Visionz

Okay..I currently have digital cable all through out my house. However, my garage doesn't have cable. I just have a basic tv with antenna. Really crappy reception and I like having it on when I'm out there working on cars. (I have a 3 car HEATED garage ). Anyway, my neighbor has a big garage and he has cable running out to it so he can watch football games and so on with his friends. Tonight he offered to split the signal and run a line over to my garage so I can hook up cable to my tv in my garage. His garage is right next to mine, so it would be easier to run cable from his garage to mine, than it would be to run cable from my house to my garage.

Did I lose anyone there? *lol*

Well, my question is this....if he runs cable from his garage to my garage, can either one of us get in trouble from the cable company? Is there way that they would find out about this? The cable would be hidden under ground so it can't be seen, so even if they were to come out to his or mine house, they wouldn't see anything.

So I should take a chance with this, or just say screw it and run a super long cable from my house to the garage?

AllBlackTibby

Hmmmm....well, you wouldn't be able to get digital cable unless you had a reciever. You could run a splitter after the reciever but you would have to watch what he was watching. I don't know for sure, but I think by running a cable from his cable line to your house would violate his AUP (acceptable use policy.)

You could probably run a cable from your house to your garage, and depending on how long it is, you may need a signal booster.

XtremezTiburon

hey bro, for once I can tell you something! You'd need the box to change the channels. I had the same thing happen to me. It sux. If you search the net you can get a descrambler for next to nothing. Then splice his line, underground it, hook that mad biotch up and watch some Playboy! Just kiddin...I know you dont watch that filth. Just make sure that if he has any cable problems( i.e., loss of picture, fuzzy pic, outages) make sure to hide the moonshine if ya know what I mean. Enjoy!

Visionz

Oh no, I don't care about digital cable. In fact, in my house, I have one digital box, and it's split to 4 tv's through out the house. The other tv's that the line is split to only has basic cable. So, if he splits his line from his garage (where he also has basic cable since he has a similiar set up as I do [1 box -> many tv's], then would everything be okay, if he split his line to his garage, to over to my garage? I know it can be done, since it's teh same way I have it in MY house. But what I'm wondering is, can the cable company find out that a house is splitting a signal to another house without actually coming out and viewing it for themselves?

Oh hell..maybe this weekend I'll just go out and buy a 50 foot piece of cable and run it from my house to the garage and not worry about getting into trouble.

XtremezTiburon

hey man, theres no way they'd know the difference between your garage and his garage unless they see it themselves. As far as i remember they dont have a remote diagnostic tool for that. They (I think )can tell if you split the main line but not where it goes

Viper966

yep u cant tell if u split it unless they come c it themselves... so jus bury the line and ull be fine.....

AllBlackTibby

You would be suprised at what they can tell, what they can prove is another issue. Any cable connection to a home uses power, and they can monitor how much power is being drawn by any user. The problem for the cable company is they can't come inside your home to see how many TVs you are using. The only way you would be in any sort of trouble is if they could physically see the cable running across the yard, which would be impossible for them to do unless it crossed public property. You might want to call your cable company first to see if it can be ran from the pole to your garage free of charge.

When I bought my new house, there was cable at the pole, it had just never been ran to my house. They ran it there free of charge.
Of course, this would probably depend on a lot of factors like how far away is the garage and how obstructed it is.

SupraGuy

Don't know about down there, but here, we're supposed to pay for every cable outlet and/or receiver (TV or radio) that we run cable to. But, what the cable company doesn't know, won't hurt my bill...

My worries about what you're proposing are that running the copper from your neighbor's garage to your garage is a definite no-no where the cable company is concerned. You're also going to be relying on your neighbor to keep that service. There are usually several "tiers" of cable service, and if he downgrades, then you downgrade.

It's not like you're really getting anything for free anyway. You're paying for full calbe service, you might as well run a line to the garage. I'd be more inclined to run it underground rather than string it up froma pole, but if that's how your power reaches the garage, that works, too.

For the technical details... The cable company can't *really* tell how many outlets you have for basic cable. They can tell how many DCTs you have on the line, and, if you have a DCT, they can tell what channel it's tuned to. (That's the whole point of an addressable device.)

Ego

Knew a guy who worked for a cable company in ontario, they had these recievers in their vans that could pick up cable signals that were being rebroadcast. This was in the days when they did charge for each hookup in the house and also used to carry radio stations via cable(they still do radio in some places).

What people would do is hook their stereo up to the cable, but not disconnect the antenna--and the signal would leak out. They could pick this up while driving around, then they'd come back with an account manager and ask for an inspection. Sneaky bastards.

Don't know if anyone still does this, just make sure that you use good shielded cable if you're worried about it. I wouldn't be though smile.gif