TWC Coax thru Monster Surge... ok for signal?

[Mark Strube]

When I bought my HDTV I got suckered into getting one of those elaborate Monster surge protectors with it. It's impressive looking, but I dunno if it truthfully makes a difference. I've got my whole HD theater setup powered by it. It also has ports for cable in and out. When I plug the cable in, the GROUND light turns on, so I suppose that's helping ground the surge protector. But, I was also told that this "reduces interference & noise" on the cable signal. Here's what the cable setup looks like now:

Cable enters house -> 2-way splitter -> 1 to my room, 1 to 4-way for rest of house -> in my room: monster surge -> 2-way splitter -> 1 to HD-DVR, 1 to another 2-way -> 1 to analog capture card, 1 to cable modem.

I know, I got kinda tricky so my room would get a stronger signal than the rest of the house, but they don't seem to mind.

Now I'm wondering, could running the cable thru that surge protector possibly weaken the signal and cause more dropouts or pixelization than usual? I notice it once in awhile, but I can't tell if it's happening more than usual lately, so I figured I'd ask if someone knows more about these Monster things than I do.

[MoreTorque99]

I've tried both ways with my equipment and it never made a difference.  The older models had a problem with digital signals in the past, but the new ones are fine.

[mhz40]

When I bought my HDTV I got suckered into getting one of those elaborate Monster surge protectors with it. It's impressive looking, but I dunno if it truthfully makes a difference. I've got my whole HD theater setup powered by it. It also has ports for cable in and out. When I plug the cable in, the GROUND light turns on, so I suppose that's helping ground the surge protector. But, I was also told that this "reduces interference & noise" on the cable signal. Here's what the cable setup looks like now:

Cable enters house -> 2-way splitter -> 1 to my room, 1 to 4-way for rest of house -> in my room: monster surge -> 2-way splitter -> 1 to HD-DVR, 1 to another 2-way -> 1 to analog capture card, 1 to cable modem.

I know, I got kinda tricky so my room would get a stronger signal than the rest of the house, but they don't seem to mind.

Now I'm wondering, could running the cable thru that surge protector possibly weaken the signal and cause more dropouts or pixelization than usual? I notice it once in awhile, but I can't tell if it's happening more than usual lately, so I figured I'd ask if someone knows more about these Monster things than I do.

Another Monster product... I guess gas prices aren't really high enough yet. :rofl:
(I guess you can tell my opinion on Monster gear...)

Seriously tho... the MonterSuperSurgeSpikeStripperDeluxeHomeEdition thingababob probably won't protect much more than a modest spike from coming in on the shield of the coax.  If in fact a lightning surge got into the coax, a bad place to try to stop it is AFTER it has slipped into your hardware room, eh?.  That's why there are ground blocks installed just before (or after) the coax enters the home.  If installed right and not tampered with, they do a very job protecting you on the coax side.
No one sitting behind their PC right now can tell you what is getting lost running through the unit.  You would need a TW visit to measure it's affect on the signal.  If the modem is still working OK, everything should be fine.

[GBK]

the way I understand it everytime you run it thru a connector it can have as much as 3.5 db loss.. which is roughly have the signal.  I could be wrong... it's happened before.   :wave:

[mhz40]

2-way splitters lose 3.5.  4-way's 7.5 and 8-way's 11.  Connectors lose next to nothing.