Playing DVDs on multiple TVs

[nick42]

How do i play a DVD in one room, and produce it on TVs throughout the house? Is it also possible to do this with SKY TV? Please help as I have wanted to know how to do this for ages and have never found out - now i have found the website of my dreams!

[Gazorgan]

You can run video cables to all the rooms, along with audio cables. You can modulate the signal and run coaxial cable. Or, you can go wireless. In the US it was called the 'Rabbit'. Basically it's a wireless audio+video link.

You may need an audio+video booster. Radio Shack has these items.

[nick42]

SO since they are audio and video coaxial signals, does that mean that if i plug my dvd player into my house ariel on the roof, that will do the same job?

[Gazorgan]

You roof arial isn't audio or video, it's RF or Radio Frequency. To be specific it's a Modulated RF signal, and it was modualted with the video and audio signal. You have to Demodulate it to get the information back.

However, if you buy an adapter for old TV's that converts auido and video to a TV chanel ( it's called an AV modulator ), you could hook an antenna up to that and broadcast. The signal is incredibly weak, but has been know to go a few hundred feet. You can also hook up coax to the modulator and run it to another room. There are ways to use the AC power wiring in your house to do this also, but you have to buy special adapters to do this. DO NOT PLUG ANYTHING INTO YOUR AC OUTLETS!!!

[nick42]

thanks for your help!

[SLK001]

However, if you buy an adapter for old TV's that converts auido and video to a TV chanel ( it's called an AV modulator ), you could hook an antenna up to that and broadcast.

In the United States, this would be illegal.

[Gazorgan]

Maybe illegal, maybe not, most transmissions under 1 watt aren't regulated. You are talking about milliwatts of power. Assuming you have a clear channel, it may go a 100 feet and be REAL snowy on the other end. The loss in you coax going up to the roof may be greater than the signals level above ambient noise.

It is not illegal to use the wireless adapters ( these run at 900 Mhz or 2.4 Ghz ). Leakage off cable tv systems can be as strong as some of these signals. It's like broadcasting on a little kids walkie-talkie.

[tluxon]

I "modulate" one of my two ReplayTV's throughout the whole house using a Channel Plus 3025. You hook any AV device up to it with composite audio and video cables, assign that input to a clear channel (I use ch. 88), and it merges up to two of these "modulated" inputs into the incoming RF signal (cable, satellite, or OTA) and passes it to wherever you run RF cable.

Even though it has R & L audio inputs, the modulated channels are carried in mono, not stereo. The other RF channels maintain their multiplex stereo (or whatever you feed into the 3025) audio. You can spend a lot more and get your modulated signal(s) carried in stereo.

All the best,

Tim