Wireless video(coaxial, cable tv) sender

[A4]

Hi all,
Are there any device that send cable tv signal without wire?

thanks

[benzel]

A4,
I found a device called "entertainment anywhere" made by X10. I ordered one last week, and should be recieving it any day now. Since I don't have it yet, I can't vouch for it's performance, but I didn't find anyone saying anything negative about it anywhere online. The manufacturers' website is here http://www.x10.com/products/x10_vk57a.htm You will need RCA video and audio outs on the "sending" device. I bought mine on ebay, found it for a "buy it now" price of $46.99. It comes with a RF remote and software so you can control movies, winamp, etc. on your computer from anywhere in the house. OK, now it sounds like I'm selling it for them, this may not even be what you're looking for. Good luck.

[gcgreen]

A4

That device from X10 has worked great for me. I have used one for the past 2 years and have had success transmitting up to about 30 feet without loss of picture quality. The one I have uses the 2.4GHz band so it can cause some interference with cordless phones.

Good luck.

[redwudz]

I use a couple of X10 units and they work very well. Sends through most walls, good picture. Watch out for the X10 site, though. They are like telemarketers with cookies, etc. Don't subscribe to email, they will never let you alone. I use this unit, made just for video/sound transfers:http://www.x10.com/products/x10_vk30a.htm

Edit: If you are just talking about retransmitting a cable signal, your cable company will nail you for interferance. Cable uses frequencies that can interfere with VHF public service channels, such as law enforcement, etc. Cable companies can and do search for this. I left a unterminated cable on the floor and within two days they were knocking at my door.

[A4]

Wow, thanks all.
Now, all i see is the RCA input and output, How do you make it to work with 'coaxial' cable (tv cable) input and output are coaxial, I want to set up a cable box to a room upstair and I dont want to wire.

Thank for your help

[benzel]

what you are describing sounds like it can't be done with the x10 system. Maybe someone else who works with cable might have an idea.

[gmatov]

I thinkyou guys might be slightly wrong withthe X10 and "f" connectors, co-ax.

The X10 products I have, Video Commander, etc, have both RCA and co-ax inputs/outputs.

They have up to 100 foot range, and are 2.4 gigahertz..

That was a bargain at 47 bucks. I saw the same thing, a few years ago, admittedly, at Radio Shack, and it was 100 per end, 200 for a one remote system.

I don't know if I believe the unterminated cable. I have a splitter in the basement, couple ports not terminated, and, unless your company is more strict than mine, no one has ever come around to raise hell with me. I am not ssure if it will radiate in radio frequency to cause any problems. Not doubting you, just not sure.

Cheers,

George

[overloaded_ide]

A couple thoughts on open cable.

I wired a friends house for cable once and left open ends, He was supposed to connect to them, but never did. No problem! He also had a police fire etc.. scanner in his home. Since that device picks up the emergency channels certianally if open cable interfers with them he would have picked it up too!

No-one ever caps off the wall jacks! They are always open.

Many people leave a cable connected to the wall jack laying on the floor, not terminated. I have many times when I lived in the city and had cable. Connect a TV in a spare room, then move it and leave the cable lay for next time. Never a problem.

I did rewire a motel I managed once for cable. It was about 3 weeks when the cable guy showed up
They were randomly scanning for signal loss and the K-mart splitters I used were detected on thier equipment as they drove by. They were nice and replaced those cheapies with thiers at no charge.
Lucky I wasn't doing anything Illegal huh
Those splitters were outdoor on top of a building near a busy highway, and there were several of them. They didn't say anything about the cable I had in the apartment laying loose.
Alot could depend on the area and company I geuss.

If you go into a transmitter device with cable, that's not what's comming out. You get the radio output, not a cable signal.

Also I think I have seen hundreds of the type devices your referring to. A simple transmitter/receiver set to watch Tv in any room type device. I think Wallmart has some types of those. Connect transmitter to cable/antenna/VHR/DVD player or anything else with a TV type signal and connect the receiver to the Tv elsewhere. I'm sure it could also be conneted to a computer for capturing the same as a VCR, though I don't know if the video would suffer any.

I think I just looked at one of those at Wall-mart a few days ago matter of fact. It was in the computer section, fairly cheap, but only had cable type connectors, I wanted RCA type. They may have others too, I didn't look, I just saw the one nearby so I looked at it, didn't want it so I bought other stuff instead.

[redwudz]

Unterminated cable. I suspect my unterminated cable was hooked up loosely, IE, the outer conductor was not secure and the entire length was acting as an antenna. Anyway, I arrived home to see a door tag that I needed to call the cable company or my service would be terminated due to interference. I removed the offending cable and the cable guy came by. He left his RF reciever in my apartment while he went back to his van. I inspected it and it was a reciever tuned to one of the cable frequencies. The lower channel cable frequencies are between channel 6 and 7 which are around 140MHZ to 170MHZ which are in the public service band. Apparently they drive down the street with the reciever, looking for cable frequency signals. (Cox cable=Big Brother?) If you retransmit the cable signal you are on their frequency which they will percieve as a leak. However, if you upvert it to say UHF, you should have no problem and still be able to recieve it. (As long as you don't interfere with some other radio service.) Really, drill the holes and string the cable or run it along the floor.

[yomady]

I have the x10 vk57a but i am kind of disappointed.
It gets interfere with almost everything. the worst is with my microwave oven. i cant see any picture when i am using my oven.
I wonder if it is normal.

[RobertUSM]

Yomady,

I used an X-10 video/audio sender/receiver pair for the past 3 years until I could get up in the attic and run one more coax to the room I wanted TV in. I actually ran it this past weekend and don't use the X-10 now.

