[mythtv-users] PVR-500 image quality and missing channels

Steven Adeff adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com
Mon Feb 6 21:59:04 UTC 2006


On 2/6/06, Jay R. Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 06, 2006 at 11:54:20AM -0700, Mike Grusin wrote:
> > > > What does a Blonder-Tongue do? Is it just like an amp that you can
> > > > adjust the gain on?
> > >
> > > Blonder Tongue is one of the primary suppliers to the cable industry
> > > itself.  That amp to which I posted the link has enough gain potential
> > > to drive 30 or 40 loads, likely.  Not only is its gain adjustable, but
> > > also its slope (the differential gain from one end of the band to the
> > > other).
> >
> > Does anyone know whether this is a bi-directional amp, in other words, can a
> > cable modem sit behind it and still reach the outside world?
>
> Reading the description of that amp suggests that it's actually not.  I
> personally recommend following Road Runner's practice on that, and
> using a high-quality bidirectional splitter right in front of the amp
> to tap the cablemodem.
>

if your house setup allows for it, run a two way splitter from the
incoming line, run one output to the cable modem and the other to your
cable amp. You really don't want to put an amp before a cable modem
anyway. Home Depot sells high quality splitters, they're around $10
iirc, radio shack used to sell good ones, the last few times I was
there I didn't see any that were good. All the electronics stores sell
them too, but they're more expensive than home depot.

Home Depot also sells good amps, I've never done a price comparison,
but the brands they carry for cable amps are good. My general rule of
thumb for a cable amp is "no plastic", the plastic ones are cheap and
usually not very reliable. A good 3/4 output bi-directional cable amp
should cost around $75+/- $20.

--
Steve


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