Unscrambled cable connection to VOOM

[morepar2u]

Does anyone know of a way to hook up my local unscrambled cable line to the VOOM receiver and have it display in the channel guide just like the VOOM and OTA programming? I see there are a couple of coax inputs on the back of the VOOM receiver but without any kind of manual for the motorola, I don't have a clue what they are for....

My receiver currently has the OTA and VOOM on one line coming to the back of the VOOM and it seems to work fine. I am wondering if I can get my local cable channels to feed thru the VOOM also which would allow me to not have to switch inputs on the TV set (My local cable is on a separate coax feed to the house from the satellite).

Thanks!

 

[Sean Mota]

Does anyone know of a way to hook up my local unscrambled cable line to the VOOM receiver and have it display in the channel guide just like the VOOM and OTA programming? I see there are a couple of coax inputs on the back of the VOOM receiver but without any kind of manual for the motorola, I don't have a clue what they are for....

My receiver currently has the OTA and VOOM on one line coming to the back of the VOOM and it seems to work fine. I am wondering if I can get my local cable channels to feed thru the VOOM also which would allow me to not have to switch inputs on the TV set (My local cable is on a separate coax feed to the house from the satellite).

Thanks!

No, you can't do that. Your cable uses a complete different encryption than VOOM. This is the case with any service.

 

[compurocker]

My installer said it could be done, but I took that with a grain of salt. I decided to try anyway. I tried each of the inputs and couldn't get anything to work. I poked around in the menus and didn't find any way of enabling it. The one thing I did not try is the not so secret service menu.

I don't know if the cable company uses any kind of encryption for analog "unscrambled" cable. I mean, any cable-ready TV or VCR will be able to tune the channels. But I don't know enough about it. Even if you could get the VOOM box to be able to tune the channels, I don't think there's a chance of getting the program guide to work. The reason I say that is because, at least for me, local channel Fox is 32 in the guide but antennaweb says its frequency is really 31 and on my local cable it's channel 3. So I don't think it would be able to match up. Maybe once the VOOM box can do channel scanning.

 

[andrzej]

No, you can't do that. Your cable uses a complete different encryption than VOOM. This is the case with any service.

Hmm, I am not sure what you are refering to Sean. I have a D* receiver and my cable is connected to my D* receiver (Sammy T160). D* receivers can scan for cable and use the cable programming info in the guide. I don't understand why this is not possible with the Voom receiver.

 

[Sean Mota]

Hmm, I am not sure what you are refering to Sean. I have a D* receiver and my cable is connected to my D* receiver (Sammy T160). D* receivers can scan for cable and use the cable programming info in the guide. I don't understand why this is not possible with the Voom receiver.

I did not know that the D* receiver could do that. Is this before going to the cable box or after it goest through the cable box?

 

[andrzej]

I did not know that the D* receiver could do that. Is this before going to the cable box or after it goest through the cable box?

You don't need a box for unscrambled channels.

 

[wbuffetta]

I Have The Sony HD200 & RCA DTC100 & You Can Get Your Locals & SD Cable Stations To Display

 

[FunkyBoss]

When you say "local cable channels", do you mean regular old analog channels that you can see plugging your cable into any non-HDTV set? If so, it won't work because I believe the Voom STB won't receive analog OTA signals, only digital.

 

[DarrellP]

This is how you do it: use a VCR to tune the cable channels, then run the coax output of your VCR into a combiner along with your OTA coax and run that line into your OTA connection on the Voom box. Now this won't work until Voom enables the Scan for OTA feature. Once you can scan, make the VCR signal live on Channel 3 and when you scan, you should be able to assign it a channel.

I did this with my 6000 & 501. Though it's not a great picture, it was a way for me to get my 501 signal from the other room to my HT for viewing. You'd be better off feeding the composite output of your VCR into the TV and let it do the scaling.

 

[babyj]

when this "scan" feature gets here...this can be done. thats my educational guess


i also wanna do this cause voom SD is crap. when u have a 4:3 tv and voom is in widescreen...your only option is to either stretch the pic or pillarbox it. or of course u can do 480p / 480i which is even worse quality.so my Sd channels look like they are on a 27 inch (my tv is a 36")

so i get free cable somehow and Sd channels look their best.

 

[cmslick3]

The problem is going to be that the Voom OTA receiver card is a DIGITAL receiver and basic cable is sent in ANALOG format. So the Voom card will have no idea what to do with that "flavor" of RF. BUT if I remember correctly there is a jack on the back which has an antenna symbol on it, perhaps that can accept analog signals??

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The VOOM box does not tune to Analog Channels from the Antenna Input.

It also does not have a QAM tuner so it can't lock onto unscrambled HDTV broadcasts on your cable system.

 

[morepar2u]

Unscrambled local cable channels on VOOM

Thanks for the replies. I have a VOOM installer coming out Thursday to troubleshoot another issue and I will ask him.

It makes sense that since the cable signal is analog that the VOOM won't pick it up but what are the other two remaining coax connections for on the back of the VOOM - Is one an OUPUT to a VCR? What is the other one? It has a diagram of an antenna.

 

[DarrellP]

Yes, one is for output to a VCR or TV on Channel 3, the other is for the OTA antenna connection.

 

[mkm4]

What is the other one? It has a diagram of an antenna.

It is for a UHF remote control. It is not yet availaibe.