OTHER Tuners for a headend setup

[nbkhwjm]

In my endless quest to overbuild everything ive aquired a used but very serviceable headend setup. It has 50 modulators (channels 1-50) 3 combiners and about 30 motorola dct700 catv boxes.

I've got 5 KU band dishes and a 12ft cband that can be parked on a bird and provide my own custom cable system for the house..

My question is whats the best way to feed specific channels to each modulator?

By the way this was hooked up they had a single cable box tuned to a specific channel hooked to a single modulator. Would i need to do the same with satellite Tuners?

Anyway.. Its nuts i know.. but the price was right... (free)... so why not?

 

[stvcmty]

Since you got it free I think it is safe to assume the modulators are SD analog. Since there are so many they are probably channelized (not frequency Agile) mini modulators in chassis. [Pictures would be neat to see!] You can modulate whatever you want on channels as long as your source output matches the input of your modulators. (FTA boxes, DTV adapter boxes, streaming boxes, security cameras, scan converters, DVD players, anything with a composite video output.)

For FTA, you could get a pile of 50 FTA boxes, tune each one to a different channel, and modulate them on your in-house cable system. A big thing to consider is power draw. If you have less than 50 TV's, it would be more power efficient to have a FTA box per TV (with a massive satellite switching matrix) than to have 50 FTA boxes and modulators always on.

Do you have an OTA antenna at your house? Do your TV's scan OTA channels and cable channels (LG's) or do your TVs only do cable or OTA? If your TVs play nice with OTA/Cable signals being on the same coax you could get HD locals and analog SD FTA content all over the house. Cable channels 14-22 are between OTA channels 6 and 7 (so are 95-99, but you do not have modulators for them). Cable channels 23-65 are between OTA channels 13 and 14.

The best way to feed a specific channel to each modulator is to have a source with that channel and connect it to the modulator with a good quality cable. If your modulator's video inputs are RCA, get a bunch of RCA-RCA video cables. If your modulator's video inputs are F, use RG59 cable and get a bunch of RCA to F jacks for your video source's video jacks.

If you have a FTA box with a RF remote (or you have an IR repeater system), you can have some channels with FTA boxes that can be tuned from other rooms. Otherwise the modulated channels will be fixed to whatever the source FTA box is tuned to.

Do you have Pay TV? For example if you had Directv you could connect a H25 to the input of a modulator, add the wireless remote reciever, and walk around the house able to change the directv content shown on one of your channels. That channel could be watched on multiple TVs but on all TVs it would be the same channel the directv box was tuned to.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

I second the motion for pictures!

My main concern would be how much power it'd use. 50 receivers on 50 channels would use a lot of electricity. Then again, you'd be gaining a lot of convenience for the cost, and the hardware is free, so it sort of balances out. It's much better than the hardware being trashed.

If they're all SD modulators, you could use some dirt cheap receivers for any DVB-S 97w. Maybe some Satellite Guys would be willing to send you some that are collecting dust. You could have the biggest low-budget setup around!

 

[nbkhwjm]

Since you got it free I think it is safe to assume the modulators are SD analog. Since there are so many they are probably channelized (not frequency Agile) mini modulators in chassis. [Pictures would be neat to see!] You can modulate whatever you want on channels as long as your source output matches the input of your modulators. (FTA boxes, DTV adapter boxes, streaming boxes, security cameras, scan converters, DVD players, anything with a composite video output.)

yes they are SD channelized, although I can see how to change the channel on them..


[QUOTE}For FTA, you could get a pile of 50 FTA boxes, tune each one to a different channel, and modulate them on your in-house cable system. A big thing to consider is power draw. If you have less than 50 TV's, it would be more power efficient to have a FTA box per TV (with a massive satellite switching matrix) than to have 50 FTA boxes and modulators always on.

Do you have an OTA antenna at your house? Do your TV's scan OTA channels and cable channels (LG's) or do your TVs only do cable or OTA? If your TVs play nice with OTA/Cable signals being on the same coax you could get HD locals and analog SD FTA content all over the house. Cable channels 14-22 are between OTA channels 6 and 7 (so are 95-99, but you do not have modulators for them). Cable channels 23-65 are between OTA channels 13 and 14.[/QUOTE]

Tv does scan both OTA and Cable..

[QUOTE}The best way to feed a specific channel to each modulator is to have a source with that channel and connect it to the modulator with a good quality cable. If your modulator's video inputs are RCA, get a bunch of RCA-RCA video cables. If your modulator's video inputs are F, use RG59 cable and get a bunch of RCA to F jacks for your video source's video jacks.

If you have a FTA box with a RF remote (or you have an IR repeater system), you can have some channels with FTA boxes that can be tuned from other rooms. Otherwise the modulated channels will be fixed to whatever the source FTA box is tuned to.[/QUOTE]

yea there are simply tons of cables. I understand your point here...

[QUOTE}Do you have Pay TV? For example if you had Directv you could connect a H25 to the input of a modulator, add the wireless remote reciever, and walk around the house able to change the directv content shown on one of your channels. That channel could be watched on multiple TVs but on all TVs it would be the same channel the directv box was tuned to.[/QUOTE]

I have dish, so this is an interesting Idea...

