Quote:
Originally posted by mmckenzie
Rich A,
Your setup sounds ideal for my purposes as well. Would you ming sharing more info on the A/V distribution system? What equipment, etc.
Thanks in advance.
Michael
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Hi Michael. Here is a graphic of my "current" setup. I say current as it's in the middle of reconstruction as I'm building a home theater with projection screen where most of this stuff will be integrated. As of now it's on the first level of the house in a "media room" that is shared with my ham radio shack.
http://www.pcphotovideo.com/Downloads/avdist3.jpg
There's a lot of stuff you should know before embarking on that kind of job. You need to have an rf-tight cable distribution (like good quality quad shield coax and proper grounding. Also the amplifier should be of the type that is "bi-directional". These usually are one way only (incoming above 50 mhz) and two way below 50 mhz. Most cable systems have their uplink and downlink separated above and below 50 mhz. So if you are modulating the injected signal after the amp and above 50 mhz (like higher than channel 2) then it won't get back out to the street and feed your neighbors' TV. <grin> You need at least one or two empty channels above and below your "custom" channel or they may "bleed" and/or interfere with it. My channels 80 to 90 are empty so I chose 84. In some cases you may have to put a notch filter before the amp to provide a notch at (in my case) channel 84. This also reduces the adjacent channel garbage. (I don't need it) I use the Channel Vision E-1200 single channel modulater. You want one that has a variable RF output so you can match it to the other cable channels and also programmable so you can change the output channel if needed. Already my cable company has changed their line up twice and I've had to move it twice.
Or you can spend more bucks and get a multiple channel modulator which can have remote switching inputs and/or outputs. I chose to have the input to the modulater fed by a remove A/V switch.
I also have an RF IR repeater to pick up the various remote control IR signals and output them in the media room. All the computers, ReplayTV and HTPC are in a downstairs media room.
Not shown in the diagram are various grounding blocks, and filters and such.
Net result is that at any TV in the house, I can control and view any of the playback devices. Ie. Tune the TV to channel 84, select the AV source (ReplayTV HTPC etc) and control and watch it. Hope this helps with some ideas.
Opps, I apologize guys for getting off topic.
