Is my RLC 1040 defective?

[sskim]

This question involves connecting cable coax cable. My setup is Pioneer Plasma with cable card and Cablevision is the provider. I have coax cable running to "IN" of RLC1040's "surge protected" coax connector and using a second coax cable to connect the plasma to "OUT" of RLC1040.

About a year ago, I lost ALL my cable channels and had a technician come in from Cablevision. When he connected the coax directly to the plasma, bypassing my 1040, everything was back to normal. After the technician left, I try running coax through my 1040, connecting coax to the second set of in and out. It's been working fine since then until about a week ago. I had order additional channels from Cablevision but roughly half of the new channels were not working. Remembering last year's problem, I tried connecting coax directly to plasma, I'm now getting those channels that were missing. Is my RLC1040 in need of service?

[srb]

Re: Is my RLC 1040 defective?

Coax surge protection causes some high frequency filtering which can hurt reception of some digital cable channels and particularly those that use SDV (swtched digital video). Your scenario is not unique to the Rotel RLC-1040 and this reception problem is quite common with these types of devices.

Steve

[sskim]

Thanks Steve!

[wkhanna]

A few years ago a Comcast tech told me the same thing, running the cable connection thru a surge protector can cause you to loose reception of some/many channels.

At the time I was using a monster unit. I now have an APC. I have never experienced any issues other my cable provider’s poor performance and customer service, but that is probably a universal condition.

Still, I agree the filtering can present issues in certain instances.

As always, JMHO, YMMV

[PewterTA]

The problem more along comes with the fact that the signal has to go through another "connection" which weakens the signal. Some do filter the signal which again weakens it slightly.

That's the problem with Cable companies. You are getting signal from who knows how far away and it degrades over that distance and when going through each and every split and connection.

If you are having problems with running it through your surge/power conditioner/whatever sometimes it helps if you put it on the first split from the point of entry into the house.

If that still does not work a lot of times you can add a signal booster that will help. They can be had on amazon or other places for about $50. Only thing that needs to be figured out is if the problem is your downstream, upstream, or both that needs boosting. Most time it's downstream only, but sometimes you need both. Very very rarely is it upstream that tends to be the problem.