Has anyone had any experience using a cable signal booster or amplifier?

Question

what is a good one to buy?

Answer 1

You should have your cable company come check the signal first. Then they would take care of the issue. If not see below.

Answer 2

Don't by linksys...I went through 3 before I gave up

Answer 3

A signal booster MAY work. BUT!!!!!!!

TV101... A cable TV system supplies so much signal to a home. How much is up to the company. Every time you go through a cable splitter whether the port is used or not you loose signal strength. The strength is measured in dB's. a 2 way looses 3.5 dB per leg, a 3 way 5 dB, and an 8 way 11 dB.  

A TV wants at least 0 dB of signal for a good picture.  Digital less.

The meter to measure this is expensive and normally only a cable company will have one.  So use your eyeball.  

If your picture is fuzzy the signal may be low.  The secret is to put the amp before the signal level drops below 0 dB.  (A good picture)

Then it will amplify everything after that and the picture will be OK.

The best is to put the amp where the signal comes into the house.

Cable systems use a series of amps to keep the signal level high.  Each time they split the signal and send it to a home the signal level drops.

BUT!!! continued..

CAUTION ... digital TV  cable modems, Pay-Per-View requires that the reverse path be active and some amps do NOT pass reverse path signal or do not pass the frequency the cable system needs. So you may loose certain features the cable system offers.

If you are analog only NO problem buy a signal booster.  Radio Shack or any Electronic store sells them and they are fairly cheap.

My recommendation... The best thing to do is call the cable system and tell them you have a bad picture, and let them figure out what is best to solve the problem.