Looks like I will have HiDef Modulators for sale in about 60 days. Want to see what kind of retail pricing would be supported. Please give reasons for pricing. Thanks

I was wondering when HD modulators would be available. Do these modulators use component or HDMI inputs?

Dawn

In order to answer that question you need to provide ALOT more detail that "what kind of retail pricing would be supported". If it is built like crap, and has issues, you could not pay me to take it. If it is built like a brick sh*t house, stellar picture quality, can be run for miles and has tons of integrator friendly features then its value is going to be much greater.

Are these for

A: Inputing HD that will down scale it to analog and provide an anolog modulation channel

or

B: Inputing an analog signal such as a camera or vcr and giving a digital modulation channel

?????????????????

Would definately need more info on this product. Would it have ir control, or just be a modulator. How many channels, etc. AVXpressions brings up some excellent questions. I will watch this thread to see what develops.

Come on now, you got my attention...

It would have component input to HD UHF channel modulation. Where I have the need is for sports bars that want to be 100% HD, but are limited to the 20 box total from Direct TV. After all the talk about HDMI being a pain in the *** I would think that simple is better. Quality is based on broadcast quality next generation. I was frustrated by lack of unit and approached a broadcast manufacture who wants to support me in bringing this product to the commerical and residental market. No ir as this is not a inexpensive residental unit.

So This little box will let me take a HD signal from a Sat or cable box and modulate it to a digital channel. Correct?

I assume you are doing this so that you could have say 20 HD channels to say 50 HD televisions so that you don't have to have a box for every TV?

I could see a good use for this commercially in restraunts and bars.

Does this modulator also have an input for digital audio? or Analog Audio?
If yes to audio and not digital audio will it be stereo or mono?

You mentioned no IR control? Why would I need to control it at all. Set it and forget it.


How about a ballpark retail price range you are looking at?

If we come up with prices that we think are right, and you can't make enough money to happily stay in business, you will hate doing it and eventually quit, but not until you have pissed off a lot of people because you can't bring yourself to put in the time that will be needed to iron out problems...because you will feel like you have an albatross around your neck.

If you price it based on what it costs you, how much profit you need to make it worth your while to do the basic work of getting it to us, and more profit so that you don't feel like you are being raped whenever someone has a problem that you did not foresee, then that is the price it should be.

If we don't want to deal with that price, we will have to wait for your competitors.

I know that products have become much more highly integrated and prices have gone down, but consider that five years ago, and even ten years ago, a single-channel single-rack space modulator with mono audio cost about $300.

Why wouldn't you just use a high def component video matrix switcher? I can't say that I have ever seen a sports bar, no matter how many TV's they have, actually showing more then a few different broadcasts.

Using a modulator to distribute your content would require that each display have an ATSC tuner. Most of your consumer flat panels will have that, but for projection, and your commercial grade displays, you may have to add an outboard tuner.

You have to compare the cost of doing this to other solutions that are available. Component video matrix switching and distribution amps are more available and more cost effective than I am guessing your solution is.
Maybe you could stop fishing and tell us a price range for what you have. Less than $10K?
It's difficult to say what price the market will support when you have other cheaper ways to solve the problem of distributing HD video. However there are no consumer products in that space, and nothing that I am aware of for less than $20K.

Will your solution include audio?

hey guys there's this "new" thing that comes with these nufangled tvs called a cable card. it gives u hdtv like aoutomaticly, or aoutomagicly, directv will confront it's 20 max, if you bitch enuff theres no max. comcast cable vs directv, theres no winner, depend on the brodcast. but anyway I can put unlimted hdtvs on 1 cable feed with great results, even if it's not the best, for bar it's perfect.

Even with a cable card the display needs an ATSC tuner and no commercial flat panels have tuners or cable card slots. Cable card won't provide the NFL SUnday Ticket either which is what most real sports bars are going to need. Component matrix switching is still the best solution. With a matrix, you would never need more than 20 Sat boxes, unless you realy need to display more than 20 different channels at once, which I can't invision.
Locally we have a bar with 18 projectors and another 30 TVs, both cable and D*. All through a matrix. Any channel on any display from cble or D* (only Sunday ticket on D*) Unfortunately and unwisely, they opted for SD only. No HD. Tried to save $$, now know that SD on projectors in bars is horrible. Anyway, the point is that matrix switching is th way to go.

lets not foget one reason to modulate would be a huge savings in cabling cost.

also dont forget progressive scan DVD throughout the house as well high res music server interface throughout house pretty cool

Touch commander if you want to break into residential market, figure out how to modulate standard def sources and cameras into a digital cable signal for customers who have dreaded digital cable boxes. the only way i know is that stupid work around filter thing from channel plus but that is ridiculous and it forces you to use the coaial input on your tv. we will not modulate if customer uses cable company it is to iffy and you are guaranteed operational problems

Yeah, if someone would come out with an unencrypted QAM modulator, that would be good too... :-)