How do you get two coax tv signals in to one "in" on vcr or fta reciever?

[mastermesh]

How do you get two coax tv signals in to one "in" on vcr or fta reciever? I posted elsewhere, but figured folks in fta threads might no the answer more since a lot of folks over here seem to be using computers and stuff in their setups...

How do you get satellite coax + ota coax + coax coming from another source (in my case, a second vcr that is hooked up to a computer as a dvr via ati all-in-wonder card) in to either the fta receiver or vcr on the end of the fta reciever's tv out? I realize and have the reciever hooked up with both ota antenna and stb in ports full. How do I get the third tv signal (coming from the vcr in another room) in to the mix? I am wanting to use my computer/vcr in another room as a dvr, and have the signal from that come back in to the tv nearest the fta reciever... so that I can record satellite movies and stuff during the day while I'm at work and watch them later or record them to dvd or whatever... but am having trouble figuring out how to get the signal from the third source in to the tv in the living room near the fta receiver since both the antenna in and stb in on the reciever are full, and the reiever's tv out is going in to vcr that then goes in to the tv in the living room. How do you work the third video source in to the mix? Radio shack claims to have a two in and one out connector that's sort of like a diseqc switch but is really just a normal coax connector - would that work to get the third signal in, if I hook it up as the second in coming in to reciever's ota antenna in?

 

[Mr Tony]

you could use an A/B switch at the antenna in for the OTA & the VCR

If you are hooking both a OTA and a FTA box to a VCR, use the A/V plugs for the FTA and run the antenna directly into the "in" on the VCR

 

[mastermesh]

what if there's already a dvd player going in to the vcr too?

 

[Mr Tony]

Rat Shack has 2x1 & 4x1 A/B type switches for a/v plugs. I have a 4x1 for a couple FTA boxes into a TV

 

[icstephen]

you can get the ones for rca (red, yellow, white cables) at walmart for little money I have a 4x1 rca, although I really wished I had gotten the one with the remote control.

 

[techpuppy]

If I'm understanding your question, I think you could use a signal combiner, such as a channel 3 or channel 4 combiner. For instance, if the VCR you want to see through your system can output on channel 4, you could combine that ch 4 signal with your ota antenna. The combiner has filters to prevent interference to the existing ch. 3 signal if there is one. If you don't have a ch. 3 or 4 OTA in your area you could use two (one of each) to inject a ch. 3 & ch 4 signal into your OTA antenna coax. In my case I send the FTA satellite signal through my house coax on channel 4. We have an OTA ch.3. They don't interfere with each other. On ebay I was the only bidder on a box of them so I ended up with 15 of them for less than $20. Guess what I'm giving as Christmas gifts this year!

 

[mastermesh]

If I'm understanding your question, I think you could use a signal combiner, such as a channel 3 or channel 4 combiner. For instance, if the VCR you want to see through your system can output on channel 4, you could combine that ch 4 signal with your ota antenna. The combiner has filters to prevent interference to the existing ch. 3 signal if there is one. If you don't have a ch. 3 or 4 OTA in your area you could use two (one of each) to inject a ch. 3 & ch 4 signal into your OTA antenna coax. In my case I send the FTA satellite signal through my house coax on channel 4. We have an OTA ch.3. They don't interfere with each other. On ebay I was the only bidder on a box of them so I ended up with 15 of them for less than $20. Guess what I'm giving as Christmas gifts this year!

There is an ota channel 3 but it's almost non-existant since it's so far away. The main use of channel 3 in the living room at the moment, is to recieve signal from fta receiver and to recieve signal from vcr in living room. When the vcr is turned on in living room, you see it's signal instead of fta receivers... but it can record whatever's coming in on fta reciever if it's in record mode instead of play mode. Main use of channel 4 is to see the dvd player in the living room.

The vcr from upstairs should be able to either output on channel 3 or 4. I think I have it on 3 now, but could flip a switch to make it 4. The computer that sends it's signal to vcr upstairs can be seen on the vcr upstairs if that vcr is turned to channel 2 ... so signal goes in to vcr, vcr exports to tv upstairs on channel 3.... but vcr is set on channel 2 to see computer upstairs at the moment (you see the computer on vcr's channel two but tv is on channel 3 to see vcr that is looking at channel two) - vcr is looking at channel 2 but is sending signal to tv on channel 3 at the moment I think... I haven't ever heard of a signal combiner til tonight.

