One channel out of 50, no sound 90% of the time?

[IncredibleHat]

I have basic analog cable, piped in via coax. I then use a splitter from the wall to the two Hauppauge PVR150 cards in my HTPC.

Well... recently, one channel no longer seems to decode sound through either card. HOWEVER, the TV upstairs (which is just a standard cableready tv) plays the channel fine, with no issues with sound decoding at all.

I throw this question out, as the sound is only missing on the HTPC for that ONE channel... (Cinemax).

Could this be a Hauppauge issue? A Splitter issue? or simply my crappy cable issue?

I hesitate calling up the cable company, because it DOES work fine on a 'normal tv' ... and you know how these dickweed corporations are these days, anything out of the ~norm~ they blame the customer!

[IncredibleHat]

Well...

It just seems that my analog cable is 'bad enough' that since I had to add a splitter to go to the new second Hauppauge 150 card... that it made it "just a bit TOO bad" that BOTH cards refuse to properly tune in a couple channels now.

I had to eliminate a TV upstairs to get the sound to come back on a couple channels on the tuner cards.

I'm going to try buying a powered amp to put in before the split outside (on the main feed)... see if it helps. If it does, then I've gotta rewire a crapload to put all the junctions INSIDE the house, with just a couplink outside to extend the main feed line into the house. Crazy way the previous owners wired this place... every room goes to a box outside, and only three rooms were actually hooked up to a 3-way splitter. I had to reduce that to 2-way to get the two hauppage cards to tune in those low-numbered channels.

I am really starting to hate my analog cable... but sheeeeeeeeeeooot I don't know if I wanna DEAL with the hell that is getting IR blasters working! Not to mention the insane extra cost in getting 3-room satellite TV! AGH!

[MeInMaui]

If you are considering reworking your cable distribution, check out OnQ products. I picked up a 2x6 Enhanced Video Module from ebay a couple of months ago for about $80. It splits the incoming cable into 6 outputs with unity gain (no signal reduction) and high quality. It is much better than those ratshack amps. They have other modules that can go up to 16 outputs, I think. If you use one of these to split the incoming cable to all of your rooms and get rid of all of the passive splitters then I think you will be very happy with the results. The video modules work as stand-alone units and come with the power adaptor (this wasn't entirely clear when I ordered mine). Hope this helps.

Aloha,
Mike

[sniper's_scope]

maui is right...

that's the problem when you start splitting signals you start getting signal loss, basically with more cable connections you have the bigger the signal loss you will get, you shouldn't split your signal with a passive unit as you end up distorting the signal you get...

daisy chaining like the old rf format will not work on a cable connection as you will get signal loss..
the only true way to mutiple cable feeds is using quad lnb's off a sat dish, doing from a landline configuration you would get signal loss as the cable setup is no better than a base 10-t network setup...

you already have a signal degrade as it is before you even get your cable signal into your house, as the co-ax that supplies you with cable services also supplies probly 1,000 other people with cable service..

u'll probly have to do a rewire to inside your house, use the unit maui suggested or use a bigger unit, run cables into the rooms you want your cable service in, then you should be set, once coming from the unit maui has suggested DO NOT split the signal as you defeat the purpose in using the unit in the 1st place..

to get proper encoding for all connection inside i'd use a cable/sat tv tuner with irdeto intergration, that will solve some issues with you pay tv service...

til you buy them i think you will still have issues with your cable service, as most dtv and older tvtuners aren't really designed to work with pay tv services...
personally i'd probly setup a pc with a few tuner cards then netork it to the with cat-5/6 cable and let the pc handle eveything usig myth tv to display to the other rooms...

[IncredibleHat]

Well, the current setup is like this:

Cable in from pole ->
3-way splitter to just three of the 9 interior cables -> -> ->
2-way splitter in the HTPC room to go to my two Hauppauge PVR150s (I have to do this, otherwise I cant use both!)

To get sound on the HTPC for a couple channels, I reduced the 3-way to a 2-way, eliminating a TV (I will run that tv on antennea local channels for the time being, as that TV was only used for watching news in the morning).

As for quality, I checked by directly routing the incoming cable outside, to one Hauppauge card (gold couplings). The quality bites to begin with! All the 'low' numbered channels are just aweful.

My cable service has no 'payper' service. Its 50 channels, period. 5 of them are premium (HBO, MAX, SHOW, ENCORE, TMC). Unfortunately those channels are low numbered, are suffering from the same problems as the local channels.

There also is no decoder box. Its piped in direct to tvs. Any neighboor could hijack a signal with just a cable ... and I think some people do (share the bill, and secretly split the signal from one house to many)! Yeah, I live in podunkville

I'll check out the amp/splitter. I saw a 4-way amp/splitter at Lowes for $40... Phillips I think, but it may not be as good. I hate radiocrap stuff... its crap!

The only problem is... I would have to run TWO cables to the HTPC room then, if I can't split that end to the two hauppauge cards. I don't feel like buying a PVR500, when I already HAVE two cards. Cause then that would bite me in the ass later if I finally decide to take the SatTV plunge.

I saw an "inline Amp"... but the package labelled it as going between your satellite dish and receiver. Doubt that would work on standard analog cable.

The two 2-way splitters I have now, are the digital 2ghz splitters. Its overkill for analog cable, but at least it doesn't drop anything. lol. I've also got some gold-magnavox 1ghz 2-way splitters... they don't seem to help or reduce quality either.