RG 59 is not considered suitable for HD TV due to signal loss. RG 6 is the current product to use for the best signal. Most noticable if you have a good quality HD TV. For longer distances they recommend RG 12.
all we use is RG6 with quad shield
My house is 22 years old and was wired with RG 59 coax in the walls.
I ran into a problem with my RG 59 cables because they had too much signal-loss for my cable modem.
I will have to replace the RG 59 with RG 6 for the cable modem. Do I need RG 6 for HDTV or will HDTV work with RG 59 coax? (Hate to run more wires through walls than absolutely necessary.)
I have RG 59 and no problems with my cable modem. I guess it depends. I do suggest top quality splitters. The ones usually available to the general public are junk. My RG 59 carries HD just fine.
Hi, I think your cable provider was sending weak signal. Don't blame the coax cable. Tony
Both RG-59 and RG-6 are 75 ohms impedance, the same as TV coaxial inputs, so impedance differences are not relevent to this discussion.
RG-6 was originally designed as a lower loss 75-ohm alternative. These days RG-59 is of highly variable quality, so there is even more incentive to go with RG-6.
Rick
What everyone's forgotten, or doesn't know, is that coax has a specific impedance, which must be matched at any connection to it. Regardless of the RG number, if you don't match the impedances there will be signal loss. The TV will have an antenna input impedance. Coax has its own impedance. If it's not the same as the equipment it's connected to, an impedance matching device (often called a splitter, not always) must be used. Typical impedances are 45, 75, 90 ohms and so on. It's NOT something you can measure with a standard multimeter - go by each product's specs.
HTH,
Pop
The "RG" (radio guide) numbers used to mean something when they were mil-spec (MIL-C-17) cables.
Now every Tom, Dick and Wong build "RG" cables, so the specs are, shall we say, open to interpretation. In fact cables built to MIL-C-17 aren't labeled with an RG number anymore, since it's become so meaningless.
That said, RG-59 and RG-6 are both nominally 75-ohm impedance cables and the loss (attenuation) characteristics are similar. RG-59 is slightly smaller in diameter, thus its attenuation is -slightly- higher than RG-6, but nothing you should notice in the typical application.
RG-59 should work fine in either application. If you are experiencing signal loss then you should check for damage or bad connectors (connections) before condemning the cable.
Also, you likely have splitters in your system. There are so many of these on the market it's hard to say whether you have good ones or bad ones. They're all similar in design, so the way they're slapped together determines more than any design differences. Without electrical measurement (difficult to do without a lab) or physical examination, the best alternative is to substitute another one and try to note any difference(s). Also, these are directional; a splitter with the input signal connected to an output port will pass something but it will be highly attenuated.
It's also possible that your cable provider needs to deliver some more signal to you.
Make sure that the connectors are good and well attached to the cables. Replace the connectors if not (I had to replace one and install some on ends of scrounged cable). I used existing RG-59 cable (from former owner's cable TV) to connect my OTA HDTV STB to indoor antenna (Silver Sensor) on 2nd floor. Without an amp some channels from 36 miles are weak, but with a 30db Radio Shack amp (maybe technically a pre-amp) they usually all come in strong (except analog 2/digital 3 due to lack of VHF antenna).
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