Phono Video Sender Kit which one? or Coax?

[ericmark]

I have a problem, a garage built next door means there is not enough room to put a ladder up to the chimney, and access aerial and mast head amplifier, we have two aerials and two feeds from mast head amp and there has been a problem for some time, at the moment there are two power supplies one has no aerial connected to output but switch it off and other one fails, the other one feeds a second pre-amp and although not ideal it works.

From this point we have coax cables feeding three more rooms, two have new cables and we have three satellite boxes one being a Sky HD so even if Freeview totally fails in three rooms we still have TV.

However Mum’s bedroom down stairs has an old cable which is now failed, still getting some signal as the TV was able to find channels when a scan was done, but not good enough to watch.

So either I have to run an new cable, which at £7.30 for a reel is a cheap option, or we can use something like the Nikkai 5.8GHz Phono Video Sender Kit at £49.99 from Maplin which means we can also get a second receiver at £19.99 and get TV into my bedroom too. The quality of coax signals are not the best, in theory I should be able to watch the Sky HD box in our upstairs living room, however the picture is such a poor quality we rarely do, if the video sender kit is as good as coax then for my mother with macular degeneration it is good enough, she does not have HD eyes in fact worse than standard TV signal so no real need for a HD signal.

Maplin are known as being expensive so I wonder if there is a cheaper option? Exactly where it would go I don’t know, maybe up stairs and use three receivers one in each down stairs room and one in my bed room, then we can watch Sky in every room, plus of course anything recorded from Sky.

So thoughts please, and any ideas of which video sender kit to use? To me worth the extra money to be easy install and not only giving TV to mums room, but Sky TV to other rooms as well. I know it's not HD, but coax is not HD either.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

I've used one of those 5.8Ghz things- not sure if it was Nikkai, it came from Fleabay and was about £30. It is very sensitive to position, at the very best the picture and sound is acceptable (lot of background noise on audio). They are also sensitive to other stuff using that band- a friend of mine had the same problem as you, I lent her my transmitter/receiver pair and they would only work at her place within about 2 metres, above that the other signal was squashing it flat on all 4 channels.

While mine worked (it died after about 3 years) it was really handy being able to watch stuff on the Virgin box from upstairs. Not sure what Maplin return policy is, I'd probably pick an Ebay seller with a reasonable returns policy and try one of their £30 specials.
EDIT Just noticed you can get spare receivers for £20 for the Maplin- for your setup the price is going to be about equal, do remember that if your mum is watching Countryfile and you switch over to Debbie Does Dallas she's going to be seeing that as well as you!

 

[ericmark]

Thanks, that is what I was expecting, I suppose I should get my radio working and monitor the frequency. I have battery problems with my old FT50R but sure I can fix it. I have no TV in my bed room, and they would kill two birds with one stone.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Good luck with monitoring 5.8 GHz- my old Alinco only goes up to about 2. Can just about pick up GPS signals but not a sniff of WiFi

 

[ericmark]

Your right just looked it stops at 999 Mhz so can't monitor. I am waiting to see if anyone suggests something else before I rush out and buy, I did look at the ones using LAN cable, I have loads of LAN cable crimper and plugs, but attempts to make up my own cable to date have not been good.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Yerse- making your own patch cords is a dull job, used to make my own when they were expensive (20 years ago) but shop bought ones are dirt cheap now so I don't bother. Better off getting panel sockets and a punchdown tool, put the sockets on each end of your long line then pre made patchcord into the jobbies.

 

[Lucid]

So either I have to run an new cable, which at £7.30 for a reel is a cheap option

Unless this is a very short reel, then £7.30 sounds suspiciously cheap. I'd double-check what you're buying if you go the coax route because that sounds a lot like cheap crappy RG6 (or worse; those TV extension kits... bleurgh)which means you're buying trouble. You've been here long enough to see conversations about coax quality and to know that the thing to buy is Webro WF100. "Buy cheap, buy twice" is probably why you're facing your current coax cable problem. Don't make the same mistake twice.

As for your dilemma: sender vs coax, the sender would be my absolute last choice after exhausting all other options (and Yes, I do really mean all other options). The results with Senders are so very heavily dependent on the wireless interference and signal blocking issues within each users home. The same product can work brilliantly in one house and crap in another. It's all down to whether the signal can get through. I'd also listen to what oldbutnotdead said, the quality is sub-coax, so you're buying a flaky product that gives worse results than coax and spending more money in to the bargain. Yes, it's convenient to fit, but are all those other trade-offs and hassles really worth it?

I'm pretty sure I've been through with you about ways to improve the coax RF signal from a Sky box RF2 output. In case you can't remember, it involves changing the RF output channel and looking for those channels where there's the lowest interference.

Seeing as you have a crimp kit and RJ45 Ethernet plugs then I'd be tempted to consider splitting the HDMI signal with a powered distribution amp and then running a couple of HDMI-over-Cat-cable balun kits. This will work out cheaper than the video sender idea and give you HD quality too. Get kits with IR Repeaters built-in and you solve the control issue at the same time.

If you're absolutely certain you still want to go down the wireless repeater route then why not pick up one of the many used ones for sale on Ebay? Prices start from around £10 for the same Nikkai kit as Maplin sells. Sure, you can't return it, but if it doesn't work then you can always resell again on Ebay.

 

[ericmark]

Thank you ordered the coax Webro WF100 will do it the hard way.

 

[ericmark]

Well mixed results, new cable fitted no joints between living room and mothers bed room, still need pegging to wall and cutting to length, 30M Black Satellite TV Coaxial Cable Webro WF100 still uncut and not that much over length so test one Freeview this was a failure, little better than before, but not good enough to view, test two was RF from set top box in living room, poor but viewable, so test three removed the RF link on the set top box so only signal from set top box, non for Freeview, near perfect picture, test four removed set top box and only Freeview, it was failure.

In all it has done what is required, I don't really want to have to tune my mothers TV to the program being watched in the living room, having it auto show the same as living room is good enough, idea is she can see the end of what she was watching when she goes to bed. And now she can, she can watch all Freeview, Satellite and pre-recorded channels in her bed room, she can't manage the TV remote anyway so setting it in the living room is not really a problem.

I think the problem is either the mast head amp or aerial both very hard to reach, since now most channels can be viewed without using Freeview it is not really a problem. Best picture I have ever had in that room, so no real complaints. However if it was not for my mother I would not really be satisfied, so I may retain full length of cable so in the future I can fit a 8 output LNB and use that cable for a direct satellite connection. Of course if mother was not in the house then likely the Sky HD + box would be moved down stairs so that cable would allow full control from front room using digieye.