# Best way to get HD to remote TV?



## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

My house is currently overwired with about 40 RG6 outlets. I now have a 722k that allows me to record four different shows of my choice at one time (two OTA and two satellite). I also have a 211 with an EHD that allows me to record two more shows (one OTA and one satellite). So right now I can record six shows at a time if necessary. Both receivers are located at the main TV, so I have HD at that location only. The other four TV's get an SD signal via a ChannelPlus distribution system.. 

I want to get an HD signal to at least one more TV, maybe two. What would be my best solution? I'm not sure I want to go with the Hopper system because I believe this limits my recordings that I can do now, but please tell me if I'm wrong. I know there are some hard wired systems and some wireless systems that can deliver an HD signal to a remote TV. Any input on any of those that actually work well and don't break the bank would be appreciated. 

Thanks.

Len


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

The only practical way to get independent HD viewing is additional boxes.

If the viewing doesn't need to be independent, you can use some manner of HDMI extender (as low as $23 + two _dedicated_ runs of CAT5e).

You simply can't drag another HD feed out of what you have otherwise without some non-trivial equipment that doesn't play well with TVs (Sling adapter technology).

Unless you watch a lot of obscure OTA or at odd times, the Hopper may well cover you with the PTAT feature. Only you can figure that out.

It has been my luck that the OTA programming I need to record is decreasing steadily while the cable channel repetitive show recordings have increased. If I prioritize the OTA stuff, the cable stuff will eventually come through in time.


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## CyberWhip (May 5, 2006)

There are several options. There is Slingbox which I hear works pretty well, also there are some wifi products, 720p for under $50, 1080p for ~$150. I'm not sure how well those work. check these: http://www.ebay.com/bhp/wireless-video-transmitter-hdmi


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

My house is currently overwired with about 40 RG6 outlets. I now have a 722k that allows me to record four different shows of my choice at one time (two OTA and two satellite). I also have a 211 with an EHD that allows me to record two more shows (one OTA and one satellite). So right now I can record six shows at a time if necessary. Both receivers are located at the main TV, so I have HD at that location only. The other four TV's get an SD signal via a ChannelPlus distribution system.. 

I want to get an HD signal to at least one more TV, maybe two. What would be my best solution? I'm not sure I want to go with the Hopper system because I believe this limits my recordings that I can do now, but please tell me if I'm wrong. I know there are some hard wired systems and some wireless systems that can deliver an HD signal to a remote TV. Any input on any of those that actually work well and don't break the bank would be appreciated. 

Thanks.

Len


2 hopper system gets you a minimum of six tuners to record from. And that can be all sat if need be. Not sure on the over the air part per se but I'm sure someone else will mention it. 

Joeys then for your other two tvs would be the most solid way to get Hi Definition to four tvs total.


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

Thanks for the replies guys. I just got off the phone with DISH customer service. They told me that four of my six recordings must be the prime time networks. That leaves me with two additional choices. Right now I can record six shows of my choosing not two of mine and four of theirs. They also told me that there is no OTA capability. I often select OTA as my choice to record network shows because they are usually unaffected by the weather and whenever DISH and the locals get into a pissing contest about contract renewal, I always have OTA available even when DISH pulls the plug on local satellite broadcasts. I'm pretty sure I've ruled out the Hopper/Joey system as one of my choices. The $7 or $14 per month extra the Joey's would cost me is not a deal breaker, but thrown in with everything else, I can easily come out better in the long run getting some kind of an HDMI extender.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

CyberWhip said:


> There is Slingbox which I hear works pretty well, also there are some wifi products, 720p for under $50, 1080p for ~$150.


The Slingbox won't give you independent viewing and thus far, doesn't work all that well with televisions absent a WD TV Live box, Netgear NEO or a computer hooked to the TV. I seem to remember that the WD TV Live and Netgear NEO don't work with DISH's Sling Adapter (that could offer limited independent viewing).

Extending HDMI if you're using HDMI for the nearby TV isn't straightforward either.

Distributing HDMI to multiple TVs seems like a pretty daunting task and doing it component may not last for long in view of the advancement of DRM.

I've seen one thread about someone who was using a ATSC modulator setup but those things are stupid expensive and may also suffer at the hands of DRM at some point.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

lsokoloff said:


> They also told me that there is no OTA capability.


Hogwash.

http://www.mydish.com/support/usb-digital-ota-tuner

DISH (and pretty much everyone else) needs to rethink the use of script readers as the first line of contact.


