What's this device a technician installed behind my TV?

R

rigurat

Limp Gawd
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Jun 1, 2010
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I have Time Warner Cable in Hawaii. I recently downgraded to basic analog cable which is about 20 channels.

Other than picking up the cable box I noticed the tech installed this cylindrical device behind my TV.

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A quick search says it's a low pass filter. It filters out higher frequencies and allows lower frequencies to pass.

What is the purpose of this thing? Surge protection or noise filtering? Does it have any effect on my cable internet (also TWC)?

What happens if I remove it? I already found the tool to do so on Amazon!
 
you shouldn't need a tool, just unscrew it. you will be stealing cable though.
 
oh boy do I feel old now :eek: I remember having one for all the pay channels to tune in or block
 
Are you using a cablebox anymore? Or just running your coax directly into the TV? If so, you may get worse signal if you remove it. Go ahead and try though, but I doubt you get an improvement.

They usually put the filters that you want to unscrew outside the house in the little green boxes that are harder to access.
 
he may live in an apartment and it was easier to just put the filter there.
 
Are you using a cablebox anymore? Or just running your coax directly into the TV? If so, you may get worse signal if you remove it. Go ahead and try though, but I doubt you get an improvement.

They usually put the filters that you want to unscrew outside the house in the little green boxes that are harder to access.
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No more cable box, just coax from the wall directly into the TV.

Yes Zepher, I do live in an apartment. All the little boxes are in a utility room which is locked. Only the apartment manager has access to it.
 
A cable tech once told me that the filter is used to separate the Internet signals (which travel at high frequencies) from the tv signals (which travel at lower frequencies). If you remove it your signal will probably become degraded.

I don't think you will get any additional channels by removing it, but it won't hurt to try and see what happens as you can put it back if things get worse.
 
If they are on separate frequencies, there's no need to separate? Filters also don't separate, sifters do, if it did what the cable guy said, you'd either lose Internet or TV.

Looks like how they used to turn on premium channels back in the mid 90s. Honest.y didn't think anybody used this tech still.
 
Verge said:
If they are on separate frequencies, there's no need to separate? Filters also don't separate, sifters do, if it did what the cable guy said, you'd either lose Internet or TV.

Looks like how they used to turn on premium channels back in the mid 90s. Honest.y didn't think anybody used this tech still.
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They still use it as we have one outside of our house.
We were having signal issues years ago and one of the techs bypassed it, probably didn't have one on hand to replace it, then a year or so later we had issues and another tech came to fix our system and saw the filter bypassed and I told her I didn't bypass it, it must have been the tech that came out last time.

the filter blocks out the non-scrambled cable channels and doesn't affect the internet.
 
weuntouchable said:
A cable tech once told me that the filter is used to separate the Internet signals (which travel at high frequencies) from the tv signals (which travel at lower frequencies). If you remove it your signal will probably become degraded.
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Such filters do exist as do the channel filters mentioned by others. Hard to say which this is. But this is possible. Similarly to the filters for the cable modem frequencies, there are also MoCA filters, though the tech in this case would not likely have a reason to install one of those (even if OP uses MoCA, TW would probably not give him a free filter for it).

There are even filters for radio bands like FM, but those are also unlikely to be installed by TW. Not impossible, though, because analog cable is more susceptible to interference and if OP lives near a high power transmitter of some sort, a filter for those frequencies could be required.
 
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Zepher said:
They still use it as we have one outside of our house.
We were having signal issues years ago and one of the techs bypassed it, probably didn't have one on hand to replace it, then a year or so later we had issues and another tech came to fix our system and saw the filter bypassed and I told her I didn't bypass it, it must have been the tech that came out last time.

the filter blocks out the non-scrambled cable channels and doesn't affect the internet.
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Was this to fix internet signal issues by chance? I just moved into a new house and had to bypass all but one splitter to get internet signal successfully. It's still a little flakey with my known good (non-leased) hardware. I noticed there is an Arcom fbr-2/78 installed on the incoming line. I've googled the hell out of this and can't figure out what it does other than it's probably some sort of filter. I can't figure out what it would filter though since they nixed analog cable many years ago in this area in favor of digital QAM.
 
jwhazel said:
Was this to fix internet signal issues by chance? I just moved into a new house and had to bypass all but one splitter to get internet signal successfully. It's still a little flakey with my known good (non-leased) hardware. I noticed there is an Arcom fbr-2/78 installed on the incoming line. I've googled the hell out of this and can't figure out what it does other than it's probably some sort of filter. I can't figure out what it would filter though since they nixed analog cable many years ago in this area in favor of digital QAM.
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it was to fix the analog TV signal. there was a lot of noise on a lot of the channels.
We have basic cable which is local channels and about a dozen cable channels.
When he took out the filter, the image became really clear and we got the rest of the analog cable channels for free, until the other tech came and put a new filter in place.

We did have internet issues off and on for about a year, signal dropping, splitters failing, and was due to some adjustment on the pole outside. dB or something was too high or low. They sent a higher level tech to come fix our issue since the regular techs would come and replace the splitter(s) and they would fail in a week or two.
I can't remember exactly what the senior tech told me but it had to do with signal or voltage strength.
 
you dont need any special tools to remove those.

just a flat head screw driver.

insert and spin the screwdriver.
 
Does the cable company have a way of knowing if the filter is removed?

Do they have some sort of monitor at their station that indicates the presence of a filter installed?
 
They generally put these on the poles.

And no, they have no way of knowing except for inspecting. ANd they actually inspect them often when they are located outside.
 
It's behind my TV because I live in an apartment building and the utility room is not accessible.
 
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