I have a 43" Toshiba RPTV and it looks great on DVD and my S-VHS does a good job of making my VHS tapes look decent on my TV. However, Cable just totally sucks. Doesnt matter whether I use RF or S-Video (from my VCR) the picture still has a lot of graininess and noise. I was wondering if buying an external comb filter would help the problem. I was looking at the Entech SVSI-1, or Crystal Vision VSP-1. Faroudja is just too darn expensive. Although the Entech and CrystalVision are mainly S-Video integrators so u dont have to constantly change inputs, they also actively upconvert any signal to S-Video and succesfully according to reviews. I was wondering if u had any other ideas for solving this problem aside from getting Sat service or buying a new TV or any other equipment i might look at that wont go over $500?

Why don't you get Satellite?

The problem is almost certainly in the original signal. Many cable companies just aren't up-to-date, using old cable and amplifying it beyond it's limits. In my travels, most cable is horrible. That's why satellite is so popular. Around here cable is excellent (if expensive)... that's why I haven't gone to satellite yet.

Depending on how many times you've split the signal yourself, an add-on amplifier at the beginning or middle of the line may help.

My cable signal is horrible, yes. But, I am trying to make it look as good as a direct-view TV without having to go back to one. Would any amplifier do? I bought a Radio Shack one that can amplify the signal up to 20db but when I installed it no difference in signal quality was noticeable. In fact, it even made some channels look worse. It is possible that i have it hooked up on the wrong end of the line so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Remember that TOO much amplification is just as bad as not enough. A signal that's too strong will deteriorate just like one that's too weak. If you have the black pastic Radio Shack one, there an adjustment for how much amplification you want.

Also remember that the bigger the TV, the worse the signal will look. Small problems become big.

And if you are amplifying a already waek signal with picture noise, you are amplifying the noise too. These signal amps are for long runs of coax, if say you were running 200ft and at the end of the 200 feet split the signal with a 3way splitter, you would possibly want a amp at the beginning of that 200 foot run, not the end. Complain to the cable company, and if that doesn't work complain to the city, and if that doesn't work, get digital cable, or even better in most cases DSS or DISH, and if you are in an apartment that doesn't allow DSS or DISH installs move to one that does.

I bought a new (old) house at the first of the year, and went straight into the attic to see what my cable situation was. The 1981 home was originally wired with cat59 cable from every room running all the way outside the house where the cableCo had split it's feed. I wasn't planning to use cableTV, so I unhooked the CableCo splitter and brought all the old cables into the attic. I installed a Terk50 OTA antenna in the attic for local channels. I put a dual LNB dish on the roof to feed two DSS receivers. I traced every cable back to the room it originated in, and labelled the end in the attic. For all but the two rooms where the satellite receivers are I split the Terk source and distributed it thru the existing cables.

Some rooms got excellent reception and some got lousy reception even though all were hooked up to the same antenna. I had put new ends on some of the cables when I pulled them into the attic, and noticed that the best signal was coming down cables with new ends. Pushing the experiment a bit farther, I started putting new ends on the cables where the signal was bad.

NEW CABLE ENDS on OLD CABLE greatly improved the signal!

My advice:

- Amplify as close to the source as possible, and BEFORE splitting.
- Use high quality splitters. Of several I tried, a significant difference could be seen between the best and the worst (most expensive and cheapest).
- Put "fresh" ends on your cable, particularly if it's been in the house 20 years. By "fresh" I mean cutting the old end and 2-3 inches of old cable OFF, then stripping and installing new ends.

Radio shack sells a GREAT cable stripper for about $12. They also sell SCREW-ON cable ends, that require no crimping and can be re-used. GREAT PRODUCTS!

Dave

Thank you all for your help. Unfortunately in Puerto Rico DirecTV and 4DTV are just starting to offer services so they're quality is not very good. In fact I find that although you can definitely tell the signal feed is digital, the picture has as much or more noise than regular CableTV. Anyway, I tried putting the amplifier as low as possible (5db gain) to the incoming cable line from the company before running it through the cable box and it scrambled the channels seen through the cable box but the ones seen without using the box looked the same as they did without installing the amp. Any help on other locations I could set the amp would be greatly aprreciated

I ran a large antenna (15' mounted on a 40' tower) for many many years before breaking down and getting cable. While RG59 worked fine for antenna signal -- which was limited to about 15 channels -- it really looked poor for cable (which has about 75 channels). Replaced a long run of RG59 with RG6 and saw a HUGE improvement. Some of the brances are still run with RG59, but they're short. My main H/T television line has been replaced with RG6.

The antenna's still there and available to hook up, just in case. :-) Oh, and if you plan on splitting a single line a lot in one spot, buy an amplified splitter.

I have my cable line split to about 14 different devices, and reception is (pretty much) crystal clear. Although local stations received on the antenna were much sharper... but there were only 7 of them. :-P