Cable guru's

[kpm]

I have have a quick question for anyone who has knowledge of splitting coax cable for TV's.

I'm adding a tv in the kitchen bringing my total TV count in the house to 5. Currently I have one splitter in the attic / 4 way splitter. Can I buy a larger splitter? I do not have cable Internet so that is
not an issue.

 

[Bosco]

Spent a few years doing cable for Charter. You can buy as many splitters as you like but you'll lose signal every time you split. I think I have an 8 port splitter lying around collecting dust if you want it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050N5JJO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

This website tries to explain how every time you split cable, you lose signal: http://www.cabletvamps.com/splitter info.htm

PS you probably don't want anything larger than a 5 port splitter (not sure if they make one, we used to use a 2 port splitter combined with a 6 port splitter for 5 televisions) If you used an 8 port splitter you'd be losing a lot of signal even though 3 of the ports are empty. IIRC the 2 way splitters lose 3.5 decibels per leg and the 4 way splitters lose 7 decibels per leg. So you'd have 3 televisions at -7 decibels and 2 televisions at -10.5 decibels if you wire it properly. I'd use a tracer and put the 2 losing 10.5 decibels in the kids rooms or on the smallest televisions in your house.

 

[W1nds0rF0x]

I was going to recommend monoprice, but the largest they have is 4

 

[marco]

nerds

 

[cnodie1]

Do you have cox cable? Assuming you do, if you get the right person on the phone, they could see if a tech will be in your area any time soon to come put in an amplifier. Just tell the person on the phone that your signal seems weak. They have to provide you with adequate signal to power the TVs in your house good luck!

 

[W1nds0rF0x]

Do you have cox cable? Assuming you do, if you get the right person on the phone, they could see if a tech will be in your area any time soon to come put in an amplifier. Just tell the person on the phone that your signal seems weak. They have to provide you with adequate signal to power the TVs in your house good luck!

CATV amps are way too cheap and easy to install to fugle with all that and then chance that they attach the "standard charge" to your bill for installing it.

 

[Xenon]

cnodie's got it. I've got a many tv hooked up in my house including cable interwebz with cox. They pulled the internet first then split the remaining signal several ways (8 at a quick count) the installed the amplifier fo' free

 

[poor_shot]

Do you have cox cable? Assuming you do, if you get the right person on the phone, they could see if a tech will be in your area any time soon to come put in an amplifier. Just tell the person on the phone that your signal seems weak. They have to provide you with adequate signal to power the TVs in your house good luck!

be careful with amps, too much power can cause static too. it has to be between certain levels. but yea, i wouldn't split it too many times. i've seen crazy setups inside houses with splitter after splitter after splitter. w/ 5 tv's running standard definition tv should be fine. heck you can run over 4 hd boxes on 1 line.

 

[cnodie1]

CATV amps are way too cheap and easy to install to fugle with all that and then chance that they attach the "standard charge" to your bill for installing it.

They didn't charge either of the two times they came out but I could see them doing it. Where could a regular guy find one of these catv amps?

 

[W1nds0rF0x]

They didn't charge either of the two times they came out but I could see them doing it. Where could a regular guy find one of these catv amps?

http://bit.ly/IBB6wz

 

[dantheman]

Check the link in post #2

 

[Not4Hire]

cnodie's got it. I've got a many tv hooked up in my house including cable interwebz with cox. They pulled the internet first then split the remaining signal several ways (8 at a quick count) the installed the amplifier fo' free

This +1. Need a power source for the amp. I use an extra outlet near my AC. And no, I'm not coming over to your attic until December.

 

[cnodie1]

http://bit.ly/IBB6wz

 

[CrkdLtr]

Assuming you do not have digital cable, a cable modem and a have adequate signal from the tap then you should be fine to split the signal to a 5th outlet without any complications. This takes into consideration you do not have an excessively long drop (maximum length for RG-6 is 300ft) and that all your coax wiring is RG-6 with compression fittings and aren't using any of the cheap radio-shack gold/brass splitters.

Additionally, you do not need to buy a 5 way splitter, you can just buy a 2 way spliter and use a short piece of coax (1 foot or less) from the 4 way to the 2 way.

Every time your cable is split from the main lie you lose signal, a 2 way splitter drops 3.5 dbmV on each leg, a 3 way splitter drops 7.0 dbmV on one leg and 3.5 dbmV on the other 2 and then a 4 way splitter drops 7.0 dbmV on each leg if I recall correctly.

 

[charlie12]

I called Cox today when my internet was acting up. Had to leave home just wanted them to know in case somebody else on my road called. It went out a few weeks ago at night and I had to get my two neighbors to call before they would believe me.