Converting an analog video sender to digital?

Andy454

Inspired by yesterdays news articles on analog deflectors being turned off in West Cork and complaints over reception of digital signals from nearest rte site.

Could the people that own and depending on these deflectors convert them to digital themselves on the cheap?

Back a decade or so ago, I got an analog video sender from somewhere in the middle east, it took composite video and left channel audio and converted them into an RF channel that could be adjusted between UHF ch 35 and 42.

It was a tiny little box 12V 250mA, but did put out a kick.


The nature of the signal is still the same, i.e. its still an electromagnetic wave travelling through the air, just instead of carrying amplitude modulating audio and video, it carries amplitude modulated 1's and 0's

What needs to be done to create an mpeg 2 terrestrial signal.

Say my pc recieves an mpeg 2 transport stream from a satellite channel, say bbc 1, what do I need to do with this transport stream to convert it into a usable RF signal....

surely all we need to do is create an rf transponder with a repetative packet for the tv to recognise as a digital mux and then stream the mpeg 2 data from the sat card straight to it?

Should be simple enough...

Andy454

someone posted it already...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=52998113

Johnboy1951

I hope I am not hi-jacking this thread with my question/s ...

I wondered if there is a simple, cheap (maybe free? ) means of [ receiving the Saorview channels, say through a USB dongle, and ] sending them out again on a cable or multiple cables, without changing the received signal, on a frequency of choice.

Advancing that thought ....
Maybe the signal could be de-muxed, and a more limited selection of the channels re-muxed, before being sent ...... or even a couple of different channels added to the mux.

Just wondering is all .... no particular reason for asking, except interest.

The TP can be easily demuxed ..... but I have no knowledge of remuxing for that purpose, or what it might involve.

watty

You can buy the gear to do it. Google Taylor Bros CATV
It's about €800 for PC card that works as a DVB-T modulator. You can feed it with a file copy of a premade Transport stream.

You can build an entire budget DVB-T site fed by ASI connection from a single satellite receiver on Saorsat maybe under €6,000

Johnboy1951

watty wrote: »

You can buy the gear to do it. Google Taylor Bros CATV
It's about €800 for PC card that works as a DVB-T modulator. You can feed it with a file copy of a premade Transport stream.

You can build an entire budget DVB-T site fed by ASI connection from a single satellite receiver on Saorsat maybe under €6,000

Not cheap