Where to post for AV Receiver help?

[madmartian]

My receiver is emitting a buzzing sound when I plug the cable from cable TV into my VCR - even when I am not switched to the VCR! That's a bit off topic for this web site, so what web site should I post that on? Feel free to try to help me remove the buzzing if you happen to know something, though. :)

Thanks,

-Mike

[TooLFooL]

is the buzzing coming from the speakers or the actual receiver?

[NiteLite]

I've heard that before. Using coax?
I think the solution we came up with (had a friend with the problem) was making sure the power cords ran bundled down one side of the cabinet and the coax and other feed cords down the other. Keeping the power seperated from the feed cords as far as possible helped. We also regrounded the Turntable while back there.
I think it helped but dont remember if it was gone completely. I now think it was a bad cord (composite) in the mix.
Sorry it has been a few years and my memory is just well pretty bad.
I've always found the "process of elimination" method to be of help. Start pulling cords if one stops it, probably the culprit.
Good luck as I know this can be aggrevating.
NL

[ZAPPER]

Is this what they call Ground loop?

Swaping around the power sources from circuit to circuit might help. Pulgging into a good multi outlet surge protector could help too. Check to make sure that the cable coming into your house is grounded at a ground block for cable. (this is usually a little peice of hardware that the coax is attached to one side and leaves the other side like a splice. There will be a place to attach a wire to this block and from there the wire needs to be grounded to a water pipe or such with another special clamp)

There are some arguements about grounding and even some discrepencies (SP) in some codes about it, but for what little I know, I think that a dedicated isolated ground is the way to go. That is a seperate ground wire for each outlet/device all the way back to the point of ground. This cost money and is often not required by codes. However I am seeing more and more callouts for it on building plans especially when cash registers, telephone equipment and other electronic equipment are known to be used at that area.

Of course I would start with the trial and error method as stated above

[gadgetguy]

It sounds to me like you've lost the ground connection to your incoming cable. I had a soft hum on all my video captures for a while because the screw on the grounding block either loosened up or corroded, but it was the poor ground that caused it. Once I tightened it up, the hum went away.

FYI - Never count on a water pipe as a ground source anymore. Too much of it is done in plastic these days.
A dedicated isolated ground is important in commercial or industrial wiring, but is much less important in residential wiring. Commercial/Industrial circuits commonly come from subpanels and often share neutrals and grounds for different phases. This is far less common in houses where there's only one panel (main) and almost everything is wired with NMS cable (romex) containing the neutral and ground for each circuit and load sharing is seldom done. It is a good idea to have a dedicated circuit installed for your media/computer equipment, but I don't think that's what is needed in this case.

[madmartian]

I think the cable not being properly grounded is the problem. I can order a "cable ground isolator" for about $50, but I am going to try to get Comcast to fix the problem. Thanks for the tips.