will having too many splitters affect performance? in Verizon FIOS TV http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20487672 en Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:37:32 EDT Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:37:32 EDT Re: will having too many splitters affect performance? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20489188 birdfeedr :
said by tygman See Profile :

The way they wired my FIOS is from the Coax on the ONT -> 3 way splitter -> 2 wires going to STBs , the other going to a 2-way splitter-> then 1 wire going to an STB and the other going to ANOTHER 2-way splitter-> 1 going to STB, 1going to actiontec router.

So basically the actiontec is behind 3 splitters. The splitters are all the same brand -"PDI Mega Splitter"

Just curious if it would be better to have the actiontec through as least splitters as possible?
The way I understand it, and I may have it wrong, is that a signal is split into two with a loss in signal strength typically 3.5dB. The circuit that splits produces two output signals.

A two-way splitter generates two signals at 3.5dB loss each.

A three-way splitter takes one of those outputs and splits it again. Typically, a three way splitter has a 3.5dB loss output and two 7dB loss outputs.

A four-way splitter has four 7db loss outputs.

An 8-way splitter has 8 11db loss outputs.

These are the numbers on the consumer-grade parts I've seen, similar to what Verizon installed here. These are in the class of Passive Splitters. There may be other circuits that are used to split a video signal with different losses.

But this is what you can expect to see installed by VZ and the cable companies.

The only reason you might have a problem with multiple splitters versus 1 8-way splitter, is there are more cable segments with terminations when you have multiple splitters before the signal gets to the final destination.

Here's a link that may be informative.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20489188 Thu, 15 May 2008 18:52:23 EDT Re: will having too many splitters affect performance? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20488258 tygman : Yeah.. I was wondering why he didn't use a 6 splitter or something. Seems kind of the lazy way to do it. The DirectTV cable that was here says "CATV 18 AMG" on it. Doesn't mention RG6 anywhere but I'm assuming it is.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20488258 Thu, 15 May 2008 16:18:53 EDT Re: will having too many splitters affect performance? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20487814 RScottyL : Yeah, I am thinking they could have done that better.

You normally want as few as splitters as possible, because everytime you split the signal, there is at least SOME signal loss.

He could have started with a 4-way splitter or a 6-way splitter.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20487814 Thu, 15 May 2008 14:52:09 EDT Re: will having too many splitters affect performance? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20487801 PoloDude : Dtv used RG6 you should be able to read the type on the cable. Your setup should not cause any problems. If you can rerun all the cable back to one location that would be better.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20487801 Thu, 15 May 2008 14:49:29 EDT will having too many splitters affect performance? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20487672 tygman : The way they wired my FIOS is from the Coax on the ONT -> 3 way splitter -> 2 wires going to STBs , the other going to a 2-way splitter-> then 1 wire going to an STB and the other going to ANOTHER 2-way splitter-> 1 going to STB, 1going to actiontec router.

So basically the actiontec is behind 3 splitters. The splitters are all the same brand -"PDI Mega Splitter"

Just curious if it would be better to have the actiontec through as least splitters as possible?

Also, since they used some existings DirectTV wires to go to the STBs, I'm not sure if they were RG6 coax or not - the way I understand it is that RG6 coax is shielded better from EMFields than previous versions. Would the wires DirectTV installed 2 years ago have been RG6 as well?

Thanks, tygman]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20487672 Thu, 15 May 2008 14:26:33 EDT