Any way to send 1 coax TV signal to a TV in another room wirelessly?

March 12, 2006 5:05 PM

Any way to send 1 coax TV signal to a TV in another room wirelessly?

We've moved into an apartment with 1 coaxial cable output in the living. We have basic cable (no box) and we have other goodies like tivo, dvd player, xbox media center, and a full wireless streaming server floating around. Needless to say, we're wired up for alot of things.

I need to be able to so a (seemingly) simple feat: Take the coax signal from my cable in the living room and shoot it wirelessly to the TV in the bedroom. The only catches are that the TV only has a coax input, no a/v or rca jacks, and since there is no cable box it uses the tuner in the TV to change the channel.

I picked up a video sender the other day, but it will only send 1 signal from an a/v or rca source, and it will not allow me to change channels on the TV. Some further investigating tells me I can get around this with a VCR tuner, but that would not let me change channels from the other room without either walking back to the living room or getting an remote sender of sorts. Our 2.4ghz frequency is crowded as it is!

So, is ther another way to get this done? Can I send the raw coax signal first to the TV or a VCR in the bedroom, or am I SOL when is comes to what I'd like to do?

posted by ilikebike to Technology (9 answers total)

You should be able to just use a simple cable splitter and run a length of coax to the other TV.

Or is there some complication I'm missing?
posted by cillit bang at 5:18 PM on March 12, 2006

If you had a VCR tuner in the living room, then you can use this wireless A/V video sender to send that signal to the other room, and allow an I/R signal from that other room to be transmitted back to the living room to control the VCR.
posted by jaimev at 5:26 PM on March 12, 2006

While not your desired solution, have you considered running coax outside between the windows? Also, you can buy flat coax that may provide more options for an apartment than the fat, round black stuff.
posted by glibhamdreck at 5:33 PM on March 12, 2006

Response by poster: "You should be able to just use a simple cable splitter and run a length of coax to the other TV.

Or is there some complication I'm missing?"

The complication is that it needs to be wireless ;)

We can't run any cabling outside and we don't want to lay any along the walls or under the carpet.
posted by ilikebike at 6:01 PM on March 12, 2006

Each TV channel is alloted 6MHz of bandwidth (with ample padding) and most cable systems have 1.5-2GHz of bandwidth. Most home wireless tech works in nothing wider than 22MHz (with significant overlap), so it's a big jump to wirelessly distribute a full range of cable TV channels, even within the space of an apartment.

I think your best bet is probably sending a single channel from a VCR and using some sort of remote extender.
posted by Good Brain at 6:03 PM on March 12, 2006

Best answer: they do not appear to sell the product i own anymore but i have been quite happy with the angeltrax catv transmitter i own.
posted by phil at 6:29 PM on March 12, 2006

A google of "wireless video transmitter" gives some potentially useful results.
posted by TedW at 7:05 PM on March 12, 2006

Response by poster: phil, I think you may be right on the money.

I purchased an x10 video sender last week on ebay, which is what I'm using now but it lacks the ability to change any channels.

That aneltrax product seems to be the same ide as the x10, but with an integrated tv tuner and remote transmitter. Solves my 2 problems with my current setup. Thanks!
posted by ilikebike at 7:39 PM on March 12, 2006

The The Terk Leapfrog will do exactly what you want, however, it marginally accomplishes the task, IMO. It works best if you have an unobscured line-of-sight path, if you don't, expect some snow and spotty signal strength. And even if you do, the chances of a flawless integration aren't that great. I've purchased a few of these products over the years, and always come down to the same conclusion: nothing works perfectly and one-hundred-percent of the time. But if you can deal with futzing a lot, the Leapfrog is good soltuion.

Aside: I had the same problem. My solution was to get some RG6, and wiremold -- and cheaply ran the cable it into my bedroom that way. You can also pack some ethernet and phone line in the wiremold while you're at it, if necessary.
posted by dvottero at 1:58 PM on March 13, 2006