OT: Cable TV interference

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Dale Carlson

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OK, there's a bunch of really smart people that frequent this board, so I'll run this by you:



I have digital cable TV, but I'm getting interference on two channels (4 & 7). By trial-and-error, and the process of elimination, I've figured out that the interference is coming from the two over-the-air broadcast stations that I can receive in my area (on channels 4 & 7), AND, that the coax cable itself is acting as the antenna.



I've tried shortening the cable runs in and around my house as much as possible, and that has helped some, but not totally. And, I can't shorten the runs any more without some major re-wiring (my house was built in 1973, before the big cable boom, so the wiring wasn't built in - all of the cable goes "around" the house, not "through" it).



Do any of you know if there is a trap or filter of some type that I can install to keep the broadcast signal out? Or is there another solution (and please don't suggest going to satellite TV)?

 
If you have digital cable... meaning you have a box thats decoding the digital signal. Over the air broadcasts should not affect viewing in anyway...ive never heard of this happening. However if this is so, radio shack use to sell a decive that you can hook up to a coax cable that can filter out bad signals like that.
 
try finding the setting on your TV that makes the TV accept AIR or CABLE. Make sure it is on CABLE..



I dont know if that's the problem but its worth a shot.
 
Kefguy,



Most digital cable boxes have two modes and can receive the analog as well digital channels.



It's possible that the channels that are having issue with are actually analog channels and susceptible to the interference you describe.



I have never heard of OTA signals being picked-up by the cable in the house and interfering with analog cable signals...coax is shielded very well. And even if that did happen I wouldn't expect the interference to be such that the OTA channels and the cable channels affected were the same....they are at very different frequencies.



Kefguy, I would more likely suspect that channels 4 and 7 are "snowy" because of a problem at your cable company's headend, and that they are being passed on to you with interference.



Also, some of the lower channels are more susceptible to interference. It is possible that the cable company is "performing upgrades in your area" and you are on a temporarily degraded service level.



Have you called the cable company to see if others are complaining about the same channels?



TJR
 
What kind of coax cable do you have? Might changing to something with more shielding built in help? I don't remember which is the best--I thought it was R-59 or something like that. I'm sure someone here will know more, and/or an internet site search might tell you more. In all likelihood, the type of cable you have is stamped on its casing. If you have less than the optimal, I suspect that upgrading may help you.
 
RG6 Quad is what we use. I've used single channel traps before in a system where local channels were too strong. Channel Master, Blonder-Tonge or RMS are some of the brands.



Here's a link...
 
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:Di worked for comcast for 8 years and have a lil' knowledge on this, if your channels are either the low end (0-25) or so or around any of the over the air channels. it is either one of two things if not both. the first is "suck out" by which i mean the dialectric which is the white part around the center copper part of the cable, is sucked down into the connector, if u look inside the connector it should be flush against the hole where it and the center conductor come out of the connector, keep in mind it could be any connector in the home or outside, or two, it could mean that part of the drop coming into your residence has been cut or nixed by something or chewn through by squirrels usually, they love it for some reason, if u have one or more tvs check the other ones cause that will eliminate the inside or outside problem, if all are like that then it is outside more than likely if only 1 tv, it is either that cable ( connector or cable or splitter that feeds that line)......hope that helps
 
Maybe I should have mentioned: the "interference" I'm seeing is a ghost image of the OTA channels, not snow. I agree with you, TJR, that the lower-end cable channels must still be using analog signals, otherwise this wouldn't be happening. Part of my discovery process happened when I came home after Christmas and found out I didn't have cable TV. Oddly enough, I could still receive a viewable signal over channels 4 & 7. During my troubleshooting, I disconnected the cable between the set top box and the main house splitter, and OTA the signal went away (so my puny mental powers deduced that the cable was being used as an antenna). Turns out that sewage workers had cut the cable at the street box. Oh yeah, I should also say that the cable and OTA stations that are going out on 4 & 7 are different. For example, on cable, channel 4 is TNT, with OTA it's our local ABC affiliate.



We've had a cable guy out. That was kind of useless experience. He checked out everything he was trained to, I guess. Cable signal strength was fine. Cable itself was fine. Connections were fine. Set top box was fine. Interference on channels 4 & 7 was not.



BillV, R-59 is the current standard coax. I saw some cabling by Phillips that is supposed to better than that. I bought some shorter lengths of it to replace some of the longer runs I had.



edit: thanks for the advice, jb. All of my cabling, including the run to the street box, is less than 2 years old. All of the runs in the house are using pre-fabricated cables, so I hope it's none of those, but I'll check.
 
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I had the same thing on my cable, what they did was installed a booster which and checked everything out. The booster is a no cost to you if your cable provider dose the work.

I also bought ($45.00) a dialable power tuner which helped the mozaic break up of the picture.

It's been about 5 or 6 months now and everything seems to be working fine.

Don't know if this helps but something else to consider.



Pete

 

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