RV Park Cable TV - Montana Owners Club

jsb5717 · 05-19-2023, 10:44 AM

I'm struggling to figure out why I can't get cable TV provided by many parks to work in my trailer. It's got to be a function of the splitter(s) in the rig. I don't have KeyTV, just cable/satellite connections in the convenience center.

If I run a cable from the park cable directly to my living room TV (Vizio HD LED Smart TV) it works like a champ. However, if I connect it to the Cable connection in the convenience center it won't work (cable power supply turned OFF). It will work on the bedroom TV, but only when the TV is connected directly to the cable connection on the power supply, which is essentially the same as connecting directly to the cable source.

Once the signal goes through the OEM splitter there's no signal. There have been a few times when the connection through the splitter has worked and I'm wondering if it's the difference between digital and analog signal. Do I need a different HD splitter? Something else?

FWIW I can view TV great when the power supply is turned on and I'm viewing OTA TV channels all routed through the same splitter.

I'm sure someone has solved this...thanks

Mikendebbie · 05-19-2023, 11:09 AM

Fortunately - our 2018 models do not have KeyTV.
Based on what I have read here on the forum - my first suspect would be the coax splitters.

In my unit - park cable works for all 3 TVs with the antenna booster button (behind the bedroom TV) is turned OFF
OTA TV also works well on all 3 TVs when I turn on the antenna boost button.

My Dish Tailgater will not work thru the OEM coax and splitters. I ran a 6' pigtail thru the slideout wire loom - which is connected to my Dish black box (a Wally box). I hook my Tailgator to the pigtail and get good connectivity and signal to the living room TV...which is all we want.

I have toyed with the idea to go find some "high quality" splitters and replace the OEM splitters...but that task is low on the priority list for now. I think I have seen some threads here with links to better quality splitters. I would seek replacements for those things in the wall behind each TV, and the ones you can find behind the basement bulkhead wall...maybe even the connections sticking thru the convenience center wall.

Edit: The things I have read here also involve a signal device/ping thing (sorry the name escapes me) to trace signals and strength of signal. My hope would be that if I replace the splitters - everything would be better. I hope I would not have to pull new coax.

rohrmann · 05-19-2023, 01:01 PM

At the very least, replacing all the coax splitters with something like this might be the answer to get the TV's working on park cable. https://www.amazon.com/GE-Amplifiers...4522608&sr=8-3 Also, a small 7/16" wrench to tighten all the connectors solved our issues some years ago when using our satellite dish.

dhuhn · 05-19-2023, 02:35 PM

Jeff sounds like your booster for OTA is on, make sure it is off. it should be by your cable connection behind the TV in bed room.

jsb5717 · 05-19-2023, 03:46 PM

Thanks, guys, Yes, the booster if off. I suspected it might be that the splitter can't handle the HD signal. So then the challenge is that the OEM splitter is 3 in and 4 out. I'll start searching.

Here's the OEM splitter. It doesn't state that it's HD.

rohrmann · 05-19-2023, 08:49 PM

This might work. https://electricalparts.com/products...SABEgLgKfD_BwE

jsb5717 · 05-19-2023, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohrmann

This might work. https://electricalparts.com/products...SABEgLgKfD_BwE

Thanks, Bob, that’s an interesting option. I wish it provided more of a description of what it supported. I don’t see anything about HD

ChuckS · 05-20-2023, 07:35 AM

The current splitter you have is fine.. It has the bandwidth needed.. You have a cable issue from where the Incoming cable coax feed routes to the bedroom then to the LR TV set.

I had exactly the same issue on my 2014 that showed up after bout a year of owing.. It can be a challenge top TS.. mine was..

In the end I had a shorted coax cable from the junction for the main incoming cable coax feed to the BR and then toward the LR TV set.

I would.. if not already done so check:
1.LR TV wall plate coax F connector on backside of plate - looking for open connection ( braided shield not mating with barrel of connector ) or insufficient center lead protrusion out of F connector (1/8 to 1/4 inch)
2. Look under stairwell or remove basement rear access panel and locate incoming main cable coax feed and check those F connectors for same issues
3. If you have a TV cable tester this can help BUT will not work for testing on a line that has a splitter in place

I had to use my multimeter and ohm across each F connector end in the basement behind the access panel to find the shorted coax to the LR set

Ive attached a schematic of my coax feed layout that will be generic enough for your Montana to give you an idea of where the issue is at.

** An my issue with the LR TV was intermittent.. Sometimes I would have a "fair" TV picture on the LR set and then sometimes when we set up at a new RV park I could get no TV channels found during scan on the LR set while the BR set would find all sorts of TV channels

**Carl n Susan** · 05-20-2023, 10:25 AM

You wrote that OTA works just fine. Yet cable does not. The BR will work if you connect the incoming cable directly to the TV. I conclude the cable input is fine.