They look interesting. I'm thinking about going that route since I hate a/b type switches and would like to avoid them if possible. 20.00 ain't bad price considering rat shack is saying thier thing, which I'm guessing is an a/b, is 8.00...

Reason I hate a/b types is that I used to have a similar setup on a computer, where I had 3-4 computers going to two monitors... used switches and stuff like that to get signals on the monitors. I had two monitor system on one of the computers so that I could do cool stuff in lightwave and photoshop that was easier to do with multi monitor setup, but had another computer or two coming in for various other reasons. It was a headache trying to remember which switch did what.

Would a signal combiner work in front of the fta reciever's ota in port, brining vcr signal from upstairs in as well as real ota channels from the antenna? If so, one of those would be fine. Would a 4 or 3 channel one be better? 4 is dvd player at the moment in living room and 3 is fta receiver + vcr in living room. I want, if possible for signal from vcr upstairs to be seen on living room tv... I'm guessing a channel 4 combiner would be best since we don't have the dvd player on at all times, and it'd cause vcr signal from upstairs to act with dvd player's signal the same as vcr in living room is acting with fta receiver signal at the moment where you push play on vcr and see vcr hit power off on vcr and you see the fta receiver's signal?

See attachements... which type would be better? I'm thinking the combiner type from skywalker or whoever, but want to make sure from you all first before I do any ebaying or anything...

 

[Mr Tony]

The picture on the left is just a 4 way splitter and wouldn't work

 

[mastermesh]

Thanks. I'll be off to ebay tonight.

Next major hurdle is going to be figuring out where the heck to run the coax to get it from the upstairs computer to the living room. It's a brick house that has brick all the way up to the very peak of the roof. The roof is wooden, so I could drill a hole in their, but think that'd be a problem due to possible leaks.

They used to have cable in the house, so they have one small coax sized hole drilled out of some brick on one wall. I may use that, and run down the side of the house, through basement and back up in the floor in the living room. Only problem with that is that it's on the exact opposite of the side of the house where the living room is, so it's gonna have to be one heck of a long coax run. I'm hoping signal won't degrade too badly over that length of coax. Will get jiggy with it tonight and by about 200 ft. of coax. I'd probably really only need about 75 feet, but that'd be 75 feet both ways if I want to get the vcr upstairs to both get satellite signal and send signals from the pc back downstairs to the living room.

I don't really want to have to buy a masons bit for the drill, but might have too if that length of cord is too long.

Thanks the the help everyone!

 

[mastermesh]

Hey, Techpuppy, thanks a ton. I just got a box off of ebay for cheap too! Got about 15 coming my way. Not bad for a little under 20.00.

Got to looking around at the ati-all-in wonder since I haven't used it for a while to get tv (about 2 year). Pins are bent on one of the cords, so I bought a new ati all-in-wonder 64 mb for about 35.00 on ebay too. The old ati should still work.. I just need to figure out a way to get the pins straight again. If I get it working, I may put the new one in the wife's computer. If not, I'll have an extra all-in-wonder on hand for spare parts... probably a good thing to have since you have 2 cords with it + a remote + some other stuff... I saw ati's upgrade page, where you can send in the old one and get 50.00 back on a new one... but 200.00 (150 after the cash back) is still a bit pricey for me just for a video card.

Also found a 5.00 light table on ebay. It's used and scratched up in placed, but that still ain't a bad price. Been wanting one of those for art reasons for a few years now.

Got 200 ft. of coax at wal-mart last night too...

And, it looks like the coax run from the computer room to the living room won't be as hard as I was thinking it would be. I found one of the attic vents near the front of the house that was hiden from view til now due to some cardboard being way in the back of a big place with no light, near some insullation. The vent is located about 5 feet directly behind the wall my computer's hooked up to. I will have to drill a hole in a wall to get the coax back there, but that'll be a piece of cake... way easier than going through the brick like I thought I was gonna have to do. Once the coax goes out the vent, it's roughly 15 or so feet straight across from where the dish is located, so I should be able to shoot is straight across to where the lines running off of the dish are and take it down through the same holes in the basement wall that they are using. Got my weekend project lined up!

Does anybody know if the all-in-wonder can get epg info from satellite? I'm thinking probably not, since I think that functionality is just meant for cable, but figure it can't hurt to ask...