Not a bug: Practical advice about multiple TV cards (1 Viewer)

[xfactor]

Hi Guys

Im not sure where to post this. So Im trying here.

Im about to purchase my second tv card, but how do you get it to work with the cable, do you use a cable splitter or?

regards Nino

 

[regeszter]

yes, u needs a splitter

 

[xfactor]

Does splitters come in different versions?
I would need one that actually splits 3 ways...

 

[tompa]

Hi!
You will need a (passive) splitter with one input and two outputs, often called "3dB splitter". (Input and output is just defined by connector type, you could run it both ways.)
/TT

 

[Shurik]

Just make sure that the signal from the splitter is enough for your capture cards.. In my case I tried to split the signal from cable into two - one to digital STB, and another one - straight into a card.. Well, the one from STB worked just fine, but the second one had a pretty bad signal - lots of noise ("snow") and card's tuner was unable to find lots of channels..

 

[casey]

I can only stress what Shurik says. I had to split my signal 3 ways and the result was quite bad. So I bought an amplifier which also had a 3-way split. Very good buy indeed, signal is better than ever.

 

[mPod]

--> moved

 

[Teebor]

I have a powered splitter (mainly because where my PC is the cable from the wall was too short) but it currently runs my set top freeview box and my terratec dual tuner card a treat
Are you guys suggesting that maybe its not a good idea or not reccomended? or is it just depending on the situation?

I was also about to expand my internal tuners to the sum of two more PCI cards and I was hoping that splitter (which has enough ports) was going to be ok, has it just been luck? or is it all gravy??

 

[Shurik]

I guess it all depends.. If the signals are good in your case, then - why not to do that? Actually I may try to get some kind of amplifier or active splitter and see if that would help me..

Casey, did you actually buy an amplifier or some kind of active splitter? Hrmm.. I gotta look into this..

 

[casey]

Shurik > Yeah, I bought an amplified splitter, cost around €20 and has one input, 3x ouput so now I have a strong signal feeding my TV as well as the two TV cards sitting in my media center pc. Works a treat.
If you need amplification, just make sure the splitter amplifies enough (sometimes a 2x ouput splitter amplifies greater dB than a 3x output plitter. In my case it was the opposite. Just check, that's all.