Filters in the cable box? Really?

glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
So, setting up cable service, house already has cable in it, a tuner equipped TV picks up the analog channels, so I call and ask if its really necessary that a technician come to the house.

I was told that yes, because there are filters in the box that need removed. Really, is that true? I am pretty sure all that selection stuff is handled at the main office, but I could be wrong.

I was also told due to the amount of equipment, (one HD box and a cable modem at this point) the tech has to make sure that I am getting good signal the the service locations. Heck, before the tech gets there, I am going to spend hours making sure all the cabling I need is right, including making my own coax runs where I need them. Just hate to be tied down for half a day when I can do all this myself.

Wish I could get them to turn it all on, and I'll call if I have any issues.
 
M

MadDogMarine

New Member
nomoney

nomoney

....
glhs837 said:
So, setting up cable service, house already has cable in it, a tuner equipped TV picks up the analog channels, so I call and ask if its really necessary that a technician come to the house.

I was told that yes, because there are filters in the box that need removed. Really, is that true? I am pretty sure all that selection stuff is handled at the main office, but I could be wrong.

I was also told due to the amount of equipment, (one HD box and a cable modem at this point) the tech has to make sure that I am getting good signal the the service locations. Heck, before the tech gets there, I am going to spend hours making sure all the cabling I need is right, including making my own coax runs where I need them. Just hate to be tied down for half a day when I can do all this myself.

Wish I could get them to turn it all on, and I'll call if I have any issues.
Click to expand...


there are filters on the lines going into your box. So if your new package has more channels or higher speeds than the previous owners they need to come and manually remove the filters.
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
I do have my fun set up for me. Place has three generations of coax all over it, splitters, amps, and unused cables everywhere. Was originally an antenna setup, with five lines. Then cable was added, with its own three lines run, no attempt to coopt the existing coax. The last owners slapped up two sat dishes, each with two coaxes. Those were run to an amp, and they used a mix of the first two generations of coax back out of the amp.

For one bedroom, they ran a new line, not along the outside to that room, but only to the closest room, and swapped that rooms single wall plate out for a double, then simply drilled holes through the baseboard into the middle room, ran the coax through that room, drilled through that baseboard into the far bedroom.

I'm figuring about 2 hours with one of the kids to ID all these lines, another couple to reroute stuff so it's clean. Luckily, I built a line tracer using a piezo buzzer and a 9 volt battery for about $10, so identifying the lines even through the house will be easy.
 
P

preselector

Member
I have extended basic TV. It was sometimes a little marginal as in sometimes seasonally the cable guy needed to adjust a line amp upstream to produce an acceptable display. The temperature compensating caps weren't doing enough apparently.

When I decided to add a cable modem, I installed a splitter and ran a line for the modem before they came out. Anticipating a distrust of any equipment not owned by the cable company, I also bypassed the distribution that normally feeds the TVs.

The installer found that the signal was weak. He replaced the splitter I'd just installed. No problem, I expected it as SOP. The signal was still weak but sufficient for modem setup. He traced it back and found that the cable from the road to the house was lossy. Two weeks later they installed a new buried cable.

The cable modem works fine, I reconnected the distribution amp and the TV is no longer marginal. Sometimes it worth the bother of letting the cable guy do the install.
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
I could, but I rarely find that an installer cares about some of the things I do. They are about getting an acceptable signal in the simplest manner. If it doesnt work, I'm okay with them making sure they are supplying what they are supposed to, signal-wise. But I would rather set up my own stuff first.

