If you're having scrolling horizontal bars in you're picture, you may have a ground loop problem. I have a 360, PS3, and Wii, and I experienced banding on two seperate setups on analog connections (HDMI PS3 was not affected).

My 360 is in the basement, and I fixed my issues there with a Belkin PF60 power conditioner from ecost.com http://ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=501009 ($160). This is their high end conditioner, and it went in my theater in the basement. Once I routed all of my power and coax into it, it took care of all of my video banding issues.

My Wii and PS3 are in the living room, with a lower end (but nice) setup. For this setup I bought a Belkin PF30L from provantage.com http://www.provantage.com/belkin-ap11000-10~7BELZ032.htm ($80). This is a much lower profile unit that can be hidden away. It's cheaper, and it did just as good of job solving my issues.

This is just FYI. I know many have had this problem. The PF30L is a fairly low cost solution. The PF60 is a nice piece of equipment for higher end setups.

Not sure, but the Monster Power stuff might do the same job. They are a nice option though because you can usually find those locally and take them back if it doesn't work...

You don't need a power conditioner to clean up a ground loop. They also don't actually address the ground loop, but you get the fix free because you're now routing all the devices through a common ground. Some simple isolators at a couple bucks each would cure the symptoms just as effectively without fixing the real problem (but just as in this case, the user probably wouldn't care, and generally has no need to).

Anyway, most ground loops are caused by improperly grounded cable TV or satellite TV systems. An inline F-connector isolator would fix the issue for the vast majority of users with no ill effects. Some people have more serious problems causing ground loops that require much more diagnosis.

"Some simple isolators at a couple bucks each would cure the symptoms just as effectively without fixing the real problem."

Yep, it will. Problem is it also killed my picture quality and prevented my digital and HD channels from loading! It did fix the banding issues for my gaming systems though. Getting a 'real' isolator started in the $50 range, which put me in power conditioner territory anyway.

"An inline F-connector isolator would fix the issue for the vast majority of users with no ill effects."

Did that too, and even had the cable company triple check their own ground to ensure it was up to code.

Not sure what the underlying problem is, but I was happy to shell out $80 to fix it. It got rid of my subwoofer hum too...

Your problem obviously falls into the second category I outlined, which is more serious and generally much harder to fix properly.

What was the bandwidth of the isolation transformers you tried? A 1GHz bandwidth should be enough to pass your digital cable signal. . .

All the same, at least you tried the easy fixes first before going the more expensive route.

BTW (and for others), here's a very good article discussing common ground loop causes and how to fix them: http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/index.html

"What was the bandwidth of the isolation transformers you tried? A 1GHz bandwidth should be enough to pass your digital cable signal. . ."

I did buy a 1GHz isolation transformer. I flat out lost half of my digital and HD channels, and the 'On Demand' feature wouldn't work either. I bought three for various TV's (unfortunately), and none worked - so I'm sure it wasn't just a bad part.

This is the one I bought:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=180-075

After some additional research, I found some more expensive, higher bandwidth isolation transformers (~$50), but I wasn't will to strike out again. I took the plunge and bought the power conditioner, thinking it would add other benefits outside of just getting me around the ground loop. Luckily it did fix the banding issues and the subwoofer hum...

Quick question: odd I caught this, I have had a minor problem, never enough to really worry about:

I have had very light (not color wise, as in not very noticable) bands that move from right to left about 3 inches wide on my hdtv. Its almost like just slight difference in brightness, and only noticable on even backgrounds, IE not really during a movie etc.

Is this an example of this?

And if so, what is the solution? I Have only one input to my tv, 360 on Component. The tv and 360 are both plugged into the same power strip, which is also shared with my reciever and the 360 hd-dvd drive. My house only has 2 prong outlets, so I have one of the cheapy 2 to 3 prong adapters on the power strip going into the wall. Its a 9$ belkin power strip / surge protector.

If there was a cheap solution I would use it, but not sure it bothers me enough to spend a couple hundred dollars. Keep in mind my house is ~ 100 years old, so its wiring / etc is very old.

Disconnect your cable/satellite/antenna connection completely and see if that makes a difference. If not, you may be out of luck; you really need a house which has semi-modern electrical outlets in order to have correct grounding.

Ground loops are commonly caused by improperly grounded cable boxes. I went through a long, drawn out process with my old cable company trying to get this fixed, which I discussed in an archived thread that I'm too lazy to dig up. :)

Be sure to follow Slordak's direction and disconnect your cable box. Even if your box is off, disconnect and unplug it. If doing that makes the lines go away, then it's almost a sure thing that your cable box is the culprit.

To fix it you can do a few things,

a) have your cable company come out and make sure your cable is properly grounded (this can be difficult and require multiple visits, but it's well worth it)

b) purchase an isolator that will go between the cable coming out of your wall and your cable box

c) buy a line conditioner to help try to clean it up

Good luck, it can be an annoying and difficult process. I still have an isolator on my HD DVR. It doesn't effect the PQ in any way.

-JR

Bill, you're describing the exact problem I had, except all of my TV's had the scrolling going from bottom to top - not left to right. As Slordak mentioned, when I disconnected my cable line, the problem went away for me. Since you don't have a ground in your house though, it obviously can't be a ground loop...

I followed JuiceRocket's advice verbatim, and it took me until I got to option 'C' before the problem was resolved.

I should mention that I didn't have this problem until I introduced the Xbox 360 and PS3 into my two separate setups (both grounded three prong devices). My other devices were not grounded (all two prong), so I never had ground loop issues...

Ground loops are tough to pinpoint, it's great that you found a solution.

If anyone else gets one, just an FYI that it can take multiple visits from your cable company for them to fix it, or even acknowledge that their cable might be the problem. I had to have 4 different visits from the Comcast, 4 cable guy/techs visit, and the VP of the NE region call me directly before I could get it resolved.

Here are some links to my old post outlining that process in case anyone is interested.

First time cable guy showed and told me it was my TV. Here's direct link to the posts describing each visit.

1. 1st visit, first cable guy, says there is no ground loop issue. (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3580140#post3580140)

2. 2nd visit, same cable guy, still says there is no ground loop issue. (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3592716#post3592716)

-. Received isolator from an AVSForum member and had immediate results. (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3616697#post3616697)

3. 3rd visit, new (second) cable guy, actually finds ground loop issue. (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3682844#post3682844)

4a. 4th visit, third cable guy, calls in guy to bring in copper wire for grounding. (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3753736#post3753736)

4b. End of 4th visit, fourth cable guy shows and grounds with copper - ground loop finally taken care of. (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3754069#post3754069)

thank you so much for this post. I have been reading so many damn threads today trying to deal with the same type of issue.

You know i had a problem similar to this. Thing is i had my coax cable going into my belkin power conditioner. When a cable guy came to switch my digital box to a newer one he was like " no you don't need it going into this, your properly grounded" I was like ' are you sure/what harm can be done?" and before he would answer he started unplugging it from the protetcor and just plugged it right into the cable box. Thing is i never had any problems with it going into the power conditioner first but he insisted! The picture never cut off or anything, it's a digital cable box. I don't understand why they are so against it being fed into a power conditioner even if your properly grounded.

is there a tutorial anywhere that deals with ground loop issues?