I have the Acer PH530 DLP projector, Motorola DCT6412, and a Philips DVD player. The DVR and DVD player are connected to a Philips switch box with Component cables. A 50' component cable goes from the switch box to the projector.

Here's my problem. I am getting 3 large (about 1/3 of the screen each) horizontal bars of red and green hues travelling up the screen. It makes the picture look like a CRT that needs degaussing. Now I know what you're thinking. It's the 50' cable, or get rid of the switch box. The tricky part of this equation is that the DVD picture looks fine. I tried bypassing the switch box and ran the 50' straight to the Cable box and I get the same bars. They aren't horrible, guests don't notice until I point them out but it's driving me nuts.

Could this be an issue with the cable box? Maybe the cable (coax) itself? What normally causes this type of distortion? Do I have my cable running too close to an electrical conduit somewhere?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Robert Garcia
Escape Bed & Breakfast

Ground loop from your cable line. Needs ground loop isolators like this:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=180-075
http://www.partsexpress.com/images/180-075m.jpg

To test try to unhook your cable from the box and show just the menu of the cable box.

You can also complain to your cable company and wait a month for someone to come out and ground your outside cable box with a long metal stake.

Same thing happened to me. I bought the isolator from above ^^ and it fixed. No more weird bars of color.