Originally Posted by Aidan_Grant1:
“I'm looking for a way to convert the HDMI output on my new BT TV box to RF, to run it through to other TVs in the house, as I used to with Sky.”
You need two bits of kit. The first is a
Triax TriLink kit. This replicates the way that a Sky box works with magic eyes over an coax distribution system, but it does so for other gear e.g. your BT box. This kit is compatible with the "
Sky Eye"-type infra red receivers. You add those to the RF coax connection at the back of each of the remote TVs. There are a couple of caveats with this part of the solution; (1) you need an aerial coax direct from the roof/loft aerial to the main lounge TV and then out up to the amplified splitter that distributes to the various other TVs in the house, and (2) that aerial distribution amp needs to be capable of passing the 9V power required to make the Sky Eyes work. Other than that you'll be fine. You don't have to be watching the analogue RF channel for the magic eyes to work. In fact you could be watch HDMI over CAT cable and still use the eyes to control the source box remotely.
The second bit of kit you need is something to turn HDMI in to an RF signal at HD resolution. This is the same as what you receive when watching HD channels via the terrestrial aerial system. This
Edison box will take care of that. As you said in one of your replies, you'll need a two-way HDMI splitter to give both this box and the local TV a HDMI signal. That's not too difficult to add though. However, I'd stay away from splitters which draw their power from the HDMI socket of the source device. Go for an externally powered splitter instead.
If you aren't bothered about having Freeview on the lounge TV the wiring path then looks like this:
Roof/loft aerial to lounge and connects to the RF in of the BT Ultra HD box.
BT RF out to the Edison RF in
Edison RF out to the Triax RF in
Triax RF out goes to your 2/4/6/8/X-way aerial distribution amp
HDMI (via 2-way splitter) connects to the Edison
The result is that all remote TVs can receive Freeview as normal plus they can be tuned to a new "Freeview mux channel" that is the HD image from your BT box.
Should you wish to retain Freeview on the lounge TV then use a metal-bodied (shielded) passive RF splitter.
Here's one from Screwfix. It has DC pass too, but that's not essential to where it's going in your network.
While you're wiring all this stuff up take my advice as a professional aerial installer and buy 10ft of Webro WF100 TV/sat coax. Don't buy the coax from Screwfix (PF100) or 'low loss' RG6 coax from on-line stores or DIY sheds. They're all crap cable. Get the decent stuff; it's well shielded and will save you a lot of hassle from scratching your head trying to work out why there's spurious interference.