NTL analogue signal problems

FrankGrimes

I just had some work done on the NTL wiring in the house to setup TV in the extension, as a result of the additional split in the NTL inbound cable, my setup in the sitting room seems to have been affected.

I have am running NTL analogue cable into the PVR 500MCE card in my htpc (Vista MCE) and am running another coax into my set-top box (not connecting to MCE for unrelated reason). I have a splitter which I think splits the output 50-50 (it has 4.0db written on each exit) and the digital picture from the set-top box is perfect, but the analogue signal through the Media Center is awful. Is there anything I can do to boost the analogue signal?

bazwaldo

You can buy plug in boosters which also split. Argos or Powercity.

Is the picture bad if your MC TV connection is inserted straight into the TV?

How I have mine which means I can watch Media center and digital anywhere is to have the coax split at the start, one for STB and one for Video. Then after the video I have a 4-way booster splitter which goes to the main TV and all other TVs about the house. Then I output from the STB and MC go to the video, so if I change the video channel to the scart input, I can view it on all tellys.

FrankGrimes

bazwaldo wrote:

You can buy plug in boosters which also split. Argos or Powercity.

Is the picture bad if your MC TV connection is inserted straight into the TV?

How I have mine which means I can watch Media center and digital anywhere is to have the coax split at the start, one for STB and one for Video. Then after the video I have a 4-way booster splitter which goes to the main TV and all other TVs about the house. Then I output from the STB and MC go to the video, so if I change the video channel to the scart input, I can view it on all tellys.

Thanks Baz.

Are the plug in boosters any good? I guess I was wary of them as it just sounded like a gimmick, but if they'll do the job I'll buy one. I'll try taking the coax cable currently going into the htpc and plugging it directly into the TV to confirm if its the signal or MCE that is causing the poor quality.

My head is too melted today to fully understand your last paragraph, but is the gist of it saying its best to do some boosting and splitting in the attic?

mukki

FrankGrimes wrote:

Thanks Baz.

Are the plug in boosters any good? I guess I was wary of them as it just sounded like a gimmick, but if they'll do the job I'll buy one. I'll try taking the coax cable currently going into the htpc and plugging it directly into the TV to confirm if its the signal or MCE that is causing the poor quality.

My head is too melted today to fully understand your last paragraph, but is the gist of it saying its best to do some boosting and splitting in the attic?

buy the booster box in argos, just in case

bazwaldo

The 4-way one I have, I'd say I have 6 years or more and I got it in Power City. It was 20 quid I think. Either there or Argos are good bets.

I have it behind the telly, not in the attic. It has to be beside the video for my "digital around the house" solution to work.

FrankGrimes

ah, so you must have multiple uplinks from the living room back up to other rooms in the house then? I don't have that, so attic would be the only option which obviously doesn't suit digital unless I used IR transmitters to relay remote control actions from living room up to the STB in attic. I think my plan back at that stage was to use my network to disribute TV via media center extenders as opposed to digital direct to each room (though I'm cancelling the digital soon).

I took the coax from htpc and put it direct into the tv - signal was far better than through MCE, but still far, far from perfect, so I'll get a booster.

Is there any way I can get MCE to re-scan the frequencies of the channels? Can't find how to do this, but it might help.

FrankGrimes

I bought a OneForAll 2 way booster for both analogue and digital cable in Argos the other day and it's making a great improvement - the analogue is now a very decent signal - nice one.