Is there a way to wirelessly send cable TV signals?

[Specop 007]

Like it says. Is there anyway I can put a wireless device of some type on a cable line to send my cable signal around the house wirelessly?

 

[MrBond]

There's a bunch of options here:

http://www.smarthome.com/prodindex.asp?catid=303

I don't know how good they are. I can understand hating pulling cable. When I build my house I'm going to make sure every room has cables for anything I think I ever might want in there.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I bought some 2.4Ghz stuff at Radio Shack for $50 and it works great, can't even tell it's wireless. Going through two walls and about 40 feet. I'm sure you could run them in a series to extend the range.

I'm sure X10 makes a ton of that crap.

 

[Specop 007]

Originally posted by: MrBond
There's a bunch of options here:

http://www.smarthome.com/prodindex.asp?catid=303

I don't know how good they are. I can understand hating pulling cable. When I build my house I'm going to make sure every room has cables for anything I think I ever might want in there.

I'm going to make it easy and just run big fat pvc piping in the walls to all the roms, with about 50 fishing lines from point A to point B. That way pulling the cable is as easy as going to point a, tying on, going to point B and pulling.

Cause you never know what kind of cable you might have to pull! It would really miff me to wire up every type of cable possible only to have them change cable standards on me.

 

[ViviTheMage]

when I build my house I will have cat5es running through the walls too

 

[Pepsi90919]

then push it instead

 

[Specop 007]

Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones
I bought some 2.4Ghz stuff at Radio Shack for $50 and it works great, can't even tell it's wireless. Going through two walls and about 40 feet. I'm sure you could run them in a series to extend the range.

I'm sure X10 makes a ton of that crap.

Does that do cable/data?

Ideally I want a router that does wireless cable/data and has a ethernet jack. That way I can set it at my computer desk which is centrally located, use an ethernet cable for my PC so i dont get any wireless lag, use the wireless for my laptop and still have it broadcast my cable tv signals to the other rooms I want cable in.

Also, I assume on the other end I have to have a wireless reciever that connects into a cable tuner box, or does the wireless setup work such that it only boradcasts the channel being watched at the main box?

 

[MrBond]

Whoops, blank post.

Anyway, I don't think they make a wireless cable/data router. The 2.4ghz wireless video things just happen to work on the same spectrum as wireless internet (so it'll cut into your bandwidth if you're surfing/streaming video at the same time).

If it's coming from a cable box, it will only display the signal being shown then. Most of the ones I've seen are just cables you hook from the video out port to the device. You'd need either an RF remote relay or a cable box with a built-in RF remote.

If you're doing this for cable TV, it might be worth it to have the cable company come out and do it for you. I think mine charges $25 per jack to install, so if I had a particularly nasty cable run I'd just call them rather than spend an afternoon with a fish tape.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Mine just connects to the video/audio out on the receiver. So whatever it's on is what I see. Works fine for me since I live by myself.

So you could hook it up to a game console, receiver, etc.

 

[Specop 007]

Originally posted by: MrBond
Whoops, blank post.

Anyway, I don't think they make a wireless cable/data router. The 2.4ghz wireless video things just happen to work on the same spectrum as wireless internet (so it'll cut into your bandwidth if you're surfing/streaming video at the same time).

If it's coming from a cable box, it will only display the signal being shown then. Most of the ones I've seen are just cables you hook from the video out port to the device. You'd need either an RF remote relay or a cable box with a built-in RF remote.

If you're doing this for cable TV, it might be worth it to have the cable company come out and do it for you. I think mine charges $25 per jack to install, so if I had a particularly nasty cable run I'd just call them rather than spend an afternoon with a fish tape.

I wouldnt let the cable company do it, but they did a half assed job on my last one. I didnt stand over his shoulder to make sure it was done right. I had a wall on the upstairs, unfinished basement below. Rather then run up through the wall, the jackass drilled a hole up through the floor right in front of the wall. Frickin jerkoff. After that experience, I dont trust the cable company to install a damn thing except the cable drop to the house.

 

[Kelemvor]

You can get Wireless entwork devices that take the signal and send it on to the TV and can then use them over any home network if you have one.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
when I build my house I will have cat5es running through the walls too

With the ever increasing speed of wireless is it really worth it?

 

[Sphexi]

There is no way to send the full cable signal coming out of your wall to somewhere else wirelessly, at least not with what's available to consumers. The signal coming out is modulated, meaning that all of the channels are on a slightly different frequency. It'd be incredibly difficult to take all of those frequencies, combine them and send them off over a single frequency to a receiver somewhere, then split them back apart again.

What you can do though is send the output from a cable box/VCR (composite, or S-Video), since it's only a single audio/video signal, as opposed to dozens. The transmitter/receiver will usually have a remote extender built-in, so you can control the VCR/cable box from the other location. That would be the easiest and cheapest way.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
There is no way to send the full cable signal coming out of your wall to somewhere else wirelessly, at least not with what's available to consumers. The signal coming out is modulated, meaning that all of the channels are on a slightly different frequency. It'd be incredibly difficult to take all of those frequencies, combine them and send them off over a single frequency to a receiver somewhere, then split them back apart again.

What you can do though is send the output from a cable box/VCR (composite, or S-Video), since it's only a single audio/video signal, as opposed to dozens. The transmitter/receiver will usually have a remote extender built-in, so you can control the VCR/cable box from the other location. That would be the easiest and cheapest way.

Yep. Terk makes a "leapfrog" product that does this. I paid like $80 for a set a few years ago that does as you described. My set was 900mhz and the biggest downfall was that whenever the 900mhz cordless phone rang or was in use it jarbled up the signal. Otherwise though, the picture quality was good on a 20" TV and my DirectTV remote control was able to be used in another room to control the station.