I've recently been trying to duplicate in HD a system that a client had in SD for more than ten years.

It consists of an antenna system for reception of OTA signals throughout the house, with the output of a DirecTV box modulated onto a local UHF channel that has neither adjacent channel nor cochannel interference.

I tried a modulator from some guys who have a GREAT ad department, and maybe even GREAT products. I'll never know, because they have a habit of not answering the phones and not following up, the worst I've seen in anyone actually in business. They are PVI out of Florida.

I then tried one from Calrad, but a weird problem arose: after a channel change of the DirecTV unit, it took up to ten seconds for the picture to come on.

Research showed that this did not happen with a DirecTV H24, but happened almost every time with the DirecTV wireless client C41W. We got an H24 and everything is almost wonderful.

The client (customer, that is) has eight Sony TVs and one LG. The clear channel in our area is UHF 16. The signal comes in as 16.1 except for two TVs, where it's 16.4. Calrad has no idea why and has never heard of that before. I know this guy, and he's not making that up. So it's a bit weird, but it works.

And, of course, HDCP may change and kill what we're trying to do. The customer is a grown-up, though, and he's good for now.

This is all to inform you that HDMI, not being just a freakin' video signal, has even more newer and worser problems awaiting you if you try things you useta could do with analog video.

Contact Blonder Tongue- I would be surprised if they can't do something with this.