# Signal Strength



## patrone (Sep 16, 2013)

Hello, 

I've been having trouble streaming TV from my Roamio Plus to my mini's. Every few minutes I get an error saying my network speed is too slow. 

I called TiVo and went through a few diagnostics. They are telling me my signal strength (100%) and SNR (40-41dB) are too high. They suggested using a splitter to get my signal strength down to 99% and my SNR to 35dB. 

Does that sound right? Is there a better way to knock down my signal strength and SNR? A splitter seems very imprecise and will just end up adding another cable behind my TV. Any other ways to knock down the SNR and signal strength? 

Patrick


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

patrone said:


> Hello,
> 
> I've been having trouble streaming TV from my Roamio Plus to my mini's. Every few minutes I get an error saying my network speed is too slow.
> 
> ...


You can get an attenuator. One end is male and other end is female. Get a ~3.5db one to start with.

btw inelegant is probably more accurate word than imprecise. imprecise implies that it won't do the job.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

trip1eX said:


> You can get an attenuator. One end is male and other end is female. Get a ~3.5db one to start with.


You could do this, but past discussions have asserted that using a splitter is generally a better idea than using an in-line attenuator.


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## patrone (Sep 16, 2013)

trip1eX said:


> btw inelegant is probably more accurate word than imprecise. imprecise implies that it won't do the job.


Thanks for the info...have to disagree with the grammar lesson. A splitter does not let you dampen the signal by any specific metric, it's imprecise. An attenuator allows you to dampen the signal by a specific dB, which is very precise. Imprecise actually means that it does do the job, just not with precision...which is exactly what I was trying to say.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

patrone said:


> Thanks for the info...have to disagree with the grammar lesson. A splitter does not let you dampen the signal by any specific metric, it's imprecise. An attenuator allows you to dampen the signal by a specific dB, which is very precise. Imprecise actually means that it does do the job, just not with precision...which is exactly what I was trying to say.


Most good quality splitters have the specific dB drop written right on the splitter. I don't see how that is any less precise than an attenuator. And according to some people on this board, MoCA signals have a harder time dealing with in-line attenuators than with splitters, so if you are planning on using MoCA, you might want to reconsider using the attenuator.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Most good quality splitters have the specific dB drop written right on the splitter. I don't see how that is any less precise than an attenuator. And according to some people on this board, MoCA signals have a harder time dealing with in-line attenuators than with splitters, so if you are planning on using MoCA, you might want to reconsider using the attenuator.


I have a attenuator and your correct that 3.5Bb from the attenuator put my MoCA down much more than a 1.2Ghz splitter that gave me the same 3.5Db cut in cable signal.


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## patrone (Sep 16, 2013)

So turns out it had nothing to do with signal strength or the SNR. TiVo Roamio's do not like it when you have both a MoCA connection and an Ethernet cable connection. I think both the router and the TiVo box were trying to run their own MoCA networks...conflicts caused problems.


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## catburt (Aug 15, 2014)

Tivo support is really hung up on the signal level issue. I called about having a short loud burst of noise in GUI and then a reboot. They read me the same story about signal strength and SNR. I explained there were 0 corrected and uncorrected errors so the signal was not so strong it was causing errors. Also if a signal was to strong and overdriving the receiver the signal to noise ratio would go down not up. They asked me what signal to noise ratio was. They also told me if I do not get strength less than 100 it could burn out my tivo. I love my tivo, but support is useless


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## Kungfubarbie (Dec 8, 2014)

I have a signal strength question - I got a few attenuators to bring the signal down on my Roamio. A 10db brings the majority of the channels within the 90-95 / 35 db range, but that then makes cable channels such as Bravo fall down to the 60s which messes up the picture. I scaled back to 6 db with a splitter. This fixes the Bravo issue, but leaves the other channels at 100. Does anyone know if this will burn out the tuners?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Kungfubarbie said:


> I have a signal strength question - I got a few attenuators to bring the signal down on my Roamio. A 10db brings the majority of the channels within the 90-95 / 35 db range, but that then makes cable channels such as Bravo fall down to the 60s which messes up the picture. I scaled back to 6 db with a splitter. This fixes the Bravo issue, but leaves the other channels at 100. Does anyone know if this will burn out the tuners?


I would love to say no, but I don't have Charter, a Pro, or your problem. I do have a basic with 87-90 on all four tuners. It is very warm at the cable connection. To have such a difference in signal levels is not normal. If you could try moving the same channel (Bravo) to each tuner. This can be done manually by playing with the tuners. The operation of Info, then Down shows each tuner and its channel. You can also hit Right then Down when only live video is showing. If you can find tuner zero it will be faster since that's the first to show its signals with the DVR Diagnostic screen. Once you have proven it's not your tuners, you can decide if you want to leave it at 100 or fight Charter. I would chose to leave it and hope for the best. You have enough problems without having to work with your cable feed. Good luck.

BTW, you can't get all tuners on the same channel easily. A power cycle usually works though. So put the active tuner on Bravo and try a power cycle, then check the signal strength on all six tuners. It's not going to hurt anything.


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## mike386 (Jan 17, 2009)

I believe that it is normal to have some cable signals at lower signal strengths than others. Here in Miami Beach there are 3 or 4 channels that will have constant dropouts or completely disappear if the signal strength gets too low, while all of the other channels work fine. It is due to the actual frequency at which those channels' signals are transmitted in the cable system (with digital cable, multiple channels are transmitted at a single frequency). 

I have had this happen several times at two different locations and it is always the same channels. And improving signal strength by using better cables and connectors is usually enough to do the trick. It is amazing the difference that good coax with the professionally installed connectors can make. Another time it took a complete change in the splitter system (location and number of splits on each line) to fix it. 

You need to get the signal strength at that location high enough so that the set of lowest strength channels is at a sufficient strength for the TiVo to work. If you have a cable modem, you could move it to different outlets to see the general power and noise at each outlet. Before today, I had never heard that a 100 signal strength could cause a problem. But if some channels are too weak, I doubt that is a problem.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

mike386 said:


> I believe that it is normal to have some cable signals at lower signal strengths than others. Here in Miami Beach there are 3 or 4 channels that will have constant dropouts or completely disappear if the signal strength gets too low, while all of the other channels work fine. It is due to the actual frequency at which those channels' signals are transmitted in the cable system (with digital cable, multiple channels are transmitted at a single frequency).
> 
> I have had this happen several times at two different locations and it is always the same channels. And improving signal strength by using better cables and connectors is usually enough to do the trick. It is amazing the difference that good coax with the professionally installed connectors can make. Another time it took a complete change in the splitter system (location and number of splits on each line) to fix it.
> 
> You need to get the signal strength at that location high enough so that the set of lowest strength channels is at a sufficient strength for the TiVo to work. If you have a cable modem, you could move it to different outlets to see the general power and noise at each outlet. Before today, I had never heard that a 100 signal strength could cause a problem. But if some channels are too weak, I doubt that is a problem.


On my Comcast all channels must fall into a certain signal strength, if not than the pole amps will be adj. or the head end. On my Roamio all channels are within +/-3% as read on the Roamio.


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## mike386 (Jan 17, 2009)

I didn't mean to suggest that there are large differences between channels. But +/-3% is enough so that only the lowest strength channels (-3%) have dropouts when the signal strength is boderline. And these are always the same channels here.


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