Crazy what a splitter and a few extra feet of cable can do to an OTA signal just on the fringe of reception.
What recording quality have you settled on? Just curious.
A two-way splitter effectively cuts a signal in half - 3 db lost at each leg. A three-way splitter loses 5 db, a four way splitter 7 db and so on. A typical large scale rooftop antenna has about 11 db in signal strength (at peak efficiency) and a smaller apartment antenna about 6 db. A 50% reduction in signal strength is SUBSTANTIAL. That is why people use distribution amplifiers especially for four-way splits. A good distribution amplifier adds about 8 db instead of subtracting it as the splitter does.
Essentially a splitter is like a fork in a river; it sends the stream two ways. However this reduces the strength of each stream. The energy conservation principal is at play here that states energy cannot be freely created from nothing. Therefore a diversion of signal along different paths is a split in energy. There is no free lunch here.…
A splitter is also known as a passive device; it creates nothing of itself. It divides but does not create. Unlike a distribution amp, a simple splitter has no other source of energy to supplement the original signal. That’s why it’s also just $1.98…
There is a formula for computing what signal arrives at the destination (e.g. tuner) from the source (antenna). Antenna RF reception strength + preamplifier - preamp noise - any passive devices + distribution amp - distribution amp noise - cable length, etc (there are other factors and variables as well such as wire radius). If the result meets the tuner’s threshhold, there is a lock on the signal. If the losses reduce the signal below the tuner’s threshhold, nada…
Interesting stuff- lots of factors to account for.
I’m still on the highest quality setting of 1080 60 fps but haven’t had a lot of time to really test performance (I.e. watch different channels for long periods of time).
Seems to be doing well from what I have been able to view though.
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