Cable Drop Cleanup

[koberhol]

Per some of the other threads I have posted I am a bit new to HTPC. I was reading this thread
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =13&t=6125
which I found very very informative. Just the type of discussion/debate I was looking for which made me go look at the front end to my system and look for improvement.

My cable drop into my home is connected as follows. Line in connected 2-way splitter. One end goes to my cable modem. The other to a 3-way splitter...
i) Ceton 6ETH
ii) Unused Cable to Family Room TV (no connection at wall outlet)
iii) Unused Cable to Bedroom TV (no connection at wall outlet)

The "i" and "ii" are just recent as I have become comfortable enough to send back my cable boxes. I also have multiple other unconnected cable drops to other rooms that I honestly would like to at least have them connected to some type of splitter, but no final connection.. kind of stand bye, as backup. Or when I eventually sell the house and take my HTPC someone doesn't say "What the @#$%" with what's left for connected cable wiring.

Currently my ETH 6 spread on channels is -3.5 to -5.7 db. I have no idea what my S/N ratio is.

Now my Questions!!!

a) Do amplifiers have any benefit in cleaning the incoming signal in regard to S/N? or should I just accept that at my drop its as good as it's going to get?
b) Should I 2-way split.
i) Cable Modem.
ii) Electroline EDA-2800 for all other connections.
c) Should I 3-way split.
i) Cable Modem.
ii) Ceton 6ETH
iii) Electroline EDA-2800 for all other not currently used connections

My most important need is the best possible signal strength for the 6ETH. With that said I'm worried that option "b" will possibly be noise sharing within the EDA-2800 if that's possible, though it does recover lost db from the split. While option "c" suffers a bit from the db drop in the 3-way splitter to the 6ETH. I have the Cable Modem in both examples as an individual connection as I have read some things in the past, Electroline facts to some of their other amps, about not running that through the amp.

Please also feel free to suggest other brands of AMPS or even the EVO1-9-U/U if applicable.

Thank you in advance.

[mdavej]

Remove the 3-way entirely and leave the 2 unused rooms disconnected. Avoid amps. They amplify everything, including noise and don't clean anything.

[barnabas1969]

I agree with mdavej. There is no reason to connect cables that go to unused wall jacks. If you need them in the future, deal with it then. If you sell the house, the new owner will have the cable guy come connect the runs they need.

[koberhol]

So I used took the advice and reduced down to the 2-way splitter. Checked my 6ETH... Saw that I was now at +0.5 to -0.5 dB on all channels... Became fat dumb and very happy! Then my wife says "well I was thinking it would be nice to have tv's in 2 bathrooms.... lol..

So with the results above. I just want to add basic cable tv to the bathrooms (no premium channels). My cable company (wide open west) offers a Digital Adapter that must be used with older non-cable ready tv's (from what I am told). However, I don't want to pay them $2.00 per month forever. I also don't want to pay $130 for an extender. I figure I'll buy a couple of small cable ready tv's. Will that work? Lastly, Should I 4-way split my signal or am I now in the territory of an AMP or Unity Gain Filter? I aslo want to believe that CableCard will one day support "return path support" for Video on Demand (Dreamer). So what is the recomendation?

[barnabas1969]

You need to check with your cable provider to see if they have any non-encrypted QAM channels, known as "clear QAM" channels. If they do, then you'll be able to receive these with a TV that has a QAM tuner (note that this is different from being simply "cable ready", as that term was also used to describe TV's that only had NTSC tuners). Every new TV you can buy has a built-in QAM tuner.

The problem, though, is that many cable providers are beginning to encrypt even your local CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX/PBS channels. If your cable provider does not encrypt them, then you can use a TV with a built-in QAM tuner to receive them. However, you probably won't be able to receive any of the cable-only channels.

If your signal strength is as good as you say it is, then replacing the 2-way splitter with a 4-way splitter should be OK. Don't daisy-chain splitters though. In other words, try to avoid connecting the output of one splitter to the input of another splitter. A typical 2-way splitter attenuates the signal 3.5dB. A typical 4-way splitter attenuates the signal 7dB. So, if your channels are all +0.5 to -0.5 dB, replacing the 2-way with a 4-way should result in signals that are -3.0 to -4.0dB. That is still OK.

In regard to your wish that CableCARD will one day support On-Demand, well... keep dreaming. The CableCARD itself is capable of two-way communication. The tuner (in this case, the InfiniTV6-ETH) is not. There have been some proposals for new two-way tuners, but Cable Labs, the cable companies, and the FCC still haven't come to an agreement on that. I don't think we'll see anything new in that regard for the next 5-10 years.

[koberhol]

Awesome info barnabas. Thank you,