Question for Home Theatre Experts

[FidelCashflow]

I have a Sony XBR 32" LCD tv, I've had about 6 months now. I have basic cable (nothing digital) hooked up by a really old co-axial cable.

Lately I've been noticing whenever I'm watching TV there are increasingly common sound blips. It's like the sound is distorted for a split second which is getting annoying. The video is just fine. These blips don't happen when I watch DVD's, or when I watch other TV's in the house. I'm starting to think my co-axial cable is too old and just messed up.

Would a new shielded co-axial cable help?

 

[Septavius]

How about hooking up another one of your other TVs to that co-axial cable and see if the same thing happens? If it does, then there's a strong case the cable needs replacing.

 

[gumercindo]

Maybe a new cable might help. Rather than call up the cable company and wait for them to replace it, order one from bluejeans cable company and they'll send it out to you with whatever length you specify (with the RF connectors attached, as well).

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/rf/index.htm

 

[grundletaint]

digital cable? sometimes the cable feed skips. it happens to me pretty often, especially on HD feeds.

 

[suited]

Originally Posted by FidelCashflow

I have a Sony XBR 32" LCD tv, I've had about 6 months now. I have basic cable (nothing digital) hooked up by a really old co-axial cable.

Lately I've been noticing whenever I'm watching TV there are increasingly common sound blips. It's like the sound is distorted for a split second which is getting annoying. The video is just fine. These blips don't happen when I watch DVD's, or when I watch other TV's in the house. I'm starting to think my co-axial cable is too old and just messed up.

Would a new shielded co-axial cable help?

Do you seriously have an LCD TV hooked up with a co-axial cable?

 

[Dmax]

Most cable companies have been actively moving their customers off analog cable to digital cable for the past several years, so what you have is most likely basic digital cable. The brief sound interruptions you describe sound like digital artifacts/loss of sync so a new coaxial connecting your cable box to TV is unlikely to help since the signal is analog at that point. A different point is that no one should be using a coaxial cable to connect a cable box, satellite box or another signal source to their display because coaxial cable analog connection will significantly reduce your picture and sound quality. The preffered method to connect your cable box to your display is through HDMI connection. If the box does not have an HDMI output, then look for a DVI video connector and use an optical digital or two cable stereo connection for the audio signal. If above are not available, look for Component Video out (three round connectors: green, yellow, red). If that is not available look for S-Video out (single black round multi-prong connector). If none of the connectors above are present, your cable box is really old and you should look for a Composite video connector (single round yellow). Your LCD is likely to have several inputs I described above, so that should not be a problem. If you need to order a cable, I recommend www.monoprice.com, since they offer good quality and their prices are hard to beat.