[audiocrawford]

I'm having a slight issue with my analog cable TiVo set-up. I'm very lucky to have a relatively strong cable signal, as everything in my house is routed through one wire by necessity (internet included). It's all in one room (the router is next to the TV), and the signal is strong enough for performance that more than satisifies me most of the time.

However, my TiVo has a slight problem with the signal strength on channels 3-6, and the rest of the stations look great. It hasn't been an issue thus far, because the occasional shows I record there don't generally matter. However, next week a show is starting that I really want in a higher quality and I really don't want to have to manually use the DVD recorder for it (which doesn't have a problem recording those stations, even though it's only one position back in the switcher chain).

I have one of those $20 cable signal boosters, and I was wondering if they actually worked. It needs AC power (which is at a premium in my set-up), and I'm afraid it's going to make my internet go wonky (I don't understand what the booster does at all to that sort of thing). If I should use it, where on the chain should I put it? My set up looks like this :




CABLE IN ----->SPLITTER 1

SPLITTER 1 ------>CABLE MODEM
--------------------->SPLITTER 2

SPLITTER 2 ----->TiVo
-------------------->DVD Recorder



Or, should I just give up and record it on the DVD recorder? Thanks in advance for any advice!

AC

 

[mick66]

You can ask 1000 people what they think, but the only way for you to know what your signal booster will do with the the signal quality that you have is to connect it and see what happens.

 

[scole250]

I tried a couple from Radio Shack that didn't do a thing, then I asked the cable company about one. The one they installed works well. You can get too much boost and end up with diagonal lines.

 

[PeteEMT]

If you do use an amplifier, remember it amps the noise too. So you'd want to put it where the strong signal is (maybe between Splitter 1 and Splitter 2 so it doesnt affect our internet)

 

[TivoBeavo]

Like most people I have tried the Radio Shack amps and they made my signal worse, but I do have help.

A while back I was having a problem with my digital cable breaking up and some channels on analog always looking bad.. Comcast came out and installed an Electroline EDA 2400 at the point where the cable enters the house.

It worked like a champ. My picture is great now. I also have "cable high speed internet" and "On Demand", so the amp doesn't interfere with two way communication. You can buy these on ebay cheap.

http://www.electroline.com/en/products/drop_amplifiers/eda/index.html

 

[audiocrawford]

You can ask 1000 people what they think, but the only way for you to know what your signal booster will do with the the signal quality that you have is to connect it and see what happens.

Very true. However, before trying I posted more to see if I was going to screw something up with the Internet than anything else. Not sure how it would jive, i.e. be worth the risk.

Like most people I have tried the Radio Shack amps and they made my signal worse, but I do have help.

A while back I was having a problem with my digital cable breaking up and some channels on analog always looking bad.. Comcast came out and installed an Electroline EDA 2400 at the point where the cable enters the house.

Thanks! I'll definately look into it. I'm going to try it out today, and if it doesn't help I'm going to go that route.

Thanks for all the other replies as well!

AC

 

[loganasu]

I was having the same problem with the lower channels and the cable company said it was because of the Cable Internet. It uses the lower signal and if it was bad then the lower channels would suffer.

If this is the case than enhanceing the signal will not do anything.
You may want to talk to your cable company.

 

[petew]

You could also try a single three way splitter. At present you have 45% of your signal to the modem and 20% each to the DVD recorder and Tivo. With a three way you'd get 30% to each device.