I am trying to set up a tv network in my home. I have coaxial cables running from various points in my house to a central closet. It's the closet that I want as nerve central. I plan to have HD satellite tv service. What kinds of equipment and accessories do I need, i.e., remotes, additional cabling, to get signal to tv's and control the same (volume, channel selection, power) when the satellite receivers, etc. are in the closet?

As nicely as I can put this....hire some help.

Good luck.

hire a pro.....

You can do this using a couple of different methods but in the end, you are going to run a high resolution signal across coax which will result in sub-standard (standard being S-Video or better) video and audio. Though I understand why you'd like to do it, I'd stick with a DTV tuner in each location but if you must;

1.) Use a modulator to "modulate" the output from one (or all) DTV tuners throught the coax to the TV's. Modulators allow you to input a signal across coax and select a channel to view at the other end it using the TV's onboard tuner (similar to a VCR using channel 3 on the TV to view).

2.) Use an infrared "injector" to pass IR signals down the coax to the centrally-located DTV tuner to "change the channel" or other DTV menu options. This requires an infrared seperator and emitters on the back end to "repeat" the remote signals passed through the coax to the DTV tuner.

3.) Alternate to #2 - Run 4-strand wire to each room and put an infrared receiver in the ceiling of each room to pass the IR signals back to the DTV tuner (also requires infrared emitters at tuner-end).

4.) Alternate to #2 and #3 - Buy a remote capable of sending radio rather than IR signals and simply use emitters on the DTV tuner to convert the radio signal into IR.

The bottom line is you'll spend money and end up with issues like all tuners changing the channel when one button is pushed in one room. DTV tuners turning on or off when someone else decides to turn theirs on (or off). Also, the biggest drawback (IMO) is the lack of decent audio and video since your modulating the dignal across coax, this is not that great (I speak from experience as this is the way I set up my first multi-room system in 1998). The picture was more than fine to watch but crap when compared to 1080i output from a progressive scan DVD player across HDMI cables...

I hope this helped a little but the others are right in that you should probably consult a profesional if you want performance over price. If you want price over perofmrnace, this can be achieved (with a steep learning curve)...

Jack

He stated that was going to get Hi-Def, modulator = no Hi Def.

What you want to do is pretty straight forward, but there a few options out there. You might want to look at some sort of video matrix switcher, or now there are baluns to send HDTV over Cat5.

For something like this I would really consult a pro, unfortunatly I have seen "Hi Def" sent through a modulator and they were complaining about picture quaility.

He also stated coax ;-)

What kinds of equipment

He also said this;)

Just pointing out something that I find all to often. especially when the cable company has been there before me.

Just tune the TV to channel 3 and you will be watching HDTV. Not so funny when you are trying to explain all the labor involved in really getting them HDTV.

Thanks JFETTER. I am sharing your information with my installer.

if your installer does not know how to do this...fire his ass right now and find another

ed

most everyone is right hire a pro. if not Key Digital or Audio Authority make products for HDTV distrobution. You will need at least 3 video cables and 2 audio cables to each tv. I've haven't checked the cat 5 tricks yet. i've set up some major appliance stores with 40 or more hdtv's off 1 source. pix's degrade a bit with the dasie chain of hd amps. the first box or 2 pix's are good. as for cable try a 59 copper braid and full copper center conductor ( as used in tv's studios and cable tv headends ). you can get compression 59 to rca connectors. you might also try mini coax if cost is not factor. dave

". pix's degrade a bit with the dasie chain of hd amps. the first box or 2 pix's are good. as for cable try a 59 copper braid and full copper center conductor ( as used in tv's studios and cable tv headends )."

People who know what they're doing don't 'daisy chain' amps together.

RG59 hasn't been a standard in broadcast and post in aver 40 years....time to educate yourself and move into , at least, the 90's.

thanks founding father. i quess i should have said cascading as in the spec's of the audio athority 985 u hd distrobution amp. some of us are a little touchy about our age. i also should have said servailance camera cable instead of 59 copper/copper. not everyone is privey to solder 6o 61 or 62's.