Weird dish hookup-through old TWC splitter.

[SmokeFan14]

Was under the house trying to fix a leak and as I was finishing up, I noticed a cable running toward my old TWC box outside the house. Upon further investigation ( by following a maze of cables), I realized a Dish installer ran a cable for a 3rd TV in the kids room through a splitter from TWC. Honestly, I couldn't decipher what cable is going where and how they did it... It's only rated 5/1000MHz. Is this a big deal? I mean, will this degrade the PQ? It looks kinda shabby but it IS for a 25" TV in my kids room so unless it'll make a huge difference, I'm not gonna worry about it. Could I just buy a higher-rated splitter that's for sat. use only and it give better PQ? Also, I noticed the cable going INTO my receiver from the dish is barrell-connected..Is this killing my PQ on my 50"? It seems fine, but I obviously (unbeknownst to me) haven't been watching my TV through a direct, single connection. Man, I got shafted on a hookup. Next time I need to supervise the installation, I guess. Heck, I might even call to get someone out here to completely reinstall my whole system. A $100.00 service call is pretty cheap considering the work that will have to be done and I'm no tech. guy!

 

[tempVAdish]

Is there a reciever in the kids' room? I guessing not because there's no way 2 recievers will work properly w/ a "splitter", & perhaps that it is on the RF out of the main reciever "mirroring" that signal to the kids... If so, the splitter will not degrade that much. 5-1000MHz is a pretty big bandwidth for CATV, when I used to work for Falcon, the top end was about 500MHz. As far as the barrel going into the reciever, it will not affect quality of the picture, on the TV, but could affect the signal going to the reciever, but only in a "there, not there" kind of way (intermittant signal loss)...

 

[SmokeFan14]

Is there a reciever in the kids' room? I guessing not because there's no way 2 recievers will work properly w/ a "splitter", & perhaps that it is on the RF out of the main reciever "mirroring" that signal to the kids... If so, the splitter will not degrade that much. 5-1000MHz is a pretty big bandwidth for CATV, when I used to work for Falcon, the top end was about 500MHz. As far as the barrel going into the reciever, it will not affect quality of the picture, on the TV, but could affect the signal going to the reciever, but only in a "there, not there" kind of way (intermittant signal loss)...

No, only one 622 in the living room. I have 2 other TVs. One in my bedroom and one in the kids'. However, when I disconnect one cable from the splitter, I lose BOTH signals on the secondary TVs. Make sense? Told you it's weird! And the barrel connector is connecting 2 cables, one of which is going into the receiver. I just ASSumed one direct run is better than a connected-together run. Am I wrong?? As far as the splitter itself goes, I've seen ones for satellites that's rated much higher than 1000MHz and wondered if that's why their PQ is crappy. Maybe it can't handle what the system is throwing at it?

 

[whatchel1]

Little to worry about

Was under the house trying to fix a leak and as I was finishing up, I noticed a cable running toward my old TWC box outside the house. Upon further investigation ( by following a maze of cables), I realized a Dish installer ran a cable for a 3rd TV in the kids room through a splitter from TWC. Honestly, I couldn't decipher what cable is going where and how they did it... It's only rated 5/1000MHz. Is this a big deal? I mean, will this degrade the PQ? It looks kinda shabby but it IS for a 25" TV in my kids room so unless it'll make a huge difference, I'm not gonna worry about it. Could I just buy a higher-rated splitter that's for sat. use only and it give better PQ? Also, I noticed the cable going INTO my receiver from the dish is barrell-connected..Is this killing my PQ on my 50"? It seems fine, but I obviously (unbeknownst to me) haven't been watching my TV through a direct, single connection. Man, I got shafted on a hookup. Next time I need to supervise the installation, I guess. Heck, I might even call to get someone out here to completely reinstall my whole system. A $100.00 service call is pretty cheap considering the work that will have to be done and I'm no tech. guy!

The TV 2 output will only go as high as 806 Mhz, so the cable splitter that passes up to 1000Mhz will not make any difference at all. As long as there are not to many splits coming out of the splitter (2 is no problem). A single run would be better but the barrel connector on the input will only cause problems if it gets wet and corrodes or rust the connection. Now you will need to check again and find out what is connecting the DVR to the 50" set. If it is an HDMI or component cable you didn't get screwed.

 

[SmokeFan14]

The TV 2 output will only go as high as 806 Mhz, so the cable splitter that passes up to 1000Mhz will not make any difference at all. As long as there are not to many splits coming out of the splitter (2 is no problem). A single run would be better but the barrel connector on the input will only cause problems if it gets wet and corrodes or rust the connection. Now you will need to check again and find out what is connecting the DVR to the 50" set. If it is an HDMI or component cable you didn't get screwed.

I have HDMI to the TV. Thanks a lot for the responses! I guess I'll just leave the set-up the way it is. However, next time I'm gettin' under the house with the install guy to insure a quality installation!

 

[Agonizing Fury]

I have HDMI to the TV. Thanks a lot for the responses! I guess I'll just leave the set-up the way it is. However, next time I'm gettin' under the house with the install guy to insure a quality installation!

If disconnecting the TV2 output makes both of the other TVs go out then that is called a mirror image. If you didn't get charged $60 for that then your tech did you a favor. Mirror images are not part of a standard installation. The signal going to your mirror imaged televisions falls in the range that splitter can handle and unless that splitter had problems, there was no reason whatsoever for the tech to replace it.

You are correct that a straight run feed is better than having a barrel in the line, however running a straight line from the receiver is not always probable. If part of the line is attached in a wall somewhere, replacing it could involve some pretty nasty work, so one barrel is perfectly acceptable in this case. Dish Network's Quality Assurance requirements state that there can be no "unnecessary" barrels between the Ground block and receiver. I cannot see your installation, so I can't say for sure if the barrel is necessary, but one barrel in your line should not be affecting your signal integrity in any noticeable fashion.

 

[SmokeFan14]

If disconnecting the TV2 output makes both of the other TVs go out then that is called a mirror image. If you didn't get charged $60 for that then your tech did you a favor. Mirror images are not part of a standard installation. The signal going to your mirror imaged televisions falls in the range that splitter can handle and unless that splitter had problems, there was no reason whatsoever for the tech to replace it.

You are correct that a straight run feed is better than having a barrel in the line, however running a straight line from the receiver is not always probable. If part of the line is attached in a wall somewhere, replacing it could involve some pretty nasty work, so one barrel is perfectly acceptable in this case. Dish Network's Quality Assurance requirements state that there can be no "unnecessary" barrels between the Ground block and receiver. I cannot see your installation, so I can't say for sure if the barrel is necessary, but one barrel in your line should not be affecting your signal integrity in any noticeable fashion.

Sorry for any confusion..No, the TVs (2nd & 3rd) go out when I disconnect them from the Time Warner splitter on the outside of my house, not the output on my receiver. The installer (who was pissed as soon as he found out what I wanted him to do- nobody told him what I requested beforehand) only added the barrel connector because it would have required him to run another length of cable. Basically, he took the lazy route. I had a dish 500 that was mast mounted for years, then I requested to have a Dish1000 mounted on my house when I went HD, about 30ft away. He basically connected those 2 runs with the barrel instead of making 1 new, continuous connection from the new dish location to my receiver. So, nah, it wasn't necessary. A buddy of mine helped me figure all this out. Like I said, I'm NO tech-y kind of guy. He's a tech guru. He's gonna come over soon and we're gonna stream-line it ALL.