TV Cable.

[WLeg]

Can anyone tell me if TV Ariel cabling suffers any problems with noise ?

I have a reasonable ariel, going into a 8-way amp/splitter thingy. Cable runs from here to various TV’s around the house. All are OK except one – the one we watch the most, which sometimes when watching freeview channels drops the pictures with the message “poor signal”.

The cable to this TV is by far the longest run we have, and does do in parallel to data, and some power as well.

I have tried putting an amp between the wall socket and the TV – after the long cable run, and this has not helped.

 

[nickcc101]

Used to be able to buy low loss cable with improved insulation, don't know now as i only use sat cable. Try changing the cables round in your splitter/booster, if it moves the problem may be fault with the splitter/booster.

 

[rf065]

I have the same problem, good ariel, 8 way splitter/amp and one TV which occasionally breaks up and shows poor signal.

Interestingly, the problem TV with occasional poor signal, is connected to the same outlet that did not work at all when we first moved in. The builders sent someone round to fix it and he reckoned the connection at the back of the wall socket was the problem and after he left it has been working fine, until I swapped the TV leads around and disturbed the connection at the wall. I would guess the problem is behind the socket in the wall or else other TV's would display the same fault?

Russ

 

[scooter]

Another Solution Is Corrosion In The Cable If It Is New A Outside Wall My Sky Up Stairs Went Of Then Next Day It Was Back On Had Enough Pulled Out Wire New Wire Fitted From Sky Box To Upstairs And Now The Picture Is 100 Times Better Than What It Was

 

[WLeg]

It's all new cable of the same type....

I've redone the all connections...but will try the change the outlet on the 8-way as well....

 

[grober]

You could try on of those plug into the wall aerial boosters might just get you over the low signal threshold. There are different grades of 75 ohm cable mainly in the screening used. These people don't like wall plates! http://www.aerialsandtv.com/cableandleads.html

 

[Piff]

Yes you do get signal loss over distance with coaxial cable.
I had a setup with a 4 way amp & cheap coaxial cable before re-modelling the house. Picture was poor throughout the house, particularly on the longer runs.
I went to a local aerial firm for advice when rewiring & if I remember correctly they said you can lose approx 2db/m!
They recommended hige grade shielded cable - like satelite cable, but also the insulator around the central core should be the foam type not the cheaper open cell type.
Cable runs are now longer than before but with the better cable, picture quality is great.

 

[Stratman]

What does the picture look like on analogue? If it is very noisy or has big reflections then putting in an extra amplifier will not improve matters since you are just amplifying the noise or reflections. Because the Freeview signal is (until analogue is switched off) broadcast at low power it is susceptible to interference from all sorts of things (like the chav on his unsupressed scooter that whizzes past my house. One day there'll be cheesewire across the road.....).

All you can do (like Piff found out) is use decent cable and most importantly make sure every connection in the chain is as good as can be. Take apart each coax connector and ensure that it is making a good connection with the conductors. If the centre one isn't soldered be sure that it is properly contacting the inside of the pin. I put a slight curve in the centre wire before sliding it into the pin. This makes a better contact.

Wall boxes are another place where you can lose a large amount of signal. The incoming cable is usually held in place by a clamp that also provides the earth connection. As the cable ages this clamp can lose pressure on it and you get a poor connection. These are well worth checking.

 

[raymont]

It could be the TV itself. Have several TVs and some seem able to cope with a weak signal than others.

Try using a different tv in place of the one giving trouble to see if that helps.