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Forum Thread
how many times can i split a cable connection?
July 5, 2009 at
01:01 PM
how many times can i split a cable connection at a single source, without losing signal to the point i dont have a viable signal for tv or internet? i have to run it to 6 different locations (for the office, bedrooms, family rooms and phone). if splitting the signal x6 is too much, what are my options? do i have to have another line run into my house? and do they make a 6way splitter?
also, if i want to add cable to other rooms, assuming 6 is not too many already, would i be able to add it to 2 more rooms?
any suggestions for a splitter to split the signal this many times?
also, if i want to add cable to other rooms, assuming 6 is not too many already, would i be able to add it to 2 more rooms?
any suggestions for a splitter to split the signal this many times?
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Now, although having said that, I have split dedicated lines at the wall jack, between a TV and modem, but there were no other devices on the other dedicated line. I had 2 dedicated lines running from the POS box outside, 1 line to room1 and the other line to room2. I used either line, but not both at the same time, and split it at the wall jack between the tv and modem.
Depending on your signal, you should be able to split a video line 3-4 times before it starts losing a significant amount of signal. Then you will need a signal booster.
Here I have a Dish Vip722 which I use to serve my entire place with video via coax. If I just run it to a splitter, the signal quality definitely suffers on TV's elsewhere in the house, and I very rarely have more than 1 on at a time. The furthest 2nd TV might be... 100 feet of cabling away, and I am using Belkin RG6 for the entire run! I went and got an amplifier off ebay - and VOILA the signal looks great on all the other TV's.
Here I have a Dish Vip722 which I use to serve my entire place with video via coax. If I just run it to a splitter, the signal quality definitely suffers on TV's elsewhere in the house, and I very rarely have more than 1 on at a time. The furthest 2nd TV might be... 100 feet of cabling away, and I am using Belkin RG6 for the entire run! I went and got an amplifier off ebay - and VOILA the signal looks great on all the other TV's.
As a follow up, if you use a signal booster, it needs to be put in prior to any splits in the signal.
If you put it in at a location after it has been split, you're just boosting the noise.
Here I have a Dish Vip722 which I use to serve my entire place with video via coax. If I just run it to a splitter, the signal quality definitely suffers on TV's elsewhere in the house, and I very rarely have more than 1 on at a time. The furthest 2nd TV might be... 100 feet of cabling away, and I am using Belkin RG6 for the entire run! I went and got an amplifier off ebay - and VOILA the signal looks great on all the other TV's.
FYI: DONT do all this splitting if you want fast internet
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also, if i want to add cable to other rooms, assuming 6 is not too many already, would i be able to add it to 2 more rooms?
any suggestions for a splitter to split the signal this many times?
Amazon 8-port splitter amp [amazon.com] - $44.25.
Amazon 8-pot splitter amp [amazon.com] - $110
FYI: DONT do all this splitting if you want fast internet
You don't!
So as noted above you amply the signal, split it with a 6 or 8 or what ever you need splitter at the beginning and star out your cabling from that splitter, never to split any signal downstream if at all possible!
The loss across all the taps on the first splitter is equal...all up to ~ 7db doesn't really matter if it's a 4 or 9 way (I'm just throwing x number of taps for example).
But if you split it with a 3 way...and then later on split it again..you've lost 7db off the original signal and then took 7 more down the line at the 2nd splitter.
1.) main line into home -> amplifier -> 3-way splitter -> 1 to phone modem, 1 to modem/router, 1 line for video signals -> this line split to the 4 areas i need video
or
2.) main line into home -> amplifier/splitter combo -> 1 to phone modem, 1 to modem/router, 1 to each of the 4 areas i need video (6-way splitter, or 8 if i need further splitting)
1st seems to give best signal to phone and router for internet, but it is still amplified for video (though this one is split in 2 places).
2nd seems to offer a single split to all areas, thus minimizing added noise. it also creates the most noise in my internet and phone
As I said, if at all possible you want the best for everything. I've even noticed differences in picture quality in using RG6 (larger conductor) over RG59 from the outlet to the TV!
You don't!
So as noted above you amply the signal, split it with a 6 or 8 or what ever you need splitter at the beginning and star out your cabling from that splitter, never to split any signal downstream if at all possible!
The loss across all the taps on the first splitter is equal...all up to ~ 7db doesn't really matter if it's a 4 or 9 way (I'm just throwing x number of taps for example).
But if you split it with a 3 way...and then later on split it again..you've lost 7db off the original signal and then took 7 more down the line at the 2nd splitter.
The signal power coming into your house is a constant. Each time you split that signal into 2 the resulting 2 signals have a little less than half the power of the original signal (-3.0dB to -3.5dB for a 1-to-2 splitter). If you split these signals again (1-to-2) the resulting signal power will be about -7dB (or 1/4 of the original power). Passive (unpowered) splitters with multiple outputs can't change physics - and if you look at the specs you'll see that 12x splitters have more loss than 8x splitters which have more loss than 4x splitters and so on. So using a single 8x splitter is about the same as using a series of 2x splitters (assuming you first split 1-to-2, then split each of those 1-to-2 and so on).
I do agree with others that have suggested you should first use a 2x splitter - using one output for your cable modem and split the other for your cable tv needs. CableTVAmps [cabletvamps.com] has a range of multiple output splitters as well as some drop amps. I bought this [amazon.com] drop amp at Amazon, followed by from 4x to 16x splits (depending on the destination) and the setup has worked well.
If you have set-top-boxes and you decide to go with a drop amp - you should make sure that you use a bi-directional amp so that your set-top-boxes have a communication path back to your cable company. If you feed the cable straight into your tv a bidirectional amp is not really needed (assuming you split out your cable modem signal before the amp).
1.) main line into home -> amplifier -> 3-way splitter -> 1 to phone modem, 1 to modem/router, 1 line for video signals -> this line split to the 4 areas i need video
or
2.) main line into home -> amplifier/splitter combo -> 1 to phone modem, 1 to modem/router, 1 to each of the 4 areas i need video (6-way splitter, or 8 if i need further splitting)
1st seems to give best signal to phone and router for internet, but it is still amplified for video (though this one is split in 2 places).
2nd seems to offer a single split to all areas, thus minimizing added noise. it also creates the most noise in my internet and phone
INPUT
...|- Phone Modem (-7.0dB)
...|- Cable Modem (-7.0dB)
...|- Video (-3.5dB)
......|- Amplifier
.........|- TV #1
.........|- TV #2
.........|- TV #3
.........|- TV #4
Though with this setup without the amplifier, you are only looking at around a -10.5dB level at your TVs, which might be OK.
Many cable modems have some built-in web interface (similar to that for your router) which shows (among other things) input signal levels. You could google your specific model number and find out if the web interface exists and get the default IP address (the default internal IP address for my cable modem is 192.168.100.1), then check to see if there is any info on minimum input signal levels.