Digital signal booster for coax

So my garage tv is getting pretty eratic. I tried swapping the cable box and spent several hours with tech support trying to get it to receive all the channels and stay stable. I'm beginning to think the signal is just weak. The garage tv is 125 feet of cable away from the main entrance to the property and there are 2 other tv s and a cable modem with wifi using the signal.

So I'm thinking of boosting the signal a bit. Amazon has a big range of products with a huge range of ratings and horror stories/ sung praises so I'm having trouble deciphering some truth.

Has anyone here dealt with a similar issue? What should I look for and who makes a good one of those? Is it possible to over post a line?

Thanks!

No AV or cable experts? ....

There is a disturbance in the force. A question asked, but sat unanswered way too long. The rhythms are off, the lights are flickering, dimmer, and dimmer. This is the twilight of the hive.

I had to install a couple cable amos after the cable company put a bandpass filter on my line to block the tv channels since i just pay for internet. They of course blamed my lack of internet on the house wiring. Bastards. I bought the amps on amazon and they"ve been good for about 2 years now.

I can look up and post the ones I bought after my 21 hour travel day ends.

I only do antenna systems but cable might be similar. Boosting the signal too high can be just as bad as not enough. The best thing to do is boost high then attenuate at each device. A meter would be the best way or you can keep trying different values until you have a good signal. Some amplifiers have a control built in.

Are there amplifier brands that are better than others? Biggest difference between a tense and my needs is probably the two way communication requirement.

I have one of these and one of these.

If you have cable internet you may want the active return. Look at your cable modem upstream and downstream signal to noise ratios. These are two different brands and were not all that expensive. One I installed in late 2013 and it is where the cable comes into the house. Then the next time the cable company screwed around and degraded the signal even more, I installed the other one in my attic that is only on the line to my modem.

I forget the desired numbers for signal strength, but do a search on that and get an amp that gets you in the desired range.

I just checked ours, it's a Drop Amp brand - think I found it on Amazon - that we've been using for the last 4-years without any problems. We only had a digital converter for about 6-months though(it wasn't required, and was only free for a limited time), but the TV with it also worked fine.

First make sure the cable center core is proper length. It should protrude no further than the threaded piece. (it's hard to get it completely flush, but you want it close) The attached picture has the core protruding somewhat, but should work well.

A core too short will not conduct well enough while a core too long can overheat the receiver causing problems.

125 feet of 75 ohm cable will certainly have some loss. Any quality in-line amp should help, but make sure there is no damage to the cable. Cutting or cracking in the rubber coating can cause damage to the shielding. Kinking can also damage the cable with the cheap foil shielding. If it is not one solid cable, you may also have additional loss at each connection.

Check all before adding the amp.

Thanks guys. I have an amp on the way and hopefully I will get to try it this weekend. FYI the system it is for has been installed thi way about a year and has only recently given me issues. I have checked cables for obvious issues like loose connections or squirrel tampering and those turned up nothing. That is why I suspect a lesser quality signal strength. If the amp doesn't fix it I think I will need to check input signal at the cable company's line to the house. Anyone have advice on a good tool for that?

FWIW, I found a severely corroded conductor on an exterior cable connection when my cable modem started having problems. Cleaned it up with some sandpaper and all was good.