Motorola Signal Booster 484095-001-00 Bi-Directional RF Amplifier
by Motorola
|
List Price: Our Price: $34.99 You Save: $65.00 (65%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $24.99 (click here) Category: Speakers See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Motorola Signal Booster 484095-001-00 Bi-Directional RF Amplifier
Customer Review: Excellent signal booster
Summary: 5 Stars
I live in a "fringe" to "deep fringe" area when it comes to receiving over the air digital TV signals. I'm running the antenna signal to 6 TVs through a 6 way splitter. I needed a replacement signal booster following a lightning strike to overcome the 9db loss of the splitter, plus the line loss for so much coax. I previously had a rather cheap booster and once I connected the Motorola I could tell an immediate improvement over the cheap model. I received a few more channels over the air than previously.
Obviously a signal booster does a better job with a strong input signal than a weak input signal. At first I explored the idea of replacing a 20+ year old antenna in an attempt to boost the input signal. However, after exploring possibilities and tvfool.com, I found that I was already receiving most of what I should receive during perfect atmospheric conditions. Therefore I decided to keep my old antenna and would just try adding an antenna pre-amp to the mix. I purchased the highly rated Channel Master 7777 and installed it on my antenna mast. At the same time I replaced the old coax with RG6 from the antenna to the signal booster (house wiring was already RG6).
The end result is outstanding reception of all channels from the correct side of the antenna, and excellent reception from the backside of the antenna....with distances of 55 miles and 56 miles respectively. I pointed the backside of the antenna directly towards Columbia, and the front side is pointed towards Charleston (37 degrees off direct line of sight). Relative signal strength is >90 from Charleston and >65 from Columbia. While the antenna pre-amp did a lot for the increase in the signal strength, the signal booster does an outstanding job of ensuring a solid signal reaches all 6 TVs. I highly recommend this product.
Customer Review: My ATSC Antenna-Only Experience
Summary: 4 Stars
So here's my situation: I have a nice CLEARSTREAM2 Antenna mounted on my roof and I live just over 4 miles from the nearest cluster of antennas. All should be well, right? Wrong. I live in a one-story house and directly in my line of reception (and right next door to me) is a big frame-stucco 2-story house. To top it all off, I watch TV on my media PC (hooked up in my living room to this), so that means the TV tuner in my Media PC needs a really strong signal (as is typical of PC tuner cards) to get a steady picture. While the Clearstream2 antenna has been great, there's been quite a few dropouts across some channels.
So I decided to give this device a shot. I hooked it up just under my antenna and powered it up to find that my reception on all channels went from 60-90% (before using the signal booster) to zero! Yup. So during my troubleshooting, I simply unplugged the power connection to this signal booster (while still leaving it plugged in to the antenna) and magically, all my channels (with one exception) came in at a steady 97%. Yup. I can't explain it either. So for me, this thing is great - I left it plugged in with no power and my channels are coming in strong, steady and clear.
By the way, if you're wondering why my reception was zero when the power was plugged in, it's because this signal booster "over-drove" the signal and my PC tuner card couldn't handle the sheer power. But I'm still happy with the overall results here.
Customer Review: Real life review
Summary: 3 Stars
I have had three (see update at the end) of these. Here are my observations and recommendations:
Out of the box, the first unit worked well and produced fair to good picture improvement but eventually started to act up after an electrical storm. It now works intermittently and often produces a degraded picture and passes no cable modem signal. Because I was somewhat satisfied with the price, performance, and brand name, I bought a second unit to replace the damaged one.
The second unit again produces fair to good picture quality but often drops the cable modem signal, which results in a climb into the attic to reset the booster. E-mail to Motorola solved the mystery as they explained that sometimes the cable signal drops below a point where it can be boosted and that causes problems. Cable services, I have read, will change the signal strength throughout the day to adjust for temperature changes that affect transmission. If the signal drops too low, my booster loses the ability to sustain modem signal connectivity and often will not regain the modem signal without a power off-power on reset.
So, I have bought yet another booster, this time a 20 dB booster by a different brand. I have also added a surge protector and would suggest that anyone who buys a booster to spend the extra $20 for an external APC cable surge suppressor.
I had to send the 20 db booster back. It produced snow and a noisy signal.
Edit - two years later, Nov. 2007: I have since moved and guess what? I left the booster in the old house and I bought Motorola booster for the new house. This one has worked well for the last two years. I'm about to move again and I'll be taking the booster with me this time....
Customer Review: It saved me a great deal of headache
Summary: 5 Stars
Unlike many of the reviewers, I was fortunate to almost never have problems with my cable. We have had cable since the mid 1980's and, have had very few problems. However, a few weeks ago, we had an ice storm, but our cable was not out very long and, it seemed to work just fine (when the electricity was on). A week or so later, I noticed that many of the digital channels were coming in poorly and the local channels, NBC, CBS, etc. were not coming in at ALL! I contacted the cable company after checking all of my connections and they recommended that I re-check my connections. Well, the problem still existed. I did notice what I believe, to be coaxial-type cables hanging down in the alley behind many of the houses on my street. I called the cable company, and they sent someone out who looked at them and my neighbors tell me, wrapped them around the telephone poles so, that they would not be hanging out in the alley. I called them again and there answer was basically the same: you are getting a weak signal and, the problem is more or less on YOUR end not OURS. So I went online to find advice regarding this problem and, of course, others had similar problems. So I decided to buy this booster based on the majority of good reviews. Prior to hooking this device up, I checked my channels to see if they were still out, they were. So, I hooked the booster up as instructed and, now ALL of my channels work just fine. So for me, this device works wonderfully. I suppose if I kept after the cable company they would have fixed the problem but, I am sure it would have taken a great deal of headache on my part to get there. I paid about $50 for this product with 2nd day air shipping.Customer Review: This seems to be working quite well, but it is not needed now.
Summary: 4 Stars
Update! (June 2009)
After the digital conversion, this booster was boosting the signal too much. I removed it and now it all works well. I find this hard to believe since I am splitting my little antenna 8 ways and then two of the 8-way splits are split in half once more. Everything still works w/o this amp. now. Crazy!
Original posting)
I purchase this to use with my DTV antenna that I am installing on my roof. I have to split the signal 8-ways, so a signal booster is called for. This booster seemed like a good one since it did not have any gimmicky splitters built in like others I have seen. My house has a big central wiring panel and I have a very good splitter in the panel.
I know that putting the booster when there is only one cable/TV unit in the line and the signal is already good is not going to help; it actually can deteriorate the signal. This did exactly that. But, once I hooked up this amplifier to the exterior antenna and then to the house splitter (I only have 3 TVs hooked up, but since the splitter is an 8-way splitter it is still dropping the signal) everything worked much better than I expected! I have no signal loss at my DTV receivers. I find this hard to believe, but that is what the meters say on the receivers. There is no difference between having the antenna cable hooked up directly to 1 TV and having the booster, the splitter and the three TVs/receivers.
I should remove the booster and see what happens, but since everything is working so well I don't want to mess with it.
I guess I lucked out.