Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: RCA to Coax conversion

This is topic RCA to Coax conversion in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004738

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 03-31-2003, 06:40 PM:

This will probably be a really simple thing, but I'm curious as to hwo I can take the RCA outs from the DVD player and tie them in to the coax running down to the lobby televsions. We originally had a self-repeating VCR but they like to eat heads due to the continual playback (the HO wouldn't hear of making a full length 2.5 hour trailer video - which would cut the wear/tear on the heads say, by, 500% or better) so I finally convinced them to get a DVD player. I must have been asleep at the time, becuase I forgot the fact that the DVD out's don't use coax.. or this one doesn't...

I'm also going to Rat Shack and see what I can find there..

Any help?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-31-2003, 07:01 PM:

Assuming you still have the VCR, and that it has RCA inputs, you could just run the DVD player through the VCR (you'll likely have to select video or input on the remote).

Radio Shack sells a distribution amp that is probably about $50 to $75 that would effectively do the same thing.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 03-31-2003, 07:31 PM:

It may not be possible to send the output of the DVD player through the VCR if the DVD your playing turns on the macrocrap (macrovision) in the DVD player. That will drive the auto level in the VCR nuts, which will, in most cases, show up even in E/E (just going through the VCR even though it is not in record). If your TVs are fed base band video, and they have looping type video inputs, or there is a video DA used to feed them all, then all you need is an RCA to BNC adaptor. If you TVs are feed RF (that is, using the antenna in), then you need a modulator. Radio Shack has this as well. You can try to use the VCR as a modulator, by hooking the video out of the DVD to the video in of the VCR (with an RCA to RCA VIDEO type cable (do not use a cable made to just handle audio, they are crap), then the RF (TV) out to the TVs, but you may end up with macrocrap problems (the picture will get brighter and darker, at times loosing color, and sync).

Posted by Chris Markiewicz (Member # 1415) on 03-31-2003, 07:32 PM:

Second that.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 03-31-2003, 07:43 PM:

After a quick google search (How I love GOOGLE) I found that I'd need an RF modulator that I ran out and picked up at Rat Shack for $29.95. Hooked it up, plugged it in and it works like a champ.

Why would the modulator need an a/c source tho?

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 03-31-2003, 07:50 PM:

quote:
from Jason...
Why would the modulator need an a/c source tho?

Think of the modulator as a miniature television transmitter. You plug in the video and audio feeds from the DVD player & the modulator turns it into a TV signal on the channel you selected and feeds it down the coax to your TVs. Your VCR has the same thing built into it, which technically has nothing to do with the tape playback section itself.

The modulator is an active device that gets no power from the DVD player... hence the power cord!

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 04-01-2003, 08:38 AM:

If you need video and audio, the RF modulator may have been the best solution since you can take the DVDs video/audio and made a composite signal out of them...if you just needed to send the video down to a monitor screen, then a simple RCA to BNC adapter would have done the job.

Steve

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 04-01-2003, 08:56 AM:

... and would have given a slightly better picture, bypassing the demodulation from channel 3's (or 4's) carrier to get the composite video signal back. Of course, I'm against hooking up a DVD player with anything less than an S-Video cable. I can spot composite artifacts in TV pictures a mile away since I'm not used to seeing them on my set when watching DVDs.