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

Thanks Harsh. It did cross my mind that the info I was getting from DISH might not be accurate. It's happened before. Based on my phone conversation with DISH, I scratched the Hopper off my list. Now with this new info, it's back as a possibility.

The info about OTA and the Hopper is a little bit vague. When it says that " By connecting an over-the-air antenna, your Hopper will be able to view and record an additional local channel in your area. ," does that mean I can either watch OR record one OTA channel and not watch one live while recording another?

Just being able to watch and/or record one OTA channel is a real bonus for me.

Len


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## tampa8 (Mar 30, 2002)

You plug the tuner into the Hopper. You connect your antenna. You scan the available channels. Those channels then appear in the guide just like the satellite channels, right next to the satellite channels with a 01(or 02 etc) added depending on how many secondary channels the main one has. Satellite channel 3, OTA channels 3-01. etc... 

You then can record any one of the OTA channels and it is it's own tuner, still leaves the other three Hopper tuners available. It also permits you to also connect the OTA antenna directly to the TV, which would allow you to watch a second OTA channel at the same time from the TV itself.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

With a two Hopper system plus 2 Joeys you would pay $21 per month in receiver fees plus the DVR fee for Hopper system is now $10 per month - that's the bad news.

The good news is that you can get an OTA module for each Hopper giving you 8 total tuners that can record at the same time, additionally one Satellite Tuner on either (or both) Hopper can be set to record all your prime time programming for all 4 major networks, so you could record 5 satellite channels and 6 OTA channels simultaneously, or turn Prime Time Anytime off and record 6 satellite and 2 OTA channels simultaneously. Any and all of these recordings can be viewed from either Hopper and from any Joey in the system.

The only limitation may be that if all your tuners are busy recording, you cannot watch another channel of any type (one that is not being recorded), but you could watch anything that is recorded on either Hopper.

Your situation sounds like it is a prime candidate for a two Hopper plus however many Joeys system.


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

Suppose I get one Hopper and one Joey. I really only care to have two TV's getting HD signals. My other four TV's are wired into a Channel Plus video distribution system and receive an SD signal. I use an RF remote at each SD location. First - would I be able to still receive those SD signals via the distribution system. Second, would I have to get additional remotes (different than the ones I now have) at each location if I wanted to watch recordings, record and/or delete from the SD locations? I don't want to have to run around the house looking for the right remote to use when I want to watch something away from the Hopper/Joey and I'm certainly not willing to pay for six Joeys when I really only want one. If I go with the Hopper which at this point is not likely, I don't want any surprises when I get the system integrated into what I now have and then realize that I screwed up by not thinking of something.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Neither the Hopper nor the Joey has an RF modulator, so you'll need to get one (I believe Wal-Mart sells a ch3-4 RF modulator for about $25) to port the output to the SDTVs. Dish sells additional remotes for about $20 each. The monthly receiver fee fir the Hopper and the Joey is the same, so if you can get 2 Hoppers reasonable instead of 1 Hopper and 1 Joey, you double your tuner cache. Some have had to pay for the second Hopper, some have gotten them with no up-front charge. USB OTA tuner for Hopper is $30 on the Dish website.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

I'm not sure where the Channel Plus comes in. It seems like the existing system could have been built without it. It could help with a Hopper system to distribute the SD signals to the one or two remaining SD watching TVs.

QUESTION: How many independent views do you need at once?

Your existing system provides only two HD views. If you've got five TVs but only two or three viewers, it makes a huge difference.

You need to give up thinking in terms of the Channel Plus as modulating HD is simply not economically feasible (I've heard numbers well in excess of $2,500). HDMI splitters or switches may be an option depending on the independent views answer.

Using coax is getting very difficult (or very expensive) in the world of HD outside of a MoCA solution like the Hopper/Joey combination.


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## VDP07 (Feb 22, 2006)

Jim5506 said:


> *With a two Hopper system plus 2 Joeys you would pay $21 per month in receiver fees plus the DVR fee for Hopper system is now $10 per month *- that's the bad news.
> 
> The good news is that you can get an OTA module for each Hopper giving you 8 total tuners that can record at the same time, additionally one Satellite Tuner on either (or both) Hopper can be set to record all your prime time programming for all 4 major networks, so you could record 5 satellite channels and 6 OTA channels simultaneously, or turn Prime Time Anytime off and record 6 satellite and 2 OTA channels simultaneously. Any and all of these recordings can be viewed from either Hopper and from any Joey in the system.
> 
> ...


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

Thanks for trying to explain all of this to me guys - I appreciate it.

