Need technical assistance with TV cable signal

[nitroscope8]

I use Optimum cable, phone, and internet at my home. Since they cut all the channels out I needed a cable box in my room. So I decided I would get an HDTV and a hd cable box to take advantage of all the channels we pay for in my room. Before I get the tv, I went to my local cablevision store and picked up the box. It works with HDTV and standard tv's, so that isn't my issue

I get home and plug the box into the cable and power. It says after 15 min. or so the signal will be found, screen will go black, and the time will be displayed. This means the box is ready to go. Well, for 45 minutes the letter "h' shows up and numbers are hunting from 0-999 and repeat over and over. I called cablevision tech support and they said it's trying to find a signal. After a few minutes we determined the signal strength in my room is too weak for a box. FAIL. So.....they want a service tech to come down and increase it. All I heard was *spend more $$$$$* from them.

SO! Here I am asking ROC for help. I need moar signal in my room to get this thing jumpstarted. How do I do it?

What I know: I have a cable coming from the wall in my room (hole in wall with cable coming out) and it goes to my tv. I have another cable from the outside near my window coming in and going directly to the router thingy that controls phone and internet.

Any input?

[BIGGREEK]

I had the same problem with my internet, cause it goes from the outside to the cable box in the living room, then goes upstairs to my room to the modem. The "tech" came to my house and pushed some wires to the side and pretty much did nothing, but it magically fixed the problem. But I figured out that we have TOOOO many splitters (at least 6 between the cable box and the modem), or that the splitters were old. If you know where your cable splitters are in the house, replace them with new ones. It should work.

Or the cable is bad and it has cracked open or pinched causing too much resistance.

[ClassicRbt]

I had exactly the same problem. Technician came out boosted the signal and left didnt pay a dime but this was with Comcast cable.

[xfourevertruex]

You can get a powered coaxial amplifier from Radio Shack or similar for approx. $50. It'll give you 2-3 uber powered signals. Should do what you need.

[djwhiplash2001]

From the outside line, how many splitters does it go through?

Try replacing cables one by one - that caused us a bit of a hassle, we had old cables in our house.

[crushnbugs]

If you can reduce the splitters between you and the main it is best. I had a similar problem, all I did was buy a NEW splitter where it comes in my house and ran a new line to my bedroom where the TV is located.

Problem was then fixed.

Good luck!

[DUSlider]

Comcast here. If you are paying for the box and HD it shouldn't cost you anything more for them to come out. After all, if it doesn't work you'll return the box and cancel service and they don't want that.

Your problem is likely...

Too many splitters, or, the cables are dry rotted causing signal interference. We were having problems with our HD signal, lots of artifacts and interruptions. Cable tech came out and replaced one of the outside cables that had dry rotted. Once this was done, signal was good to go...

[nitroscope8]

The problem is I can't isolate where it comes in. The house is huge btw.... The previous owners had several dishes on the roof. So there are cable lines EVERYWHERE. There must be 5 outside running to random places underground, the basement has a nest of them, and I have another one coming from the roof into the modem. I have no idea which lines are hot or not. The one in my room for the TV goes up into the wall and I can hear it dangling against sheetrock near the ceiling. The attic is pretty much inaccessible from that spot, too. I made an apt. for tomorrow afternoon. They should have put boosters everywhere from the get go instead of leaving us with crappy tv.

[DonJuan1Jr]

When the cable guy comes to the house hell have a device which will read signal loss in db, every time your cable is split you lose a certain amount of db. Depending on the spliter also determines how much signal loss too....From outside i think u start at either 10 or 15db and it usually goes downhill from there. So for say a 2way spliter ud lose like 3 or 3.5db on each line. The problem with trying to do it yourself is if you boost on the wrong side, you can cause snow on one or more tvs.


Have a tech go to your house, they shouldnt charge you,ive had this type of problem with my modem not having a good singal after we moved it and we werent charged.

[djwhiplash2001]

Tell them comcast/directtv/time warner/competitor said they'd be glad to take a look at it for free if you switched your service to them.

