Customer Reviews

8-Port Bi-Directional Cable TV HDTV Amplifier Splitter Signal Booster with Pa...

5 star:		(170)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I have a new house with very long cable runs. When they built the house they ran a seperate cable to each room, instead of splitting them upstairs in the attic. I had an issue with the digital cable and the modem loosing signal and picture freezing before I purchased this item. It took about 5 minutes to install the amp and all picture issues are gone. Before I could not have the signal split into more than 3 lines before experiencing picture issues. I now have 7 lines running out of the amp without issue, including the cable modem. Great product, and you can not beat the price.

I'm currently deployed and our TV signal is poor. I bought this powered amplified splitter and it works great. We're even picking up channels we didn't have here. It got here to Afghanistan in less than a week after I ordered. These were the only folks I found that had a 8 way powered splitter that would ship to an APO address.

I acquired one of these after I was having problems with digital cable reception on one of the longer runs in our house. Previously, the incoming cable was connected to a two way splitter with one end of the splitter connected to a cable modem for internet service and the other end connected to an amplifier. Then from the output of the amplifier, it fed into an 8-way passive splitter that was distrubuted to the outlets in the various rooms.

Needless to say, my old setup required many extra cables and did not drive all the outputs sufficiently even with the unused splitter outputs terminated with a termination resistor. Even the cable modem required a special filter. It may have just been a bad amplifier, but after recognizing that I could consolidate four components (2 way splitter, cable modem filter, amplifier, and an 8-way passive splitter) into one it made perfect sense to use this product.

Installation was simple. At first, I thought it was strange to use a coaxial cable for power. Then, a friend told me the obvious - the distance from the outlet to the location of the splitter varies from installation to installation, so it's possible to cut a coaxial cable to "just the right length" for each installation. That made perfect sense and that is exactly what I did.

The structured wiring cabinet in our house looks much "cleaner" now with less components and internal cable runs. TV and Internet service is working great too. No more digital drop outs and audible "squeaks".

This product is a bargain (less than half the price) when compared with other options I researched on the internet. At first I thought that was "too good to be true", but I was pleasantly convinced otherwise after using it for about a month now. I would certainly recommend this product to anyone that has longer cable runs, poor signals or an overly complex setup. Electricians and cable installers should consider using this when installing (or retrofitting) structured wiring in new homes.

This was the most fully documented amplifier I could find even after searching the CATV head-end market.

No amplifier is perfect... they all add some noise and distortion to the signal. I chose this amplifier based on the published noise figure (the lower the better) and the maximum signal capability (the point at which the signal will be distorted rather than cleanly amplified). Not many vendors are willing to offer detailed specifications as is PCT --

(An internet search for the model number should easily find the published specifications)

This amplifier provides enough gain to overcome the built-in 8 way splitter loss and about 100' of coax per drop.

As an aside - Don't expect any amplifier to make a bad signal into a good signal. No amplifier will fix an antenna that is worn, the wrong type or installed incorrectly.

This amplifier does its job. I'm happy to recommend it.

This amplifier/splitter replaced an large number of splitters installed about 25 years ago on our internal cable system. The installation was straightforward and I liked the coaxial connection between the plug transformer and the amplifier because it allowed me to tailor the length of the connection in my cabinet. Seven of the eight connections showed markedly improved reception. These were runs less than 75 feet. The eighth (and unfortunately the one I was most interested in) cable run was over 100 feet and the 4 dB amplification just didn't make the upper channels clear. If you have a particularly long run, a more powerful splitter/amplifier might work better.

I read about 60 reviews to decide whether to connect the cable modem to the amp or not. Some said yes, some said no. Seller wasn't helpful. So I decided to go for it and plug the modem into the "to MTA" port.
The results were spectacular.
My internet speed went from 24/3.6 to 33/9.
The signal strength as shown in the Explorer 8300HD info screen went from -16 to -9 on the worst channels, and the picture quality on those marginal channels was fixed. Period.
Great product.
UPDATE
After using the amp for several weeks I still give it 5 stars. But found that I had to split the modem input before the amp. Plugging the modem into the amp gave me inconsistent internet service.

This amp/splitter does everything advertised. There is a bi-directional port that allows you to hook up your cable modem. The other ports give an amplified signal that provides a solid digital picture or snow-free analog picture. I needed to hook up 4 TV and a cable modem. I had tried a six-way splitter, but part of the picture was dropping out on the HDTV channels, and the analog channels were a little fuzzy. This amp/splitter solved those problems, and has the bi-directional port necessary for use of a cable modem.

This product was exactly what I was looking for. I was able to rebuild my cable distribution with less overall loss and it did a great job in enhancing my picture quality. Would not hesitate to recommend product to anyone. 8-Port Bi-Directional Cable TV HDTV Amplifier Splitter Signal Booster with Passive Return Path

This splitter works well with my digital cable and cable modem. I used to have black and white like picture on my furthest television and this cleared it right up. I definitely recommend this splitter to anyone who needs an 8-way splitter.

This product works as advertised. Keep in mind that what it advertises is a PASSIVE return path. That means that a cable modem connected to one of these ports will be attenuated to 1/8 of the modem's original signal strength. If you're using a cable modem, you can split the original signal and connect the modem to one split and this amplifier to the other, or you could buy a different amp that has an active (amplified) return path.