[mythtv-users] Coax splitters - how painful are they?

[Brian Wood]

Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 30, 2007 at 10:21:40AM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
>> Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
>>> Well, the *optimal* approach is probably to get a commercial 10-port
>>> from someone like Channelmaster or Blonder Tongue and (if necessary)
>>> drive it with an amp, and then home-run all your cabling to it... but
>>> that's the RF-geek approach, and you might not think it worth the
>>> investment.
>> No necessarily, especially if all of the destinations are not
>> equi-distant from the source point (in DB. of loss, not necessarily in
>> feet or meters).
> 
> Really?  I wouldn't have thought the drop run length would make that
> much difference, as this is how DarkHouse seems to do it here: 10 port
> DC in a bag, with all the local drops run from it -- which can range
> from 20 to 250 ft, by observation.

If you're talking about drops that short then it probably wouldn't make
a difference.

While I do not know what "Dark House" is, a lot of multiple unit
dwellings use the central splitter approach for security reasons, it's
cheaper and easier to have one secure box with a big splitter in it than
to try and secure multiple couplers spaced along a run.

> 
>> Essentially it all depends on the physical arrangement of the the
>> devices you want to feed. If they are all more or less the same distance
>> from your feed point then the home run from a central device makes
>> sense, if they are all spread along a vast distance then that iss not
>> the best approach.
> 
> But for RF purposes?  Or solely for cable reduction?

Actually more for the reduction of active electronics. The "spider" or
"octopus" approach works well if it is at the end of the line, if you
have to cascade to addition amplifiers it's not such a good solution, if
you were to need an amplifier on each tap leg.

But using directional couplers placed as close to the tap point as
possible it allows you to get better control of the final levels.

beww