[DonJuan1Jr]

Tell them comcast/directtv/time warner/competitor said they'd be glad to take a look at it for free if you switched your service to them.

Ive done this too...my interwebz was on the fritz for like 6 months...i said well if u guys cant figure it out i might as well go with verizon....


isht was fixed the next day.

[nitroscope8]

Two guys came and dug around the attic for a while. They found that the dish on the roof split four ways and the cable was crappy. Someone spliced this cable into another splitter or two before it came into our rooms upstairs. They removed all the useless splits and replaced the lines with new one. OMG!!! The tv is AMAZING. I've never seen such a clear signal for TV....EVAR in my house! Anyway, problem solved for free!

[DUSlider]

Two guys came and dug around the attic for a while. They found that the dish on the roof split four ways and the cable was crappy. Someone spliced this cable into another splitter or two before it came into our rooms upstairs. They removed all the useless splits and replaced the lines with new one. OMG!!! The tv is AMAZING. I've never seen such a clear signal for TV....EVAR in my house! Anyway, problem solved for free!

Haha, told you.

[djwhiplash2001]

Haha, told you.

Me too lol :D

[nitroscope8]

Lol yup. I guess it's better they took care of it. Last time I went up there in the attic I came down looking like a pink cactus itching for days.

[cherrybomb1965]

ironically nitroscope you are in luck/ good hands because i am in fact a technincian whom helps people in these type of situations. All i ask in return/exchange is for your knowledge/help with my car

anyhow, here's your options:

1) make sure you have an active outltet first of all. otherwise you'd be wasting your time connecting the cable box to a dead outlet. use your og tv remte control, get in the menu & do a catv scan/autoprogram scan or it may even say channel search. once that's done, if you get all your standerd channels then you'll be golden as now you'll know for a fact it's an active outlet. additionally make sure the tv is set to std & not hrc or irc as some tv's give that option.

2) if a dead outlet then you'll have to share you cable connection from another room that does in fact have an active signal via a splitter. make sure it's a 1ghz splitter & not a 750mhz otherwsie the signal will be weak. my recommendation; radio shack 1ghz gold plated splitter for $10

3) if you don't like coax cable running from wall to wall or so forth then i'm sorry bro but your sol ideally you can make it tidy/clean by using certain clamps that are sold @ radio shack to hold the coax cable down & you would be alright i cant recall what size it is but it's smaller than rj45 cable clamps. they'll cost you about $2 bucks or so.

4) the reason the tech told you what he said is in fact he may be right. we use proprietary tools in cable companies to check signal no doubt however there's no way to check & see if an addiitional outlet has good signal strenghth unless a technician physically goes out there to check the cable frequency/decibal readings (we can usually tell the latter on the software we use but only pertains to the cable box itself, nothing more)

5) after doing 1 & 2 & all checks out then you're ready to roll However, my suggestion is: when you connect the cable box make sure you wait until the correct time appears if not then you would possibly be interrupting the reboot process (cable boxes varies: some take 4-6min others 2-3mins sometimes up to 8/9 minutes) make sure you got a good reliable splitter (like the one i mentioned) & you should be ok connections would be as follows:
cable from wall going to 2 or 3 way splitter preferably 2 way splitter, then from splitter going to cable in to box then using either hdmi or component cables (no big difference other than digi audio if using hdmi same video signal regardless from both cables) to back of tv to either hdmi 1 or 2 or component 1 or 2. with this in mind, make sure you switch the inputs on your tv that correlates to the input you have your cable connected to (ie hdmi 1 behind tv is hdmi 1 on tv input & so forth) once that's done then connect power cord to digi box & wait for time to appear. once that's done & you got the correct you're done & now you can watch porn

let me know what happens & good luck otherwise you're going to have to bite the bullet & get the additional outlet install. if so, make sure you ask cust services or the tech whom helped you or any tech support person how many outlets are guaranteed when a field tech goes out to install an additional outlet for their additional fee you are paying.

[nitroscope8]

Thank you for that information. Hopefully it will remain fixed for a long time and the next time I have to worry about it is in a new home.