I used it to transmit the output of my satellite receiver to the other end of the house.

Whenever we cranked up the microwave it would royally screw up the picture and audio on the receiver end of the system. It lasted however long the cooking cycle lasted.

Also, when we got a 2.4GHz cordless phone system, that would interfere with the picture and audio too.

So, in my experience, interference by microwave ovens and cordless phones is normal.

[Don2050]

Didnt X10 just file for bankruptcy ?

http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=5277

[Richard_G]

As someone who works with TV and radio transmitters, can I put a bit of explanation in here. Although I am in the UK, radio waves work exactly the same no matter what country they are in. Video senders are low power transmitters and receivers that operate in the 2.4 - 2.5GHz International SRD (short range devices) band. In theory they shouldn't suffer interference from a microwave oven even though a microwave operates on 2.45GHz because a microwave should keep all it's power contained with the oven. In practice they never do and some leaks out (a safety test on a microwave tests how much leaks, if more than a certain amount it can be very dangerous to the user). It won't be a lot but the video sender is using 100mW (0.1 Watts) compared with the 700 - 800 Watts in your microwave so if only a tiny percentage is leaking it's still more than the video sender transmitter. For this reason, cordless phones are not allowed on 2.4GHz in any country other than the US. You WILL suffer interference from microwave ovens.

Moving on to the original question. A video sender will have inputs for composite video and audio into the transmitter. These two (or three if stereo) signals are modulated onto the 2.4GHz carrier signal and picked up at the other end. The signal is demodulated and you get your audio and video back out of the receiver. They may have extra sockets but these are usually something to do with the second radio frequency channel that operates in the opposite direction to extend your remote control. I have never seen a video sender that can take an RF signal from a cable system or TV antenna and send that over the 2.4GHz link. That doesn't mean it can't be done, but....

Earlier posts talk about cable signals at 140MHz and going up to around 800MHz. Theoretically, these signals could be modulated onto the 2.4GHz carrier, but you only have a total bandwidth of 100MHz to play with (2.4 - 2.5 GHz or 2400 - 2500 MHz), you would need 660MHz. Try that and it'll be the FCC that come knocking on your door, not your local cable company!

To do what A4 asked in the original post would require a cable box at one end which outputs video and audio. This could then be sent around the place without wires by using a video sender. But at the far end you'd only get the channel that the cable box was tuned to, not all channels.

[dh]

I think the main issue is about the video quality sent through wireless senders. Is it the same as or better than that sent through wires? Has anybody made a comparision?

[overloaded_ide]

As with anything else the quality will most likely depend on many things!
What brand or type, distance, other objects ect..

As for the original post. Normal cable in the US does not need a box, it just connects direct to a TV. Maybe Digital cable needs a box or over priced movie channels might need descrambler boxes from the cable company. Normal old cable just connects to tv/vcr or what ever though.
So in that case he may not need a box at the input side to change channels. Need to go look at the manual for one and quit geussing

I am sure there are many different ways it can be retransmited other than as the original source frequency! I mean we have a choice of capturing analog or converting to DV to put it onto our computers right!
2 totally different types of video from the same source. So if we can convert it to DV before putting it onto the computer why can't it be coverted to UHF or what ever before retransmitting it?

As for transmitters and the FCC, large high powered radio stations are regulated, BUT you can buy a cheap kids toy that broadcasts a low power short range on the same frequency and it is not regulated or required to get a lisence. It only works for a few feet, but it is AM/Fm broadcast received on AM/FM radios!
So it stands to reason the same could hold true for other devices of low power also.

In the USA towards the end of the Drive In Theatre days many were changing over from the little window speaker to Am or Fm radio broadcasts of the Audio. Just tune your car radio into the correct station (the theatre). They didn't need the broadcasters lisences the big stations needed either!

I don't claim to know how any of this 2.4ghz stuff works or care about the tech part of it, but ISP WIFI with a 3 mile or greater range is going 2.4ghz same as cordless home phones. I am looking into a 10 mile range with my ISP, and a 2.4ghz backhaul device has 20 mile or greater. So how does all this stuff NOT interferre with each other when all on the same basic frequency?

I am sure something similar holds true for these little Home TV transmitters to go wireless from room to room.

[Suntan]

A4

If there is a phone line or CAT5 line that goes up to that room you can use those lines to get your RF signal (coax cable) up there. You need to have converters (bulans) on each end of the cable due to the impedence difference of AV cable and CAT5. Google for "video over CAT5" and you shold find vendors for it. I think one of them I found was at http://www.kat5.tv but there are others. I am thinking about doing this at my house.

Of course you need to have at least one twisted pair free for it to work.

[Richard_G]

As for transmitters and the FCC, large high powered radio stations are regulated, BUT you can buy a cheap kids toy that broadcasts a low power short range on the same frequency and it is not regulated or required to get a lisence. It only works for a few feet, but it is AM/Fm broadcast received on AM/FM radios!
So it stands to reason the same could hold true for other devices of low power also.

You said it there, same frequency. The specs for 2.4GHz SRDs in UK are identical to the specs in the US and the rest of the world (it is about the only low power exempt band that is totally harmonised). The frequency range of 2.4GHz low power devices is 2400 - 2500 MHz, to modulate that carrier with 660MHz of signals would require that amount of bandwidth. If we assume that it is centred, that would give you a transmission from 2120 - 2780 MHz. Well outside the low power exempt band and no longer licence free.

I will guarantee that there is stuff in this part of the band that will cause the FCC, Military and various others to have cause for complaint. The FCC website shows the US bandplan, have a look and see who you are likely to upset.