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I’ve been having a problem with my Tivo and cable box that I couldn’t fix.

For about four to five months, my Comcast cable connection was spotty. A few choice channels, like TMC, would have so much pixelation that I couldn’t watch anything on that channel. It was very disappointing when Tivo recorded a classic Turner Classic Movie, and discovered that it didn’t record due to pixelation.

Even worse, the problem affected the On-Demand channels, which meant I couldn’t watch any pay per view events or movies. And as a subscriber to Howard Stern’s TV channel, that meant I was paying $9.99 a month without being able to watch the latest shenanigans by the Stern show. It was a miserable few months.

I tried a number of different things to troubleshoot the problem. I completely disconnected my cable splitter and the Tivo Series 2 box and decided to try just Comcast’s HD DVR cable box.

To my surprise, it worked! All the channels came in perfectly, including On-Demand and Howard TV. Not pixelation. No bad recordings. Unfortunately, my Tivo wasn’t connected, but at least I could use Comcast’s DVR. But it just wasn’t the same. I wanted to use the Tivo.

Initially, I thought the problem was the cable splitter that Tivo Series 2 boxes come with. So I bought a new one, tried it out and realized that the pixelation problem persisted.

I came to the conclusion that there was a problem with the quality of the cable connection. I spent some time calling Comcast tech support and I did the usual things, like resetting the box and having them shoot a new signal. They saw no problems on their end, so I figured it must be on my end. I wasn’t prepared to have Comcast come out and test the signal in my house yet.

Instead I went to Radio Shack. A few things caught my eye. One of them was something called the “Cable TV Amplifier”.

I asked the Radio Shack guy questions and he obviously had no idea how to help me. He just grabbed a few of the packages I looked at, muttered a few things then went off to help someone else.

I decided to buy Radio Shack’s 1 to 4 Bi-Directional Cable TV Amplifier (15-2506) for about $49.99. I was a bit skeptical, but I knew that Radio Shack had a liberal 30-day return policy.

The Amplifier was a step up from a regular cable splitter since it was capable of boosting cable signals by up to 8 dB according to the package. Ok, I had no idea what that meant, but I was hopeful. The Amplifier also came with AC power, which fueled my hope even further.

I took home the Amplifier, left it on a table for about three weeks then decided to connect it one night.

I simply connected the cable in line to the cable in of the Amplifier, then connected the Tivo and the DVR to two of the Amplifier’s out signals. Essentially, I replaced a normal cable splitter with the Amplifier.

And it worked perfectly! The big test was Comcast’s On-Demand titles, so I tried to watch a free movie and it worked perfectly. No pixelation at all.

Next I tried to watch a Howard TV show and saw that there was still some pixelation. But the Amplifier comes with a little knob that I turn to boost the signal strength. So I left the TV on and turned the knob until…viola! Howard TV was coming in perfectly for the first time in months.

I was ecstatic. Radio Shack saved my life! At least in terms of watching TV.

Essentially, I boosted the cable strength enough and reduced signal loss that was coming through, most likely because I had a long cable run. (I also use Comcast cable for my Internet and it stretches into my home office.)

So my suggestion to anyone having problems with their cable or Tivo: Try out these cable TV amplifiers. Odds are, your cable signal strength is low and it can be fixed for about $50.

Please comment and let me know if you have a problem like this and if an amplifier has helped you.

[tags] Radio Shack, Cable TV Amplifier, Cable, Comcast, Tivo, DVR [/tags]