I recently moved into a townhome that's ~1/4 mile from the Seattle antenna farm on Capitol Hill. I am currently experiencing severe interference with both the picture and signal out of my Comcast HD-ready cable box.

I am connected using high quality S-Video and RCA audio connections, not coax. The FCC's FAQ notes that you can buy FM rejection filters to avoid this problem, however I can't seem to find any for Component / SVideo / RCA Audio, only regular coax. I don't believe it's an issue with the coax inputs, as the interference is present on digital channels as well.

I know I can overcome the audio interference by using optical audio through the home theater system, however I would prefer to have the flexibility of not firing up the home theater just to watch TV.

Does anyone have experience solving this one?

-R

If you have an HD-Cable box, why not use component cables? You're not getting HD with S-video anyway. That may solve the "video problem".

For audio... better quality audio cables.

Why not describe the "problems" you experience (audio and video). Perhaps you have a bad cable feed, connectors, box? Why not have Comcast check it out before you go to any expense. Maybe it's not FM bleed through....

Yes, I'm going to call Comcast and the others, but they didn't seem to think it was an issue yesterday during the install, so I may have to seek remediation myself.

The video problem is exhibited by a side-to-side jitter, similar to what you'd see if your LCD monitor or projector is slightly out of sync on an analog input. It's not the "traditional" interference that you'd see over the air, as the picture isn't distorted with noise.

Audio is straightforward -- I can hear at least 2 FM channels during shows that aren't using a heavy compressor.

So far the suggestions are a ferrite core and an FM filter, which seems to be most easily purchasable in the form of a Coax amp with an integrated FM filter. Does anyone know if this would work with a digital cable system?

It may be worse than you think. Local interference can be picked up on the wires found inside of the TV. Only Manufacturer's specific modifications will correct for those problems. Externally, I would try various lengths of connection cables both longer and shorter to avoid matching up with the physical wavelengths of the transmitters.

Ditto Ratman's comments also.

You could build yourself a personal Faraday cage by replastering your walls using the old method of wire mesh to hold the plaster in place.

Do your neighbors (with similar setups as yours) experience "problems" from the FM? If not... you have a cable installation problem or faulty cables.

FM frequencies are between channels 6 and 7... it shouldn't present a problem with all channels.

Buy an FM trap and some chokes... hopefully it resolves your problem. If not.. refer to post #2. ;)

Try these first, then get back to us:

http://www.kyes.com/antenna/interference/tvibook.html

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/smt-gst.nsf/en/h_sf06086e.html

You'll probably need to disconnect everything, except maybe one input like a DVD player, and see what happens. These resources should guide you.