- cable distribution panel and comcast "on demand"
- Posted by mikeg on December 6th, 2003
I was wondering if anyone had any experience getting Comcast "on
demand" working with a cable distribution panel configuration. It
seems that high speed internet and HDTV are working fine via a cable
distribution panel but I receive a communications error when I try to
use "on demand". If I remove the cables from the distribution panel
and put them through a splitter, then "on demand" works fine. I would
like to use the cable distribution panel instead of the splitter to
take advantage of the cable amplification built into the distribution
panel. Comcast has informed me that they will not support my
distribtion panel and that I would need to purchase a cable amplifier
direct from them to maintain an amplified cable signal. I would like
to avoid this if at all possible.
Thanks for any advice.
Mike G.
- Posted by Stuart J. Winokur on December 6th, 2003
I got the same errors until I discovered my small RCA cable amp only covered
5-900 MHZ, I replaced it with a 5-1000 MHZ splitter from Home depot and it
started working perfectly. I'm guessing your distribution amp's freq
response is not wide enough to allow the throughput needed to make On Demand
work. You may have to live with the splitter or purchase an amp.
"mikeg" <mpgross@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:9a295bb0.0312060934.688730b4@posting.google.c om...
- Posted by Brian on December 6th, 2003
On Sat, 6 Dec 2003 13:28:51 -0500, "Stuart J. Winokur"
<swinokur@comcast.net> wrote:
The biggest problem with on demand services is that they use the same
type of return signal that modems do, except on demand is a LOT more
touchy about what kind of signal it has. More than likeley the panel
that you have only amplifies the forward signal (as most amps do). If
this is the case, then the panel is acting like a huge splitter and just
completely sucking the return signal away. Again, no way to tell this
for sure without actually checking signal levels to see whats going on.
But if this is what's happening, you'll have to stop using that panel if
you want to use the on demand services.
Brian (The Time Warner Cable Guy)
- Posted by Ed Nielsen on December 7th, 2003
You could always get an amplifier that amplifies the return path as well
as forward.
CIAO!
Ed Nielsen
CENCOM
http://www.cencom94.com
Brian wrote:
- Posted by Stuart J. Winokur on December 7th, 2003
Motorola's web page has 2 way amps with 5-1000mhz bandwidth.
"Ed Nielsen" <egnlsn@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:F5vAb.320347$9E1.1586758@attbi_s52...
- Posted by Ed Nielsen on December 7th, 2003
Those have a passive return path. If it is a signal issue because of
the number of ports in the distribution panel, he may need to amplify
the return path. Eight ports means an insertion loss of ~12dB, The
15dB gain of the forward amplifier compensates for that, but there's
nothing to compensate for that same loss in the return path.
CIAO!
Ed Nielsen
CENCOM
http://www.cencom94.com
Stuart J. Winokur wrote:
