Home Setup for TV/Internet

[jennaric]

Alright. My home has never had spectrum/twc television service. I have however had their internet for a long time. From the electric line to my junction box on my house there is only one cable, that ultimately leads to my modem. In theory, will this one cable provide BOTH internet and tv service, if say i hooked up a 2/3/4 way splitter into my new HD/DVR boxes or should there be more than one cable from electric lines into my junction box to provide TV as well. Hope this makes sense, thank you. 

[reds91185]

The main incoming coax line would get split with one dedicated leg going to the modem and one leg (or 2 or 3) to your cable boxes for tv service. The leg to the modem would preferably be the split with the least amount of loss.

[jennaric]

Ok essentially that main line will be hooked up to a 4 way splitter with 3 of those outputs going into TV and the other dedicated to modem. Will let you know how that pans out! Thanks

[reds91185]

Curious...is this something you're trying to do yourself?  When you get tv service added to your account the tech will do all of this while he's there. 

[jennaric]

Yeah my junction was never locked. So they had an option to send me the equipment to do myself so figured I'd save the 50 bucks they want to charge to install.

[dstoffa]

---

@jennaricwrote:
Ok essentially that main line will be hooked up to a 4 way splitter with 3 of those outputs going into TV and the other dedicated to modem. Will let you know how that pans out! Thanks

---

Using a four-way splitter is not ideal.  Losses become very important regarding your internet service.  You want to minimize losses to the modem, that means it must be on the -3.5 dB leg of a two-way or three-way spliiter. 

A four-way splitter is really 2 two-way splitters, and each outlet is -7 dB.  A three-way splitter is really a two-way splitter with an additional two-way splitter.  One tap of the 3-way will be -3.5 dB, and the other two will be -7 dB.  You can attach the modem to the -3.5 dB tap, but not the -7 dB tap.

http://eqrunner.com/CrewNotes/CNCoaxsplitter.php

[karlbeckman · Accepted solution]

In addition to what @dstoffa has already said, I sense that you might not realize that you WILL have a Spectrum set-top box for each TV set.  In the past some local channels were carried as SD analog over cable in the clear.  Now ALL channels are being encrypted and transmitted digitally to reduce video piracy (theft of copyrighted video content). 

The basic rules of multiple service cable installation include:

1)  The cable modem MUST be connected to a 3.5 dB port on the first two-way splitter from the drop, and

2)  Only split out as many ports as you have actively used video devices.  No extra ports for spare cable outlets in other rooms; and any open splitter port MUST have a 75 ohm terminator.