How much does Rogers charge to run a cable line?

[alebowgm]

Where I am staying right now in Toronto, there is, what can be best described as a smoking shed (which also seconds as a place to have rowdy friends), about 80 feet from the back of the house. The shed has a couch and a TV. I ran a cable line (RG6) from the front of the house where there is a 4-way powered splitter and access to run a line back out of the house out to the shed, which is about 130 feet or so. The problem is, the Digital Box is stuck in Broadcast mode. So I checked the signal level. The QAM level was a -12/-13 so at the end of the first 100 feet, I added a 1 port powered booster (where the power also runs over coax, so this way it can sit outside) and while all the signal levels now show at about +2, I am still stuck in broadcast mode.

Its not the Digital Box. Its a 4250 and I have tested it inside the house and its fine (able to tune to SDV and on-demand stations). Its also not the first 4 port splitter, as the other 3 ports are all attached to terminals that are in normal mode (can also tune to SDV fine and on-demand fine).

At this point I am stumped, and with NFL kick-off around the corner, I would like to get this resolved since we have SSP. Any guestimates what Rogers would charge to roll out the trucks and come up with a solution?

[ScaryBob]

You need a Bi-Directional Cable TV/HDTV Amplifier. That will allow the use of pay services. It needs to be located at the 4-way splitter. A good quality two way amp could be placed ahead of the splitter. You don't need a lot of gain. 7-10db should be fine. If the signal going into the splitter is low, you could go for a little more gain.

[alebowgm]

It is bi-directional. Says so right on the casing of the 4 port and the 1 port. And if it wasn't, the other terminals attached to the 4 port would be stuck in broadcast mode as well.

[m3repair]

Is it possible to get the make and model of the RF amplifer you are using, at that point we can make a judgement on wether it works with Rogers or not, as well as see if it is bi-directional (Signal passes both directions)

What would also help is if you could identify to us what signal you start with from where your main feed is, or the first port of your splitter that this long run connects too (before the long run starts) so we can guage how much you need to boost that RF signal


The two brands that Rogers Techinicians use are: Electroline and Evolution

[monkeyhunk]

Is your drop to your house aerial? If so would it be too far fetched to see if you could get a second one for the garage and forget about all the amps and splitters?

[alebowgm]

Ill get photos when I can to show the splitters.

The drop is aerial at the back of the lot. It used to run through the area to the front of the house but a year or two ago Rogers + Bell were forced to trench it. Of course, I wasn't here and no one else thought of running a line at the time.

[m3repair]

did you get a chance to check out your setup and snap a few pictures?

[alebowgm]

I have posted the pictures in my album (although they are awaiting approval from moderators)

The 4 port is indoors. As I said, the other boxes connected to the 3 port (one port has an 8300HD, one port has a 4250HD, one port has another unpowered 3way splitter running to an 8642, 4642 and 8300 (non-HD)) and all have two way communications, with SDV and VOD working...

As I said, the one port is outdoors and partially covered as its between two garages, both of which have overhangs. There is about 110-120 feet of cable from the 4 port to the 1 port. The 1 port runs to a 4250HD and there is 25 feet of cable in that run.

I have taken the unpowered 3 way splitter off to see if it helped but it did nothing... One thing I haven't tried and maybe should is running the cable from before going into the 4 port and running it straight out to the shed...

[Dr.Dave]

Approved.

[Jase88]

Sorry....I'm having difficulty picturing your setup.

From the tap, how far to the first split? Then how far to the amp? Then how far thereafter?

[alebowgm]

The majority of the setup was preexisting and I have done little to modify it. But from what I can gather it goes like this:

1. Approximately 250-300 feet of cable that is mostly trenched from the main Rogers tap to the house.

2. Once inside the house at the utility closet, Rogers installed a two port splitter, one to the cable modem (Cisco DPC3825 Gateway with higher upload enabled) and the other running to a Rogers installed unpowered 4 way splitter.

3. From the unpowered 4 port splitter, the run to the 4 port amp that is pictured is probably (as a guestimate) 60-75 feet. I can see on the side of the house where the cable comes out from the house and runs up to the second floor where there is a closet with all the upstairs splits.

4. Then, as I said, there is the 4 port splitter that is pictured, which is in the upstairs closet. Initially it was an unpowered 4 way split (not sure if Rogers installed it or if it was previous occupants), but an 8300HD (that comes off one of the 4 ports and runs for another 20-25 feet) was stuck in broadcast mode so the powered 4 port solved that a few years ago. I figured the tuner in the 8300HD was more finicky than the 1840 that it replaced, as the 1840 had working 2 way communications. So today, at this point, there is still working 2 way communications for an 4250HD (a different one than the one in question, on output 1), 8300HD (mentioned above, on output 2), and an 4642, 8300 and 8642 (all on output 3, as they are attached via an unpowered 3 way splitter).

5. From the 4th output on the powered 4 port, there is a return run that goes back outside, runs 110-120 feet, goes into the (pictured) 1 port to give it a bit of a boost, then runs another 25 feet or so till it reaches the 4250HD that is stuck in broadcast mode.

As I have said, its not the 4250HD that is causing the problem. I have replaced it with the line coming from the 8300 and it had working 2 way communications. I also tried working with a 3200 on the line and it too was stuck in broadcast mode. I have removed the 1 port from the equation but the power levels were too low to get 2 way communications.

[Jase88]

I see a few problems: Excessively long cable runs (not much you can do about that), too many cascaded splits (split after a split on same line), and passive return distribution amps.

The PCT amps indicate they offer return path amplification. However, there is only enough amplification to compensate for insertion loss; perhaps 2dB on average at best.

Long cable runs, too many cascaded splits, and passive return amplification = no two way communication.

I would call Rogers. Service calls are free. You must be paying for extra outlets already (or they're included in your package). There is a long drop to your home which should be RG11 if it isn't already. A Rogers tech will also have access to special return path amps (if deemed necessary after a rewire).

[alebowgm]

Ya, I know the runs are too long. The best thing that can happen is if they run a line directly to the shed from the main tap. That would be about 75-100 feet. Of course, I wasn't around at the time and when they had Rogers (and Bell for that matter) trench the cable (and phone lines) a year or two ago from the rear of the property, as no one thought of having a line directly to the shed ran. If they are going to trench, then it won't be nearly the issue.

Rogers is coming out midday Saturday, as one of my 8642 units is acting flaky (lost channels, heavily pixilation) and the CSR said they think it has a low signal (which doesn't make sense since the 8642 is reading about a +5/6 on many of the QAM stations). They could also see broadcast mode on the 4250. The tech said it would be $50 to roll the trucks if it winds up being caused by an end-user but because its a signal thing, she said it likely will be waived, so we will see (although what is to stop me saying it was all here before hand and the issues didn't start since the 8642 went online). I also am going to have them look at the 4642, 8300, 8642 combo on output 3 as I just did a reboot and now they are only working in broadcast mode unless I plug them directly into the 4 port amp. And while he is here, I am going to try and talk the tech into installing WHPVR... Hopefully since they are here, they will waive the fee...

Ill keep you updated.

[Jase88]

By "low signal" they could referring to the signal to noise ratio. My recollection is that the SA boxes are capable of displaying S/N ratio in their diagnostic menu.

Either way, I doubt you'll be charged, as these issues don't appear to be "customer created".

[monkeyhunk]

Nah...."customer created" is like when you run into faults caused by gold splitters and rg 59s with crimp on connectors that the customer will insist till he's blue in the face that a cable guy did.