Calling AV guys (like Pellis) -- Need help with a home theater setup.
Thread Starter
Administrator
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 17,004
Likes: 7
From: Santa Cruz, CA, US
We (me and my mom) got my father a DirecTivo for Christmas and need some cabling and design help.
Let's start w/ the previous system setup to help you understand.
Previously my parents had a single Sony DSS unit. The main TV in the living room was wired via svideo directly off the DSS receiver. The rest of the TV's in the house were connected via Coax and watch the DSS on channel 3. (no cable tv in the house) That worked great.
Now as I said before I got him a DirecTivo for Christmas and I have hooked it up for him, still keeping the Sony DSS. Currently the TV in the living room is connected to the DirecTivo via svideo and the other TV's in the house are connected via Coax to the Sony DSS.
What I would REALLY like to achieve is to have both the DirecTivo and Sony DSS be watchable on all the "other" tv's in the house.
What I have tried to do is put the Sony on cable channel 4 and the Tivo on cable channel 3, but the problem is both the Tivo and the Sony will not pass the signal received on the "Coax/Cable In" when they are on. So right now, the Tivo can only be seen when I power off the Sony DSS. This is not really the best solution as my hope was to allow one (or more) room(s) to watch either the Tivo or the Sony at the same time.
I have tried (even tho I suspected it wouldn't work) feeding both coaxs backwards into a splitter then into the feed to the room, but this made it so channel 4 was watchable although it had more static and channel 3 was not really visable at all and had no audio.
Is there anyway to achieve this?
Thanks in advance!
Let's start w/ the previous system setup to help you understand.
Previously my parents had a single Sony DSS unit. The main TV in the living room was wired via svideo directly off the DSS receiver. The rest of the TV's in the house were connected via Coax and watch the DSS on channel 3. (no cable tv in the house) That worked great.
Now as I said before I got him a DirecTivo for Christmas and I have hooked it up for him, still keeping the Sony DSS. Currently the TV in the living room is connected to the DirecTivo via svideo and the other TV's in the house are connected via Coax to the Sony DSS.
What I would REALLY like to achieve is to have both the DirecTivo and Sony DSS be watchable on all the "other" tv's in the house.
What I have tried to do is put the Sony on cable channel 4 and the Tivo on cable channel 3, but the problem is both the Tivo and the Sony will not pass the signal received on the "Coax/Cable In" when they are on. So right now, the Tivo can only be seen when I power off the Sony DSS. This is not really the best solution as my hope was to allow one (or more) room(s) to watch either the Tivo or the Sony at the same time.
I have tried (even tho I suspected it wouldn't work) feeding both coaxs backwards into a splitter then into the feed to the room, but this made it so channel 4 was watchable although it had more static and channel 3 was not really visable at all and had no audio.
Is there anyway to achieve this?
Thanks in advance!
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,399
Likes: 0
From: San Jose
I suspect I should at least pay this some lip service since I'm in the subject... 
anyway... The units won't pass anything when they're turned off since the DSS signal isn't decipherable by a tv. What's the problem with leaving them on? How many rooms ae you trying to wire? What kind of splitter were you trying to use?
you've got PM.
anyway... The units won't pass anything when they're turned off since the DSS signal isn't decipherable by a tv. What's the problem with leaving them on? How many rooms ae you trying to wire? What kind of splitter were you trying to use?
you've got PM.
Registered User
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 788
Likes: 0
From: Norman / Tulsa
I'm really trying to think how to do this....but for some reason, I think it may not be possible. I'm not too familiar with the DirecTivo unit, but I take it that it is a DirectTV unit and a Tivo unit in one.
You said you have already tried a splitter, which would be my first attempt.
But this may work....have two seperate coax lines going from the DirecTivo and the DSS unit to each TV. Then for each TV you could get an AV coax switchbox(may be hard to find, they used to make these so that you could change back and forth from Nintendo to Sega to VCR without having to unhook wires). Then you would plug the DirecTivo into A for example and the DSS into B of the box and the switchboxes into each TV. So the user of the individual TV's could choose either A-DirecTivo or B-DSS on the switchbox. I'm not sure if this idea is even possible, but it's all I can think of right now.
Good luck,
-Brandon
You said you have already tried a splitter, which would be my first attempt.
But this may work....have two seperate coax lines going from the DirecTivo and the DSS unit to each TV. Then for each TV you could get an AV coax switchbox(may be hard to find, they used to make these so that you could change back and forth from Nintendo to Sega to VCR without having to unhook wires). Then you would plug the DirecTivo into A for example and the DSS into B of the box and the switchboxes into each TV. So the user of the individual TV's could choose either A-DirecTivo or B-DSS on the switchbox. I'm not sure if this idea is even possible, but it's all I can think of right now.
Good luck,
-Brandon
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 8,332
Likes: 0
From: Torrance
Since I am in the video distribution business, I might be able to help you out. Unfortunately, I only work on commercial stuff, and there are ways to distribute video that would solve your problems, but are very expensive. What you are trying to do is to remodulate the output from the Sony unit and DirecTivo unit to be on ch 3 and 4. You can't do this by using a spliter in reverse. You really need a combiner to do this correctly. I'm not sure if they sell these things forthe home.
When I worked at DIRECTV, we used a lot of stuff from channelmaster. Unfortunately, this is not going to solve your problems.
PM me and maybe I can think of a better solution for you, or can at least point you in the right direction on where to buy the stuff you need.
When I worked at DIRECTV, we used a lot of stuff from channelmaster. Unfortunately, this is not going to solve your problems.
PM me and maybe I can think of a better solution for you, or can at least point you in the right direction on where to buy the stuff you need.
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,170
Likes: 0
From: Richmond
krazik - I'm not sure if you have an answer yet, but I have a DirecTivo and I modulate the signal from it onto channel 115 (I could have picked almost any channel) into my coax so I can watch it at any coax drop in the house. The modulator was about $70 and works like a charm.
Here's the one I use: http://www.hometech.com/video/mod.html#CV-E1200 but you may want to look for a 2 or 3 input modulator (allows you to take 3 sources and modulate them onto 3 different channels). There are dozens of modulators to choose from and they are made for homeowners.
Let me know if you still need help.
Here's the one I use: http://www.hometech.com/video/mod.html#CV-E1200 but you may want to look for a 2 or 3 input modulator (allows you to take 3 sources and modulate them onto 3 different channels). There are dozens of modulators to choose from and they are made for homeowners.
Let me know if you still need help.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post