freeview modulator

[ben79]

Quick question -

is it possible to buy a digital modulator? Ie a modulator that adds a channel to the freeview line-up rather than the standard RF modulator?

I want to distribute my DVD player around the house via freeview rather than standard UHF.

There are two main reasons I want to do this:

1. Picture quality is much better on freeview than standard uhf
2. convenience - it is a pain to keep switching the telly from freeview to analogue

thanks

[Chris Muriel]

That would require a DVB-T (COFDM) modulator - only normally seen within broadcast infrastructure and therefore expensive even if you find one.

Chris Muriel, Vienna (normally Manchester)

[hornydragon]

Posiible but will cost a few grand you would need an MPEG encoder and then a DTT modulater.

Not really practical.........the DVD picture you get via RF will be pants and audio likely only mono (unless you have a stereo encoder modulater) HAve a look at Video over cat5 solutions

[Andy98765]

With the cost of DVD players so cheap just put one in each room. You may eventually get picture around the house, but how next to control it? Run downstairs to press the pause button because the telephone has started ring.

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by Andy98765

With the cost of DVD players so cheap just put one in each room. You may eventually get picture around the house, but how next to control it? Run downstairs to press the pause button because the telephone has started ring.

there are ways and means to do this

[ben79]

i'm not worried about controlling the player - i'll just use an ir extender, not really a problem.

Presumably my question is going to increasingly relevant - what happens after the analogue switch off? - I suppose TVs won't come with analogue tuners any more - so digital modulators will be the only option for people who want to distribute other sources via single coax.... who wants to help me make a cheap digital modulator and patent it before it's too late...?

you do the techy stuff - i'll do the law

[m.stephens]

I can sort of see what you are talking about but I didn't realise that DVD-players with an RF output actually existed.

Surely the easy answer is to buy a few more DVD players as already suggested. My bedroom TV has a cheapo freeview box (Tesco I think) which has 2 SCART sockets and the DVD player daisy-chains onto the second SCART. So switch on DVD player and the freeview box automatically sends it to the TV. No need to touch the TV remote as both are coming through AV1.

[m.stephens]

Originally Posted by ben79

i'm not worried about controlling the player - i'll just use an ir extender, not really a problem.

Presumably my question is going to increasingly relevant - what happens after the analogue switch off? - I suppose TVs won't come with analogue tuners any more - so digital modulators will be the only option for people who want to distribute other sources via single coax.... who wants to help me make a cheap digital modulator and patent it before it's too late...?

you do the techy stuff - i'll do the law

Wouldn't a normal wireless Video sender with a remotely switchable set of multiple SCART inputs be a neater and considerably cheaper solution ?

[ben79]

It's not just about DVD players - what about distributing Sky or home cctv etc etc after the switchoff with a new generation of digital only tvs?

I know a number of homes that currently have a single sky box displaying on 4/5/6+ Tvs by splitting the rf out from the box and then sending down the existing coax wiring together with infrared extenders.

CCTV systems often do the same with the video-out of the systems being modulated, split and thereafter sent down the existing coax cabling.

This is a cheap and pretty effective method of distributing video sources to multiple locations with OK(ish) picture quality using existing wiring. Other methods, such as CAT5 extenders, might allow for better picture quality but are much more expensive and require you to effectively rewire your house.

But..... all of this requires you to have TVs with analogue tuners. But what happens after the switch off? When we have a new generation of TVs that have only digital and not analogue tuners how will we all distribute our sky and our cctv etc without rewiring the house?

We all know the problems that can be caused with wireless senders, so what to do if we need a wired solution?

The obvious solution must be the type of digital modulator I referred to at the beginning of this thread that outputs a freeview channel. Why can't I buy one at a reasonable price? Surely a huge gap in the market?

Either that or manufacturers must promise never to stop supplying analogue tuners in their tvs.

Most people who are interested in home a/v only use their analogue tuners to watch their locally distributed video sources. What will we do if there are no more analogue tuners?

[Foebane]

It's funny, but I work as a volunteer at PDSA, and I heard the manageress there say that once the Analogue Switch-Off reached our area, her shop would be inundated with old TVs. I guess she's never heard of standalone Freeview boxes.

Unless she meant those TVs that are SO OLD they don't have SCART?

[m.stephens]

Originally Posted by ben79

It's not just about DVD players - what about distributing Sky or home cctv etc etc after the switchoff with a new generation of digital only tvs?

