If all your cable is run from a central point (the loft?) one of these (http://www.letsautomate.com/10567.cfm?)works excellently !

You do need 2 cables to the lounge though - 1 to bring the "normal" aerial down and the second to return the feed to the loft (once you've added the extras you want). That signal then gets distributed.

It can also add FM, DAB and 1 other Rf signal (Modulated CCTV?).

Ignore the fact you can also run add in a sky digibox sat feed, its irrelevant for your setup.

Deano

[Edited by dsmith - 9/2/2003 8:12:48 AM]

I know some will nod off, but, here goes -

I have just run the RF out of my Pace Digi Cable box around the house using co-ax cable and some existing sockets etc

As expected pic it is pretty ropey with 2 TV’s and a VCR loading it and also such a long cable run, so I of course need to DA/amplify the signal.

Question is where do I do the amplifying? I feel as if I’d like to up the signal out of the cable box that ‘anticipates’ that there will be 3 loads put upon it.

Is that viable? It works for neatness and since I’m going to add an ext aerial feed to the cable box. The box will then ‘multiplex’ the terrestrial aerial feed around the cable box itselfs’ RF cable channel, and so I will have EVERYTHING avail in all TV’s in house TOGETHER. Doing it this way also avoids amplifying noise gathered in the cable run etc.

Does that make any sense?

Also has anyone used 6 core alarm cable to route signals? I was thinking of making up a custom Scart off the cable box’s second output (that I currently have to use to feed audio to the AV amp – thanks for dropping the phono audio outputs you Telewest monkeys ;-) and sending RGB & L & R Audio (from o/p1) up to the bedroom via this nice slim cable that just about fits the bill cheaply!

Any experiences on any of these here guys? Thanks for bearing with me (if you're there ;))

D

yeah, we amplify after our vid, cable etc box..

try it and see what works.. just plug it in and mess around until your happy..


as for alarm cable for video.. NO.

get some three core individual screened cable from maplin..

1 for vid.. and left & right..

David

Three core screened from Maplin is cool - I'll run a 6 core alarm cable with it for audio L&R leaving a spare 3 for whatever.

Deano - if I amp AT the BACK of the cable box it AVOIDS running another wire up to the loft and AVOIDS me running new separate feeds to everything from a loft DA. My system is wired in series currently cos it was simple to do using the partial system there is - do you think it an impossibility to make that work? Does everything HAS to be fed INDIVIDUALLY from a DA?

How about me old stereo amp hooked up to the RF o/p of the box with the volume control on 11 to bump up the signal in anticipation of the 3 devices loading it ;)

D

1st off modulated PAL upconverted onto an RF carrier is the worst type of transmission, you lose a lot of the quality due to the bandwidth and also the chrominance is modulated ontop of the luminance which doesn't help. Best quality would come from RGB in the type of 3 separate phone leads. Obviously if RF is the only option then best to boost the signal at the source of the transmission rather than at the receiver.

If you boost the signal at the output of the cable box then the signal will be less prone to noise. If you amplify it at the other end it will pick up noise, the signal will drop and you'll end up amplifying some of the noise aswell resulting in a poorer picture.

Also any ariel you install also amplify that as near to the ariel as possible.

Oh and avoid passive splitters always use an active amplified splitter.

Cliff

Thanks Cliff – totally agree with you on the RF quality issue. That’s why the living room TV gets RGB & ciomponent off the DVD :) RF is the only solution for getting ALL channels out to the smaller TV’s though. If I ever get a nice TV in the bedroom I’ll run screened RGB there from the cable box o/p 2.

I found a helpline for Maxview & just called them. They suggest a high gain amp for £20 and ‘taps’ for each device input. This has a ‘through’ loop and a load resistor on the actual RF feed to the TV. Working out the resistance required will be trial and error, with the last TV at the end of the run prob requiring none.

Lets hope it’ll work as I’ve just ordered it (and a Telewest compatible IR extender) from Index Catalogue shop – best prices around believe it or not!

be careful about amping it too much as you could saturate the tuner, i.e give it too much current.

Why not go for composite PAL, it still suffers from chrominance and luminance on top of each other but its at baseband rather than RF which is a little better.

Not too sure about this need for a resistor ??. Only thing i can think of is they are talking about unterminated pieces of wire which will pick up noise. But the resistor is usually the same as the cable impedance.

Cliff

Mate - I wont get all the channels distributed if I use composite...will I?

I think the resistor is to stop overdriving the tuner with this huge sig - they actually call it a 'tap' & since I never seen one (its not a 'term' 0r 75 Ohm terminator as we use in broadcast) I'll be scanning Maplin later on :)

Thanks for your advice here. Much appreciated.

D

I did it :) I didnt need the professional quality splitters and taps after all

THE top tip was to amp the cable box AFTER feeding it to the VCR. Guy said Telewest phase the sig to throw the amp & get you to buy another cable box! Amping the sig AFTER the VCR RF input often gets around this.

Now to get the guy to take £30 of splitters and taps back... :)