Let me explain where you are losing me and a little bit about my current setup. TV2 from my 722 goes through my Channel Plus and out to five TV's on channel 64 (could select any free channel). The signal from my 211 goes out to those same five TV's on channel 62. At each of those TV's I have the ability to control either of my DVR's. Currently those five TV's get only an SD signal and I'm okay with that. The sixth TV at the receivers' location gets a direct HD feed. I only want to make one more TV get an HD signal. My concern is that I will not have the ability to play/record/delete at the four remaining TV's getting the SD signal without either a Joey or additional remotes. I assume there is no way for my current remotes to operate the Hopper/Joey system. Additional Joeys or additional remotes is an expense that would not be worth it to me. Yes, I can afford to pay more, but I hate to just piss money away. 

What I've got now works great for my needs. All I want to do is add an HD signal to a remote TV. Right now 99% of the time there are only two of us watching TV's at any one time and each of us has the ability to do anything we want at any of the TV's.

Thanks again for educating me on all of this. Please keep the suggestions coming.

Len


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## kevin d (Sep 21, 2005)

You can inject the modulated signal in to the Channel Plus from anywhere. Why don't you move the 211 to the 6th TV, and the feed the SD signal back into the cable system. That would be 711 TV1 HD to a TV, TV2 on channel 64, the 211 HD to a TV and the same signal SD on channel 62 to the other 5.

Kevin D.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

kevin d said:


> You can inject the modulated signal in to the Channel Plus from anywhere.


Aren't the Channel Plus devices themselves modulators? The models I've seen all had line level inputs.

If I'm understanding what a Channel Plus is, I'm still not sure why there's one in this setup. It would be of great utility in a DIRECTV system but not so much for DISH.

The advantage of not using the Channel Plus in this instance would seem to be that three feeds (including a Channel 3/4 feed from the OTA tuner) could come from the ViP722K instead of just one.


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

kevin d said:


> You can inject the modulated signal in to the Channel Plus from anywhere. Why don't you move the 211 to the 6th TV, and the feed the SD signal back into the cable system. That would be 711 TV1 HD to a TV, TV2 on channel 64, the 211 HD to a TV and the same signal SD on channel 62 to the other 5.
> 
> Kevin D.


Kevin - the problem with your solution is that right now both receivers are feeding an HD signal directly to the main TV and sending SD signals everywhere else. Both my wife and I watch that TV (she has the 211 and I/We have the 722). If I go with your solution, that would solve the HD problem at the bedroom TV, but we/she would lose the HD signal at the main TV.



harsh said:


> Aren't the Channel Plus devices themselves modulators? The models I've seen all had line level inputs.
> 
> If I'm understanding what a Channel Plus is, I'm still not sure why there's one in this setup. It would be of great utility in a DIRECTV system but not so much for DISH.
> 
> The advantage of not using the Channel Plus in this instance would seem to be that three feeds (including a Channel 3/4 feed from the OTA tuner) could come from the ViP722K instead of just one.


The Channel Plus gives me the option to watch the TV2 signal from the 722 on Channel 64, the 211 signal from the 211 on Channel 62 and I have my DVD player setup for Channel 60. Without the Channel Plus I wouldn't be able to have those options on five other TV's would I?

Len


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## bnewt (Oct 2, 2003)

you could also purchase a wireless system, pretty expensive, but does work.........but you would not have independent viewing @ the 2nd hd set


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

bnewt said:


> you could also purchase a wireless system, pretty expensive, but does work.........but you would not have independent viewing @ the 2nd hd set


Right now I think I'm leaning in the wireless direction. Got any suggestions that you know work well? Right now every TV in the house has to watch the same thing on the 211's feed, so I'm okay with the wireless HD signal doing the same. I expected that.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

lsokoloff said:


> The Channel Plus gives me the option to watch the TV2 signal from the 722 on Channel 64, the 211 signal from the 211 on Channel 62 and I have my DVD player setup for Channel 60. Without the Channel Plus I wouldn't be able to have those options on five other TV's would I?


Without the Channel Plus you could get both TV1 and TV2 off of the ViP722k using its internal agile modulators (this is still an option if you bypass the Channel Plus).

The Channel Plus is just to keep your ViP211 and the DVD playing together? For that money, I would have bought some more DVD players and gone ahead with the ViP211 on channel 3 (with an inexpensive DA if necessary).


