RF Modulator

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arcticfox2005

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Apr 18, 2011
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I need some help figuring out how to get audio output. My 1080p Samsung TV has no audio output jacks. When I am watching DISH or my DVD player, which feed the TV via HDMI cables, I can use the audio output jacks on the DISH receiver or the DVD player to feed my wireless headphones (which I really need). However, when using the rooftop digital HD antenna, it feeds the TV via coax. Hence, I cannot use my headphones. I talked to an engineer in Wyoming who runs a radio shop, and he told me to run the coax from the rooftop antenna to an old VCR and from it to the TV - then use the audio output jacks on the back of the VCR to feed the headphones. Sounds good - however not enough room in the cabinet which houses the DISH receiver and DVD player for another large box. I have two old VCRs and they are both too big. What I need is another solution involving a much smaller box. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bill
 
Unless your old VCR is "digital ready", it may not work for you since the FCC decided we all needed to go digital so they could sell the old VHF frequencies.  You might look at Wal-Mart for one of the digital converter boxes.  They are fairly small and, if I remember correctly, have RCA connectors for audio and video out the back.  As for satellite receivers, the ANT input on SOME, is simply a feed-through of the ANT signal to the other F connector when the receiver is in the OFF position.  I suspect that since you don't get audio out of the satellite receiver when watching OTA TV, you have that kind.
 
I have had 2 Samsungs and both had mini headset outputs, one one the front and the other on the rear???
 
I too will ask the question, since the answer depends on the answer to it. Is this a new HDTV or an older NTSC type?

The older TV's. often did not have audio out.  There are some ways to add audio out but alas,,,, Takes technical skills and documents (I'm a bit short on the technical documents)

The concept of the VCR is good, but there are other options too.. For example I just rigged an AC power supply to my pocket TV (An old I think 4" RCA it is NTSC analog only, has AUDIO out.  Fits in a shirt pocket.

There are "TV TUNERS" for sound systems.. Same concept. and about the same size.
 
Thanks for some of your input.

Yes, the sat receiver does have an antenna coax input, but the audio engineer I mentioned said that the signal would go right through it and there would be no audio output at the RCA jacks on the rear.

And, NO, as I stated earlier, the Samsung does not have audio output jacks, front or rear. The TV is new, bought at Costco, is a 27" 1080p, and was packaged as a TV/Monitor. It is apparently for that reason that it has no audio output.

The sat receiver is a newer model HD, DISH ViP211k.

Any other recommendations will be appreciated. I will look for a Wal Mart or Best Buy employee who seems to possess some knowledge and knows their inventory.

Bill
 
You actually need a demodulator, to take the coax composite signal and break out the audio. Problem is, the antenna lead has the audio & video for all the stations, so you also need a tuner. Basically you want a tv tuner box that has audio out and video out. If your tv has component or HDMI or even VGA input, you could possibly use one of the boxes designed to capture tv signals for a PC and send the audio one way and video only or video plus audio to the tv. Here is one example of that:
http://www.directron.com/tvlcdhr.html

Basically, use your tv as it was designed, as a monitor rather than a tv tuner. Use an external tuner to feed it video and send the audio wherever you want.
 
I'm surprised there isn't at least a 1/8" headphone jack hiding in the corner of the rear connector panel, or an optical output jack.  Either of these would send audio to an external amplifier.

But then, maybe it explains why the TV was at Costco.  They tend to buy odd lots of products.  A few years back I bought a 26" Westinghouse LCD TV from them that has an unusable backlight dimming feature - whenever you dim the LCD backlight you get a buzz in the loudspeakers.  The response from the Costco Concierge when I made a warranty complaint was I could either trade it in on another model (and pay the difference in price) or keep it and just not dim the backlight.  I decided to keep it.  My main printer is a Panasonic all in one laser printer/scanner/copier they sold for $49.  When I got it home I discovered it didn't have the fax function described in the manual - I guess they ran short of fax cards during the production run.  No problem since I don't have a landline phone. 

My cousin in the clothing business says sometimes a container full of, say, XL winter jackets falls off the ship on the way here from China - it happens more often than you think.  Since the inventory is now missing a size, they can't sell the remaining 4 containers of jackets to regular stores, so they go to Costco.
 
There are ATSC VTR's in existence, as well as stand-alone receivers that output HDMI as well as component analog video and audio to RCA (obviously), both ~$200. We use them in ENG news vans to see off-air video in analog monitors.
I too would be surprised if there isn't some jack: RCA, mini, etc. on that TV.
 
Samsung has some models such as arcticfox2005 describes - I've run into them before. They are designed as monitors and primarily offer input jacks but little or nothing for output. Since so many tvs are used exclusively with satellite or cable tv set-top-boxes, they really don't need much functionality, often not even a tuner!
 
The TV/Monitor in question is 1080p, with a beautiful picture with 2 HDMI inputs, but, no audio output  of any kind, RCA jacks, mini jack, etc. etc. etc.

Gary - the tuner box that you gave me a link to. Am I correct in thinking that it would slove my problem? Coax input from the rooftop digital antenna, video output to the TV and audio output to the wireless headphones?

Thanks for your help.

Bill
 
I think it would do everything you want, but I did not try to verify all the details. I intended it as an example of the type of thing that was needed rather than the specific solution. If it has inputs and outputs that match the type of wiring/jacks you have, then it ought to work. Theer may be cheaper/less elaborate ones that would do the job as well.  I would make sure I bought from a place with a good return policy, though. Just in case.

What is doing the tv tuning now? HDMI input normally does not feed to an ATSC tuner - the signal is assumed to be already tuned to a single "channel" when it arrives. Or does it have a coax input to a tuner in addition to the HDMI?
 
What is doing the tv tuning now? HDMI input normally does not feed to an ATSC tuner - the signal is assumed to be already tuned to a single "channel" when it arrives. Or does it have a coax input to a tuner in addition to the HDMI?

There are 3 input cables - coax from the Winnebago standard rooftop Jack antenna (made by King Controls) and HDMI cables from the DISH ViP211k receiver and a DVD player. No other connections. Hope this answers your question.

Bill
 
The coax input must go to an ATSC tuner then.That selects a channel from the source signal and sends video to the screen and audio to the speakers. The HDMI cables will not do that - they would feed the display & speakers directly and so require an external tuner to pull the desired video and audio from the television source signal..
 
The coax input must go to an ATSC tuner then.That selects a channel from the source signal and sends video to the screen and audio to the speakers.

Gary,

The device that you refered to has coax input which could be the rooftop antenna and VGA monitor output as well as audio output for headphones. My only question at this point is how VGA monitor output would compare, resolution wise, to what I have with the Jack antenna feeding the TV directly. Would VGA resolution compare to 720p?  1080p? The TV/monitor is 1080p and the picture right now is as sharp as I have ever seen - truly outstanding.

Thanks again for your help.

Bill
 
The VGA cable doesn't define the resolution - the video processor in the converter box does that. The one I cited above says it supports up to 1680 x 1050. 

You also need to identify the "native resolution" of your tv. Just because it can support a 1080p tv signal does not mean it will actually display that resolution. TVs less than about 32" typically down-convert 1080p to something closer to 720, which is what they can actually do. This article may help you understand native resolution and HDTV.

http://reviews.cnet.com/hdtv-resolution/

By the way, the digital broadcast signal off your antenna is probably never better than 1080i (not 1080P) and mostly either 480i or 720p. This is covered in that article as well.
 
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