I know a number of homes that currently have a single sky box displaying on 4/5/6+ Tvs by splitting the rf out from the box and then sending down the existing coax wiring together with infrared extenders.

CCTV systems often do the same with the video-out of the systems being modulated, split and thereafter sent down the existing coax cabling.

This is a cheap and pretty effective method of distributing video sources to multiple locations with OK(ish) picture quality using existing wiring. Other methods, such as CAT5 extenders, might allow for better picture quality but are much more expensive and require you to effectively rewire your house.

But..... all of this requires you to have TVs with analogue tuners. But what happens after the switch off? When we have a new generation of TVs that have only digital and not analogue tuners how will we all distribute our sky and our cctv etc without rewiring the house?

We all know the problems that can be caused with wireless senders, so what to do if we need a wired solution?

The obvious solution must be the type of digital modulator I referred to at the beginning of this thread that outputs a freeview channel. Why can't I buy one at a reasonable price? Surely a huge gap in the market?

Either that or manufacturers must promise never to stop supplying analogue tuners in their tvs.
Most people who are interested in home a/v only use their analogue tuners to watch their locally distributed video sources. What will we do if there are no more analogue tuners?

Given that TVs are manufactured for a global market these days, it may be some time before we see the end of analogue tuners anyway.

Cost of buying a digital modulator is related to scale of production and what you want is only ever likely to be a niche (and a small niche at that) market product.

Just accept that at some point you will either use wireless technology or have to rewire your house with Cat5 - or maybe you could come up with a super-duper way of converting your existing coax cables to do Ethernet - unfortunately the impedance is wrong for 10Base2 and I seem to recall my grandad telling me you couldnt get the speed up much more than 10Mb/sec anyway.

[Sonic67]

Get a modulator from Maplins.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...cheap%20online

SCART in TV out. Not digital or anything put an option for £30 I think.

[m.stephens]

Originally Posted by Sonic67

Get a modulator from Maplins.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...cheap%20online

SCART in TV out. Not digital or anything put an option for £30 I think.

Not quite the same thing. He is talking about something which actually converts an input to a digital channel on a mux so that a digital TV just sees it as another channel on DVB-T.

[Mr Incredible]

Just to put my $0.02 in as well. I too have been grappling with the same problem as Ben79. I have 8 TV's running off an RF distribution system and an IR extender system for remote control of a single Freeview box (hooked up via Scart to a VCR which then modulates the signal for distribution), and a Sky-Link for controlling the Sky+ box via the RF2 out on the Sky box.

I've sent a email to Sky asking how would I distribute the Sky picture to other rooms that in the future which may only have a digital tuner in their TV. Having 8 x Sky Multirooms is not an option! I don't expect to get a reply, but I live in hope!

[m.stephens]

Originally Posted by Malice

Just to put my $0.02 in as well. I too have been grappling with the same problem as Ben79. I have 8 TV's running off an RF distribution system and an IR extender system for remote control of a single Freeview box (hooked up via Scart to a VCR which then modulates the signal for distribution), and a Sky-Link for controlling the Sky+ box via the RF2 out on the Sky box.

I've sent a email to Sky asking how would I distribute the Sky picture to other rooms that in the future which may only have a digital tuner in their TV. Having 8 x Sky Multirooms is not an option! I don't expect to get a reply, but I live in hope!

As I said some posts ago, it is likely to be some years before analogue tuners disappear completely - the switchover in the UK won't be complete until 2012 (and no-one knows when the Channel Islands will switch) and TVs are produced for a global market so the final disappearance of the tuner is not going to happen until parts of the world deemed to matter have "gone digital".

As to how to distribute signals from equipment which can only produce analogue RF outputs, the cheap answer would seem to be to have a box at the (digital only) TV end which takes the analogue RF input and demodulates it to a normal video output which can be plugged into a spare SCART input on the TV - so just get down to CashConverters and buy 8 x VCRs before they disappear. I am frankly amazed that anyone bothers to distribute the output from a Freeview box these days given the cost but of course you won't need to do it once all TVs are digital-only. If you currently have a Freeview recorder, it makes a bit more sense that you might want to have recordings available in a room different to the one you do the recording in, but in 5 years time there will be better ways to do this - there actually are already but they will be far more affordable by that time.