TV Signal Splitting

This is in 'Off Topic' For a reason..

So im going to uni this year snd the houses only have a tv output in the living room. My question is, has anyone had experience with splitting the signal from a tv output, and weather it is worth doing? Do i simply need a splitter and some cable?

Regards

mambo

That worked for me in my last apartment ^^

I've heard that a splitter will do the trick from all the university tours I've been to.

Just be mindful that splitters have a rated loss of signal based on the number of ports on the splitter itself. If you're moving into an apartment, your average signal levels coming out of your outlet in the, say, living room may only be +5db on your high band channels (channel 50+) and probably about +7 at the max on your low-band (channels 50 and below) due to attenuation of the cable length.

If you hooked up a standard two way splitter off that outlet, you are going to loose 3.5db on each leg, then the type of cable you purchase to run in your apartment plays a big factor too…

Make sure you buy RG-6 cable for running the cables themselves, most Wal-mart/Radioshack stores carry RG-59 which is not rated for lengths over 10ft without massive signal loss on your high-band channels.

Quick reference:

2-way splitter losses 3.5db per leg 3-way looses 3.5db on one leg and 7db on the other two 4-way splitter looses 7db per leg

Most standard televisions will show clear reception on analog channels with -5db hitting the back of the set, so as long as you are running your cables a short distance and using minimal splitters, you should be ok. Worst case, you may experience a little bleed-over on the channels that reside around your local off-air channels and maybe a little graininess on your upper channels.

Digital boxes and cable-modems are a different story, they require greater than 0db hitting the back of the device to work effectively (because digital channels in a spectrum are generally 6 to 10db lower than an analog carrier).

I used a splitter in my dorm last year and didn't have any problem. Of course it turned out that i didn't use my cable very much, and it was a waste of money, so I'm not paying for it this year.