Few things can be as frustrating as picture problems. You get your system all ready to go, flip the switch, and WHAM! One or more channels look terrible. The good news is that the majority of video problems can be traced to just a few causes. Most problems are comprised of the following:
Snow
Horizontal bars rolling though the picture
Vertical bars rolling through the picture
Ghosting
Herringbone pattern (diagonal lines through picture)
Lower channels look fine, upper channels are not
These six are the main symptoms you’ll find when seeing video problems. Thankfully, most are fairly easy to fix.
Snow –
Snow is caused by inadequate signal strength at the tuner. It’s usually caused by:
1 Splitting the signal too many times.
2 A weak signal from the antenna or cable company
3 A very long cable run
If the signal is snowy at all your TVs, especially if you have more than 4 TVs, you probably need an RF amplifier. Check the strength at the demark (service entrance). If it is fine there, add an amplifier before the splitter. Make sure to use a quality unit with good bandwidth (out to at least 1000MHz). If you have digital cable or a cable modem, get an amplifier with a bidirectional return path to allow for communication back to the cable company. If the picture looks bad at the demark, contact the cable company.
If it is bad at only one TV, you may have a bad cable between the splitter and the TV or a very long run of cable. You can amplify just that run.
Horizontal Rolling Bars