Coax question

General Questions
#1

I’m thinking of buying a streaming media box and an HD antenna and do away with Comcast for TV service, but I also have Comcast’s internet through my coax. I also have a 4 way splitter, one goes to living room, 2 bedrooms and 1 for modem (internet). I plan to use WiFi for the streaming media box so it won’t need a coax connection.

My question is, can I connect an HD antenna to the splitter and connect the output from that splitter that goes to the living room TV or streaming media device (however it hooks up) and receive those antenna stations while the other splitter output that connects to internet modem still work
Or does the antenna need it’s own direct connection to the TV/media box?..if so why?

Also, would an cable TV booster help anything in regards to the HD antenna? I read in reviews they will even boost your internet but I don’t really believe reviews.

#2

The antenna would need its own coax connection because it’s a dumb signal conduit which will pick up any and all RF noise in the vicinity and funnel all of it into the coax cable, which will then vomit all of it into your modem and cable boxes.

Even if, in theory, there shouldn’t be any interference from over-the-air TV, you’re getting signal from every diathermy machine, ham radio, and badly-shielded hobbyist electronics project in the region. The protocols the Internet is based on are designed to be noise-resistant, but they achieve that through re-transmission of lost data, which slows things down. I doubt your digital cable TV signal would be as robust.

A cable TV booster might help. It might hurt. It might even help an Internet connection, if the problem was a weak signal as opposed to someone a couple streets down streaming five HD porn videos at once while skyping with her granny. However, I wouldn’t bet on a cable TV booster doing anything positive to an Internet signal, because dumb amplifiers boost noise just as much as signal.

#3

The streaming box needs a network connection, so you wouldn’t connect it to the existing Comcast splitter.

If you have only internet service from Comcast, their incoming cable will probably go directly to the modem with no splitter.

You may be able to connect the antenna to the splitter’s input and have it feed the TVs but you might need an amplifier so have enough signal to serve three TVs.

#4

They can help. Splitters by their very nature attenuate the signal. I had a situation where I needed several splitters before reaching my modem, and with them in place the modem would not sync. I used a standard powered amplifier and it worked fine with no obvious impact on speeds.

It was an all or nothing thing, though–either the modem connected at full speed or it never connected. It apparently had some critical signal threshold that it wouldn’t work below, regardless of the noise level.

#5

Did running your modem through splitters and an amplifier have any effect on your upload speed?

#6

No. However, I believe that my connection speed was simply capped by Comcast. So there might have been an effect on upload speed that I couldn’t have measured since it was still faster than the limit I was paying for. It did seem to have an effect on font size, though.

#7

Thanks, I was just wondering because I had a similar problem. I ran two splitters before my cable modem and my download was fine but my upload speed was terrible. I asked the cable company about an amplifier and they told me that it would make it worse. However, I would have been trying to amplify the signal out of the modem and you were trying to amplify it coming in. I guess that could make a big difference. They came out and installed a separate line for my modem which fixed the problem.

#8

I have really long coax runs. I’m just wanting an amp splitter to boost that signal a bit. Obviously a short run would be overkill to amp it but I’ve got a good 200’ ft of run plus currently the line is split to every room in the house. However if I go streaming, everything will be wifi except the incoming signal for internet and the coax for antenna, guess I ill just run a separate coax from antenna directly to TV or I may use an indoor antenna to save the wire run, otherwise I’d have to drill a new hole from outside.

Anyone know of a good indoor antenna? I know they aren’t that great but even a couple local channels would be fine, most of the viewing will likely be Hulu Plus, Netflix…etc.