> I've got an old NVidia card (an Asus branded GForce2-MX400), and I've > tried running the composite out from that card to the TV over a 30' coax > cable with F-RCA converters on both ends -- under the assumption that > the coax (RG6) cable would be better shielded than a standard RCA cable > -- is this true? The resulting signal on the TV is very dirty, with > distortion in the middle of the screen and bands that cycle top to bottom. > > Is there anything I can do (better cable, a signal amp, something else?) > to get video from the server to the TV cleanly? Or am I stuck with > needing a second computer for the frontend in the TV room?
Based on your description of the dirty signal you're seeing on your TV it sounds very similar to the distortion I was getting at one point from a ground loop problem. My cable run was only about 6 feet, but the signal distortion was horrendous. It turned out that my backend had a three-prong grounded plug, but my tv and receiver both had two-prong ungrounded plugs. This was causing a ground loop when connecting the backend computer to the tv and stereo. I eventually solved this by picking up some 12-gauge copper wire from home depot and connecting the ground screws on the tv and stereo to the metal plate in the power outlet where the backend was plugged in. This brought the ground for all three devices into sync and removed the distortion I was seeing. Since plain copper wire is pretty cheap from home depot you may want to give this a try before changing out parts of your 30' run. If need be you can temporarily use some old speaker wire to try this out and see if it makes any difference before you go pick up new ground wire at home depot. I wouldn't leave that speaker wire in place for an extended period of time, but you should be able to use it to test. Brad
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