Taking TV program to other areas of a house

[polgyver]

I just wonder if it would be possible to transmit wirelessly a program being received by a satellite receiver by any modification of its outlet called "out to TV"? In my case, we have TV in only one room, and it sometimes happen, that I have to go to other areas of a house for a short time, thus missing current program. I know, there are transmitters for this purpose, but they cost one to two hundred bucks. As I have small LCD portable TV (bought mostly for setting up dishes), I could carry it with me, thus being able to watch the program without interruption. What I envision is a small VHF amplifier added or built into the receiver (presently I am using CW800). What power should such an amp have, that, when equipped with a piece of wire, say, 2 or 3' long acting as transmitting antenna, could cover my house and, hopefully, backyard? This could also help with maxing out the dishes, without need for second person with cellphone nor radio. I hope that such a small transmitter could be built with 2 or 3 transistors, amplify the signal normally feed by wire to TV (set to old channel 3 or 4), and not cause trouble to other neighbourhood electronics devices. Does anybody hear about such system? Is it feasible? Any schematics, diagrams? Cheers, polgyver

 

[FaT Air]

I've found those 'wireless video senders' performance very unreliable. Boosting the power on them^ is frowned upon by the FCC. (and is probably the case with the Canadian authorities) ^There's info on the net for circuits to do it, although I don't advise it.
Ch 3-4 modulators. An amplifier after them would have to be well engineered as they'd require a linear amplifier. Harmonics generated from a simple amplifier would likely cause a knock on the door situation.
I've run RG6 throughout the house and also out to the "farm". Using a frequency agile modulator on an unused channel.

 

[SatelliteAV]

The FCC regulated these "TV Genie" devices years ago and they were near impossible to get but only from a few sources in Canada in the 90's. Only modulators are available. The commercial units can actually put out a pretty strong signal into an antenna, but this is not recommended as it could interfere with licensed services.

You will not find any amplifiers for this idea and if there are, they will be illegal. There are some licensed ATV frequencies for communications, but not broadcasting.

For giggles, you might try connecting the RF output from your STB to a VHF antenna and see what range you get. Not recommending, just saying....

 

[AcWxRadar]

Polgyver,

I have been successful in doing this through one method... Streaming via WIFI from an AZBox to a PC or laptop. See here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/236243-STREAMING-from-AZBox-gt-PC

I ran into a problem with this and found some firmware revisions of the AZBox image files wouldn't work. Then the VLC program came out with a revision and I couldn't get it to work with the AZBox or I wasn't setting it up correctly. Then I also found that certain signals wouldn't work well, like high bit rate or H264 (sic) signals as they would often be very pixelated or blocky and would also latch the streaming mode ON and wouldn't allow you to switch channels until you rebooted the box.

I haven't revisited this streaming function for quite a long time now, but I am sure that it could still be accomplished if given enough time to experiment with the proper setup. This would be something that is totally legal per FCC regs and I would think it would be legal in Canada, too since it is confined to your personal WLAN. However, it doesn't broadcast to a TV, only a PC with WIFI capabilities.

There are some UHF/VHF re-transmission devices that can be found which are legal to purchase and work well in a very small "LOCAL" area such as a small neighborhood. But being legal to PURCHASE and legal to OPERATE may be two separate issues. If you were out in the middle of nowhere, no one would ever know that you were using such a device anyway, so there would be no complaints due to interference or the content that was rebroadcast. And then again, you are also back to the problem with the purchase PRICE (maybe two hundred US dollars or more). All in all, it sounds like a very tricky and sticky option.

Thought I would offer that much in case it helps you out.

RADAR

 

[gpflepsen]

For giggles, you might try connecting the RF output from your STB to a VHF antenna and see what range you get. Not recommending, just saying....

You could also install a line distribution amplifier for another giggity giggle.

 

[phlatwound]

Not really what you asked for since you can't move about with it, and probably the same or similar to what SatAv and FaTAir mentioned above, is the X10 video sender.

I hooked one up for my Mom a couple years ago. It throws A/V from her Directv receiver in the living room, to a television in the bedroom. As I remember it was a little bit of a pain to set up, but has worked great since then.

http://www.x10.com/promotions/5_8_wireless_video_sender_plus.html

 

[polgyver]

Thank you, FaTAir, SatAV, Radar, gpflepsen, and phlatwound for your valuable inputs, some are more complicated than others, but I really like something very simple (I realize that with too much simplicity, things would not be feasible). I just tried to substitute hard-wired connection between satellite receiver (Out-to TV) to TV (antenna in) with Over The Air signal (I realize real OTA has digital structure, therefore my comparison is rather an analogy). Somehow, years ago, TV functioned using VHS channels, where channel 3 was in the range of 60 to 70 MHZ, and channel 4 was - maybe - in the range of 70 to 80 MHZ. As my small LCD TV still has the ability to receive analog signal, I tried to build a small one transistor amplifier for the "out-to-TV" output, hooked up a piece of wire to the transistor's collector, and plugged similar wire into my small TV antenna input, however, the "transmission" worked - unreliably - within a few inches between the wires, but failed at longer distance. Obviously, there was not enough power. Maybe I should try to increase the power, taking risk that CRTC will knock on my door. Cabling the house is not an option, like someone said in Radar's thread (preferring $50 computer to wiring). So, I guess, this case needs some more trials and time. Cheers, polgyver

 

[northgeorgia]

Years ago, when I had my own place, I bought a "Leapfrog" wireless A/V system combined with an AVERkey computer signal demodulator. I was able to transmit everything from my computer screen in my office to my living room in not-so-stunning and illegible SD. Still, it allowed me to watch on my TV what few streaming TV stations were on the Internet at the time and record some of the programs on my VCR.

I found that old equipment last year and thought I'd plug it up to see how it works. Not so good these days. Back in the day, very few things were wireless -- maybe your telephone, and that was it. Now with different frequencies being used for telephones and routers, it plays havoc with the older technology. The results were a constant "pip pip pip pip" audio (probably from the wireless Internet), and 8 times out of 10, a lot of analogue video static which was also probably from the barrage of radio waves in the home. So, even if you were to find one of those systems, you'll probably be very disappointed with the results.

Edit: I just saw phlatwound's post about the x10 -- looks like the companies have changed the frequency used, so perhaps it could still work. But you'd still need to check what frequencies your cordless phone and wireless router throws out to be sure there aren't any frequency collisions! (My Leapfrog says it transmitted on the 2.4 Ghz frequency -- a very common wireless frequency these days!)