Customer Reviews

Motorola Signal Booster 484095-001-00 Bi-Directional RF Amplifier

5 star:		(414)
4 star:		(86)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(33)
1 star:		(61)

 

 

Ever since my cable company installed digital cable in my house I have had picture problems. The analog pictures were grainy and half of the digital pictures didn't come in. They just said they would arrive shortly but never did. Numerous calls to the cable company failed to come up with a permanent fix. So I decided to take matters in my own hands. Other boosters made things worse. When I saw that this one worked with digital as well as analog I decided to give it a try. I first hooked it up from the cable box to the vcr and got no improvement. So I tried hooking it up where the signal first came in before the cable reciever and it worked beautifully. Analog pictures are clearer than ever and all the digital pictures come in. No more "Please Wait" screens. I am mad that my stupid cable company refused to do this but I am thrilled to finally have what I pay for! Great product!

As for the people writing the other reviews on this product, you should not speak if you know nothing about Broadband. First of all, this booster will NOT increase your docsis cable modem speeds, no matter what you hear. This amplifier, installed correctly (at the entry point of your home) will boost your forward signal by +15db (allowing return signals to pass). Most cable modem operating level ranges are +15 to -15, so if your within that range on your cable modems operating frequency (for example 705mhz) there is no need for a booster. If you are on the treshhold of signal, like -17db, then this amp will be beneficial to you. Your GUI on your cable modem will give you this reading (http://192.168.100.1 for example). As for your cable reception, and amplifier can be helpful if you have multiple TV's, to make up for the loss that your splitters create. But again, this amp MUST be installed @ your cables entry point to your home. If you have a bad connection though, you will only amplify noise. So your outside drop connection from the pole must be good for an amp to work properly. In conclusion, your modem downloads a config file from your ISP which tells that modem what speeds to run at, and your ISP's router capacities determine what kind of speeds you get. So this amplifier will NOT boost speeds :-)

Prior to purchasing the Motorola amp, I purchased and installed the TERK AMP-15, which worked very well (until the cable company did a disconnect recently and apparently short-circuited the input). Upon reconnecting my cable service, the cable-tv tech noted that my TERK AMP-15 was no longer working. Rather than just order another TERK, I decided to check the alternatives. Checking the specs, I noticed the Motorola Signal Booster is a similar product, however the specs are much better (2.5 dB max Noise Figure vs. 3.5 dB max for the TERK) and the Motorola uses the most advanced technology available (Gallium Arsenide). Also, the Motorola amp includes a 6kV surge resistant design (meets the 6kV IEEE C62.41-1991 and 1 kV Combination Wave surge for all ports). I did not find surge protection mentioned in the TERK spec. Another difference is the Motorola provides a slightly wider bandwidth (52-1000 MHz) and operates at lower dc voltage (12VDC). These differences indicate a highly refined circuit design, so I expect a much more durable, worry-free product. Nice going Motorola! Links to Motorola's web page for complete consumer (1) and professional (2) specification details:
(1) http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/products/signal_booster/
(2) http://broadband.motorola.com/catalog/productdetail.asp?image=large&productID=207

OK, here is a little backgroud. I have an old 6ft antenna on the roof of my house and I have a 55 inch widescreen but was unwilling to shell out for a new antenna and installation. Signal was already there but weak. About 33 - 45%. Installed the listed item and now can receive a beautiful picture. The only down side is that there still seems to be a little glitch at times for a minute or soo but it sems to be weather dependant. I also looked at the Terk version but felt this was the better option. If you already have a signal and need the extra boost to see a clear picture I definately suggest purchasing this unit. It will help.

I have had three (see update at the end) of these. Here are my observations and recommendations:

Out of the box, the first unit worked well and produced fair to good picture improvement but eventually started to act up after an electrical storm. It now works intermittently and often produces a degraded picture and passes no cable modem signal. Because I was somewhat satisfied with the price, performance, and brand name, I bought a second unit to replace the damaged one.

The second unit again produces fair to good picture quality but often drops the cable modem signal, which results in a climb into the attic to reset the booster. E-mail to Motorola solved the mystery as they explained that sometimes the cable signal drops below a point where it can be boosted and that causes problems. Cable services, I have read, will change the signal strength throughout the day to adjust for temperature changes that affect transmission. If the signal drops too low, my booster loses the ability to sustain modem signal connectivity and often will not regain the modem signal without a power off-power on reset.

So, I have bought yet another booster, this time a 20 dB booster by a different brand. I have also added a surge protector and would suggest that anyone who buys a booster to spend the extra $20 for an external APC cable surge suppressor.

I had to send the 20 db booster back. It produced snow and a noisy signal.

