goodbye to analog TV modulators

L

les

Guest
With the surge in digital television, soon those of use that like to
distribute and mix RF into the house coax will have lost that nice
ability, until an affordable digital video modulator comes along.
I've been scouring the net looking if this is available yet, but haven't
seen it. (and no, I don't want to be switching between analog and digital
tuners......it's too confusing for the family) I'm trying to make it a
turnkey
operation, so feeds like surveillance cams, off-air signals and other
video feeds can all coexist on the same wire and be switched cleanly via
the digital tuner.
Has anyone seen an affordable digital modulator yet??

Les KA9GLW
 
"les" <ideas@localnet.com> writes:

With the surge in digital television, soon those of use that like to
distribute and mix RF into the house coax will have lost that nice
ability, until an affordable digital video modulator comes along.
I've been scouring the net looking if this is available yet, but haven't
seen it. (and no, I don't want to be switching between analog and digital
tuners......it's too confusing for the family) I'm trying to make it a
turnkey
operation, so feeds like surveillance cams, off-air signals and other
video feeds can all coexist on the same wire and be switched cleanly via
the digital tuner.
Has anyone seen an affordable digital modulator yet??
Click to expand...
Not likely.

But why are you worrying about something that ins't going to be
an issue for many years? Your modulators aren't going to stop
working on June 12th. :) There will still be plenty of need
for analog RF video.

--
sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
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On Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:23:40 -0600, les wrote:

With the surge in digital television, soon those of use that like to
distribute and mix RF into the house coax will have lost that nice
ability, until an affordable digital video modulator comes along. I've
been scouring the net looking if this is available yet, but haven't seen
it. (and no, I don't want to be switching between analog and digital
tuners......it's too confusing for the family) I'm trying to make it a
turnkey
operation, so feeds like surveillance cams, off-air signals and other
video feeds can all coexist on the same wire and be switched cleanly via
the digital tuner.
Has anyone seen an affordable digital modulator yet??

Les KA9GLW
Click to expand...

Why ? just about any digital TV still recieves analong signals. It is
channel XX.0 in the tuner's lineup whereas the digital channels are XX.1
..2 .3 .4 ect.

So where's the problem?

Gnack AEH4BW
 
I wanted to make it a straight tuning sequence for the family, dumping
analog
forever. Using the present analog modulator has been problematic with
adjacent
band bleedover, even intermitent skip propagation from nearby cities and
perhaps
poor design of the modulator itself (I tried 3 different models). All have
performed
marginally under the circumstances. I think given the nature of digital,
interference
at least would be eliminated. We live in the Chicago area with 25 off air
channels
available, and channels 3-4 are as usual tough to negotiate via a cheap
modulator
feeding 150 feet cumulative RG-6 and active quad splitter.Several
permutations of booster
vs. splitter combinations have yeilded no significant improvement. I
contemplated a
deep notch filter, but never got into it.
That's why I thought a robust ATSC modulator could fix the issues.

Les KA9GLW
 
On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 02:19:10 -0800, les wrote:


I wanted to make it a straight tuning sequence for the family, dumping
analog
forever. Using the present analog modulator has been problematic with
adjacent
band bleedover, even intermitent skip propagation from nearby cities and
perhaps
poor design of the modulator itself (I tried 3 different models). All
have performed
marginally under the circumstances. I think given the nature of digital,
interference
at least would be eliminated. We live in the Chicago area with 25 off
air channels
available, and channels 3-4 are as usual tough to negotiate via a cheap
modulator
feeding 150 feet cumulative RG-6 and active quad splitter.Several
permutations of booster
vs. splitter combinations have yeilded no significant improvement. I
contemplated a
deep notch filter, but never got into it. That's why I thought a robust
ATSC modulator could fix the issues.

Les KA9GLW
Click to expand...
I see it looks like you really need a bunch of now obsolete MATV parts
like tunable mixers to keep sidebands suppressed and an antenna trap for
the channel 3 signal. Toobad you don't know someone who is replacing a
bunch of hotel systems that you could get the head end parts from

Without a fairly large investment it's hard to actually combine signals
through a simple splitter.

