Signal distribution - Amplifier vs Masthead

A

Andy1

Guest
Hi All

I have recently moved house and I wish to send the analogue signal to various rooms to which I will add Freeview boxes. I live in a North Wales (CH8 Postcode) with reasonable Freeview reception.

In my last house I used an SLx6B amplifier behind the TV, with 3 coax outputs to the various rooms but I am conscious that apart from adding to the mess behind the TV, having the amp so far from the aerial can add to noise. So, this time round I intend to have a power supply put in the loft near where the aerial enters the house, feed this into a “distributor” of some sort and have the outputs from the loft direct into the various rooms.

My question is this – can I use the same SLx6B amplifier (this time in the loft) to achieve this or do I need to buy a Masthead amplifier. I must admit I am confused about the merits / purposes of each device for this purpose.

Many thanks for any help you can give.
 
hi
yes you could use that amp in the loft but i would use a better cable to run it from the amp if possiable
 
Thanks for the reply.

I always use CT100 for this, to reduce interference as far as possible.
 
Sam - thanks for the reply.

I appears that if I have no noise problems, I am OK to use my existing amp. However, if I have noise problems then the masthead you suggest would be my next option ?

One query please - with three kids bedrooms, living room, play room etc it is likely I will need more than 4 outputs at some stage. The masthead you mention suggests using passive splitters if more outputs are required, but the splitters "only pass 40% of the signal to each output".

Will this degrade the quality so much that the output may struggle to efficiently feed a Freeview box ? Obviously, I could use my amp as the splitter to boost the signal, but if I do this why have I bothered with the masthead ?

Sorry to be so confused / thick on this and any help you can give is greatly appreciated.
 
Well - assuming a 2 storey house - as the cable runs to the bedrooms will be much shorter than those downstairs, the attenuation in the cables will be lower so the loss in the splitter probably won't matter. If it does matter, you can wind up the amplifier gain and fit attenuators where necessary.

Reducing the signal level won't reduce the signal quality significantly. All that matters is that the digital signal is above the tuner threshold and the analogue signal is below the 100% ("swamping") threshold.

As a last resort, use an amplified splitter (but preferably something a little better than the Philex SLx range).
 

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