|
wish there was a gain control. the unit in question drove my tuner into overdrive; resulting in many stations appearing on same frequencies.
Other TV's are a Digital HD that uses a set top box for 1080 and a Digital 760 that picks up the digital signal raw off the cable.As I said, I purposely bought this amp because it's uni-directional. I knew I was going to need an amplifier.She has cable TV and Internet from the same provider. (RG-6 Quad everywhere).It works well. Yikes.
However, in this situation, I have a long run of RG-6 Quad from the demarcation box to the central wiring panel. So I know this scheme is working.If you mount this amp in a smart box, you may want to buy some 90 degree F connectors RiteAV - Coax F-Type Right Angle Adapter to make your coax flow better. We couldn't close the door properly until I did this because the input and output stick out perpendicular to the unit.It's been operation for nine months now. Working fine.(If you like the way I write, maybe you'll hire me. Bought this unit for new home construction. This was my first foray into "Structured Wiring."This is a sad comment on today's society, but my friend wanted provisions to support 8 TV's in her new house. I would have tried putting this amp near the demarc box, but I purposely bought this amp because it's uni-directional, and I don't think that will play with the cable modem (which is bi-directional). The output of the RF amp goes to an 8 way splitter and from there in the panel to the various TV's throughout the large house.
One side of the splitter goes to the cable modem so it can talk back to the cable company, the other side to this RF amp. Call me paranoid, but I didn't want the cable company spying on us, so I didn't want to send a signal back to them. Please leave a comment). We had unrelated trouble with a bad cable box from the cable company in the beginning, and the tech at the office said she couldn't get a ping back from the box. Beside, you want all your equipment in one place in the house for troubleshooting, UPS, climate control, etc. That means we can't use Pay per View or any other type of interactive TV, which we don't use anyway.
(Maybe more). I don't see any evidence of noise on an analog TV at the far end of the run at cable channel 70. IIRC, I think we're at +3dBM once we get the cable signal to the panel, but don't quote me on that. Since my Master's in Electrical Engineering was in Communication Theory, I know you're supposed to put an amp as close to the signal source as you can for lowest noise. So I go Demarc box to a 2 way splitter.
Hooked everything up except the amp. Installed the Channel Plus amp with the antenna cable going to input and then going to the first splitter on the output.
Spent about $250 and 8 hours installing (climbing on the roof, crawling through the attic, and squirming underneath the house). Tripled the signal strength to all TV's.
Switching from analog to DTV with rabbit years wasn't going to work. In fact, didn't get all channels available.
We're amaze with the picture quality and remain free. So I did some research and learned what was needed: a small multi-directional DB2 antenna, J-mount, 250' RG6 coaxial cable, Paladin compression tool and connectors, 3 each 3-way splitters (4 TV's to hook-up), and a digital signal amplifier.
Got astounding picture quality with DTV but the signal strength was pretty weak on 2 TV's.
Would order from this vendor again. Item arrived quickly, fairly priced and works perfectly.
The television signals seems to be slightly better as well, however if it is better, it is by such a small amount that i can't really say for sure that it really has improved. Besides that, it is a good device to prevent signal degradation when splitting cables. The device is as it is described. The one thing someone must understand is that it amplifies signal that already exists, it doesn't create signal that isn't there. When it was directly plugged through the amp, I lost my phone and Internet. So unfortunately, I don't get the greatest signal ever. Upon adding the amplifier, that signal now comes in as clear as my television does.
I had to rewire it so that my cable Internet and digital phone split before it hit the amplifier. This device can not be plugged in with your Internet, or it will cause it not to work.
I live in an apartment, and I guess our cable signal is not the strongest by the time it reaches our apartment. Any more splitting then that and you are going to face more signal degradation.
It amplifies your signal before splitting it, so that you do not have any signal loss. This is a great device if you want to split your cable about three ways, assuming that each split causes roughly a loss of about 6.5 db.
However, if you are not splitting cables and are simply trying to amplify 1 signal to 1 tv, its not going to do anything for you, in fact, the only thing that would is a call to your cable company. So if you place it at a point after it has already been split a few times, it wont do anything for you.
However, when I attempted to split my signal three ways, the signal leading to my computer tv tuner turned out to be extremely degraded before I got the amplifier.
|
