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: Saving Useless Calls to my Cable Company
Summary: 5 Stars
I had two problems: Our house is 200 feet from the cable connection, and the inside of the house is wired with older RG59 coaxial cables rather than RG6. None of this would be a problem if it were not for digital TV or high speed Internet. Long distances and RG59 coaxial cable cannot transmit the high frequencies necessary for both. As a result, any time the strength of the cable signal dropped a little (which can happen from minor line problems or more people using cable), I would have trouble receiving digital TV and maintaining a connection with the Internet. A call to my cable provider would only confirm what I already knew...I would need to rewire the house with RG6 cable, and still might have problems because of the distance to my house. The Motorola Signal Booster, installed at the point the cable entered the house, followed by a high quality 3-way splitter, provided trouble-free operation of two cable boxes and an Internet connection. Although this signal booster amplifies only the signal received from the cable company, signals transmitted either by a computer or cable box are at lower frequencies and are more likely not to need amplification for this type of problem; however, the use of too many splitters can cause a problem.
I also have a DVD recorder, VCR, and TV that requires an analog signal so that these components can tune to the analog channels. If I had used a 4-way splitter at the cable box to do this, it would have reduced the signal strength to and from the cable box by another 7db, and provided a signal that might have been over amplified to each of the other components. The use of a "tap" (a "tap" is a splitter that sends most of the signal to one component, and a small fraction of the signal to other components), followed by a 3-way splitter on the "9 db" side of the tap solved this problem, only reducing the signal to the cable box by 1.5 db, but reducing the signal to the each of the components by 14 db. But because of the 15 db amplification of the Signal Booster, this was still a strong signal to the analog components.
Customer Review: Fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
I moved into a new house with my family this past year, and the house was built in the mid-80s. So the wiring was not necessarily up to snuff for all of today's technology, but in general, worked well enough. But pertaining to our cable service, which provides cable, phone and internet service, we were having a few issues. We have three primary television setups, one on the main level, one in the basement, and one upstairs. All three setups were using an HD-DVR cable box from the cable company, and all were having problems with choppy and stuttering programming, audio dropouts, and lack of ability to use the interactive functions of the cable boxes (such as guide, on-demand, etc.).
The cable company came out and told us that there was nothing they could do, and that we'd need to re-wire the whole house with better wiring. Not so keen on doing that, I ordered a couple of these Motorola Signal Boosters to try on 2 of the TVs. And I already had a Radio Shack booster around from another situation for the 3rd TV.
Long story short, I connected the Motorola signal boosters at 2 of the televisions, directly between the coax cable and the cable box. Notwithstanding what some people have written, that this needs to go right at the initial entry of the cable into the house, this setup worked perfectly. Our television programming was now pristine without stuttering, our interactive access was fully restored, and all of the issues went away.
Interestingly, the one television where we were using the Radio Shack booster was still experiencing problems. So I ordered another Motorola for the 3rd television, and lo and behold, the problems went away again. To conclude, I am totally sold on this booster, and it has been a quick and easy fix for our cable problems. I am sure I would not have been able to re-wire our whole house for the cost of these 3 boosters. Good work Motorola.
Customer Review: Good Cable Modem - PPView-On-Demand Amp
Summary: 5 Stars
In order to handle cable modems or "interactive" cable TV boxes, an amplifier must be able to pass a return signal to the cable provider. The Motorola Signal Booster will pass the return signal with a -1 db loss (according to the specifications). It will also amplify the forward signal by +15db (again specs). So if you have a bunch of two-way splitters, each causing about -4.0 db loss (a good one will be around -3.5 db) this amplifier will power through about three of these splitters to your modem or cable box. This Motorola will do the input amplification to a regular TV set through three (or even more) splitters like a charm.
But can the cable modem get its return signal back out? Can On-Demand get its signal back out?
My Motorola Bidirectional AMP worked with both Cable Modem and an On-Demand Cable box for about six months, then suddenly quit working. I bypassed all the splitters, and the signal returned to its original successful state. The cable company apparently suddenly changed something (turns out it was new fiber for telephones).
To make a long story short, I tried everything, from $175 distribution systems to just a straight line running up the stairs. Only the straight line worked. But the stairs didn't. Then I discovered the "reverse amplifier". Yes, there is an amplifier that only works on the "reverse" frequencies. I stuck it in the system at my computer, and -Viola!- everything works with all the old splitters.
So I heartily recommend this Bidirectional Motorola Amplifier, but if it doesn't work with a cable modem and more than one or two splitters, I also suggest that you spend $35 on an ASKA DA1G-1R (or equivalent)reverse amplifier.
I will also add that none of the distribution systems I tried worked. I think the Cable signal overloads them, but even the ones with built-in attenuation couldn't compensate.
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: 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.