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I had this problem in my house and after a lot of experimenting was able to track it down to the cable running into the house was running too close to the electrical. The cable was wire-tied to the main electrical feed for the house on the outside, and running over the top of the electrical box in the basement. After replacing the feed into the house with RG-6U, drilling a new hole into the house, and running the cable a few feet from the electrical, the problem went away. My advice for troubleshooting, try attaching a single TV to the cable feed on the outside of the house first. I did that by simply running some RG-6U out the door on the ground and connected it directly to the feed from the pole and to a TV. If the horizontal bar (hum bar) goes away, the problem is most likely caused by a cable wire somewhere running too close to electricity.
(Thanks for fmook for this one.)

Editor's Note: That horizontal bar is called a "hum bar".


Feedback received on this FAQ entry:
  • This can also appear as an annoying hum in the audio system. Home theaters and computers attached to cable modems are subject to this. In my case I have both horizontal bars and humming sound. I had a home theater system and the computer computer affected by this problem. Both the TV and the computer monitor were showing horizontal bars and the humming could be heard in the speakers of both systems. The computer was attached to the cable modem and then there is an audio cable from the computer to the home theater. The only solution was to install a ground isolator at the main cable coming from the outside.

    2010-06-24 00:09:04 (printscreen See Profile)

  • Also ......A bad electrical ground, via ground block will usually cause this. Make sure all ground wires are secure and proper. HD TV is usually the worst and first channel where you will see this. The ground should be attached from ground block to electrical ground rod, electrical service pipe or copper ground wire via rod. Grounding to inside copper or galvanized pipe is never a good idea but will work.

    2010-04-13 19:05:11

  • Ground loop - ground from cable (coax) is using the same ground as the power to the TV. with both units plugged into the TV, there is a ground loop induced in the TV. Remove the ground for the TV, or reduce the size of the loop.

    2009-12-19 22:14:45

  • humbars are caused by bad grounding (most of the time from what I have seen). In a modern house with 3 pronged plugs you will never see a humbar because the TV grounds out the CATV system, however if you have a non grounded drop running to a TV that has no ground you can allmost garantee that you will see a humbar. I run my arrial drops directly to power meters 90% of the time right along the threephase distro and even behind the meter base down to the power meter and never ever see humbars unless I haven't grounded yet.

    2009-04-10 21:07:24

  • Bad picture tubes is usually the main cause I run into. Try popping in a dvd or vcr tape and unhooking the cable line from wherever its going(into tv or vcr for example) if the lines are still running across the tv in anyway, up down, left right, then you know its not the cable line. I had a guy pay the cable company $75 for the service call for me to show him this and explain to him he needed a new tv or to get his fixed which I recommended not doing these days, unless its a pricey set.

    2008-12-06 03:58:47

  • cableguy78199- humbar issues can also be caused by an improper ground. the ground wire at the pre-wire should be on a ground rod or cold water pipe, nothing else!

    2008-04-06 15:54:45

  • hum bars can also be from poor grounding at the home

    2007-09-22 03:13:51 (jpalen See Profile)



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by Raydr See Profile
last modified: 2005-05-17 10:41:08