ATSC Out on RF

[paulg]

If I capture an OTA HD signal in GBPVR, is there a video card with HDTV-out that will output an ATSC signal to the RG6 connector. The goal is to send the signal to HDTVs throughout the house use the normal cable wiring in the house.

Thanks
Paul

[sub]

No, and this is actually a very complicated thing in the digital world, so its unlikely you'll see anything like this in the near future.

[nak]

There have actually been products (not consumer products, however) that will do this. Sencore, a maker of electronic test equipment, made an 8VSB output card at some point in the past. (8vsb is the term for terrestrial transmission of a broadcast ATSC signal.) A couple years ago, the company I worked for bought a couple hundred to integrate into an industrial video server we made. This card would take MPEG data you fed it, encoded at the exact ATSC broadcast spec rate of 19.39 mbps, and you would specify a digital channel to modulate to, you would then send it out the connector in the back and hook it up to a Terrestrial RF network for distribution as you were describing. You could take multiples of this card, tune each to a different channel, combine the signals, and basically have your own HD network. (Used by retailers for in-store advertising, and such.)

They cost about $1500, but I couldn't find it on their website just now so I think they stopped making them, since there was never anything other than a niche market for them.

As sub said, it is a pretty complicated thing.

[sub]

Yeah, I'm aware of these sorts of devices, but I know this isnt the sort of answer the original poster was looking for.

[martint123]

I suspect there may be a fair sized market for things like this in the not too distant future. For sure, in Europe, it would be nice to have a black box where you plug all your existing SCART devices into - old video, dvd players, games etc etc and they get modulated onto a private mux of your own - a bit like existing RF modulators.
I've hung onto my analogue TV for just this reason.

[lejudew]

You may want to check out the following web page - http://www.sencore.com/products/hdtv996.htm - There is also one listed currently on eBay.

[paulg]

Thanks. I figured it was either real easy or nearly impossible.

So the follow on question is: What is the best way to distribute HD content from a central source to HDTVs scattered throughout the home.

It appears that HDMI over Cat5e is one option. I need to have 3 or 4 TVs attached to GBPVR source. Another option is something like the T7-M media center advertised on this forum. However, that appears to be very expensive.

Any ideas?

Paul