[Inge Jones]

For those people who have for example 4 CCTV cameras they wish to view on the TV sets in many rooms, who maybe want to keep their DVD player and PVR or video recorder in a distribution cupboard...

Would I be right in saying they rely on multiplexing all these things onto a co-ax feed to the various rooms, using analogue channels?

I have bought two TVs with integral Freeview tuners, and neither of them have any analogue tuning capability. I guess analogue tuning is going to be phased out by TV manufacturers. Now TVs do of course have scart inputs and AV jacks, but each one will only take one signal source - won't cope with 4 cameras and a DVD player!

What are people planning to do about distributed A/V in the future?

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inge Jones

For those people who have for example 4 CCTV cameras they wish to view on the TV sets in many rooms, who maybe want to keep their DVD player and PVR or video recorder in a distribution cupboard...

Would I be right in saying they rely on multiplexing all these things onto a co-ax feed to the various rooms, using analogue channels?

Multiplexing isn't really the correct term, they are simply mixed together.

Quote:

I have bought two TVs with integral Freeview tuners, and neither of them have any analogue tuning capability. I guess analogue tuning is going to be phased out by TV manufacturers. Now TVs do of course have scart inputs and AV jacks, but each one will only take one signal source - won't cope with 4 cameras and a DVD player!

It's highly unusual to not have an analogue tuner as well, so really you've chosen particularly poor sets for your purpose.

Quote:

What are people planning to do about distributed A/V in the future?

Keep using analogue tuners, or (far more expensive) use a DTT modulator, which takes a number of AV signals and creates it's own multiplex.

[Inge Jones]

I suppose for a serious user with a comprehensive distributed system, a DTT modulator may be the way to go. After all I remember how expensive DAB tuners were at one time, yet there were still some enthusiasts buying them.

For others, the dual-tuner TVs would be fine, but I was just wondering whether they would continue to be available for very long?

[chrisjr]

Haven't seen any Digital modulators on the market (at least outside pro broadcast circles) and i'm wondering if anyone will bother.

Most CCTV systems output composite or maybe S-Video signals. So I suspect for most people plugging the composite or S-Video out into a single TV will sort the problem as even TVs with shed loads of HDMI sockets seem to have at least one analogue video in.

I suspect the easier solution if you do have a system plumbed into your RF distribution is to use a simple demodulator box to convert the RF back to composite. These I have seen on sale. Downside obviously is that you would need one per TV and a type with an easy method to change RF channel if you have multiple sources.

[Inge Jones]

The composite or S-Video are not really going to be a solution to anyone who has more than one camera point, or other sources, scart is not a solution with a remote viewing point, and I expect most people have a single co-ax to each room, which would still be required to carry the mixed signals from *all* the sources, before needing to be split out. At some stage, tuning facilities will be needed at the viewing point.

[+3dB]

The newer systems on the market are digital anyway, sometimes using USB to transmit the images. I'm not explaining it well, so have a look here:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?...enu=y&doy=14m5

[asdigi]

an easy and cheap way round it if analogue tuners are phased out is to plug a vcr or dvd recorder into the tv's scart or phono inputs and then tune the distributed anlogue signals into the vcr, ok you would need to put the tv on the appropriate av channel and then use the vcr remote to go through the channels but thats probably the cheapest way round it.

[Inge Jones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by asdigi

an easy and cheap way round it if analogue tuners are phased out is to plug a vcr or dvd recorder into the tv's scart or phono inputs and then tune the distributed anlogue signals into the vcr

Yeah, and another huge box in every room. I am not keen on that idea, just as we'd got integrated Freeview and Satellite TVs

[Inge Jones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by +3dB

The newer systems on the market are digital anyway, sometimes using USB to transmit the images. I'm not explaining it well, so have a look here:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?...enu=y&doy=14m5

Interesting. Still not as convenient as the old TV/co-ax solution because even if one wanted a computer in every room, it still takes time to boot one up every time you want to check who's at the door. One way could be to keep a media server computer in your distribution cupboad but even then you have no way of switching what it displays from a TV.