#Tv amplifier antenna tv

If you are trying to receive weaker signals and run them through a splitter, you’ll need an amplifier to overcome the signal attenuation. The signal-to-noise ratio also decreases with longer lengths of cable.Īnd that’s where amplifiers come in. Signal levels are also reduced by attenuation in the coaxial cable running from the antenna to your television - the longer the cable run, the greater the attenuation. That won’t be a problem with strong signals, but it might make receiving weaker signals a real challenge.

#Tv amplifier antenna tv

If the connection from your TV antenna goes through a splitter, the signal level drops at each splitter output. In reality with signal reflections and echoes (the so-called Rayleigh reception environment), that number can be 20 dB S/N or higher. The ATSC 1.0 digital TV standard defines that threshold is 15.3 decibels (dB) stronger than the noise floor - at least in an ideal environment. The best antenna system requires no amplification at all! In such a system, signals from TV stations are all above the required signal-to-noise (S/N) threshold for reliable reception. Depending on the location of the amplifier in the signal chain, noise can become a significant problem for reliable reception of weak signals. And amplifiers also create noise of their own, like any other active electronic circuits. But as a rule, amplifiers don’t discriminate: Without special filtering, any signals coming into an amplifier, including unwanted ones, are all boosted. There are good amplifier designs and cheap amplifier designs, and you get what you pay for.Īmplifiers ingest weak TV signals and make them stronger. Amplifiers can do a lot of good, but they can also create problems for TV reception. Everyone knows what an amplifier is, but there’s plenty of misunderstanding about how TV amplifiers work and when to use them.

For this month’s post, we’re going to focus on TV antenna amplifiers.