I have the stupidest question but I still have to ask to make sure. I have not had cable since 1995. I have had a satellite and their receivers. With a satellite that receiver would have one channel at time and that is the channel you had to watch.
Cable used to be coax in and all the tvs in the house could watch a different channel. Is that the case now?
I have a friend that has hd cable with a cable hd receiver. Does this work the same way as a satellite or can you watch all the channels on different tvs. I am pretty sure I know the answer but I wanted to check first.
The reason I am asking is because he wants to put his receiver in the closet and distribute cable to the 7 tvs in the house. Three of the tvs have hdmi now and some are just coax. In the near future at least 2 more will be hdmi.

I have the stupidest question but I still have to ask to make sure. I have not had cable since 1995. I have had a satellite and their receivers. With a satellite that receiver would have one channel at time and that is the channel you had to watch.
Cable used to be coax in and all the tvs in the house could watch a different channel. Is that the case now?
I have a friend that has hd cable with a cable hd receiver. Does this work the same way as a satellite or can you watch all the channels on different tvs. I am pretty sure I know the answer but I wanted to check first.
The reason I am asking is because he wants to put his receiver in the closet and distribute cable to the 7 tvs in the house. Three of the tvs have hdmi now and some are just coax. In the near future at least 2 more will be hdmi.
Using just the cable each TV can watch a different channel, however the channels available on most cable systems will be about 2-75 in analog standard definition and usually the locals in HD if the TV has a QAM tuner. Almost all newer HDTVs have a QAM tuner. To get the entire HD package you will need a receiver for each HD TV or watch the same channel on all the TVs. You cannot use coax from the receiver to the TV for HD.

Yeah, I figured that but it was worth a try. What is the best way to distribute the cable to the tvs? He would like one cable box per 2 tvs.

If the cable box is outputting to two TVs, he can get a switch (for HDMI, component, etc.) and switch it manually (or with a remote.) Or possibly run component and HDMI together (I know my Scientific Atlanta 3250HD outputs over both.) It would be the same channel for both TVs, though.

If he wanted to use the TV's tuner in one of each of the pairs, you could split the coax before the box and have one on the box and one tuning the direct feed. If the TV has a cableCARD slot, that can substitute for a box for every TV that has a slot.

There is no easy way for what he wants to do if he wants each TV to have a different channel, other than one box per TV or one cableCARD per TV (if they have that capability.)

It is a situation where he wants a tv in the bath and his bedroom. He can't be in both places at the same time so it does not matter anyway. I think a splitter would work. Put his bluray and cable box on the 2 inputs and have the 2 outputs to his two tvs - one in the bath and bedroom.

I don't know of any switches or splitters that take two incoming video signals and send them out separately. They might be around, but honestly, this sounds like he should consult an A/V installer for a whole house setup or some type of media center.

We are a small town and live around a bunch of small towns. Nobody understands this but we live 240 miles from the closest city which is Wichita and they are still not a great big city like LA. There are no towns around us for that distance that do this stuff. I can do it, I just need to find what I need and figure it out. There has not been a project yet I have not been able to do around here I just have to look at the project and ask questions to make sure about things as things change from month to month with new gadgets coming out everyday. I just want to get the right things to do the right job.
Sometimes the questions that I ask and the way I ask it make it appear that I am not very knowledgeable about things. I need to be better about that. Sometimes I wish I could live near a larger city and do these kinds of things but also have access to places that actually sell them instead of having to just read and then look and study and learn. I have done many computer systems and networks and have done home theaters and whole house audio. This is just a hobby. Not bragging but in a town of 4000 hundreds call and ask me for advice. There probably is not a job out there that if I got a chance to understand it that I could not do.

I will just use the 1in 2 out splitters. They are said to work great.
http://www.firefold.com/1X2-HDMI-Splitter-P430C134.aspx

We are a small town and live around a bunch of small towns. Nobody understands this but we live 240 miles from the closest city which is Wichita and they are still not a great big city like LA. There are no towns around us for that distance that do this stuff.