OTA broadcasts in 1080P AFAIK. Cable is lucky to give you 1080I. Therefore the OTA signal to both TVs works for what is a higher broadcast signal than cable. It seems then that the cabling, including the splitters, to the two TVs is working fine.

You showed a picture of a splitter (with satellite connections?). But the junction box for the cable input, OTA input, Booster switch, output signal, and 12V outlet to the rest of the TVs is not this splitter.

To me, it sounds like the junction box is defective.

To verify, you can jumper the cable input line to the output to the TVs cable line using just a barrel connector and see if you get a picture at the LR TV.

jsb5717 · 05-20-2023, 11:56 AM

Thanks, Carl. When I connect the BR TV to the TV output on the booster you show (with the power turned off) then park cable works great. But not in the LR after going through the splitter I showed.

The booster in your pic is pre-splitter and the TV in the BR is the only place I can connect pre-splitter. There is also the standard cable/sat connection in the BR as well as the rest of the rig (LR, Basement). Of course these are all post-splitter. If I connect the BR TV to that then I don't get cable.

Since I can view OTA TV though both TV's equally well (with the booster turned on) then do I assume correctly that the cabling is working well so the issue must somehow be related to the splitter's ability to push HD?

Did I understand you correctly?

**Carl n Susan** · 05-20-2023, 01:35 PM

I guess I wasn't very clear in what I was trying to say. I think that if the OTA works on all TVs, and the cable signal, which flows along the same wires should also work.

Here is the diagram of how the booster connections look.

You say the cable input (the middle wire in the diagram) to the booster works when directly connected to the BR TV. What I am suggesting you try is to disconnect the cable input line from outside and the TV signal output line (the wire on the right in the diagram) from the booster and connect them together using a barrel connector. This totally bypasses the booster and will tell if it is the problem or not.

rohrmann · 05-20-2023, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsb5717

Thanks, Bob, that’s an interesting option. I wish it provided more of a description of what it supported. I don’t see anything about HD

I'm not thinking they will say anything about HD, but someone who understands the numbers can probably interpret what the numbers will provide. Found this on the Leviton site:

Mikendebbie · 05-20-2023, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohrmann

I'm not thinking they will say anything about HD, but someone who understands the numbers can probably interpret what the numbers will provide. Found this on the Leviton site:

Hmmmm…the only numbers for this application that make sense to me are customer service and tech hotline phone numbers.

pitman44 · 05-25-2023, 08:44 AM

We were seasonal a few years ago and had a Dish guy come in to connect us to a permanently mounted dish. Connected to the RV input and no TV. He found the signal to the Dish box was very poor. First thing he did was remake all the factory cable connections. Then we had TV.

My daughter does contract tech support work that sometimes involves coax cable for networking. She regularly has to remake connections because apparently many folks either don't have the proper tools to make connections or don't know how to make good connections.

That would be my starting point.

jsb5717 · 05-25-2023, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChuckS

The current splitter you have is fine.. It has the bandwidth needed.. You have a cable issue from where the Incoming cable coax feed routes to the bedroom then to the LR TV set.

I had exactly the same issue on my 2014 that showed up after bout a year of owing.. It can be a challenge top TS.. mine was..

In the end I had a shorted coax cable from the junction for the main incoming cable coax feed to the BR and then toward the LR TV set.

I would.. if not already done so check:
1.LR TV wall plate coax F connector on backside of plate - looking for open connection ( braided shield not mating with barrel of connector ) or insufficient center lead protrusion out of F connector (1/8 to 1/4 inch)
2. Look under stairwell or remove basement rear access panel and locate incoming main cable coax feed and check those F connectors for same issues
3. If you have a TV cable tester this can help BUT will not work for testing on a line that has a splitter in place

I had to use my multimeter and ohm across each F connector end in the basement behind the access panel to find the shorted coax to the LR set

Ive attached a schematic of my coax feed layout that will be generic enough for your Montana to give you an idea of where the issue is at.

** An my issue with the LR TV was intermittent.. Sometimes I would have a "fair" TV picture on the LR set and then sometimes when we set up at a new RV park I could get no TV channels found during scan on the LR set while the BR set would find all sorts of TV channels

Thanks, Chuck. I've gone through many of these same steps. When we first got this trailer the signal to the TV's was pretty bad. I went through every connection I could find behind all of the wall plates and in the basement at the splitter and connections in the convenience center. Virtually every coax connection was loose. I haven't used an ohm meter on anything but just tightening everything seemed to fixed the primary issue of picture quality through the cable system. OTA has worked very well since. As I said earlier, I also pulled in channels as a few parks through their cable TV offering but I think those were maybe analog signals or not high def. Most parks now offer cable that I can't get without going direct to TV.

I did buy a different splitter rated for HD to test the theory. It is only 1in/4out so the satellite cables won't connect to anything but we're not using those anyway. Hopefully that will tell me something.

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