Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation in RCN

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:11:23 EDT

ranger24082 : Filters maintain the health of the plant, only in Macungie we do not use them.
We use
High pass- completely blocks any return (for just cable).
Notch filters- used for digital converters.
Limited basic- block out everything but very basic cable
Modem traps- block out all but modem frequencies.

I really see no reason for a booster with 6 lines, although i have no idea of the condition of the lines or the signal at the groundblock, if it is good quad cable i would do a 4 way to a 2 way for your tvs, with the modem and 2 hds off of the 4 way.

I see you live in northampton, i do work there sometimes, nice place to work.

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Wed, 28 May 2008 07:59:04 EDT

tigrzeye : ranger24082 ... since you mention the filters put on by RCN, are they really necessary? I have no filters in my system and run a booster as well. What problems do the the filters address and what symptoms/problems suggest you need a filter?

In my case the cable line in hits a 3 way splitter first. I have my cable modem and dvr/hd box both off that first 3 way splitter as home runs. Then off the 3 way splitter to the booster which then goes to a second splitter for the other tv's in the house. An additional HD box comes off the second splitter powered by the booster and I don't see any problems with picture.

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Mon, 26 May 2008 15:36:37 EDT

ranger24082 : you need to call a tech out.
It is not the modem at all it is probably low SNR to your apartment causing the pixelation.
If you go into the diagnostics screen by pressing power then ok within 2 seconds, then go to inband status on a known bad channel.
If your SNR is low (fair or poor) and your short term errors are above 500 you need a tech to come out.
when moving the modem, you split the cable again likely lowering your SNR.

And those Filters we put on the lines ike are only for the return path, they have no affect on what comes into your house, you would have done much better with an 8 way splitter and no amp.

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:27:31 EDT

dehmmy :

said by daveinpoway :

The 4200 seems to handle what better?

The noise on the signal. The SB5101 hangs when loading webpages big time even though it shows the signals are better. Very strange..

jay

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:24:30 EDT

ike :

said by dehmmy :

coax in >--[3-way unbalanced splitter]--> [1 to each room and cable modem in the -3.5dB slot]

I did something similar a while after we had an addition put on the house and had issues with the new drops:

Before:


        RCN 
         |
     4x-splitter 
       (-7dB)
       |  |  | |
       | CM (2 HD DVRs)
       |
     4x-splitter 
       (-7dB)
       |  |  |  |
       | (1 QAM, 2 SDTVs)
       |
     4x-splitter 
       (-7dB)
       |  |  |  |
      (2 SDTVs, 2 unused drops)

After:


        RCN 
         |
       Surge 
     Protector 
         |
     2x-splitter 
      (-3.5dB)
       |    |
       |    |
      CM   Amp 
         (+15db) 
            |
       16x-splitter
          (-15dB)
 
[unused ports on the splitter, as well as  
 unused drops capped with 75 ohm terminators]

TVs off that last splitter were getting snowy (especially in the MBR where we split again for a ReplayTV...). And one of the TVs with a QAM tuner had trouble with a few top-end channels.

After I redid things, I did noticed at first I had some pixelation with the HD-DVR boxes, but then I realized I hadn't put in the filters RCN had on the digital lines before I changed it up (I'll have to look at what they are when I get home).

After the new configuration, everything is clear all around. CM has better signal strengths than it did before and no snow anywhere...

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:37:14 EDT

alanisrox69 : It probably makes more sense to buy yourself a D-Link DCM-202 modem as it will give you a $3 credit on your bill every month...

You'll make what you spent back on the modem in less than a year via the $3 monthly credit.

-Derek-
--
CHECK YOUR FSLC TAXES!!!

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:01:29 EDT

anon : To answer NycityNy's question this has been going on for about a month after years of no problem. It began with only affecting the digital channels but after RCN switched everything to digital here in Chicago it now causes all channels to sort of pop in and out. To answer dehmmy's question the splitters were put in place by RCN. Actually there were 3 splitters at first but with the switch to all digital I lost the second tuner on my TiVo dual tuner so I removed on of the splits. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I will try to switch to a 3-way splitter and if that doesn't help will swap out cable modems.

wtnd

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:51:49 EDT

daveinpoway : The 4200 seems to handle what better?

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:41:41 EDT

dehmmy :

said by daveinpoway :

Another excellent modem is a Motorola SB51XX model.

I have both SB4200 and SB5101 and the 4200 seems to handle better..

maybe I'm crazy..

dehm

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:40:25 EDT

dehmmy :

said by wtnd :

Hi, I'm having trouble with my cable signal. I'm in an apartment with two splitters one separating living room and bedroom and then one on the living room line to my cable box and cable modem. The box that shares the splitter with the modem is pixelating badly. I switched splitters and the problem persisted and then moved the cable modem to the bedroom which moved the pixelation to the bedroom cable box. Any ideas on this? or do I just need to call in a tech? Thanks in advance.
N

1) BAD! You want the cable modem as close to the incoming coax as possible. Then I would run Ethernet CAT-5 cable to your computer or have it hooked up to WiFi. I've had many problems with linksys in terms of the way it handles packets.

2) 2 splitters isn't very good. Did you purchase these splitters or did RCN provide them?

3) Do you mean artifacts or is it actually causing the screen to be pixillated cause there is a difference.

I would get 1 unbalanced splitter from RCN and plug the cable modem into the -3.5 dB jack.

It sounds like you have 2 TVs and you are splitting it at one TV to hook the cable modem up. That will give you horrible signals.

So this is what it would look like...

coax in >--[3-way unbalanced splitter]--> [1 to each room and cable modem in the -3.5dB slot]

in other words, when the coax or jack that you hook up to when it enters your apt., have a cable hook into a 3-way unbalanced splitter in which I mean there will be one line in as the input, and three jacks to hook up cables to. two of them will be reduced lower so there's more loss on the 2 for the TV's and the 3rd will have less loss.

This is one I have »www.extreme-broadband.com/bds103h.asp

So you'd hook the cable modem to the far left one and the other two would be fore the TVs to avoid multiple splitters.

cheers,

dehm

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:59:56 EDT

nycityny : wtnd - Is this a problem that just popped up after having everything work well for awhile? Or are you a new customer experiencing this issue upon set-up?

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:03:41 EDT

daveinpoway : Another excellent modem is a Motorola SB51XX model.

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:44:47 EDT

alanisrox69 : No, boosters don't work.

My guess is, you have a bum cable modem.

I would toss the RCN supplied modem and get a D-Link DCM-202, it's WAYYYYY better than the crappyness RCN gives.

-Derek-
--
CHECK YOUR FSLC TAXES!!!

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:42:31 EDT

anon : Yes, whichever cable box shares a splitter with the cable modem pixelates. I'm wondering if some sort of booster is needed.

Re: [CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:06:25 EDT

alanisrox69 : So you are saying whereever you move the cable modem to the cable box pixelates?

-Derek-
--
CHECK YOUR FSLC TAXES!!!

[CATV] Trouble with Splitter and Pixelation

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:07:05 EDT

anon : Hi, I'm having trouble with my cable signal. I'm in an apartment with two splitters one separating living room and bedroom and then one on the living room line to my cable box and cable modem. The box that shares the splitter with the modem is pixelating badly. I switched splitters and the problem persisted and then moved the cable modem to the bedroom which moved the pixelation to the bedroom cable box. Any ideas on this? or do I just need to call in a tech? Thanks in advance.
N