Hooking up Cable for TV when using High Speed Cable

[David]

This is probably a stupid question-I have a high speed cable connection
going to my computer. If I buy a TV capture card, do I just use a splitter
on the incoming high speed data line to receive my TV signal or will I have
to use another cable line for a TV signal?

dg

 

[Glzmo]

This is probably a stupid question-I have a high speed cable connection
going to my computer. If I buy a TV capture card, do I just use a splitter
on the incoming high speed data line to receive my TV signal or will I have
to use another cable line for a TV signal?

It depends how the cable company handles the internet signal. While most
have the internet signal on the same line as the TV channels, some have
seperate lines for each. AFAIK, some companies can also enable/disable
channels on lines and such.
If both the TV signal and the signal responsible for data transfer are
enabled on same line, you could probably use a simple splitter to get both.
However, this will decrease signal quality a bit, which isn't that big a
deal unless the signal is weak to begin with.

I hope this helps,

Glzmo

 

[David]

Thanks-sounds like I should be able to go the splitter route which is an
easy solution.
dg

 

[JLC]

Thanks-sounds like I should be able to go the splitter route which is an
easy solution.
dg

I have Comcast here in Seattle WA. With Comcast you must have at lest a
basic cable TV subscription for a splitter to work. It used to work when it
was still AT&T but soon after Comcast took over, no more free TV. JLC

 

[David]

I am in WA as well and have basic service, so I guess it will be fine-that
is good news.
dg

 

[MIZERY1]

This is probably a stupid question-I have a high speed cable connection

going to my computer. If I buy a TV capture card, do I just use a splitter
on the incoming high speed data line to receive my TV signal or will I have
to use another cable line for a TV signal?

dg

Put a splitter on the Cable coming from the wall outlet. One goes to Video
Card, other goes to cable modem.

 

[Guess Who]

I have done exactly this. I had a splitter for the line going to 2 TV's.
When I got cable internet, they split the line again, and ran a line to the
computer. I then split that line to both the cable modem and my ATI all In
wonder tuner. No signal loss or picture quality problems. Apparently, I
must have a very good signal.

 

[Allan Sheely]

I have done exactly this. I had a splitter for the line going to 2 TV's.
When I got cable internet, they split the line again, and ran a line to the
computer. I then split that line to both the cable modem and my ATI all In
wonder tuner. No signal loss or picture quality problems. Apparently, I
must have a very good signal.

Yea, you must. I had a four way splitter and when the Internet tech
guy saw that he gave me a high quality two way splitter to use for my
cable tv and internet connection, I only needed two way and he said
four way splitters are not good when you need one for the internet.

 

[Blood Dawg]

This is probably a stupid question-I have a high speed cable connection
going to my computer. If I buy a TV capture card, do I just use a splitter
on the incoming high speed data line to receive my TV signal or will I have
to use another cable line for a TV signal?

dg

You can use a splitter, but I can;t tell you which channels you'll
get. For 3 years I used a splitter. I just had internet on cable.
then the cable truck came by and saw i was connected and the guy was
gonna disconnect me. Lucky for me I was home, and told him I have
cable internet, don;t be disconnecting me!

He then put a filter on the line going in, after that i only got
channels 2-6,14,15. I don;t know much about cable so i don;t know
what this filter or thingy is called. before that I was getting more
than basic cable. but the signal in my area has been crap ever since
i can remember.

If i were you, pick up a splitter and check to see what you get. Use
a small tv to check maybe, unless you already got your cap card.

 

[Cliffz0rz]

If you have cable TV service, it should work. But remember this...adding a
splitter to the line will likely change the signal level your cablemodem
gets. This could cause your modem to go offline. I work for a cable
company's internet help desk, so I've seen it happen MANY times. Sometimes
it's just a matter of luck. If the internet connection doesn't work after
adding a splitter, call the cable company and they can setup a splitter that
will allow both the modem and tuner card to work fine for ya...again, seen
it MANY times...so, yeah...

Cliffz0rz

 

[GMAN]

If you have cable TV service, it should work. But remember this...adding a
splitter to the line will likely change the signal level your cablemodem
gets. This could cause your modem to go offline. I work for a cable
company's internet help desk, so I've seen it happen MANY times. Sometimes
it's just a matter of luck. If the internet connection doesn't work after
adding a splitter, call the cable company and they can setup a splitter that
will allow both the modem and tuner card to work fine for ya...again, seen
it MANY times...so, yeah...

Cliffz0rz

So the cable co has "Magic" splitters??? bwahahahaa

Bet they charge you for them!

 

[Tony]

So the cable co has "Magic" splitters??? bwahahahaa

Bet they charge you for them!

Cable COs tend to use "bidirectional" splitters.

Unless you specifically look for the bi type. the offtheshelf splitter
you get will be one way..
which most likely will work, but the cable co doesn't get diagnostic
info back to thier system and may see it as the box being offline and
do weird things

-T-