Edit - two years later, Nov. 2007: I have since moved and guess what? I left the booster in the old house and I bought Motorola booster for the new house. This one has worked well for the last two years. I'm about to move again and I'll be taking the booster with me this time....

I bought a Sharp Aquos before Christmas and recently started exploring OTA HDTV. When I bought my house there was an antenna in the attic (a classic VHF/UHF antenna), so I hooked that up to the TV to see what channels I could get. Unfortunately, my local Fox affiliate would not tune and my local NBC station was intermittent--they are both about 35-40 miles away.

I first tried switching to a "HD" antenna, but this was worse than the classic antenna.

Then I hooked up the signal booster. Suddenly, I have all of my locals plus a few I didn't even know existed. The signal is perfect and a lot of the signals are even stronger than what I was getting over a cable from Comcast! I can even now get one station which is located approximately 180 degrees from where the antenna is pointed--although this station is only about 12 miles away.

Anyway, at the end of the month I am cancelling my Comcast subscription since I now have crystal clear HD for free!

We have cable TV and a couple splitters. The picture on all TVs was sometimes very good and sometimes not - very inconsistent. The cable company said that the signal to my house was "acceptable". So I bought the Motorola booster and put it inline and the picture immediately improved to a great consistent picture on most TV's.

However my cable internet would not work with the booster. I had to put a two way splitter [very important to use a two way splitter only to minimize loss] at the cable TV source with one tap going to the cable modem [old RCA brand] and the other to the the Mororola booster. The booster then went to to a splitter. I also had a splitter connected to the first splitter after the Motorola booster. My signal was still not great on the splitter farthest down the line. What I then did is to junk my splitters and used quality splitters instead which made the difference to all TVs having a great picture. Obviously all splitters are not equal. I now only use Regal brand splitters. It is also important to minimize the use of spitters and to cap off unused ports with a terminal cap. There will be a signal loss for each port of a splitter whether all the ports are being used or not. So don't use a four port splitter if you only need to have two or three ports available unless you have definite plans to use extra ports soon.

Bottom line is that I am very happy with the Motorola booster. All TVs now have a great picture on all channels including our Sony 60 inch wide screen. The booster works as advertised provided you have a decent signal from your cable TV provider, you use it as close as possible to the signal source from your cable company, you use quality splitters remembering the loss that splitters introduce to the signal path [typical four port splitter has 7db loss per port and two way 3db], and use quality TV cable that has end connectors installed properly including proper shield connection with minimum necessary cable length used. Sharp bends in the cable, cable pinching, and the connector connected to the TV being pulled from the cable loosening the shield from the connector and/or retracting the center connector [not always visible] are often problem areas. If you continue to have problems, try attaching a TV directly to the output of the booster with a known good TV cable ideally of short length. If the picture is excellent there then you have a problem somewhere in your distribution system after the booster which could be the splitters and/or TV cable run or even interference coming in through the AC line to the TV. Many quality surge protectors such as the Isobar have line filters to clean up interference coming in on the AC line. If the picture is still poor connected directly to the booster contact your cable TV company to have them check the quality of your signal coming from them.

I used this product to help with antenna reception. I do not have cable. It worked great! Before CBS, which is channel 2 in my area, was full of snow. At different times of the day you could not see or hear the station. Now that I have used this I can always see the channel, and the other stations come through with amazing sharpness (I didn't know it could be that good.) Channel 2 does still have snow sometimes, but the fact that it always comes through and we don't have to try and make out fuzzy shapes when we want to watch our favorite CBS shows made the family very happy. I also installed an FM trap to reduce the occassional hering bone effect from some local signal. You can install this where you attenna comes into the house, but we have it installed near the TV.

I had a good quality cable signal going to a cable modem and TV. I started splitting the cable signal to go to 2 VCRs for a total of 4 devices. I also noticed that the TV signal was starting to get very noisy with this latest amount of signal splitting. I did some research on the subject and found a very good solution in this Motorola signal booster. Once I hooked up the amplifier to the cable signal (the manufacturer recommends to do this as close to the incoming signal source) I was gratified to see that the TV image quality improved significantly. The noise that was very prevelant was reduced which is exactly what I was hoping that it would do.

Installation was simple, connect the input signal to the amp, hook up the devices to the output of the amplifier, and finally connect the power to the amplifier (your basic wall wart type adapter) and voila! That being said it is worth noting what the booster won't do. It or any other amp will not improve a noisy signal coming into the amplifier. It will not improve the speed of an internet connection coming out of a cable modem. It will allow a good quality signal to be distributed to various devices without the detrimental side effects caused by splitting the signal. Recommended.

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.