Component Video cable hum?

stubby
stubby Posts: 723
edited March 2008 in Troubleshooting
Got a new (to me) Acurus A-250 amp, hooked it up and got a helluva hum. After long hours of component and cable swapping, I have it narrowed down to my DVD player, Denon 2930CI, WITH the component cables hooked up. Just the 2 channel RCA's is fine, no hum. The preamp and DVD don't even have to be on. (Amp is on) Seems kind of odd. Going to Rat Shack in a bit to get an S-video cable just to see.... Any ideas why video cables sould do this?

Stubby
SRS 3.1TL
Harman Kardon Citation 5.1
Anthem AVM2



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Comments

  • ShinAce
    ShinAce Posts: 1,194
    edited March 2008
    The hum is usually caused by grounding, not the signals themselves.
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  • danger boy
    danger boy Posts: 15,722
    edited March 2008
    what kind of component cables are you using? So i don't buy those kind. :p

    sorry about your hum. it can be very frustrating I'm sure. Good luck.. but maybe try a different heavier weight cables
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  • Sami
    Sami Posts: 4,634
    edited March 2008
    Have you tried the setup in different outlet? If not, put in just the preamp, amp, DVDP and speakers and try. I had this happen when a satellite box was hooked up. As long as I disconnected the analog outputs or the satellite signal cable, it went away. Something fishy in the way Dish hooked it up.
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  • stubby
    stubby Posts: 723
    edited March 2008
    Tried a new S-video cable-same results. Hum starts as soon as I install the video cable in the DVDP, with other end of cable in TV. Duh. This amp must be very sensitive to grounding issues, my Carver never hummed with the exact same setup.

    Stubby
    SRS 3.1TL
    Harman Kardon Citation 5.1
    Anthem AVM2



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  • kingkip
    kingkip Posts: 401
    edited March 2008
    What kind of audio cable do you have coming out of the DVD? It may help if you go optical if that is an option. Also have you tried unplugging your cable/sat coax? I had to put a trasformer on mine and it quieted the system down a lot. Otherwise Ebtech sells some good transformers and hum eliminators as does Jensen. I will send links later...
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  • kingkip
    kingkip Posts: 401
    edited March 2008
    And unfortunately it is not odd at all.

    Now that I am thinking about it, is everything plugged in to the same outlet? If not are they on the same circuit? If the answer is yes, I would bet that it is your cable tv.
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  • stubby
    stubby Posts: 723
    edited March 2008
    Thanks, everyone, for all the suggestions. The culprit was (pause for suspense) the cable TV connection! Looks like I'm off to buy a transformer and see how that works out. Thanks again.

    stubby
    SRS 3.1TL
    Harman Kardon Citation 5.1
    Anthem AVM2



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  • kingkip
    kingkip Posts: 401
    edited March 2008
    What kind of audio cable are you running between your cable box and pre/receiver? If you have the option you can try an optical cable and see if that changes anything. You'll know when you unplug the cable and the hum goeas away if it will work. If not then a transformer is your best bet.

    I has to do with the different ground potentials between your house and the cable line. Cable is sometimes grounded at your house, rarely at the panel and most of the time only at the distribution hub. Lots of places for ground loops to occur.
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited March 2008
    If the component cables are hooked directly to the TV try unplugging the cable TV wire.
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  • steveinaz
    steveinaz Posts: 19,538
    edited March 2008
    If it's not your cable feed, try using your Toslink out on your DVDP, this will break the ground loop hum. Both my HDTV STB and my Blu Ray player introduced hum into my system, so I bought a Toslink splitter and run both via Toslink. My system is back to dead quiet again. My satellite feed was NOT the source of my hum; I think the 2-prong plugs on the DVDP and STB were the culprit.
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  • stubby
    stubby Posts: 723
    edited March 2008
    I'm fairly certain it's the cable TV connection. If I disconnect either the coax cable from the TV or the video cable(s) from the DVDP to the TV, the hum goes away. The Acurus amp must be very susceptible to ground anomolies compared to my Carver, 'cause it never hummed; with the same associated equipment. I ordered a Dayton VIT-1 isolation transformer from parts express, hopefully it will do the trick.

    Stubby
    SRS 3.1TL
    Harman Kardon Citation 5.1
    Anthem AVM2



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