Virgin TV issue

Ace Modder

Ace Modder

Ace Modder

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Was 150 yds from OCUK - now 0.5 mile; they moved
Hi

A week ago I moved my TV in my lounge, as a result I needed to get a new longer coaxail cable for the virgin box as it was being moved and the pre-installed cable was not long enough.

I made my own cable using a standard coaxial cord cabling and F-connectors. Even since my virgin TV has been doing this... could it be the cable is damaged or something else?

 
The signal from the cab in the street to your home is finely attenuated to give the optimum signal level to the STB(s) and modems. If you change the length of the cabling, the signal will be affected and fall from tolerance levels. This means you get freezing and pixelated pictures. If you want to relocate the STB, you will need to contact VM to arrange for a visit from an install tech. They may need to change the attenuators or even use a different port in the street cabinet.


I used to be a service analyst for Cable and Wireless, then NTL.
 
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Define "standard co-ax" cable? :)

If it was standard TV aerial cable then yes it would cause issues, as standard TV cabling it terrible stuff, you need something closer to a good quality satellite cable (IIRC cable TV cable can be better than that) at least.
I can't remember if it's RF100 or FW100 or something.

As said above VM will have fitted an attenuator to get the signal levels right, but that might be ok with a slightly longer cable as long as it's good enough quality (and normal co-ax tv cable is barely ok for TV reception from a terrestrial aerial in many cases, let alone good enough for the sort of signal you get with cable TV).

VM can charge you if they come out to a fault and it's due to a non VM cable.
 
howiepoohs said:
That cable looks suspect too. No rating at all. You need quality shielded coax. I suggest you contact VM for a visit. It will cost you though.
Click to expand...

That's why I did it myself, I'd rather not pay £99 for them to install a coax cable.
 
Rg6 cable you need, even better rg11 but thats mainly if you live over 80meters away from the cab (the green box), if you see a kelly's communications van around ask them for some cable which they should give you some.

If your a real tight ass, go to the depot and grab a of cut which they chuck in the skips.

Edit:: im surprise that cable even gave you signal.
 
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If you phone Virgin, I believe they will send you a DIY installation kit for free which comes with a cable. I'm not sure if it will let you extend the cable, but it's worth enquiring about.

Perhaps, with the cable in the kit, you could get a female-female adapter to link the cable to your existing one.
 
It really isn't as sensitive as is being made out here. I have split feeds many times and changed cable lengths for different rooms etc with no issues. In various properties I have lived and for friends too. That said, pop to your local home base or wickes and buy some proper coax. Even the eBay stuff will be fine. You might need an attenator to adjust signal levels, but I'd be surprised. but again, these are dirt cheap.

Worst case just call virgin and say the box is playing up, they will send someone round who will sort it, say that's where it was installed, they won't argue. Those engineers are in a rush.
 
The quality of coax used in a HFC system is critical, mostly due to the fact that there's a return path involved in a HFC system. Using dodgy cabling can introduce crap back into their network. Coax is probably the only thing Virgin Media don't scrimp on. They use very high quality cables and compression fit F-connectors.

Fitting some crap cabling from homebase into a HFC system should be against the TOS.
 
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It needs to be 75ohm cable with a decent amount of shielding and ideally compression fittings (not twist on), if you bodge it and your cable introduces noise onto the Virgin network they'll just unplug you at the green box until you arrange an engineer visit.

Even if you get a perfect picture yourself noise on the network can impact your neighbours signals which is why Virgin frown upon DIY cables.
 
yes as said get one single length of quality cable as each 'connection you make is potentially a 3db loss of signal, this is a lot when you may only just be above the required signal strenght for a picture
 
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