I'm planning on buying a RF modulator to distribute video and associated audio throughout my home. I want a satellite receiver, standard broadcasts, DVD, and a security camera to each have a separate channel or channels (for the antenna). The RF modulator's that I've seen have composite video or S-video connections at best and standard audio inputs. From what I understand composite and s-video connections can't transfer a high definition signal. One modulator I found has MTS stereo sound (http://www.smarthome.com/7701RM.html). Does this mean that you ordinarily get mono sound through an RF modulator? Is there a better way to distribute audio and video signals without sacrificing quality?

Does anyone have any feedback for Charlie on this? (I know I don' no nuttin' 'bout it!).

The poor guy is gonna think he's stumbled on alt.bread by accident!

I think that mono/stereo issue depends on the modulator. The one that I have has both R & L inputs.

As far as video distribution, that's a tricky one. The track you are on will work, but you'll kill a channel (3 or 4) on every TV in the house, unless it's in-line w/ a particular TV only. Also, you end up having to try and find ways to control the central units remotely, which can be tricky. Alternative methods would be to do media hubs, such as Prismiq and others that have popped up recently. They will do video, but you will need to have the house networked in some way and have PCs acting as servers for that content.

I'm sure that there's more in-depth solutions out there, but they might require some heavy installation of components and perhaps additional coax/cat5 runs.

You may want to poke around over at the AVS Forums and see if you can find some more help with this. They have a home automation forum that might help.

Good Luck.

Yeah, I tried to figure out a way to do this but only found solutions like the Terk Leapfrog, which some friends indicated was pretty bad. I tried to research this about a year ago and didn't come up w/ anything worthwhile. In addition, most of the solutions only allow for composite video and 2 channel stereo, so you're unlike to find anything w/ high quality audio or video.

The best was is to have a full audio/video distribution panel but that requires A LOT of hardware. Much cheaper to have duplicate systems.

The only other solution is to wait for the Ucentric type of solution from DirecTV or the Moxi box to come out. Perhaps Media Center PC has a solution, but all of those are a ways out. Good luck and let us know what you find.

Also saw this today:

EDN

As far as getting audio/video from a PC to a television there are many digital media receivers/streamers (do a CNET.com search to see them) which will do that but it looks like they all have file/streaming video limitations of one kind or another. You’re also stuck with whatever interface they are using. The remote controls and other various features can be pretty nifty though. Apparently none of them act like an extension of your PC, so you can’t see your Window’s desktop and double click to run any old application.

My video card has DVI, VGA, and S-video out. I know the DVI and VGA will definitely work in tandem so I’m going to use a VGA to component video converter and plug into a Keystone wall plate with component video jacks that will go to the wall plate behind my TV. I can then mirror my Windows desktop on my HDTV or have an extended desktop on that same TV. This means I could have different windows open on each screen. The only problem is that you can fry your TV if you don’t have the video settings correct. There are sites which tell you how to do this.

With the audio I’m going to buy a Pro HiFi-Link (http://www.xitel.com/product_phfl.htm) and run the digital coax output to a receiver. The one drawback to this is that I won’t have audio through my PC’s speakers while using the HiFi-Link.

I plan on using the S-video and standard audio jacks on a RF modulator for getting DVD video/audio to the other televisions in my house. I still don’t know if running the DVD player’s component video through a receiver will work for getting higher definition video to a single HDTV while simultaneously sending it out to a RF modulator, or if all receivers just switch a single signal to a single output. That also leaves me wondering if all of the outputs on a DVD player would work at the same time.

I believe that both outputs work on DVD player, at least the audio. Then again, that might be dependant upon the player.

As far as the Xitel product goes, looks like this is a software sound solution. Will this not add additional strain on the processor? I'm not sure what your plans are for the setup, but I'm always weary of adding load to the processor, since I will be running some DVDs that are HD. I'm assuming that you'll be running a receiver and speakers for sound versus just the TV. If that's the case, perhaps you just need to go the simple sound card route. They have the same outputs, but handle the processing load on the card.

...just a thought.

It wouldn't think that it would require any more processing power then playing the same audio through your sound card but if you use the PowerDVD software that comes with it then it likely would.

Here is what some of the reviews from Xitel's site say:

"plug the Pro HiFi-Link into a USB port and watch it automatically install without the need for any special drivers."

"Set-up is quick and easy, and any kind of music software can be used, regardless of whether you use Windows Media Player, Real Audio, Winamp or MusicMatch"

'Want to bypass noisy PC circuitry and tinny speakers? Try the Pro HiFi-Link.' 'Connecting this little silver box to a USB port provides stellar analog and digital audio outputs for a stereo or home theatre system.'

"You normally hear distortion in the high end and a dullness in the bass when you play music through the standard computer audio out,"

"If I had to sum it up in one word, it would have to be: 'Perfect'."

AFAIK, anything using the USB connector will add processor overhead. Probably not much, but it's sort of like ATA in that.