Quote:
Originally Posted by jc480
With respect to the cable shielding, there's the law of diminishing returns.
I run standard cat5 coax through my house (or whatever the standard shielding is) and it seems to work fine. I've got some LONG ASS RUNS...we're talking nearly 100 feet from terminal splitter to the TV. I notice no signal degradation.
You may get a better signal with a hyper-insulated cable. But I would not be surprised that, if you put two TVs side by side utilizing standard and quad shielded cable....you couldn't tell the pictures apart.
But an important feature of your HT is what makes you feel good. Alot of people want "power conditioners" on their electronics...they feel it improves their picture. Others want certain types of HDMI cables or other accessories that are considered "performance".
The point is...there is a placebo effect and some people are more discerning than others.
The average joe 6-pack can buy an LCD generic TV from Walmart and be happy. For most people who visit this site, the same TV would be unacceptable.
If you want to use quad shielded cable because you believe it provides better signal integrity, then do so 
Just out of curiosity, how much of a price premium is that over standard? |
Firstly, if that is even a word
, I'm not sure how CAT5 wire plays into all this, I am lost on that one
, but I think it's a safe bet to say signal loss can happen when it comes to TV coaxial cable. Not sure if you think I'm saying "my picture looks better on digital channels because of the cable I am using" ??? I am not if that is what you are thinking. You've never experienced signal loss or degradation with long runs of cable with analog TV or experienced signal dropouts with digital reception ??? This isn't a Monster brand placebo affect thing is it ??? I'm not saying my ones and zeros look better than your ones and zeros, I am talking about signal loss/degradation, but anyhow.............
Well the reason I upped to quad shielded RG9 was that my run is almost 70 feet long outside of my house to the grounding block right before the antenna lead enters my home. I was experiencing dropouts on on quite a few digital channels and estimate the signal strength (according to my TV's menu) to be at 40% and below on the problem channels. After talking to a few people who know what they are doing (it's their job) they recommended changing out to quad shielded RG6 to preserve my signal better (They have a lot better of an explanation). However I decided to do one better and bought the RG9, since it's not a lot of fun playing around on a roof with steep pitch by myself with a hefty antenna rig. To sum it up, it certainly was a success as my signals either nearly doubled or are at 100%. If you like I can track one of them down pretty easily, he chats on AVS and is the "chief something" at a TV station.
A bit of info in my case. I live in a area that is the foothills to the Allegheny mountains (more like really big hills). Anyhow, my entire region is almost all hills and valleys. We are talking about line of sight here.
Did I go to the point of diminishing returns by upping to quad shielded RG9 ??? Most likely a very big yes, but it's better than playing around on the roof of a two story home by myself with an antenna !!!
I do not remember how much I paid for the RG9, as this was a couple years ago. I did buy it from Solid Signal and there should be a price on the website. I can't remember what lengths it comes in, but I purchased 100ft. of it