video distribution

[nsisman]

Electron,

Your site is amazing and very informative....gets better every week.............keep up the good work !

Can I pick some brains about a TV/coax question ? I'm no expert on video etc so I could use some help.

My SAT and CATV terminate in the basement behind my home theatre(just a mini system) and I have 2 other TV's upstairs that are wired to CATV with rg6.

I have lots of rg6 run everywhere so cabling is not a problem.

Right now we can watch SAT or CATV downstairs and just CATV upstairs.

The SAT receiver and the CATV receiver both have working and so far unused coax out jacks.

Is there some type of switch or modulator or whatever that would enable me to send either feed to the upstairs TV's and watch either SAT or CATV.

I have a couple of IR transmitter/receivers that I haven't used yet that might work ?

I would like to be able to switch from SAT to CATV from my bedroom either with a remote or even with HomeSeer if possible.

Thanks in advance for any help......

 

[zack]

Well.. you'd need a multiswitch to combine the SAT and CATV signals, and split to their individual RG6. After it goes upstairs, use diplexers to split up the SAT/CATV signals to their respective receivers.

 

[smee]

If your cable (to the 2 upstairs TVs) is analog - just connected to the back of the TVs - then you can do what you want with modulators.

You can add "channels" to analog cable with modulators. You feed them composite video (typically) and audio (mono or stereo) and they create an additional channel. In this case, I'm talking about channel-adjustable modulators, not the ones that only work on channel 3 or 4. You need to find a channel that is not used by the analog cable or filter a range of them out. You will probably want to use a filter anyway to prevent signals from leaving your home through the cable. You can connect as many modulators as you want (but you usually need to leave a couple empty channels between them). The upstairs TVs can just be tuned to the channel you've selected.

 

[nsisman]

Thanks Smee,

Just the info I was looking for.

I just checked the channel range on the tv's.

Both go up to 125 and the CATV programming is on 2-28 and 59-70.

Can you recommend a modulator ( that I might find on eBay or somewhere else reasonable priced) ?

Could I still use those Jensen IR blaster's I have to change channels thru this set up ?

I appreciate the help.

 

[smee]

I use inexpensive modulators from Radio Shack. Unfortunately, they've been discontinued. But you can still find them at some Radio Shacks - ask, because they probably won't be out front. The RS number is 150-1243. They are mono-audio only but they only cost $25 - a really good deal for a frequency-agile modulator.

The RS modulators look a lot like this one:
CE Labs modulator at partsexpress.com

There are many, many different modulators out there. You can find them with 1 to 3 channels in one box. You can find mono and stereo. There are also boxes that will convert stereo into a signal you can then feed into a mono modulator, but it will be stereo at the other end (at the TV). I don't mind mono for this so I haven't worried about it.

There's a description of my system here (as well as numerous posts here and on the HS boards):
Smee A/V distribution (in cocoontech thread)

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

How many channels do you need to modulate?

Be careful also because there can be a big difference in quality.

 

[nsisman]

Hi Martin,

I'm guessing just two channels - one for the SAT feed and one for the CATV feed.

These are going to feed to 2 mono TV's upstairs that would not be on at the same time.

Sound and picture quality is not a big consideration for this project.

I have a coax SAT out connector available on the SAT receiver (expressvu 2700) and a coax CATV out connector available on the CATV dvr box(explorer 8000).

I hope I can use a splitter to feed to the TV's after the signal leaves the modulator but I can home run the two coax's if I need to .

I have some Jensen IR sender/receivers that should handle the channel changes.

Thanks,
Neil
Newmarket, Ontario