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

The Channel Plus was to feed the two DISH signals, a DVD signal and a VCR signal to all six TV's in the house over four different channels. Channel Plus has been in place for 13 years or so and was in place before there was such a thing as a DVR and HD was an infant.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

I'd ask for my money back. :biggrin:


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## shadough (Dec 31, 2006)

I just commented on this in this thread: http://www.dbstalk.com/topic/200849-is-there-a-way-for-me-to-split-my-hd-signal/#entry3194745

My setup is similar to your channel plus setup. But I just used ordinary splitters. I fed the TV2 outputs from my receivers into a splitter, using it as a combiner, and then split it out to every TV in the house. I also modulated an additional box onto channel 20. Divided both tuners from the DVRs onto seperate channels, an took an old reciver that doesnt have the "Home dist" output (just outputs onto ch 3) and thru it into the mix, so every tuner pretty much has a channel, i just hafta remember which remote to use w/ which channel 

As for getting HD to another TV, I would folow the same guidelines I outlined in that thread link above. Of course it would be a mirror image of your main tv, as only the Hopper system provides independent HD viewing from multiple locations.


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## bnewt (Oct 2, 2003)

this is what I have & it seems to work fine.........but I haven't used it extensively

http://www.hdflow.com/


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

bnewt said:


> this is what I have & it seems to work fine.........but I haven't used it extensively


Those devices are mysteriously unavailable from the "where to buy" retail outlets.

It is notable that this type of device typically uses the 5GHz Wi-fi band so those with dual band Wi-fi need to be aware.


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## veehb (Oct 24, 2013)

I have a 722K next to my 55 Inch Samsung LCD TV. I have a 40 inch LCD in a bedroom about 25 feet away, through two walls. Monoprice.com sells am HDMI repeater that will take the HDMI output from the 722K and convert it into a CAT6 signal that can be sent up to about 150 feet to a receiver that converts it back to HDMI. The one I bought has two outputs, so I can drive two remote HMDI TVs with it. Cost is about $95.00. Works great. I have true HD TV on the remote TV, but it is the same program as on the local Samsung TV. I use a Dish IR/UHF Pro Remote with an IR repeater to control the 722K from the bedroom. It's been working fine until recently when my Remote quit working. Going to trouble shoot it tomorrow. I also drive have a dozen SD TVs all over the house using Coax and splitters. That also works well with a Dish UHF remote.

Let me know if you want more details.


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

Thanks for the info veehb. Running CAT6's where I need them is going to be a bit of a PIA. I've been looking at this wireless unit from Monoprice instead - http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?c_id=109&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011011&p_id=8087&seq=1&format=2#description

Sounds like I want to do the same thing you are doing except with the 211 receiver. I am also using the DISH Pro Remote. I am happy with the way things are working now. All I want to change is to get an HD signal into one bedroom. That TV is about 15 feet from the receivers and the signal has to go through one wall, so hopefully the wireless unit can handle that. Of course if I set up the TV and the SD picture is good enough, I'll probably just stop right there. I'm good with everything else being SD at the moment.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

At some point, you'll probably want HD all around but hopefully by that time, the cost of spreading it around won't be quite so expensive.

For a $150 cost bump (versus HDMI wall plates), running Ethernet must be pretty damn hard.


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## veehb (Oct 24, 2013)

You can buy an HDMI cable from Monoprice that will go over 15 feet. It is their premium cable, but not expensive. You could get a two channel splitter (Monoprice) and send one HDMI to the local tv and the other one to the bedroom. Your UHF remote will need an IR repeater to control TV1 from the bedroom.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free


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## veehb (Oct 24, 2013)

You will enjoy HD in the bedroom much more than SD. I have both available and really notice the difference on a 40" VIZIO LCD.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free


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## lsokoloff (Nov 15, 2006)

Ended up going with this wireless unit - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005L9ZZ32/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Only been using it for a few days, but it does exactly what I wanted. So far so good.

Len


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Forgive me if someone else already posted this, I did not read every post. If you take the Hopper/Joey route (which I highly recommend) you cannot keep non XiP receivers on the account. Even if some of your TV's are not HD, the Joey has an SD output. The PQ blows away analog RF distribution. The Joeys use the same RG6 that you used with your RF system. Besides those high UHF frequencies are no longer legal for TV (above ch 52). Even though your system is closed circuit there may be some leakage in or out of your system. 

As for the OTA module, it adds one additional tuner that can either be used for live viewing or recording (but not at the same time). A 2 Hopper system with 2 OTA dongles will give you the ability to record on one while watching live on the other. But really, will you ever watch everything that gets recorded?


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Only 1 OTA tuner per Hopper, you cannot attach 2.

It's a weakness of the system, but it's there.


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