Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I purchased this unit because I have two analog feeds and two QAM digital capture feeds (via an HDHR unit) that I use in conjunction with SageTV for recording television. I also have a cable modem so there's a couple splitters involved. I did purchase good passive splitters (Monster 2 and 3 ways), however the QAM signal quality levels and the modem performance were not ideal.
I got this model because of the cable modem support. Imagine my surprise when the first thing to pop out of the box is a note from the manufacturer that it's best to put your cable modem on it's own line off a splitter and not hook it up to this unit because some signal loss may occur. What the..?!?!? After ranting for a while and generally annoying my wife with my whining I hooked it up anyway and took some measurements. Fortunately their warnings are not necessary - they may want to think about rewording that little note a pinch.
Here's the hard numbers:
The QAM capture signal strength using a Monster 3 way split off the single line coming in my house (I have no up stream splitters - it's all centralized in closet) for the HD ABC feed had a strength of 88 and a signal quality of 92. Putting the one line as the feed into the 8 port amplifier and running the QAM ports off of it the strength jumped to 92 and the signal quality hovered around 94. Nice. Doesn't sound like a huge deal but for HD QAM captures it makes a difference.
I didn't notice any different before or after with the analog channels - I wasn't having a problem with those.
The cable modem was the item I worried about. Downstream from the splitters it was pretty bad - anything would be an improvement. With the outside cable plugged into the Motorola modem directly downstream signal to noise ratio was 38.6 dB (higher is better, anything over 30 and you're aces), the down stream power is .2 dBmV (fine) and the upstream power was 42 dB (anything less than 50 and you're fine). After running it through the 8 port amp the downstream noise ratio was 38.3, down stream power 1.7 and the upstream power stayed at 42. All dandy numbers. I checked the speeds at several sites before and after and they all averaged about 10 meg down and 1.5 meg up across the boards - virtually no difference. Just about exactly as good as a direct connection and much better than down stream from a passive splittler, even a good one.
So - short version I'm extremely happy with the purchase but I'd suggest to the fine folks at Electroline that they rethink their warning note in their box so as not to tick folks off too quickly for no reason.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Electroline EDA FT08100 8-port TV Signal Booster/Amplifier with Active Return Path
Get 20% OFF
No comments:
Post a Comment