TiVo Community Forums Archives - Getting TiVo video around the house

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Getting TiVo video around the house
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Posted by: osd1000chiark

I'd like to be able to send TiVo video to my small portable TV I keep in my bedroom. I would use one of these combined wireless infrared and video senders, but they all seem to use SCART or composite video cables, and my TV only has an RF input and a RGB `computer' port.

Do any of these senders let you use a TV with only RF input? Do any of them send anything other than a composite video signal? If a sender sent the full SCART RGB signal could I connect that (presumably via some resistors) to the RGB port on the TV?

Really what I'd like is to use my existing LAN infrastructure and just put a Turbonet card in the TiVo, but I suspect the TiVo isn't beefy enough to stream video over the network (and it boils down to video extraction which is verboten anyway...)

Posted by: woody

lektropacks do a video sender that outputs to RF. (GIGA 30 @ Ł99)

Posted by: inahat

or the digisender available at argos, you can buy an aerial convertor for it from these people for Ł23.

easylife.co.uk

or use a kat5 set to send the picture, sound and ir over your network, they are out of stock at the moment while he makes some more.

stu

Posted by: osd1000chiark

quote:
Originally posted by inahat
or use a kat5 set to send the picture, sound and ir over your network, they are out of stock at the moment while he makes some more.

That won't work, as it just uses the cat5 cabling as wire rather than using it as ethernet. The AV would get as far as my wireless bridges and then stop!

I'll go for a GIGA 30 or something like that when money allows.

Posted by: mbuckhurst

If you're going to use a gigavideo and a 2.4GHz wireless system (802.11a or 802.11g), it's quite likely you'll get interference on the tv and a poor signal on the device if you're using both devices in close proximity/same room.

mike

Posted by: guydewdney

quote:
Originally posted by mbuckhurst
If you're going to use a gigavideo and a 2.4GHz wireless system (802.11a or 802.11g), it's quite likely you'll get interference on the tv and a poor signal on the device if you're using both devices in close proximity/same room.

mike

like I do... :(

but ?automan? doesn't and he has set his wireless thingy to only be on channel 1 or something...

Posted by: iankb

quote:
Originally posted by mbuckhurst
If you're going to use a gigavideo and a 2.4GHz wireless system (802.11a or 802.11g), it's quite likely you'll get interference on the tv and a poor signal on the device if you're using both devices in close proximity/same room.

802.11a is in the 5GHz band. I think you mean 802.11b.

You shouldn't get much or any interference if 1) you use an access point for your WiFi network and 2) you set the video sender to the lowest band and the WiFi network to the highest band.

If the access point is used in infrastructure mode, and is permanently powered, it should stop the WiFi devices from polling through the video band while looking for active devices.

I have no problems.

Ian.

Posted by: woody

would the simpler/cheaper option be to run a co-ax from the RF out on the Tivo to the second TV (perfect picture, well almost), and just buy a IR transmitter, to controll the Tivo from the second TV viewing position.(Lektropacks PowerMid @ Ł39.99)

chris

Posted by: leerichards

I'm thinking of doing a similar thing. I want to view TiVo output on a TV I intend to install in my kitchen. In reality, the TV will only be about 10 feet away from my TiVo, with only a (pretty hefty) brick wall in between. What is the quality of these Video Senders over such a distance? i.e. Video Sender Plus. Is it comparable with a co-ax connection?
I'm not sure what connectivity I have on the back of TiVo (haven't looked for a while!) I have TiVo, Sky Digital and a DVD player connected to a Toshiba widescreen TV with three scart sockets. I imagine I'd just connect the Videosender to an aux scart on the back of TiVo?

Cheers,

Lee

Posted by: mrtickle

quote:
Originally posted by woody
would the simpler/cheaper option be to run a co-ax from the RF out on the Tivo to the second TV (perfect picture, well almost), and just buy a IR transmitter, to controll the Tivo from the second TV viewing position.(Lektropacks PowerMid @ Ł39.99)

chris

That's exactly what I've done (except I bought the powermids from CPC!). I had powermids for the sky digibox before tivo, so I just swapped the cable over when tivo arrived. It works well and it'll do for the time being. I only have a portable in the bedroom so the mono sound isn't a problem.

Posted by: mbuckhurst

quote:
Originally posted by iankb
802.11a is in the 5GHz band. I think you mean 802.11b.

You shouldn't get much or any interference if 1) you use an access point for your WiFi network and 2) you set the video sender to the lowest band and the WiFi network to the highest band.

If the access point is used in infrastructure mode, and is permanently powered, it should stop the WiFi devices from polling through the video band while looking for active devices.

I have no problems.

Ian.

oops, yes I meant 802.11b

but I still get interference no matter what combination of channels on the video sender and and access point, believe me it was a pain in the neck checking all the combinations.

mike

Posted by: osd1000chiark

quote:
Originally posted by woody
would the simpler/cheaper option be to run a co-ax from the RF out on the Tivo to the second TV (perfect picture, well almost), and just buy a IR transmitter, to controll the Tivo from the second TV viewing position.(Lektropacks PowerMid @ Ł39.99)

chris

It might be simpler, but I'm trying as much as possible to avoid trailing wires round the house, and particularly up the stairs.

Posted by: woody

how about a diplexer, and send the Tivo signal back up the aerial cable, and then to the second TV.

Any reason why this shouldn't work? I know it can be done with sky.

Posted by: pip&pop

No reason the diplexer wouldn't work.

Personally I've got RF distribution from a first TV to a video distribution amp and on to others. Other than the big TV (42 inch) the portables and even the 28 inch don't notice the quality drop.

Having said that I find all the remote control extenders are at 433MHz 10mW and of the three that I've tried, none make it much past one brick wall before becoming intermittent or worse.

Really frustrating I can't extend my remote... Any other options?

What I'd really like is a remote control that had a built in extender to transmit to wherever the associated receiver was.

Posted by: B33K34

I've got both an RF connection and a KAT5 sender linking the main AV set up to the kitchen. The picture using KAT5 is noticably better but isnt really justified above RF for a portable - it would be different if it was a second viewing area with a big set. My primary reason for using it was for the audio. An upgrade/mk2 KAT5 with IR link is due soon as well.

I found the picture quality of the wireless sender i tried very poor.

Posted by: radish

I have a wireless sender from the living room to a portable in the bedroom, which is a distance of about 10m through a single (partition) wall. The picture and sound quality are both perfect (no discernable difference from a cable connection) and the IR works fine. No interference from 802.11b either.

Posted by: iankb

I have two video receivers which are both one floor up from the transmitter and one and two rooms across respectively. Absolutely no problems normally with the video, the remote, or a Wi-Fi network.

Very occasionally, due to weather conditions(?), I get significant video interference when walking around the rooms. Moving the receivers usually solves the problem and, the next day, the problem has totally disappeared. No idea what causes it, but I am not in the direct line of transmitter to receiver, either in front or behind the receiver.

Ian.