Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 358
 GREAT PURCHASE!! :) February 11, 2004
It's me (LONG ISLAND CITY, NEW YORK USA)
21 out of 26 found this review helpful
I have spent alot of money on trying to improve the cable television reception on my computer monitor... which was pretty bad at first. In order to improve it, I bought a somewhat costly surge protecter for power conditioning, A $30 Monster gold plated splitter, and 3 Monster gold plated coaxial cables that were only 3 feet long, but were priced at $30 EACH. They did make significant improvement in the picture and sound quality, but nothing like the signal booster which improved my signal to near PERFECTION. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because there is ONE channel that doesn't come up perfect & that is channel 2 which has only average picture and sound...but considering the fact that before i had the booster I couldn't even SEE and hardly HEAR channel 2 at all, I am EXTREMELY happy with it. I don't often write reviews for products even though I shop Amazon alot, but I am so happy to finally have great tv signal that I had to say something. :)
 Real life review May 9, 2005
Steven Moyer (Washington, D.C.- Jacksonville, Forida)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
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....
 Improved our TV signal dramtically August 4, 2005
Steven L. Umbach (Bartlett, Il United States)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
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.
The best $40 I've ever spent! February 1, 2005
Sharonf (Lake Havasu City, Arizona United States)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
I recently purchased a new Toshiba DLP HDTV. The picture right out of the box was fantastic on HD channels, great on digital channels, but only so so on some of the analog channels. I hooked up a splitter to feed part of the cable signal to the cable box and the other part directly to the TV and that helped for the analog channels. Then I read about the Motorola Signal Booster and decided to give it a try. What a difference! Digital channels are near HD quality and SD channels look a lot clearer and the colors are better. It's the best $40 I've ever spent! I was so happy with the booster I purchased another one to use in my computer room. A couple of the lower channels on the TV in there had always been fuzzy...not anymore! Finally something that does what it says it will!
Good Cable Modem - PPView-On-Demand Amp February 12, 2007
Harry G. Arnold (Oak Ridge, TN United States)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
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.
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