GE Indoor HD Digital TV Antenna Amplifier, Low Noise Antenna Signal Booster, Clears Up Pixelated Low-Strength Channels, Supports HD Smart TV VHF UHF, AC Adapter, Black, 42178

I bought this product on a whim despite some of the bad reviews as I’ve usually had pretty good luck with GE electronic products. My set up was a two-story house that I had installed a big digital antenna in. Our goal with this product was to get local area Houston stations that we struggle to get a good signal for, given we live a good bit out of the metroplex (40+ miles from the signal towers). I had a single TV connected to the antenna on the first floor with a split about 1/3 of the way down to the wall at a junction box. Keep in mind, there was a lot of coaxial cable running through the wall down to the tv. Before installation I would get one of the four major stations (fox) but not CBS NBC or ABC. And the Fox signal was spotty at best. After installing this booster, I now get all of the station pretty clearly when before they did not work at all. Side note, I did install the booster closer to the antenna, which was the recommendation of both the instructions in the reviews. It did exactly what I wanted to do and 100% worth the cost.

Before I got this I was running a 70 foot cable from the antenna directly to the TV. Depending on weather I would get pixelation on 2/3 of the channels. After running new electrical wiring just for this thing, I now have a five foot cable from the antenna to this box and then the 70 foot cable going to the TV. So on to the obvious flaw. The part that goes TO the TV is a male connection. Really? Why? This is supposed to be located as close to the antenna as possible. So assuming the antenna is not sitting right on top of the TV you will need to run a cable from this device to the TV. All coax cables are male/male. So that means the very design of this silly thing adds one more connection, a female/female adapter that goes from this device to the cable that ultimately goes to the TV. Now if you've ran a short cable from the antenna to this and a longer cable to the TV you've added an extra cable and an extra female/female connector. The signal degradation you're trying to fight is now hoping over more hurdles. For me, the signal got worse with all the extra stuff in there. Before I had 36 stations and about 2/3 of them would be pixelated depending on the weather. With this thing and the splices I can only get the 5 strong stations and now even those are pixelated. That's with this device being as close to the antenna as possible while still not being outside in the weather. Three strikes. Dumb design. Doesn't work. Makes it worse.

I live about 25 miles west of Philadelphia, and have a GE Attic Antenna (29884-PK1), GE 50-ft RG6 Quad Shield Coax (33532), this GE Antenna Amplifier (42178), and a three way splitter (-3.5db, -7db, -7db). The -3.5db tap is connected to an HDHomeRun Flex 4K quad tuner/DVR. The -7db outputs go to a TCL Roku TV and a Vizio TV. I pick up about 30 channels (100 sub-channels). This includes two unencrypted ATSC 3.0 stations (6abc and Fox 29) . Without the amplifier, some of the weaker stations were unreliable. This amplifier shored things up. And the ATSC 3.0 stations work fine. The amplifier increases the signal strength measured on my HDHomeRun by about 25%. Based on the information provided by the "OTA DTv Television Minimum Signal" web site, I used a conversion factor of 0.6 db/percent, which puts this amplifier's gain at about 15 db. Not sure if the 4G/5G LTE filter is helping, but it might be, because the signal quality was slightly better. On four of the weaker stations, the changes in the signal quality were 7%, 16%, 0%, and 2%. Physically, the device is nice and compact and consumes very little power. The DC power adaptor is rated for 0.9 watts (6 volts @ 150 ma). The amp also has a red LED to show that it is powered. An alternative to this device on Amazon would be the "RCA Indoor Antenna Amplifier by Audiovox". This includes an amplifier and 4-way splitter, and provides 10db of gain. Given the -7db loss of a 4-way splitter, the RCA amp must be about 17db, which is similar to the 15db provided by this GE amplifier. However, the RCA amp does not have an LTE filter.

As noted at the end of this review, I did not receive the pigtail tv 75 ohm cable that was shown in the description attached to the amp and shown on the box itself. This meant that I needed a short piece of 75 ohm cable with connectors which I had, so no big deal to me but it may concern other buyers. I wanted to be able to get a good signal from my antenna for a channel that was just out of range. Before I put this on, the channel was cutting in and out (pixelating) by the minute depending on the day and season (tree leaves or no tree leaves). Sometimes I could watch it for an hour but usually just lost it altogether. Added this to my antenna and got a good signal from that weak station. Since it’s digital, the picture looks great. Digital signals are basically either great, pixelating, or gone so I went from pixelating or gone to great! You only get the amplifier and power cord , even though a pigtail cable is shown in the description so you will need another small length of 75 ohm cable with 2 male connections to get from the antenna to the amplifier then use your original 75 ohm cable from the amplifier to the tv. You also could put the amp at the tv end so you have convenient ac power but you take the risk of more signal loss from the length of un-amplified cable to the tv. Probably not too much difference though and it would be much easier. My antenna is in my attic and I have an ac outlet up there so I did it that way. One more thing, I did pull in another station that I never had before but it is pixelating but not a problem for me since I didn’t even know it was there before the amp. Very easy to install, unscrew the cable from the antenna the screw in the short cable to the antenna and the amplifier. Screw the original cable into the amp and plug in the power cable. The amp is marked on ends as to which is for the TV and ANT, so don’t hook it up backwards (that’s why there should have been a pigtail to keep that from happening). Very happy with it for cheap price. However this will not get you tv stations in the next state, lol. Just those that are on the very edge of your antenna without the amp. I gave it a 4 star instead of 5 since there was no pigtail cable as described and most buyers will have to go somewhere to buy that extra before installing.

I still cannot get Channel 12 with this device it’s a local channel.

I can't reach my roof antenna to install a proper pre-amp, and I'm on the edge of receiving a bunch of good (distant) stations, so I tried this small, moderate gain amp. It works! I now have a decent lock on the far away signals, without overpowering the local strong ones. Just the boost (few dB) I needed. The built it 5G filter is a bonus!

This product does what it is supposed to. It boosted my signal strength. BUT, the strangest thing happened. I have a two car garage with Chamberlain garage door openers on each door. I was watching the Eagles and my wife came in from the garage and closed one of the doors. My signal to the TV went dead! After experimenting around we found that when either door was opened, the signal came back on. When either door was closed, the signal was lost. The only thing I can figure is that the radio signal put out by the garage door opener is being picked up by this amplifier. Customer service was no help. I am returning the amplifier because with our garage doors closed, the amplifier shuts off our TV signal. Crazy? I agree. But it happens.

For WEEKS I have had pixelation on my TV in my bedroom only especially on my ION TV channels. I have been so irritated. So, I started doing some research and found that this pixelation could be from a weak signal or interference. I googled the best TV amplifier for this problem. I FOUND ONE. It had high ratings and did not cost me an arm and a leg and was E.A.S.Y to add to my setup. If you are having pixelation issues I would suggest getting one of these. 🤔😲😀