Problem with cable signal - BBC2/TV3 bad

biebiebie

Hoping someone can make some suggestions to fix my cable problem!

First of my problem is poor reception on NTL cable on some stations. It's been like this for a long time; I guess my patience has just worn out! In particular BBC2 and TV3 are bad - the image looks poor in quality, as in fuzzy.

My setup is as follows:-

Box on outside of house just on outside of sitting room. NTL cable goes into a 2 way metal splitter. One output goes into the sittingroom - cable laid by original builder and connected by NTL. The interior NTL wall box is just on the other side of the wall to the exterior NTL cable feed.

The other output goes up to the bedroom - cable was laid by the original builder, but was not connected by NTL (I connected it myself using a splitter in the outside wall box).

Up stairs I have a 'plain/cheap' white DIY TV socket on the wall, plugs direct into TV. Reception here is good enough.

In the sittingroom is the 'official' NTL wall socket box. Usually goes through a VCR, then TV. Reception here (BBC2/TV3) is bad.

To aid in diagnosing the problem, I have removed the splitter in the outside box, using a small joining connector piece, connected the NTL cable to the sittingroom cable. I have then connected the TV directly to the NTL cable wall socket. There is a slight improvement in reception, however BBC2/ TV3 are still visibly bad.

I was considering contacting NTL, however the splitter connection in the outside box is DIY, which I did over 10 years ago! I think it used to be an F-type connector (?) on the outside NTL cable feed. However I think I removed it and put a cable type connector on it instead so that it would connect into the splitter. The splitter used to be a white plastic one, but i recently replaced it with a metal one to see if it improved anything, but it didn't. Therefore I'm kind of stuck calling NTL

Any suggestion? Would a TV signal booster work?

Please keep in mind I'm not technical at all in the electronics department - I'm sure that already shows though in my post!

watty

Moved from Terrestrial to Cable

watty

No a booster usually makes cable signals worse.

Contact NTL.

10000maniacs

Get a digital box, At €20 a month for the basic digital package, its €3.50 cheaper than analogue.

bazzer

Sounds like you have a shielding problem. Any cable originally installed by building contractors tends to be the cheapest - and worst at keeping outside interference at bay.

You'll need to re-wire your entire installation using quality double-screened cable with fully enclosed metal-type splitters and outlet boxes using F-connectors.

biebiebie

Cheers for the reply.

I prefer analogue as we can watch different stations on several TV's at the same time.

Where's the best place to buy good cable and f-connectors then? Somewhere thats easy to get to/order from (Dublin/Lucan area).