Horizontal lines while watching TV

[silversnake]

Well my title says it all. I have a Samsung 52 in 60 hz. I'm with Videotron. A few weeks ago I called them because I had a problem not getting reception on some channels at certain times. Turns out they didn't wire it correctly the first time. Now those channels work but I have this other problem. Always the case right? Call them for help and now I have another problem

I have these horizontal lines that go up and down while watching tv. They are not colored lines, they just look white , very opaque, almost transparent. It's a few of these lines, some of them are about 1 or 2 inch , and others are about half that size. On some channels it's not so bad , on some it's horrible. If the channel is one bright color it's very noticeable.

It was the same problem I had before with my PS3 and that was due that it was not grounded properly. Once I plugged in the adapter into the PS3 and into the wall it worked perfectly. Now my PS3 is plugged into a surge protector which grounds my equipment by itself.

This problem only happens while watching tv, never with blu-ray or ps3 or even the wii. I'm plugged in with component cables as HDMI doesn't seem to work with videotron ( common problem apparently)

The cable company says it's either a defective box or I have too many appliances. I call BS on both of those claims. I have had the same equipment since day 1 and never had this problem. I also tried my friends cable box and this problem still happened.

Before the guy came , I had this adapter which was supposed to remove interference. I don't know what it's called but it was this silver/metal rectangle that had two TV inputs. There was one cable from the cable box to the adapter , and another from the adapter to the wall. Do I need this again?

I'm at a loss for words and the cable company has already come to my house 4x in the last month and none of them can give me an answer so I turn to you guys for advice. I'm in the process of recording a short video for an example and screenshots.

Thanks for reading the long post and thanks for any help you guys can give me. I have pictures of my HT in my HT gallery if that can help to see if I have too much equipment etc.

Mods feel free to move this if it's in the wrong forum.

Thanks guys

[MrFattBill]

- If you have any type of splitter remove them and see if the hum-bars still exist. A bad splitter or one that has too many open ports that aren't being used can introduce this type of interference.
- Check to make sure all cable ends are straight and free of any strands of braiding in them, even the best cable guys screw up on occasion and leave a strand of shielding in there which can cause havoc..
- Also if you can run the cable directly to the TV thus bypassing the box I would do that just so you can eliminate the box but I would bet the problem is coming from further upstream.

http://www.elect-spec.com/faqgrdl.htm

Bill

[silversnake]

Thanks Bill for replying and giving me some ideas.

The splitter is what he removed so that isn't there anymore. ( Thanks couldn't think of the name at the time )

I'll look at that site and check the wiring again tomorrow.

[MrFattBill]

What you removed was probably an amplifier, you can try putting that back in line, the signal coming from the pole MAY be to low. At least give it a try and see what you get on the screen.

Bill