Amplifier/Splitter Question

[festivus]

I can't seem to find a lot of detailed info online about this stuff so here goes.

When I had cable I had issues with signal strength throughout the house. I had lots of long runs. So I bought a viewsonics 8 port amplified splitter. It worked great. Picture to all TV's was so much better.

Now I have satellite. I was having signal strength issues again through the longer runs. I put an old radio shack one port amp on the line to the kid's 2 tv's (den and bedroom). Amp to 2 way splitter to long runs. It made the picture so much better. I was amazed. Problem solved there.

One issue remaining, the run to the master bedroom. I have this 8 way amp to use. If I put terminating caps on the unused out ports, does that decrease the loss to the ports that I'll be using? I'll be using 3 of the 8 out ports. 1 to the master, the other 2 stay in the basement.

I guess the real question is whether terminating caps reduce the loss to used out ports, making it a 3 way splitter instead of an 8. Or do I still get the loss as if it's an 8 way?

[MeHDTV]

Caps reduce rfi. I assume you have DirecTV talking about an 8 way powered multiswitch. I always use terminaters.

[festivus]

I have Dish Network but I think you may have misunderstood the rest. Let me explain further. Where I'm having issues is where the coax lines feed an analog signal over a long run to TV's all over the house. Dish provides dual-tuner receivers. An analog TV in another room, on another floor, can be feed via coax from that receiver. I'm encountering issues with signal strength degradation by the long runs to other floors/rooms. I know this is happening since an old amp helped the picture in 2 other rooms dramatically.

The 8 way amp that I was referring to is simply a powered, passive, splitter amp. When I had cable, I used 7 of the 8 ports and capped off the 8th. It worked great. Now, I just need to use 2 or maybe 3 of the 8 ports, capping off 5 or 6 of them. I'm wondering if the capping off the 5 or 6 makes the splitter work like a 2 or 3 way splitter. Or do I still get db loss as if it's still an 8 way?

[MeHDTV]

Isn't a 2 way amp about $12? It's certainly worth a try with your setup. Do you have enough caps or do you need more? I may have a few laying around.

[festivus]

I just bought some extra caps but thanks anyway! Now I have some extras!

I'll tinker around with the setup this weekend, capping off the extra ports. I bought a $20 12db amp at walmart and tried it a couple of weeks ago. It didn't do a thing in my opinion. I've since returned it. I'm finding that not all amps are created equal.