I am thinking about purchasing a tv tuner card for my PC and I am wondering how I would go about splitting the cable that goes into my cable modem. The cable that goes into my modem has not been split and runs straight from the main cable hookup into the modem. So could I split the cable near my computer, have one cable go into the modem and have the other go into the tuner? And if it did work, could I use my computer to watch TV and surf the web at the same time? I was questioning whether or not that would work because a cable modem sends data up and down the line, and I think it might screw up the TV signal or vice versa (Of course, I could be wrong about that).
It should work just fine.
Check with your cable company. My cable company (SUSCOM) has a different wire for computers and TV. My co-workers in baltimore (COMCAST) have their TV and computer on the same wires. It varies.
If your TV and computer signals are on the same wire, then all you have to do is use a splitter. You would be able to watch TV and surf at the same time. The computer uses different frequency signals than the TV signals.
Computers are electrically “noisy” devices. If your computer isn’t particularly well shielded you may see a little bit of noise on your TV signals.
Well, I have Comcast as my provider, so then splitting it should work. Thanks for the help.
I have Comcast, and a TV tuner card and that is exactly how I have it hooked up. I had one minor problem, after using the splitter for about 4 months, all of a sudden my internet connection was dropping. The cable guy came out and replaced my splitter with a more heavy-duty one, and it’s been fine since.
While splitting the cable will work, Allow me to make some suggestions. I have Comcast, and have wired several fairly sophisticated cable/ Ethernet/ mutimedia whole-house systems
I assume you use, or may eventually use, cable broadband for internet access. If so, be aware that your internet surfing may intermittently put staticy lines across the screens of some or all the TVs in your house, especially if you are dropping the video signal strength by splitting it several ways.
You can prevent this by putting a ferrite core or filter on the video side of your splitter. The best way to do this is to split the line where it comes into the house, with the cable modem getting the unfiltered line, and the rest of the house getting the filtered line for video. It’s better to get a good multi-port drop amp amp instead of running trunk cables through your basement and attic with splitter taps for every room.
You lose signal and generate reflections at every connection, and while you may not notice the degradation, the improvement you get by doing it right can be very noticeable in many houses, after you add up the taps for bedrooms, den, living room, kitchen, etc.
One good compromise is to have the “filtered video” side of a 2-way splitter feed a good distribution amp (if needed) to feed the rest of the house. Some of the fancier amps will let you do away with the filter for the video and splitter for the cable modem.
Most distribution amps are barely passable junk. This includes just about everything you’ll find in Radio Shack, department stores, eBay and most home improvement places. A cheap amp can distort your signal, amplify noise, cut off or degrade the higher cable channels (often premium content), and block the return line which, depending on your provider, can mess up some optional cable services like Pay Per View, On Demand, and Digital Guide/TiVo-like functions.
A cheap drop amp typically costs about $30 in a store, while a good amp may not cost much more - they’re just really hard to find, and the good brands aren’t household names. I’ve found that I can often get good units for $30 or so on eBay, because consumers prefer to bid on the familiar (but less good) brand names.
[I’m not being snobbish about the consumer brands. I have a whole box of ‘mistakes’ that I thought were just fine, until I swapped them with comparably priced “real” video brands, like Econoline or better. You won’t see a cable company using RCA or RadShack!]
Switching to digital cable may someday require you to change your set-up, but if you lay it out intelligently, you’ll just have to swap a couple of inexpensive components where the cable enters the house. If you don’t plan for improvement, you may end up having to run more wires, re-do the entire set-up, or learn to live without certain features in some rooms.
I strongly urge you to not do this. Different companies work differently, the experience of others (esp. if they don’t know what they’re doing) doesn’t matter in your case. The “Label” on the company doesn’t matter in the least (e.g., “Comcast”). There have been mergers, sell-offs, etc. galore in the cable business. (Mine has gone thru 3 label changes in 4 years. Each time requires new email address, etc.) What hardware is used in one locale can be quite different in another locale even if the label matches.
On my system, they have a special filter on the TV side of the splitter. This filter keeps the network side running smoothly. Hooking up a TV to without this filter screws things up on the network. Now, most clueless people who try this are so clueless that they don’t realize their network connection is a whole lot worse.
Just call the cable company, arrange to talk to someone knowledgeable (an experienced install tech) and find out what you need to do. They might even give you the splitter and filter free.
BTW, I have never seen a splitter in a RS or hardware store with a frequency rating good enough for cable modem/digital TV. Let alone good enough quality.