too much signal???

[carrbowl]

I think our cable guy is on crack...but I have been wrong before!! We used to have alot of tvs hooked up, we are down to four now. We have an amplifier hooked up and he said we were getting pixelation because we had too much signal coming to the house?? Is that even possible??? He took the amplifier out and said we didn't need it anymore because we only have four tvs hooked up now.

[kenw]

you can overdrive the signal, giving you that effect. amplifiers can cause as much damage as they fix.

[ggeen]

There is a range of attenuation that you want to be in. Too much on either side will cause distortion or the signal.

Removing the amp is probably the right thing to do or at least a good test to see if it is part of the problem.

[kenw]

1) I know when we had analog, they added an amplifier. When we went digital, we no longer needed one. And we now have more load than ever before, including cable phone, www and TV.

2) Your signal quality may change over time as they redesign the network. Especially in a relatively high-growth area like yours.

[carrbowl]

well it will be interesting to see if it takes care of the problem. I couldn't imagine have too much could be a problem...but more than one vote says yes...so ...time will tell : )

[kenw]

truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by carrbowl

well it will be interesting to see if it takes care of the problem. I couldn't imagine have too much could be a problem...but more than one vote says yes...so ...time will tell : )

Ever hear that too much of a good thing can be bad? It applies here.

[texkam]

Who knew? I also thought it was kind of like this:

Seinfeld - You Cant' Overdry (Subtitulos) [S01E00] - YouTube

Seinfeld - You Cant' Overdry (Subtitulos) [S01E00] - YouTube

[iCe]

Probably too much cow bell... I've heard of that being a problem

(and yes- you can over drive the front end of any receiver and muck up the audio or video)

[carrbowl]

now too much cow bell can def be a problem!!!!!!

[Jeff_Green]

I think that is sometimes used as an easy out instead of troubleshooting problems. I had problems with my cable internet and they came out and said I had too much of a signal so they put a splitter on the line... fine. I'll buy it. He reset the modem and everything worked (kinda like every time that I would manually reset the modem myself). It kept doing it so I called again a couple months later. Someone came out and told me I was getting too good of a signal and that he put another splitter on the line. Really? That's the solution? There is no regulator that monitors line volume? Signal keeps getting stronger and stronger?
He added that second splitter and I believe replaced the modem. Everything worked. A couple months of dealing with the same problem off and on I got fed up yet again. So in they come to "troubleshoot" the problem one more time. This guy comes out and said "You have too many splitters on the line so I removed them!" I told him about the previous two guys and he said "There was probably work being done that increased and decreased the signal but it's all finished now".

I say all that to say that many techs come out and don't really care about getting to the bottom of the issue. They look at the problem, try the easiest thing first, and if that resolves the problem temporarily that is all they care about. Why figure out WHY it keeps happening?!