If any of you feel like helping me shop for something, I could use the assistance. The cable feed in my house delivers poor quality, and Time Warner refuses to do anything about it, stating that it's caused by "electrical interference in my house." I don't believe this one bit, but I don't see what I can do about it. So, I'm shopping around for Cable TV amplifiers. I have analog cable with two TV's, and a connection to my computer. Below, I have listed as many models listed as I could find, but I couldn't find any reviews, and don't know how to choose one. Here are the models: Recoton V-312UL 4-port $10 + SH Recoton V-310UL 2-port $10 + SH Magnavox/Gemini M61106 4-port $10 + SH Magnavox/Gemini M61107 2-port $8 + SH Magnavox/Gemini M61111 2-port $20 + SH Channel Vision CVT-15PIA RF-Amplifier 2-port $72 + SH Terk AMP-15 2-port $36 + SH Steren 200-651 2port $8 + SH Zenith ZEN-AA1 2-port $9.50 + SH Channel Plus DA-500A 2-port $56 + SH Channel Plus DA-506BID 6-port $86 + SH Motorola 484095-001-00 1-port $37 + SH My questions: these products vary when it comes to Mhz/Ghz and dB. How do these numbers affect my cable TV? Where can I find reviews to these products? Are there any other products I should consider? Have any of you had any experience with the products above (or a similar product)? Any other helpful info? Thanks! -- droxford
some opinions from me: 1) you WANT amplified with electricity. helps the amplification quite a bit 2) only get as many outputs as you need. why degrade the signal when you don't have to? 3) if you have/use a cable modem, make sure you get bi-directional. otherwise omni-directional should be fine that being said, i use a radioshack amp and have been happy. huy
dB refers to signal degradation. Less is better i believe. You'll find that less outputs have less dB loss. Mhz refers to the spectrum that it amplifies. Since you're just doing cableTV, i don't think there's anything you have to worry about here. 1 Gig is the spectrum that gives cable/satellite TV i believe.
take it back. dB refers to gain in this case. On splitters that are not amplifers, it refers to loss.
I kinda figured this was the case. Most (if not all) of the models I listed are amp'ed with electricity If I get a 4-port'er and only connect two units, that wouldn't degrade my signal, would it (being that there's nothing connected to the other ports)? Also, shouldn't I just connect it to the cable-in to my house and sprawl it off from there I do have a cable-modem, but don't feel a need to boost it. will a one-way amp kill my cable modem service? Will a booster improve my cablemodem service? What Mhz/Ghz would I need to do this? So, larger dB numbers are better? How do I know how many dB I would need? -- droxford
i'm pretty sure you're the more outputs you have, the more loss you're going to have. even if you don't use all 4 outputs. this is because it's a dumb amplifier, and it'll split the signal into 4 even if you're only using 2 you need a bidirectional amp b/c if you're going to connect your cable modem, it'll need to send information in both directions (upload/download). in other cases, you'll only care about the down direction as you don't send data from your tv. more dB is better i believe. i think it's useful to go explore radioshack for a bit. it's a little expensive, but at least you know you can go back and return it if it's not boosting the way you want.
That is really werid that they are not going to do anything about it. In my house since it is 2 stories and they had to pull a lot of cable, they put in an amplifier themselves. Even when it went bad they came in and put another amplifier in there for me. Maybe they have changed there policy on this. I know one thing though, they really said that you should not have your cable modem line going through the amplifier becuase it can cause problems with your connectivity. In my house they wired a completely seperate line that bypassed the amplifier for my cable modem.
actually....if you have digital cable...it will need to be bi-directional for both cable modem and the tv signal. TW's Icontrol and other features need to communicate back to the main office to keep your programming guide up to date..and for PPV and IControl.
take what Stack24 says, it's good advice. get a 2 prong passive split (1Ghz splitter) the main line into two. amplify one and send it to the digital tvs. feed the other into your cable modem. you're not going to get increased cable speeds really - the cable modem works just about the same as long as it gets a signal.
Hmm... well, taking this info in mind, I'm considering this plan: As Rockets2k said, I'll use a 1ghz splitter to split the cable source into two lines - one for cablemodem, the other for TV. On the TV side I will connect the Steren 200-651 2-port amplifier (It had the most dB at 25 and was only $8). I looked at the manual for the Steren amp, and it gives these specs: UHF/VHF/FM Broadband amplifier. Low-Noise - Heavy Gauge shielded Case Bandwidth 54-890MHz - Impedence 75 Ohms 117 VAC 60Hz Power Source 25dB cUL Broadband Amplifier Switchable FM Attenuation Trap FM Rejection-20dB at 88-108 MHz VHF Gain 25 dB - UHF Gain 21dB VHFNoise 6dB - UHF Noise 8dB Flatness Response ±2dB On-Off Indicator LIght 6 5/8"(W) x 1 3/8"(H) x 3 1/8" (D)) Does this sound okay? -- droxford
