Trying to get back to OTA after eons help

[brg88tx]

op, I've been researching all dvrs lately and while researching the TiVo roamio's tuner strength I found several posts saying that the signal meter never showed more than 80%, no matter how strong the signal is.

[w1zofaz]

I think I will give this preamp a shot.
AntennaCraft 30dB High Gain TV/FM Mast-Mounted Amplifier 10G212
If that does not bring the signals up then I will replace the 50' run of coax since the 30' by itself did well.
The Tivo Roamio is known to suck down signals because of its four tuners. The customer service peeps on the phone even warned me about that before I even bought it.
I was not worried about those 80 marks as all stations took quite a tumble on the meter once the Tivo was hooked up. Two of the stations would not even come in once that happened.
Once I order and get the preamp, and get it set up I will post the results here.

[GroundUrMast]

You're not facing a lot of strong signals. Still, I would avoid the 10G212 which is a deep fringe, weak signal design. If it overloads, you'll have destroyed the quality of the signals just received by the antenna.

Preamplifiers are not able to 'pull' signal from the air, antenna or coax... They only 'push' an amplified copy of the signal down the line. Amplifiers won't make a distorted or noisy signal better, because they are going to amplifier both the desired signal(s) and the distortion and noise.

I'd suggest the 10G201 or the RCA TVPRAMP1R.

[w1zofaz]

Crap, its already ordered from Amazon. Would it hurt the Tivo or TV? Or just distort channels even more?

If it distorts channels I will ship it back and get one of the ones you have recommended.

Thank You.

+=>

Thinking in terms of.

I will get the highest gain amplifier I can get , and ram and slam the signal to the Tv's so I can get , All The Channels.
The Truth is , Is the way to get Less Channels.

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Antenna System Amplifiers -->DO NOT<-->PULL The Signal From The Air and Antenna.

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A antenna system amplifier will amplify what is received by the antenna.

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But Does Not cause the antenna to suck signals out of the air.

Here is the Truth , the weaker the signal gets the larger the antenna gets to receive more signal.

Using a smaller antenna and a bigger amplifier , is the way to get less signal.



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For your -->Current antenna setup of the HD Stacker<-- , use the lower gain ,

Antenna Craft 10G201 preamplifier or RCA TVPRAMP1R preamplifier.

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Also know this.

Using a amplifier to ram and slam and force signal through , defective coax , defective connectors , defective connections , defective devices , defective etc. is a good way to get less reliable reception and more problems.

[GroundUrMast]

I wouldn't be worried about damage to any equipment... Hopefully it will not overload. If that's the case, you'll be fine. If you add the amp 10G212 and get less reliable reception, that's a strong indication that you should use one of the amps suggested.

[w1zofaz]

Thank You to both of you. This forum has been a lot of help.

From what I see on the test results of the test that I was informed about the signal is there, just being lost in either the addition of the 50' of coax or the Tivo itself. My guess would be the Tivo is sucking the signals dry with its four tuners. Would that be comparable to a four way splitter drain?

But I do have an idea. If the signal from Knoxville is to strong I will point the antenna at Chattanooga and just grab Knoxville on the back half. Maybe that will work?

It should come sometime Tuesday. If early enough I will set it up, if not I will do it on Wednesday and post the results.

[GroundUrMast]

Tivo tuners have a habit of being fussy with OTA signals... and there is no doubt some form of signal splitting built in to the 4 tuner chassis.

Turning the back of the antenna to the stronger group of signals is often a simple and reliable solution that gives you access to 2 markets using 1 antenna.