DSS ??

I recently had Directv installed. The installer used some of the old exisiting cable in my home even though its not RG6 cable. He said it would work ok. Recently I noticed light diagonal lines acroos the picture and when i record things the quality isnt that great. Could this be caused by not using RG6? thanks

 

Good Morning, Edgar22:

I've been hearing a lot of these stories lately. I just finished with a person suffering the same (or nearly the same problem).

A decent DSS installation will use RG-6 that has a frequency carrying capability up to 1100 MHz. While there is RG-59 available with this capability, RG-59 is "lossy"
for long runs. RG-59 that was part of an older installation may, indeed, be part of the problem. The older stuff doesn't have the frequency capability for DSS
service. The older RG-59 usually has a loss of 3 dB per
100 feet (3 dB = half signal) and the good stuff was good
up to about 800 MHz bandwidth.

My advice to talk to the installer and have him put in the correct cable. He may have been trying to save you and his boss a few dollars but he didn't do you any favors in the process.

Smokey

 

Thanks, yeah what he used was only about 25 feet of old cable. Im not sure what type it is but I know its been here a long time, used for the old rooftop antenna

 

Good evening, edgar22:

Well, he may have saved you $5 on the installation but gave you $20 worth of headaches. Let us know how it works out when you have the right cable in the system.

Smokey