Though you can homebrew your own sideband traps fairly easily if you have
a well stocked junk box. tunable channel 3 traps are very simple just a
few turns of wire and a trimmer capacitor.

Likely somewhere they do make digital modulators but I would not want to
even think of buying one since I would guess they are currently in the
domain of broadcast equipment and we all know how inflated those prices
are.

Gnack
 
Gnack..
I know you can appreciate the problems. In addition, all my off-the-shelf
modulators seem to "lose their signal into the noise" and need periodic
rebooting (off/on) to refresh their output......strange...?? (overload?
impedance mismatch?..??? bad design?)
So my quest will continue for that elusive modulator.

I know one day they'll appear at some hamfests, and for reasonable
prices..........................(but I'm hoping someone in China is making a
home version at this moment)

Les


I see it looks like you really need a bunch of now obsolete MATV parts
like tunable mixers to keep sidebands suppressed and an antenna trap for
the channel 3 signal. Toobad you don't know someone who is replacing a
bunch of hotel systems that you could get the head end parts from

Without a fairly large investment it's hard to actually combine signals
through a simple splitter.

Though you can homebrew your own sideband traps fairly easily if you have
a well stocked junk box. tunable channel 3 traps are very simple just a
few turns of wire and a trimmer capacitor.

Likely somewhere they do make digital modulators but I would not want to
even think of buying one since I would guess they are currently in the
domain of broadcast equipment and we all know how inflated those prices
are.

Gnack
Click to expand...
 
Gnack Nol <mchozfcesujcfc@mailinator.com> wrote in
news:pan.2009.02.06.06.00.45.391919@mailinator.com:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:23:40 -0600, les wrote:

With the surge in digital television, soon those of use that like to
distribute and mix RF into the house coax will have lost that nice
ability, until an affordable digital video modulator comes along. I've
been scouring the net looking if this is available yet, but haven't seen
it. (and no, I don't want to be switching between analog and digital
tuners......it's too confusing for the family) I'm trying to make it a
turnkey
operation, so feeds like surveillance cams, off-air signals and other
video feeds can all coexist on the same wire and be switched cleanly via
the digital tuner.
Has anyone seen an affordable digital modulator yet??

Les KA9GLW


Why ? just about any digital TV still recieves analong signals. It is
channel XX.0 in the tuner's lineup whereas the digital channels are XX.1
.2 .3 .4 ect.
Click to expand...
My digital converter does NOT pass analogue signals nor does it receive
xx.0 channels. When I try xx.0, it shows xx.1.

So where's the problem?

Gnack AEH4BW
Click to expand...




--
bz 73 de N5BZ k

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

bz+ser@ch100-5.chem.lsu.edu remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap
 
On Feb 6, 2:19 am, "les" <lba...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
I wanted to make it a straight tuning sequence for the family, dumping
analog
forever. Using the present analog modulator has been problematic with
adjacent
band bleedover, even intermitent skip propagation from nearby cities and
perhaps
poor design of the modulator itself (I tried 3 different models). All have
performed
marginally under the circumstances. I think given the nature of digital,
interference
at least would be eliminated. We live in the Chicago area with 25 off air
channels
available, and channels 3-4 are as usual tough to negotiate via a cheap
modulator
feeding 150 feet cumulative RG-6 and active quad splitter.Several
permutations of booster
vs. splitter combinations have yeilded no significant improvement. I
contemplated a
deep notch filter, but never got into it.
That's why I thought a robust ATSC modulator could fix the issues.

Les     KA9GLW
Click to expand...
How will you get channel 3 / 4 interference after all those pesky
analog transmitters are turned off ? Here we have a PC equipped with
an ATI HDTV Wonder tuner and DVD drive dedicated to the 50" DLP set. 2
more computers also have DTV tuners and sometimes all 3 are in record.
The shows end up as .MPG files on the various machines. It takes about
5 minutes to edit out the commercials from the MPEG files and reduces
the size to 2/3 of the original. 10/100 network link is just fine for
playing HD files PC to PC (though gigabit lan is quicker for moving 5
gig files) and the computers are nothing special. The dedicated
machine gets used TiVo like all the time. Start recording at 10 and
then do something else for 20 minutes. Start watching and skip all the
commercials - I'm not buying that stuff anyway. 1 terabyte drives are <
$100 and hold >200 'hours' (42 minutes) of HD video. Cat 6 and a
router glues it all together. AND, you can access missed shows on FOX/
CBS/NBC/ABC and get Hulu and Joost via the .net. If you're not doing
TV on PCs it seems odd at first but it works well and costs little.

