We just bought a 20 year old home. Cable is underground. We are serviced by a single cable system....unless we go to a sattelite system. The cable company bundles phone and cable. We had the company at our prior residence and were very happy with our service and picture quality. FYI: we currently have a 32" tube tv in our family room and a few smaller tubies in the bedrooms. The cable company came out and replaced all the wire in the home with RG6 shielded stuff. They also ran wrie to the 4 upstairs berooms. The cable enters the home in the basement and is split in two. One line runs to an upstairs 4 way splitter behind the wall of our bedroom. The other half runs to our 32" family room tv. Actually the cable is split there as well with one line of RG6 going to a vcr and a second to our cable box. This is the set up we had at our old home. At our new one though the picture is noticably different. The smaller tvs are not so bad but the larger one shows some grain. Even if I remove the split at this location. It is not crisp and clear, especially on the lower channels. The cable dudes tightened everything and it appears the connections are fine. They said it was not too bad but they only fish the line. We need to call out the 'testers' to evaluate picture quality. Service is free for grainy pictures but I sense there is a charge if they come out and feel the picture quality is ok. I do know the technology 'under ground' has not yet been upgraded--whatever that means. They say it is scheduled to be done this year but I have my doubts.

Would a booster do me any good? Is it the old stuff under ground causing the problem? Its not a horrible picture but I would not invest in a plasma or something with this quality signal. Suggestions?

PS: Things will likely only get worse since I need to replace the two way splitter described above with a 3 way---we want a tv in the kitchen! That will mean one split to the attic where it will be again split into 4, one to the family room and one to the kitchen. Can the cable company control the amount of signal I get or am I doomed? Ideas?