable. The analog cable works
fine, but when I plug in the digital cable box supplied by the cable
company it doesn't work at all. Is there anything special about
splitters for digital cable? I use Dish network, and I've really been
out of the loop as far as cable TV stuff. This is not Comcast, but a
small municipal cable company.

did you use RG6 or RG59, any screw on connectors?

you shouldnt use RG59 or screw ons for digital cable installs..

both are way too lossy, and this applies to satellite tv as well.

how many splits do you have? might need a distribution amplifier

The wiring from the street is RG59, probably about 20'. All my wiring is
RG6, about 60'. One of the existing outlets has about 4' of RG59 from
the splitter, but the outlet that I tried the digital box on was all
RJ6, except the old RG59 from the street. I could change the outlet with
the RG59 to RG6 if necessary, and I suppose I could also change the
wiring from the street.

There are two splitters. The splitters I used are
"http://www.hometech.com/video/splitters.html#PI-DSU2" so there is 9db
of insertion loss. The RG6 connectors are crimped, and the RG59
connectors are press-on, not crimped (I couldn't find RG59 crimp-ons
yesterday when I first realized that the existing wiring was RG59).

When the HDTV went through the set-up where it finds all the channels,
without the box in place, it did find a bunch of "digital channels.

What I'm wondering (and can't find out until Monday) is if my relative
actually has subscribed to digital cable, or did they just send the
boxes in anticipation of their shutdown of analog cable.

Next I'll bring a small TV and try hooking up the digital box in the
garage, directly to the incoming line.