G˛
 
bz <bz+ser@ch100-5.chem.lsu.edu> writes:

Gnack Nol <mchozfcesujcfc@mailinator.com> wrote in
news:pan.2009.02.06.06.00.45.391919@mailinator.com:

On Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:23:40 -0600, les wrote:

With the surge in digital television, soon those of use that like to
distribute and mix RF into the house coax will have lost that nice
ability, until an affordable digital video modulator comes along. I've
been scouring the net looking if this is available yet, but haven't seen
it. (and no, I don't want to be switching between analog and digital
tuners......it's too confusing for the family) I'm trying to make it a
turnkey
operation, so feeds like surveillance cams, off-air signals and other
video feeds can all coexist on the same wire and be switched cleanly via
the digital tuner.
Has anyone seen an affordable digital modulator yet??

Les KA9GLW


Why ? just about any digital TV still recieves analong signals. It is
channel XX.0 in the tuner's lineup whereas the digital channels are XX.1
.2 .3 .4 ect.

My digital converter does NOT pass analogue signals nor does it receive
xx.0 channels. When I try xx.0, it shows xx.1.
Click to expand...
The feature is called "analog pass-through" and it is only present on
some DTV converter boxes (possibly a minority). You might get some
analog reception even on those without it, but that's just leaking
through or being picked up by the cables. They won't tune to the
analog channels.

For most people this won't matter after the switchover.

--
sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.
 
sam@repairfaq.org (Samuel M. Goldwasser) wrote in
news:prhucp0y.fsf@repairfaq.org:

bz <bz+ser@ch100-5.chem.lsu.edu> writes:

....

My digital converter does NOT pass analogue signals nor does it receive
xx.0 channels. When I try xx.0, it shows xx.1.

The feature is called "analog pass-through" and it is only present on
some DTV converter boxes (possibly a minority). You might get some
analog reception even on those without it, but that's just leaking
through or being picked up by the cables. They won't tune to the
analog channels.

For most people this won't matter after the switchover.
Click to expand...
My vcr 'passes through' when turned off. I don't know why the DTV
converters were not designed to pass through when off. It couldn't cost
very much.

It is 'annoying' because there WILL be some analogue stations, even after
the drop dead date.




--
bz 73 de N5BZ k

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

bz+ser@ch100-5.chem.lsu.edu remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap
 
On Sat, 7 Feb 2009 21:02:28 +0000 (UTC), bz wrote:
sam@repairfaq.org (Samuel M. Goldwasser) wrote:
bz <bz+ser@ch100-5.chem.lsu.edu> writes:

...
My digital converter does NOT pass analogue signals nor does it receive
xx.0 channels. When I try xx.0, it shows xx.1.

The feature is called "analog pass-through" and it is only present on
some DTV converter boxes (possibly a minority). You might get some
analog reception even on those without it, but that's just leaking
through or being picked up by the cables. They won't tune to the
analog channels.

For most people this won't matter after the switchover.

My vcr 'passes through' when turned off. I don't know why the DTV
converters were not designed to pass through when off. It couldn't cost
very much.

It is 'annoying' because there WILL be some analogue stations, even after
the drop dead date.
Click to expand...
Some DTV converters _do_ pass thru when off. The Zenith DTT901 does --
and it's "coupon qualified". However, the pass thru appears best in the
VHF HI/LO range -- with "ok" signal on UHF Ch 21 -- "poor" signal on
UHF 32 -- and "un-useable" signal on UHF 57. THAT is going to be an
irritation for some folks that will expect to watch UHF LPTV stations.

Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2
* Killfiling google & XXXXbanter.com: jonz.net/ng.htm
 
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