My family recently moved into a new home. I guess the people who lived before had sattelite TV as there is a dual LNB dish on top of the house connected to a JVI 35-DTV34MS (One of these guys (http://www.satpro.tv/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=184)) which splits off into 4 TV's in the house. The thing is, we don't use satellite, just OTA. The dish is still connected to the multiswitch (though unused), as well as an OTA antenna. Our analogue signals are fine, but digital is very poor, which has gotten us worried.

At first I thought the poor signal was due to the loss from all the cable being run as well as it being split 4 ways. But after actually looking up the multiswitch its connected to, it *seem* like the multiswitch is also supposed to be some kind of amplifier. The quote from the page I linked...

"This Multiswitch has an Active or Amplified circuit for your local TV, and it gets its power from the receiver. No power supply is needed. In short, the Multiswitch will allow you to have 4 different receivers on at the same time. Each receiver is independent of each other and each receiver can watch any channel at any time."
"Powered by your dual lnb on your satellite dish."

The dish isn't powered in any way as far as I can tell, and we don't have a satellite receiver which would power it either. And from what i've read, using an amp that isn't powered actually degrades signal more than if the amp wasn't there at all. Is this whats actually happening here? How exactly does this multiswitch get powered? I can't find any documentation online. Is it worth trying to power it to see if it improves OTA signal, or should we just ditch it and get a normal 4 way splitter?

Normal 4 way splitter - sounds like that was a multiswitch/amp for the sat that was powered by the sat receiver/LNB. If you still have signal strength issues, a cheap in-line signal amp before the splitter may help.

Thanks for the response. I'm curious, but how exactly does this multiswitch get powered? The satellite itself isn't plugged in, and don't see how else it gets power.

I will try a regular splitter to see if it helps. In case it doesn't, do they sell combination 4 way splitters/amplifiers? I can't really seem to find any online.

It would get it's power from the Dish receivers, since there are none and it's not powered, it can actually be hurting your signal, try the 4-way splitter first, if that doesn't work you can either add a pre-amp on the antenna or try a distribution amplifier.

It would get it's power from the Dish receivers, since there are none and it's not powered, it can actually be hurting your signal, try the 4-way splitter first, if that doesn't work you can either add a pre-amp on the antenna or try a distribution amplifier.

Thanks for the advice. I tried a cheap 4 way splitter that I had lying around, and unfortunately, the signal was much worse. About 20% worse all around. It might be because its a very cheap splitter, but i'm not sure.

Just curious, but is there any way I can insert the DC voltage into one of the outputs to see if that will amplify the signal? I don't have a satellite TV receiver to try with. Perhaps I can pick up a used one for cheap to try out with? Do all satellite receivers deliver power through the cable into the LNB, or only some? Does it always supply power when plugged in, or only when the receiver is turned on? So many questions, I know, but i'm at a loss here.

I would mind getting a nice 4 way splitter/amp combo, though it would have to be located outdoors and there is no power there.

After looking around, I think i'm going to pick up a channel master CM 3414. Seems to be exactly what I need. I hope it works well.