techniques/steps to improve cable reception

[colt4523]

I am looking to improve my cable reception. I have regular cable and most of the tv's in the house suffer from noise. I have 4 tv's and the cable is split a couple time. What can I do to try to improve the quality of my reception allowing me to keep all 4 tv's with cable?

[jameshgross]

Contact your cable company, have them check the signal level comming
into the house. If it to low for a 4 way split a line amp can be installed.

[redwudz]

Depends on your cable company. They often only guarantee good reception to one set. If you can get a good picture with only one set connected, then, yes, you need a amplifier. Just make sure that one set has a good picture, if not, call your cable company.

Every splitter has some loss. With four sets connected, you likely need a distribution amplifier. If the cable company hooked up all four sets, then they need to fix it. If you did it, it's your problem.

[hudsonf]

I would try connecting the main cable directly to your tv.If you get a good signal try hooking up one tv at a time until you get a bad signal. I had problems once with my Comcast Cable. The first thing the tech did was unhook my amp. Then he replaced all my Radio Shack splitters. He said I didn't need a amp because the signal coming in was strong enough to supply a apartment house and I was over driving the system. He also said the Radio Shack splitters are junk. If you have a good signal coming in you may just need better cables and/or splitters. If you don't have a good signal with only one tv hooked up call your provider.

[jntaylor63]

Not to be a smart ass,

Dump your cable and Get Dish Network / DirecTV or Voom.

Sorry, but cable is over-priced and under quality. The deals that the sat. companies have today are to good to turn down.

[Nelson37]

I have heard the same info on the Radio Shack splitters, but note that the guy telling you this is trying to sell you his splitter.

I had some success with a line amp, though getting new cable run really solved the problem, as did going to digital cable. New cable also increased Internet speed.

Since have changed to Satellite, many problems solved but no AC3 sound, which was coming on Cable. (2.0 already there, 5.1 soon)

[colt4523]

Some good advice. I will try the 1 tv hook up first then go from there. I probably should break done and get dish network though.

[garrisonkw]

Point of interest... Radioshack sells two different splitters - a crap one and a good one. The good one costs more, but is less likely to introduce noise into your system. It also supports a higher bandwidth passthrough for cable modem and digital cable systems.

Also note that these things should be replaced at least once every ten years or so anyways. I've seen dozens of corroded or otherwise less than ideal splitters in use.