I plan a splitter right after the cable mount on the house to feed the cable modem, about 10 feet away from that point, as good or better than what they would install, then a direct feed through a +100 foot line to a distribution amp, which will feed direct lines to the seven TV points in the house. I will replace the older coax with new RG6 runs all with waterproof compression connectors, nothing crimped.
 
dave1959

dave1959

Active Member
I believe the filters they are talking about are in the box at the curb, Not in your house. They do like to go in and check the signal before they leave though.
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
So much for that, unless of course the tech snuck a day early and removed the filters:) Appointment is for tomorrow, but here I am typing this from the house in question. And the TV in the main room is showing the full HD package. So I'm off to cancel the install guy, as I suspected, he's not needed. Here at the router, its 10mbps upload with a 9ms ping, powerline networking in the basement has the same with a 14 ms ping according to speedtest. :buddies:

And maybe the previous owner (pre-2007) had the full monte, but I suspect not.
 
itsbob

itsbob

I bowl overhand
nomoney said:
there are filters on the lines going into your box. So if your new package has more channels or higher speeds than the previous owners they need to come and manually remove the filters.
Click to expand...

Filters should be software or electronic, not hardware or anything that has to be physically removed.
 
E

EmptyTimCup

Guest
glhs837 said:
So, setting up cable service, house already has cable in it, a tuner equipped TV picks up the analog channels, so I call and ask if its really necessary that a technician come to the house.

I was told that yes, because there are filters in the box that need removed. Really, is that true? I am pretty sure all that selection stuff is handled at the main office, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...



:faint:


I thought that tech went out with the 80's and A/B cable ..

.... yeah cable companies used to use a ? (signal filter really I am sure there is some high speed technical namefor it) device that basically filter the frequency that HBO / Showtime / and IIRC The Movie Channel out of the signal


Television encryption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Cable Television Filters - Chapter 4 - The Cable Television Report
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
EmptyTimCup said:
.... yeah cable companies used to use a ? (signal filter really I am sure there is some high speed technical namefor it) device that basically filter the frequency that HBO / Showtime / and IIRC The Movie Channel out of the signal
Click to expand...

I believe it's called a bandpass filter, filters out specific frequencies or range of frequencies.
 
itsbob

itsbob

I bowl overhand
GWguy said:
I believe it's called a bandpass filter, filters out specific frequencies or range of frequencies.
Click to expand...

but they haven't been used by cable companies in about 20 years, now it's a setting at the office. They have two-way communication with your cable box and collect all kinds of data, some boxes can even tell how many people are watching each TV in your house.
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
itsbob said:
They have two-way communication with your cable box and collect all kinds of data, some boxes can even tell how many people are watching each TV in your house.
Click to expand...

That's true, but that only tells the box what to display. The filters prevent someone from tapping the cable at the pole and using their own illicit hardware. Unless the cable company has converted it's entire system to digital, the cable signal still runs over a broadband analog carrier.
 
itsbob

itsbob

I bowl overhand
GWguy said:
That's true, but that only tells the box what to display. The filters prevent someone from tapping the cable at the pole and using their own illicit hardware. Unless the cable company has converted it's entire system to digital, the cable signal still runs over a broadband analog carrier.
Click to expand...

I don't know in MD, but they would spike the lines every now and then in PA.

Their boxes were protected, but if you were stealing cable you'd come home and your box would be fried.

Then the cable company would await trouble calls from the thieves telling on themselves when they reported their cable being out.
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
Call customer service to cancel the service call for today, since I dont need a tech. Guy says the tech still has to check the lines for good signal, I say I'm showing 1080i and have 10mbps all over the house, no need to check anything.

He says something to the effect of "Well, if its all working before the tech gets there, there could be a problem, and the line could drop. "

Suuuure:killingme
 
C

czygvtwkr

Guest
itsbob said:
I don't know in MD, but they would spike the lines every now and then in PA.

Their boxes were protected, but if you were stealing cable you'd come home and your box would be fried.

Then the cable company would await trouble calls from the thieves telling on themselves when they reported their cable being out.
Click to expand...

What if you didn't have a set top box and just ran the cable into your cable ready TV? I cant see them doing this having to pay for 1000's of fried televisions.
 
itsbob

itsbob

I bowl overhand
czygvtwkr said:
What if you didn't have a set top box and just ran the cable into your cable ready TV? I cant see them doing this having to pay for 1000's of fried televisions.
Click to expand...

Don't know, didn't work for the cable company..

Only know they did it, it worked, and was very successful.
 
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