Motorola Signal Booster 484095-001-00 Bi-Directional RF Amplifier
by Motorola
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Motorola Signal Booster 484095-001-00 Bi-Directional RF Amplifier
Customer Review: It didn't bring in my PBS stations like I was hoping it would
Summary: 3 Stars
Well, I thought this would really do the trick.
But, it really didn't improve things at all.
I tried it in several different locations.
1st location was between my winegard antenna preamp/amplifier, before the coax cable went into the monster 2 Gigahertz 4 way splitter.
2nd location was upstairs right next to the Zenith Digital tuner.
3rd location was putting it on the other side of the 4 way splitter downstairs, with the coax cable going direct to the TV.
I think the last location was the best, because it has been said that any kind of 4 way splitter diminishes the signal a little bit. So, I thought if the signal coming out of the splitter is diminished, then I would try to boost the signal coming right out of the splitter.
I think I may just be in a bad signal area for receiving PBS stations.
I live in the suburbs of Washington, DC in the Northern VA suburbs.
I think I live in a bad "signal pocket" so to speak. But, I really shouldn't complain because we do get 1 PBS station, WETA very clear now. BUt the other PBS station MPTV (Maryland Public Televison) we just can't get any kind of signal out of that station, with or without any kind of signal booster. I might need to get a rotor, so I can turn my outdoor antenna, a little bit more toward Maryland, to pick up MPTV. BUt REally WETA and MPTV both play about the same stuff.
Bottomline: The Motorola signal booster is probably OK. It just didn't seem to work in my particular signal area. That's all.
Customer Review: Works Great, easy to install
Summary: 5 Stars
This device has greatly improved the signal for my cable TV and eliminated problems from a low quality feed. Previously the picture on several of my hi-def channels would drop out, freeze, or show fuzzy blocks instead of the normal picture. This was especially irritating when watching football or basketball in hi-def. In fact I was ready to cancel my cable service and switch to FIOS or Satellite.
I installed this signal booster three weeks ago and it has eliminated the problems. When I run diagnostics on the TV, the signal strength, error rate, and SN ratio show significant improvement. I still do have an occasional complete outage thanks to less than wonderful cable service, but a booster can't fix that! (Luckily this has not happened during a game)
Installation was easy; it consisted of disconnecting the existing cable feed input and output at the splitter and then reconnecting them to the booster and then connecting the output from the booster back into the splitter. That took about five minutes. ONE NOTE: YOU DO NEED AN AC OUTLET WITHIN A FEW FEET TO POWER THE DEVICE. In my case the cable box was on the outside wall of the garage, and the ac outlet was inside, so I simply drilled a small hole (approximately 3/8" diameter) in the wall and ran the power line through that to the booster. That took about ten minutes. It's a simple item, but you need to be aware of it.
Overall I am pleased and would recommend this device if you have marginal signal quality, it made big difference on mine!
Customer Review: Boosted HD Signal!
Summary: 5 Stars
I hope this is helpful for some people. I have Cox Cable in LA and have the Motorola DC6200 cable box, I have digital and HD signals running to my previous 55" rear projection tv and all was well. Recently I decided to upgrade my TV to a Plasma and had to switch the TV to the other side of the room (for flat wall) to hang Plasma, it is there that I ran into a distance problem. I had no signal on most stations except the local stations and the picture quality was snowy.
I looked around for a signal booster and found this Motorola booster, I bought it from Amazon and installed it at the entrance cable line feed. In other words in my attic, where the signal from cable company comes into my home. Then from there split the signal off to my two tv's (Plasma included) the other tv was downstairs and further. I would say one has a distance from the booster of about 50ft and the other of about 75ft. After getting it all connected I was pleased to find that the Plasma was now receiving the HD signal and had greatly improved the standard signal as well. Now I am not saying it improved the standard signal to digital or HD quality, just improved the picture to make it softer and more natural looking on the plasma.
Funny thing is it did not improve the signal to the bedroom tv, but then that tv is farther and not running HD, so I guess in the long run it improved the TV I was concerned about so I am happy with this purchase and would reccomend to anyone.
Customer Review: Helped, but not by much.
Summary: 3 Stars
I just bought my wife a new Vista system with an ATI Wonder TV card, so luckily I was able to run signal strength tests from the tuner diagnostic screen in Media Center. I did a pretty complete test with different splitters and came up with the following:
My base readings using my standard connection (no signal booster, cablevision supplied splitters) gave me about 40db for basic channels, -8db for standard HBO, and a range of -9 to -12db for higher channels. The worst performance were the digital music channels at -12db (works but the music hiccups a bit). Keep in mind this is running through a cablecard connected to the TV card.
Surprisingly, I found virtually no difference between the cablevision supplied splitters and the Monster 5-1000 splitters. Signal loss is rated the same on a double splitter (-3.5db per split). My old gold Radio Shack splitters were only marginally worse (about -1db worth of difference overall).
Adding the signal booster in any splitter configuration only gave me at best an extra 1db on average. The digital music channels come in noticeably better, but the audio still hiccups regularly. -12db should be within acceptable range limits, so it might be the cable card. (My HD DVR box on the den TV handles the digital music flawlessly, so my only conclusion is that the cablecard is the culprit.
If anyone knows a way to test signal at the source I'd appreciate the imput.
Customer Review: PCT 1-PORT BI-DIRECTIONAL AMPLIFIER Much Better!!!!!
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this amp to raise the signal for my home because I have a marginal signal. I have diagnostic menus in my cable boxes and Dvr so it is easy to check the results. With no amp the signal to noise ratio was 17db and said fair, agc fair, with the Motorola amp the signal to noise raised to 19db fair and agc fair. This amp did not help at all. My symptoms were pixilation,freezing and video burping. Resold this amp to someone else.I have since bought this amp from Amazon, PCT 1-PORT BI-DIRECTIONAL CABLE TV HDTV AMPLIFIER SIGNAL BOOSTER WITH PASSIVE RETURN PATH and it is great.This is my review of the amp mentioned above.
This drop amp puts the Motorola drop amp to shame. It is sooooo much better and less expensive.I would recommend this to all who need a drop amp. Since I have a metering page on a menu inside my Motorola cable and DVR boxes it was easy for me to tell the results. Before any amp it was s/n 17db-fair and agc fair. with this amp it now reads s/n 23 db good and agc good.PCT 1-PORT BI-DIRECTIONAL CABLE TV HDTV AMPLIFIER SIGNAL BOOSTER WITH PASSIVE RETURN PATHThis amp has cleaned up all my pixilation and audio dropouts on my cable boxes and my DVR as well.I have Comcast Cable as my provider.
This amp is light years ahead of the Motorola amp, for the price and features you need to buy this one instead.