How can I hook up 2 tv's using one cable box?

Question

My friend said a relative of hers did it, you just have to have both tv's on at the same time.

Answer 1

What you are asking is a very reasonable question.  The first person was wrong though, this is NOT illegal and is not stealing.  When the cable service comes into your house you are allowed to split it as many times as you'd like, though, of course you run the risk of degrading the signal when you do.  What is illegal is pulling service into your house you are not paying for, or hooking up cable service to your house yourself.  But if the cable company hooked up your service and you are paying for it, you can do whatever you want with it inside your home.

That being said, the best option is to use a cable splitter, available at Radio Shack for around $3.  Make sure you get a good one, don't try to save a $1 and get a cheap one, it will make a difference.  There are two ways you can go: 1) split the signal before it goes to the box.  If you do this, then hook up one split to the cable box and the other to the 2nd TV.  If you do this however, only the TV hooked up to the box will get any "Digital" channels you currently have service for (Digital Music, HBO, Showtime, Pay Per View etc...).  The benefit here is that the "other" TV will still have Basic and Expanded Cable service and you will be able to watch two different channels at the same time.  2) Split the signal coming out of the box.  If you do this, both TV's will get all of your channels, but both TV's will always be watching the same channel all of the time and of course, both TV's need to be within remote control reach of your cable box if you want to change the channel.  Both TV's DO NOT need to be on at the same time for this option to work, but like I said, when they are on, they will both be on the same channel.

Answer 2

It is the same as stealing. It's against the law. It't not worth taking the chance if you got caught.

Answer 3

My cable box has two outputs... one comes from the box and one is a "pass through" it passes directly through the box. The TV that is on the passthrough just gets the basic channels, and the other one gets all of the channels that I pay for. You can also set this up your self if you only want the basic channels on one TV by putting the splitter on the input side of the box... otherwise known as the cable coming from the wall. Split it there and run a cable to the box then to your TV, and on the other side of the splitter run a cable directly to the other TV. And you do not need to have both TV's on at the same time.

Answer 4

Install a splitter on the cable coming out of the box and run each output from the splitter to each TV. The only problem is that you have to watch the same program on both TVs.