I know it's hard to believe but where I am very few of my customers have sat now that Comcast has broadband, HD and DVR function.
But I've got a project that's going to have four sat receivers, two high def (no tivo) and two regular. The regular boxes will be modulated only and the high def boxes will be modulated and harwired to respective HD plasmas but all four will be mounted in a rack. I have an MX850 quoted but I may use this job to try the RTI product

I think control(read discreet power) and the ability to output HD to the plasma and LowD to the modulator simultaneously are the important bits. I'll need a dish with four outputs but I believe that's pretty standard now and will come with one of the receivers.
I'm specking the gear but the customer is going to buy it all and have me install it by the hour. I haven't been set up for DirecTV since they axed so many of the small guys a few years ago now. I was very happy the day that happened.

I am curious, why do some of you guys still modulate in this day and age when a cheap sat receiver can be purchased for under $100?

why not grab a matrix switcher, like Key Digital or Sonance, and give some real functionality to that system... You can add in a multi-disc DVD player, a CD player, a media PC, etc

That way, you can make some cash on the parts, too, eh

DirecTV no longer has any UHF remote capable sd receivers. Are you going to use IR targets at all tv locations? The latest basic receivers do not have the capability of changing the ir to a different code. Because of this, we now need to use a combo of MX-350 with MRF-250 and route the ir. Good luck.

Also, the new HD non-Tivo, Model H10, can't output HD and composite video at the same time, and there are no discretes that can force an output resolution.

Can't feed HD into the "local" hot-shot monitor while sending composite video to touchpanels & modulators. The older DTC-210 could, but that was just *too* easy.

In response to QQQ...

That's a good question and with the way this job has evolved modulation may not be the simpler solution that I intended it to be. There was major time constraints on my part end and construction deadlines at the other end so we agreed on a system in principle and wired it up towards that end but nothing is written in stone at this point.
It's not a residential setup. It seemed to be the most straight forward way to get video and audio from six sources to five diplays. The job has moved around quite a bit since I first did a design for it nine months ago but it still seems to be the simplest setup. Six channels to remember and the channel#'s will be clearly displayed on each source. No local cable to screw up the modulation either.
For programming I'm planning on setting it up so that you pick the TV from the main page. On the first page for the TV there will be two rows of "channels" one side will just select the channel and go back to the main page for the next TV selection. The right side will select the channel and go to the page for controlling whatever source is at that channel. There is also still a possibility that the HD displays will be dropped for ED panels. I wonder if it would still be worth it to send component HD to the display and let the display downconvert?
All the speakers are commercial 70v broken into three areas for level control but one zone. The speaker side of it is the only thing that is 100% set. I'll be looking through commercial catalogs later tonight to see if I can find somthing IR (Or RS232 if I gobRTI) controlled with six inputs and 70v output. I think finding something with that many inputs will be difficult.
I'm not usually doing final design like this pretty much hours before the install but that's the way my life has gone the past few months.

Not true. Im currently using an H-10 hooked up to a RPTV via HDMI and a projector via S-video. Both are on as I write this post.

Ive had composite to the projector in the past as well, before I got around to running the cat 5 line.

Ted,

If they're going to be using ED PDP's I wouldn't bother with the component cabling. I'd just go ahead with a modulated and distributed composite signal.

It would seem like a waste of good cabling to send the signal over compnent for a ED display.......

I was thinking the same thing but it is a toss up. I've got one run of Belden mini RGBHV running to each HD location and I'm sure the picture would look better running compononet 480i for the sat and the dvd to the two ED panels than a modulated composite singal on consumer grade modulators.
At this point I'm going to push for two HD panels with a decent DVD player and use a combination of the Key Digital 8x3 matrix and a four channel modulator. I wrote out the diagram last night and it looked pretty good. Hopefully they still have enough money left to do it....

Normally I hate being *wrong*, but in this case it's good news. Thanks!

It is good news but I'd say you are still right that component HD and composite won't be on at the same time.

Ted, are you saying that Dish is wrong?

I'm sorry, but doesn't EDTV mean 480i/480p? Don't you need component for 480p?

What am I missing here?

Sorry, wrong again.

I could have sworn I had comosite hooked up to my projector before I had a chance to run cat5 for s-video, AND component video at the same time. Couldnt remember for sure, so I just re-connected it that way.

Component and composite both active as I write.

BTW, does ANYONE have a work around for discrete power for these DTV HD boxes?

I tried the "program the remote for the TV" as suggested elsewhere, but it doesnt work

Taken form one of my other posts:

"Ok, I see that there are (2) seperate power buttons for the TV. (One "ON" and one "OFF") And when I program the remote for the TV as suggested, I see (2) LED blinks when TV "on" or "off" is pressed. (First the DTV led, then the TV led) This leads me to believe its sending out (2) power commands, one for TV and one for Sat, with just the (1) button press of the TV power (on OR off). Similar to the older RCA remotes that had an all off "macro" if you presed the power button twice, and all were of the RCA brand.

HOWEVER, even though the SAT led is blinking when TV power is pressed, the sat box still wont turn off. It ONLY turns off when the "power" toggle button is pressed.

So am I missing something?"