Need advice - interference - cable signal to CRT

[1koolcat]

Hello,

I share a cable TV connection between two television sets. The signal comes into the basement near my (nearly) new PANASONIC plasma set. I split the cable signal three ways.

First cable (short) goes to my plasma set.
Second cable (short) goes to my vintage PANASONIC VCR.
Third connection goes through the wall into the laundry room - up through the ceiling to the upstairs CRT television.

The picture on my plasma set is crystal clear.
The picture through my VCR tuner is decent.
The picture on the upstairs TV has some kind of EMI showing up on the screen, but I can't figure out what's causing the interference. The interference squiggles remind me of someone running a vacuum cleaner or an electric mixer nearby.

A buddy helped me make the long cable for the run going upstairs. We made the cable long enough so it has a bit of slack in the middle. We coiled up the extra cable and left it hanging from the laundry room ceiling. (about 6 loops)

The cable does pass near some romex in the basement ceiling.

Could the looped coax cable be the problem?

Could the Home Theater amp or DVD player sitting above the CRT TV be an issue?

Your ideas/suggestions are welcome.

[Duane]

Could be any of them that's causing the trouble. Have you tried rolling the connections at the splitter to eliminate that as your problem? It could be just a loose connection or a bad port.

[Duane]

Originally Posted by 1koolcat

Could the Home Theater amp or DVD player sitting above the CRT TV be an issue?

Probably not, but it's easy to rule this out by removing them.

[andy]

000

[1koolcat]

Thanks for the replies, folks.

I checked the cable - it's RG-6 quad shield.

Yes, we crimped our own ends, but my friend has experience as he has wired his own 7.2 home theater room in his basement.

I'm going to look at the connections upstairs and see if anything looks suspicious.

I will also consider adding a signal amplifier.

Thanks.

[roundscreen]

Originally Posted by 1koolcat

Hello,

I share a cable TV connection between two television sets. The signal comes into the basement near my (nearly) new PANASONIC plasma set. I split the cable signal three ways.

First cable (short) goes to my plasma set.
Second cable (short) goes to my vintage PANASONIC VCR.
Third connection goes through the wall into the laundry room - up through the ceiling to the upstairs CRT television.

The picture on my plasma set is crystal clear.
The picture through my VCR tuner is decent.
The picture on the upstairs TV has some kind of EMI showing up on the screen, but I can't figure out what's causing the interference. The interference squiggles remind me of someone running a vacuum cleaner or an electric mixer nearby.

A buddy helped me make the long cable for the run going upstairs. We made the cable long enough so it has a bit of slack in the middle. We coiled up the extra cable and left it hanging from the laundry room ceiling. (about 6 loops)

The cable does pass near some romex in the basement ceiling.

Could the looped coax cable be the problem?

Could the Home Theater amp or DVD player sitting above the CRT TV be an issue?

Your ideas/suggestions are welcome.

I had the same problem here when I had cable put in this house.
The picture was clear on the color roundies in the tv room but the picture was crappy on the set in the kitchen down stairs. If your end connections are good try running a earth ground to the splitter. {That fixed my problem.} Also make sure the cable man put a earth ground to the box on the outside of your house. The power supply in the dvd or stereo could also cause interference in your set so try moving them away from the tv set to see if it goes away.
Ed

[1koolcat]

Originally Posted by roundscreen

I had the same problem here when I had cable put in this house.
The picture was clear on the color roundies in the tv room but the picture was crappy on the set in the kitchen down stairs. If your end connections are good try running a earth ground to the splitter. {That fixed my problem.} Also make sure the cable man put a earth ground to the box on the outside of your house. The power supply in the dvd or stereo could also cause interference in your set so try moving them away from the tv set to see if it goes away.
Ed

This suggestion proved to be most valuable. I put a heavy duty ground wire on the cable signal splitter and fed it to the nearest grounded outlet. The signal on the upstairs TV improved significantly. For some unknown reason there are still a couple channels that have scattered RF interference. This weekend I'll move the other electronics away from the TV (temporarily) to see if those channels clear up.

Thanks again, everyone, for all your suggestions.

Cheers!