Splitting Coaxial

likerock · 11-10-2010, 04:07 PM

I have cable coaxial coming into the house that is a mess. In an attempt to clean up the wires and signal, I am removing old sat and cable lines. Now there is a 1 into 4 splitter to 4 TVs, two in east wing and two in the west wing. When I redo this mess, should I split it with a 1 into 4 right when it comes into the basement? Or use a 1 to 2, with one line going to each wing then splitting it again with a 1 into 2 in each end of the house? Does it matter? I'm looking for the best signal. so, 1 to 4 or 3 1 to 2s? Thanks

jbfan · 11-10-2010, 04:30 PM

Signal lose through a splitter is around 3db, so unless the run is long, one splitter will drop the least amount of signal.

liquidvw · 11-12-2010, 08:54 AM

Well I would prefer to see one splitter instead of 2. Easier to troubleshoot later. But the signal loss should be the same. If you look at the splitter it should say the db loss.

When you have a 2 way splitter the signal loss will be 3.5 db on both sides. A 3 way splitter will give you 3.5 on one leg and 7 db on the other 2 legs. A 4 way splitter will give you 7 db on all 4 legs.

oberkc · 11-12-2010, 09:23 AM

I have always been a little fuzzy on this stuff, but I understand that active (amplified, powered, etc) splitters may avoid some of these losses. You may want to consider this option. While I don't doubt they may introduce noise into the signal, the move from analog to digital may make this a non-issue. I have three splitters, all powered, sending signals to 11 TVs throughout the house. I am satisfied with the picture quality.

I am on basic cable. It is still mostly analog, but includes local HD stations. All channels come through to all TVs without any degredation in picture quality that I can notice.