[GroundUrMast]

You do have the option to edit or delete your duplicate posts.

I run three HDHR dual tuners. My experience so far is that they are the most critical tuners in the house. If they like a signal, the tuners in the traditional TVs and STB will have no trouble.

Do I understand correctly, that one 3-way splitter feeds three 2-way splitters? How many tuner inputs are connected? (My HDHR dual tuners have two inputs each.) Are any splitter ports unused? If so, are the ports terminated with 75 ohm termination caps?

The metering available to you via the hdhomerun_config_gui.exe utility (located at C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun on my XP PC) is quite useful. Of the three reported parameters, Signal Strength, Signal Quality and Symbol Quality, Signal Quality is the most useful diagnostic measure. Widely and or rapidly varying Signal Quality is an indication of some type of interference, multipath, impulse noise, etc. Signal Quality indications near 50% indicate you are at the threshold of Symbol errors which are errors at the output of the decoder's error correction process. When a symbol error occurs, it's going to show as a video or audio defect at the display.

The bottom line is, I'll get a higher quality recording when I see low signal strength with stable signal quality. High signal strength and low or rapidly varying signal quality will almost always produce poor recordings.

Any Symbol Quality indication other than 100% is going to show as a visible or audible defect. The refresh rate on the metering shown by the hdhomerun_config_gui.exe utility may allow many single symbol errors to go unreported in real time. That's why I pay attention to the Signal Quality.

I would prefer an outdoor antenna. The quality of the signal is less likely to be affected by electrical noise produced in the home. Outside, in the clear, there will be less chance of reflected signals producing multipath interference. And of course there will be more signal power available outside (which is lowest on my list of priority).

A Winegard HD7694P will have far more gain and directivity (multipath rejection ability) than any indoor antenna. The output of that antenna at your location would have no trouble driving a passive 8-way splitter.

If you choose to use an indoor antenna, you'll want to find a location and aim alignment that produces the highest stable signal quality indications.

Then... there are Ethernet auto-negotiation problems that can occur. Failure of the NICs to agree on speed will always show up as a failed connection (no data transfer). Failure to agree on duplex (full or half) will result in data loss as it transits the Ethernet link.