I get a bunch of stations, more than 40, but am always looking to improve. I have 2 antennae, a pre-amp, amp, whatever. I use this to feed the coaxial wire system in my house. One of the connections is to the Tablo. These 2 antennae are combined in my attic then fed into this system.
My question is: Is there a better scheme that will result in less signal loss?
I could feed the antennae directly into Tablo and use that to watch live TV as all of my TV’s have Roku’s, but surfing on Tablo takes too long to switch channels. Would want a 2 second switch. Maybe the Tablo Live TV is faster on different set-top-boxes.
I was excited to hear about Silicon Dust’s HD Homerun as I could plug the antennae directly into it and connect it to my network. Once connected to the network, I would have clear channels on many platforms in my network. Unfortunately, Roku is not one of them. I cannot imagine that Tablo would play with HomeRun as they are direct competitors.
So, I guess what I am asking is: Is there a device like HomeRun that converts the signal to something that can be distributed over my network to Roku devices and my Tablo? Must have quick surfing, programming and play with Tablo.
Do any of your TVs have tuners built in? If so, you could use split the signal and run one side directly to the TV tuner for watching live TV without delays.
All of them have built in tuners. What you suggest is what I currently do. However, I believe that when I have 2 antennae there is some loss of signal (even with amps and pre-amps). In addition, there is loss of signal when I split the signal into about 10 different cables in my house. So, by the time it gets to that TV in whatever room, it is somewhat degraded. I was thinking I could convert the TV feed into some other format right at the antennae, then distribute throughout the network.
Sorry, I should have made it clear that I do Tablo recordings and live via antenna/TV tuner. To change between the two, I just switch inputs on the TV between HDMI and antenna.
Even if splitting signals after amplifiers loses some signal, the important thing is not necessarily the signal level. Most amps will supply an adequate signal even after multiple splits. The significant figure is the NF (noise factor). If it is too high, that will defeat the purpose of amplification. Usually it is better to get an amp with a very low NF rather than an amp with high signal strength.
Some amps with moderate signal strength but low NF will deliver a better signal than high signal strength amps with high NFs. Each amp in line will add to the NF regardless of amplification and this is what impacts a tuner - the NF floor.