Explain this four way cable splitter please!

eggerb

Could somebody please explain the two different dB outs on the splitter below.

Which out is giving the better signal? The one marked 7.3dB or the 7.7dB?



I need three outs: one for the sitting room, bedroom and kitchen. The one that goes to the sitting room needs to be split again for the broadband modem and the TV. I'm using a UPC provided tap in the sitting room. The TV is connected to the 6.5dB tap and the modem to the 2.2 dB out.

Is using a 4 way splitter when I only need three outs a bad idea?

The sitting room and kitchen connections are good. Could a poor connection in the bedroom degrade the signal in the sitting room?

eggerb

I might be answering my own question here.... Is the dB a measure of the loss? Therefore, the 7.3dB is the marginally better signal? Therefore, If I am splitting the sitting room one again, I might be better off with a 3 way slitter that has a lower dB on one of the outs such as this one

I suppose the one above is just an option ... there is a complete range here with losses from 8.5 to 24dB : http://technetix.pl/html_ENG/odgalezniki_dwudrozne.htm

Any advice much appreciated.

Bazzy

yes the markings is the loss from each leg of the splitter

eggerb

eggerb wrote: »

If I am splitting the sitting room one again, I might be better off with a 3 way slitter that has a lower dB on one of the outs

anybody? thanks.

bob11

Hi Eggerb,

I think you probably know the anwer yourself, but reducing the splitter loss to the Broadband modem is essential ..

Is there anyway of getting UPC to run in separate cabled feeds to the 3 points ?

I had a problem recently with UPC Voice calls failing intermittently and UPC came out to investigate .. I had a 2 way splitter at the point where my Broadband modem was, with 3.6 dBs + 4.0 dBs loss on each leg ..

When they measured my signal,(after the splitter) it was borderline ..
My TV picture was fine, but when they ran the test on channel 750, it failed. This will cause problems with the soon to be launched On Demand services.

UPC guys were suggesting running in an extra feed from outside, which would be very difficult due to the layout of my Box ..
They investigated the external cabling and spotted that my feed from outside was on another 4dB splitter externally and they were able to reroute me to a direct feed from the distribution Point ..

This had the effect of increasing my internal signal (before splitting ) by 4dBs which fixed my voice call drops problem and my channel 750 now passed as well. (I had to restart the UPC HD box first )

Try and reduce your losses to your broadband modem in whatever way possible. I think even if you change to the 3 way splitter, using the lowest loss for your feed to modem (4 dB loss) plus an additional 2 way splitter (2.2 dB loss), the total loss will probably be too great, unless you have an extremely strong incoming signal.

But you might be lucky. Give it a try and see ..

bulbs2010

upc will run a second drop in for your modem it sounds like you need it

eggerb

Cheers bob11. i hadn't even considered a seperate cable run by UPC. The only thing stopping me doing that is one of the cables runs to point where I am just using the analogue signal without paying a second multiroom. Foof for thought though. Thanks again.