Yet another question for Daveh75

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

Can you tell me in your experience the best 4 way tv signal booster,and 2 way splitter with minimal signal loss,or are they all much of a muchness.

 

[daveh75]

Depends on what you're going to be using it for,where its going to be installed etc.

If its just to distribute/amplify UHF analogue/DTT signals to four TV's then a simple Labgear 4 way amp like this would be fine

If you want something more professional or also intend distributing rf signals from a Sky box and use magic eyes etc then i'd recommend something like a Antiference A240D 4 way amp or an Global(Global Invacom) F140 4 way amp ,note though, the global amps are powered from a Sky boxes RF2 9v supply,so if not being used with a Sky STB then they require a external PSU.

http://www.tvaerials.com/product.aspx?productid=191
As for a two way splitter,dont use those cheap 'Y' splitters.

Use a 2 way passive splitter Like This for example. These types of splitters are all much of a muchness, and all have an insertion loss of around 3.5/4.0dB

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

Cheers Dave. As a matter of interest,is there a pecking order to signal consumption.From the main feed into the living room I have a splitter which feeds a 4 way booster on one side and my Panasonic DVD/HD recorder.From the RF out on the DVD I feed the plasma TV in the main room where everything is situated.

The 4 way goes to 3 other rooms for TV and I use the 4th for radio reception on the amp beneath the plasma.When the general TV signal is slightly weakened 2 rooms off the 4 way booster struggle for certain channels but if I switch off the main plasma,these two rooms get a good signal back.Is this normal or is there a better way to do it. (eg replacing the main tv feed faceplate with a radio/tv faceplate.

Appreciate your time and input.

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

Sorry to bump it Dave but interested in your view on this.

 

[daveh75]

Ravey Gravey Davy:Sorry to bump it Dave but interested in your view on this.No problem....i couldn't find the thread earlier when i looke,so glad you did tbh.

Ravey Gravey Davy:Cheers Dave. As a matter of interest,is there a pecking order to signal consumption.From the main feed into the living room I have a splitter which feeds a 4 way booster on one side and my Panasonic DVD/HD recorder.From the RF out on the DVD I feed the plasma TV in the main room where everything is situated.

The 4 way goes to 3 other rooms for TV and I use the 4th for radio reception on the amp beneath the plasma.When the general TV signal is slightly weakened 2 rooms off the 4 way booster struggle for certain channels but if I switch off the main plasma,these two rooms get a good signal back.

There shouldn't be any pecking order to the signal consumption
no. A decent 2 way passive splitter should output equal amounts of
signal from each port( in the case of a 2 way,around 45% of the input
signal out of each port).
Equally amplifiers/boosters should pass equal amounts of signal out of
each output,though some distribution amps will have a full/higher gain
output,which is generally used for longer cable runs,with splitters/taps or in larger systems where multiple amps are going to be used for the trunk cabling that connects one amp to another.

Ravey Gravey Davy:Is this normal or is there a better way to do it. (eg replacing the main tv feed faceplate with a radio/tv faceplate.

Appreciate your time and input.It not normal no,but it's not uncommon.It's hard to say what the cause is,without physically testing it. but i'd hazard a guess that interference may be your problem.

Especially as you say the missing channels return when the plasma is off. TV's can emit large amounts of RFI/EMI when on, an it's possible that the amp/booster is picking it up if it's in relatively close proximity to the TV.

Or even the RF cables running between the faceplate/splitter/booster etc could be picking it up, particularly if they're not good quality cables.

If your using standard freebie RF cables, i'd replace them with better quality ones.

With regard to faceplate, do you have seperate aerials for TV and Radio diplexed onto one cable or are you just using the TV aerial to receive Radio reception?If the later i wouldn't worry about using a diplexed faceplate.

One thing i would suggest though,is removing the splitter from the main feed, and connecting the main feed directly to the booster so it's getting the strongest,cleanest signal possible, and then connecting the splitter to one of the booster's outputs to then feed one of the remote TV's(preferably the one with the shortest cable run from booster) and the DVD/HDD recorder.

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

Thanks - I'll do a bit of experimenting.