It was clearly used in a hotel or something, i got it from a scrap dealer as part of a large lot.






I have all the cables, including the missing power cables on the top two units.

 

[harshness]

Maybe some thinking from the other end is in order. What "channels" are you planning on tuning your satellite tuners to? FTA isn't known for its mass quantities of appealing linear programming concentrated in one place.

There doesn't appear to be any provision for injecting OTA DTV channels in here that doesn't involve re-modulating the composite output of a DTV tuner box for each desired subchannel on an arbitrarily numbered channel number.

No matter how awesome the modulators are, the end result will be 4x3 SD with two-channel (at best) audio across the board. 16x9 content will be pillarboxed and doubly letterboxed.

The cable boxes are essentially useless unless you have a fleet of NTSC-only (or tuner-less) televisions, DVD recorders and VCRs connected to a cable TV provider (or in the case of the previous owner, your feeding the modulators with cable boxes connected to a cable TV provider).

Overkill is doing something in excess with a top-flight end product. Ending up with numerous compromises and deficiencies is solid waste.

 

[nbkhwjm]

Maybe some thinking from the other end is in order. What "channels" are you planning on tuning your satellite tuners to? FTA isn't known for its mass quantities of appealing linear programming concentrated in one place.

There doesn't appear to be any provision for injecting OTA DTV channels in here that doesn't involve re-modulating the composite output of a DTV tuner box for each desired subchannel on an arbitrarily numbered channel number.

No matter how awesome the modulators are, the end result will be 4x3 SD with two-channel (at best) audio across the board. 16x9 content will be pillarboxed and doubly letterboxed.

The cable boxes are essentially useless unless you have a fleet of NTSC-only (or tuner-less) televisions, DVD recorders and VCRs connected to a cable TV provider (or in the case of the previous owner, your feeding the modulators with cable boxes connected to a cable TV provider).

Overkill is doing something in excess with a top-flight end product. Ending up with numerous compromises and deficiencies is solid waste.

i completely agree with you on the overkill thing... there has to be a payoff in the end...

im not sure what ill do to be honest, its an interesting option for sure...

 

[harshness]

im not sure what ill do to be honest, its an interesting option for sure...

I'm still looking for an upside.

 

[stvcmty]

No matter how awesome the modulators are, the end result will be 4x3 SD with two-channel (at best) audio across the board. 16x9 content will be pillarboxed and doubly letterboxed.

If the source outputting the SD video has a 16:9 setting and the TV is set to stretch SD video to fill a full screen it is possible to get 16:9 content to fill a 16:9 screen in SD. It will look SD, but if it is linear on both the source end and the tv a circle will show up as a circle. Not all sources will have the correct options to do it. If the TV stretches more at the sides than in the center it wont work. But it is possible.

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A feasible use would be to take all the "good" 24/7 FTA channels, consolidate them, run them to your TV's and offer to split the coax to any neighbors near enough to you to run coax to. It would show them there is a reason to have a dish farm.

The "good" FTA channels probably include the PBS's on 125, NBC stuff, ABC news, and the luken mux if it is still up there somewhere.

 

[nbkhwjm]

If the source outputting the SD video has a 16:9 setting and the TV is set to stretch SD video to fill a full screen it is possible to get 16:9 content to fill a 16:9 screen in SD. It will look SD, but if it is linear on both the source end and the tv a circle will show up as a circle. Not all sources will have the correct options to do it. If the TV stretches more at the sides than in the center it wont work. But it is possible.

---

A feasible use would be to take all the "good" 24/7 FTA channels, consolidate them, run them to your TV's and offer to split the coax to any neighbors near enough to you to run coax to. It would show them there is a reason to have a dish farm.

The "good" FTA channels probably include the PBS's on 125, NBC stuff, ABC news, and the luken mux if it is still up there somewhere.

i guess i would have to actually like my neighbors to do that. Thinking about it though, when someone turns me in for "cable theft" and they come looking and realize its not "their" signal, it would be priceless to tell them to GTFO.. (assuming of course the small technical point of whos signal it is actually matters to the LEO involved)..

 

[harshness]

If the source outputting the SD video has a 16:9 setting and the TV is set to stretch SD video to fill a full screen it is possible to get 16:9 content to fill a 16:9 screen in SD. It will look SD, but if it is linear on both the source end and the tv a circle will show up as a circle.

Lots of probablys and maybes for what will surely be a huge hit to PQ and more often than not, SQ.

I think we can all agree that several times processed NTSC SD is not something to chase after as compared with HD or even an SD digital FTA feed.

 

[harshness]

Thinking about it though, when someone turns me in for "cable theft" and they come looking and realize its not "their" signal, it would be priceless to tell them to GTFO.. (assuming of course the small technical point of whos signal it is actually matters to the LEO involved)..

I'm pretty sure that once your cabling leaves the house you have established a Community Antenna TeleVision system and you become subject to some gubmint rules and regulations. This is especially problematic if your local jurisdiction has franchise agreements with conventional cable operators.

If you were to re-sell anything, both the OTA and FTA channel operators could squash you like a bug if they were feeling at all grumpy. Unapproved public re-transmission of pretty much everything (including free stuff like OTA and YouTube) is strictly prohibited.