2 tv/fm splitters in series ? upc

col123

i was helping a friend with his tv, and started to trace his hidden cables as best i could, they are mostly behind skirting boards. bit of a diy mess.

he seems to have 2 tv/fm splitters in series, one without a cover and the second one with a upc cover, i think he has a hidden Y splitter feeding a spare portable tv in between.

so thats the upc cable from the roof to a tv/fm splitter, tv output end to a Y splitter, one Y end to a portable, other Y end to a upc tv/fm splitter, finally to his digibox.

i think the first uncovered hanging over a skirting board tv/fm splitter was his original ntl cable access point, which was on a wall, that no longer exists due to the room being extended.

when he upgraded to the upc digital with the recording ability, should the installer not have given him a clean feed to the digibox when he upgraded ? would he have to pay for a clean feed to be installed now?

col123

"daisy chained" is it the norm ?


|
tv/fm splitter
|
tv/fm splitter
|
digibox


might even be this

|
tv/fm splitter
|
Y splitter____portable tv
|
tv/fm splitter
|
digibox

snaps

not 100% sure what your getting at here? Theres no need for a second tv/fm splitter to be installed after the 1st one?

col123

thanks for the reply snaps.

this is my friends cable setup now.

he just changed his crt for a big lcd (his first non-crt tv). the picture isnt as good now, but its hard to tell if its because of his cable setup or the new lcd creating the problems.

could this cable set up introduce interference ?
would upc give him a fresh clean feed from roof to digibox for free ?

PauloMN

col123 wrote: »

thanks for the reply snaps.

this is my friends cable setup now.

he just changed his crt for a big lcd (his first non-crt tv). the picture isnt as good now, but its hard to tell if its because of his cable setup or the new lcd creating the problems.

could this cable set up introduce interference ?
would upc give him a fresh clean feed from roof to digibox for free ?

I assume he has the DVR from UPC. If he's getting a picture, it won't improve by changing cables. It's a digital service, so it'll either work or not - unless his signal level is borderline and he's experiencing picture breakup.

He's probably got a larger LCD television than the analogue one he had and is seeing pixelation he's not used to. This will be the case with any SD (standard def) digital TV service. People assume that "upgrading" to an LCD television will result in better pictures - it's often not the case. Some of the LCDs I've seen are dreadful.

He should however remove redundant splits in the cable. As snaps has pointed out, why is there a second splitter in line with the first one?

col123

PauloMN wrote: »

I assume he has the DVR from UPC. If he's getting a picture, it won't improve by changing cables. It's a digital service, so it'll either work or not - unless his signal level is borderline and he's experiencing picture breakup.

yeah DVR pauloMN, thanks, so its like hdmi, full picture or no picture, or in very rare cases picture break up. and you cant get a degraded picture from interference before the digibox.

PauloMN wrote: »

He's probably got a larger LCD television than the analogue one he had and is seeing pixelation he's not used to. This will be the case with any SD (standard def) digital TV service. People assume that "upgrading" to an LCD television will result in better pictures - it's often not the case. Some of the LCDs I've seen are dreadful.

i tried to break all this to him gently, and told him he'd stop seeing it after a while, right now hes still at the flicking around channels looking for pixelation stage.

PauloMN wrote: »

He should however remove redundant splits in the cable. As snaps has pointed out, why is there a second splitter in line with the first one?

AFAIK the first tv/fm splitter in the first diagram was his only analogue NTL access point a few years ago. he knocked down the wall this splitter was attached to and ran a hidden cable from this tv/fm splitters tv out to a hidden Y splitter, and from the Y outs ran 2 hidden cables to 2 rf out faceplates in 2 different rooms. the second faceplate was replaced with a UPC tv/fm splitter boxed access point when he went digital with the DVR, giving the second diagram.

but he has picture with no breakup ever.

so you are saying any image degradation could only be caused after the digibox, either via analogue scart output or from the lcds algorithms itself ?
i always thought you shouldn't have any joins where possible, is that just old analogue thinking.

PauloMN

Well it's better to do away with unnecessary joins, that's for sure. If he is not using or intending to use any of the points, he should do away with the Y split for that point.

I don't think the 2nd NTL splitter is a good idea, it's certainly not required assuming the TV/FM split has already occurred further up the line, and the TVs are fed from the TV output. The NTL installer probably had no idea how things had been wired up and was playing safe.

As for the poor picture, if there's no break-up and the picture is solid, he won't get a better picture by changing RF (coax) cables. He would on analogue for sure, but not on digital. He could try a new quality SCART cable between the DVR and TV, especially if he's using a really cheap one. Other than that, there's nothing he can do really.

col123

thanks for the education paulMN