Cable TV Reception Problem In Bedroom TV

[69RoadRunner]

The reception is fine in the front TV (once I remembered to turn off the antenna booster). Back in the bedroom, the picture is very snowy.

I looked at the wiring, and 1 coax cable goes into a splitter. One line out of the splitter goes into the antenna input on the TV and the other line goes into the cable TV input on the TV.

This is a Samsung flatscreen TV.

[soricobob]

Our bedroom TV(Phillips) was not working properly for about a year...had it looked at by several techs, but it was not until one tech telephoned Newmar, did we find out that we did not have an adaptor harness for our hi-def wiring. Once that was sent, installed, we had no more issues with the TV, or the bedroom speakers.

[wa8yxm]

Antennas are kind of a hobby of mine. ON other frequencies I design and build them.. Thus I study Antennas (NOTE: The antenna is working) and feed lines (Coax) and such.

IN many RV's the coax used is "Lowest bidder" and frankly it's ......... not good, not good at all. (NOTE: THis includes the rig I"m in) Somewhere I have a chart Belkin Corp, it shows basically 5 coax cables suitable.. From GOOD RG-6 to Cheap RG-59, the difference is that 25 feet of the cheap stuff has more loss than over 100 feet of the good stuff. And the cheap Belkin may well be better than what is in my rig.

That said. there are 3 possible issues:

1: Bad or damaged cable, or poorly attached cable ends (NOTE: the cable ends came off far too easily in my coach, I repalced with a much better cable end, it don't come off)

2: Nail through the cable

3: Bad splitter

4: Bad TV or mis-scanned TV (Antenna instead of cable or the other way around)

I would inspect both ends of that cable, then grab a multi-meter and a long jumper (Automotive jumper cables, though not easy to work with, can be used) and measure center to center, (Shoudl show near zero) shield (NUT) to shield (Likewise) and center to shield (You can do this at either end) should show open

Also, I've heard of cases where the idiots at the factory swapped the cable and TV-2 leads

Looking at the back, cables down the cables are

Ant/Park cable/TV 2 and optinally TV 3

[69RoadRunner]

How can I see if I have the right wiring harness?

[soricobob]

I'm neither an expert on wiring or TVs, but the harness (on mine) is located behind the bedroom drawers..if you pull them out and look at the wiring coming down from the TV, they should go into a harness. After you pull the drawers, call Newmar and get some assistance from someone who knows!

[wa8yxm]

I"m not sure "The right wiring harness" means anything.. I can't post drawings here but let me describe the standard 2 (or 3) Television install with the wall plate type switch

There are TWO cables that go TO the switch (plus a power cable) one is from the roof top antenna, and the other is park cable

If you are looking at the back of the wall plate, with the cables running DOWN from the connectors, they are the 1st and 2nd ports (Cable connectors)

TV-1 is the front connector (The one exposed when the plate is in place) TV-2 is the third connector and if you have a TV 3 you have a 4th connector, that's it.

The cables are usually RG-59, coax

That's all that's important, Not the "Harness" but that one wire.

If you need to test, you can "Bypass" it by opening the box, getting a length of cable (Either RG-59 which you'd use to hook up to park cable or RG-6 used for Satellite dishes, either one will work)

Disconnect the 3rd cable (I'm looking at the back of the panel like this

Electronics
1 2 3 4

And hook the test cable up here. Do the same at the antenna connection at the back of the TV

If that fixes it.. Bad cable, If not, Bad switch

[69RoadRunner]

OK, hopefully I'll get some time to test this on our next trip.

Thanks!

[FlyingDiver]

Make sure that the TV is set to "Antenna" and not "Cable". The frequencies are slightly different, and you'll get a crappy picture if it's set wrong.

joe

[69RoadRunner]

The problem is with cable reception. TV reception is fine. I did have the TV set to cable.

Thanks!

[wa8yxm]

By the way, Since TV is good via Antenna, I'm inclined to think the cable from the splitter/switch to the bedroom is good, The switch might not be however.

I stress INCLINED.. I would still check that cable