# Slightly OT - Does anyone sell a "consumer level" ATSC RF modulator?



## cartrivision (Jul 25, 2007)

In the days of analog, RF modulators where the choice of lowest quality and last resort for distributing a video signal, but it seems that if a reasonably priced ATSC RF modulator were available, it might actually be a good way to get a HD video signal to a remote TV, especially if an there is already an existing antenna cable run to the remote TV and running some other kind of cable isn’t practical. Is there any such thing as a reasonably priced “consumer level” ATSC RF modulator, and if so, who sells it. I did a quick Google search, which seemed to point me to a lot of professional gear for use by broadcasters.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

For your slightly OT posts, we just happen to have a slightly OT forum for your
posting convenience! Oddly enough, this OT forum is called "The OT"


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

OT yes, but it would be an excellent idea to have a single wire solution for distributing HD. However, it would not keep its pristine digital quality. You would start with uncompressed input from component or HDMI, then MPEG2 compress it on the fly. 

Come to think of it there is something that gives you a capability like that already... the Slingbox Pro, which when coupled with the coming Slingcatcher, might be just the thing.


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## d max82 (May 23, 2007)

I'm feeding my HR20 to a local hd set and to a remote hd via a single wire solution, but using component video. I used extron MHRVGA/500 which is part # 22-024-01. It gives you three coax lines for component video, Two pairs for unbalanced (RCA) Stereo audio, and a couple extras you wont need. 

If you want to preserve DD audio you could use extron M59-5/500 (part # 22-127-02) Its got 5 coax lines, three for component video, one for DD coax audio, and a fifth you wont use. You can get adapter boxes for under $20 to go from optical to coax DD if you have the 700 model HR20 or if your audio reciever will only acept optical inputs.


Finally you could run HDMI over cat 5 with special adapter boxes. I've never used the HDMI over cat5 before because it is quite expensive for the boxes at this point, but I've installed literally hundreds of VGA over cat5 boxes with no problems in the past.


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## cartrivision (Jul 25, 2007)

Stuart Sweet said:


> OT yes, but it would be an excellent idea to have a single wire solution for distributing HD. However, it would not keep its pristine digital quality. You would start with uncompressed input from component or HDMI, then MPEG2 compress it on the fly.


So the incoming digital stream on an OTA channel is an MPEG2 compressed bitstream and HDMI is not? That certainly would add a level of complexity, potential picture degradation (and expense) to an ATSC RF modulator. It's clearly not as easy to implement as an SD analog RF modulator.



Stuart Sweet said:


> Come to think of it there is something that gives you a capability like that already... the Slingbox Pro, which when coupled with the coming Slingcatcher, might be just the thing.


Slingbox has some interesting stuff but doesn't it all "broadcast" over a network connection and doesn't the receiving end require a PC as the receiver? My point about possibly using an ATSC RF modulator was to be able to distribute an HD video signal over existing RF cable runs. If an affordable ATSC RF modulator were available, no new cable runs would be required, and no receiving hardware required on the receiving end.


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## kenglish (Oct 2, 2004)

An 8VSB modulator is currently about $7K, if I remember correctly. And, it takes a Transport Stream input, which would cost plenty to make (MPEG-2 and DD encoders).


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