I didn't mean any offense. I actually grew up in a small Kansas town (Garden City) and can sympathize with the lack of resources, but that's not what I was getting at. I didn't mean you need to hire an A/V guy, we have the Internet now. There are plenty of knowledgeable professionals that frequent AVSforum that are happy to make suggestions.

It does sound like a whole house type of project if you're talking 7 TVs and only a few components stored remotely, and you should be able to find a setup for distribution. Maybe try this forum as well:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=14&f=36

There was no offense taken. Again, I need to word things differently but that is the way I am sometimes.
Garden City Buffaloes. How long ago did you move? I live in Scott City.

About 13 years ago, but was there from birth until I graduated high school, but was definitely a Buffalo at one time. :)

I know Scott City fairly well, or did, but it's been even longer.

The problem with those pros is that they haven't offered any advice other than to hire someone to do it. No matter what I say they don't understand the distance thing and how desolate it is out here. I will keep checking to find the right stuff for his situation. I am getting a pretty good handle though.

Yeah, I know what you mean. When I was there, there was maybe two stores that did audio/video, or as close as we can call it. One was Colortyme on Taylor Ave. (the street that becomes Hwy 83 north to Scott) and I think a Curtis Mathis on the east side somewhere. And whatever Sears happened to have. I don't think anyone did installs.

I think someone may but with stuff I don't want to use. I do like good stuff. After people have seen my house and my whole house audio/video, my theater, my automated lighting control and my computer network they say I should be an installer. The problem is everyone around here is so out of the picture when it comes to these kinds of things I would not have much of a clientele.

What I need to try to find is pictures of someones home setup for their cable tv and hdmi distribution along with phone, lighting control options etc. This setup is much different than mine and I am just looking for different ideas. I am going to do some hard nosed googling right now. Like I said I know what to do I just want to make it right for him.

The HD STB can only provide one channel at a time. The HD STB will provide coax, composite, and S-Video which will be SD 480i analog. It will also provide HD over component (three video and two audio RCA jacks) and may have a HDMI or DVI (one or the other) connection which sends digital video. HDMI also provides digital audio. Component video is analog and DVI requires two RCA jacks for audio. Depending on the STB not all the outputs are active at the same time. As you can see one receiver will send the same channel to all the sets connected to it. Most cable systems do provide some analog channels so every set connected to the cable can select among the channels available which one to watch. As indicated in another post, the sets with digital tuners (ATSC) will be able to receive any clear QAM digital channels on the cable some of which may be HD 720P or 1080i. Those sets could also receive digital over-the-air channels with an external antenna connected instead of the cable coax.

The cable must be split using multiple 1 to 2 splitters which have a 3.5 dB loss. This reduces the signal power by a little over 50%. For example splitting the cable for 4 sets require 3 splitters. The cable connects to one splitter and the other two splitters each connect to one of the outputs of the first splitter. The loss becomes 7dB and the power is reduced by 80%. Another four splitters required for 8 sets would add 10.5 dB loss between the incoming cable coax and the sets and reducing the power by 90%. An amplifier to boost the signal levels by 6 to 10 dB would likely be required. That process is required if the coax from the STB is split and sent to several sets. Generally a booster is not needed for two splitters.

I hope this helps.

At this point I will split the bluray and the cable box hd to a tv in the bath and a tv in the bedroom. I will be using this splitter. http://www.firefold.com/1X2-HDMI-Splitter-P430C134.aspx
I will then be splitting a dvd player with component to those same two tvs using a component splitter which I am still looking for. He still wants a vcr so I will split that also for composite using some type of splitter there to the same two tvs.
I will then be having another hd cable box that I will split using the above splitter to the tv in the living room and to a spare room. Other things will be added later when they decide what and where they will put the other tvs.

I will then be splitting the coax to a couple of rooms that don't use a box or have a box in the room.
Does this splitter seem like it should work?

I could just run the hdmi from the cable box to his big tv in his bedroom and then run the component and audio to his tv in the bath from the same cable box. The small tv would not notice any difference if it were hdmi or component. I think that would work best and not take anything away from the quality of his big tv. The tv in the bath will only be 24".
I will do the same thing with his bluray which he won't watch much in the bathroom anyway.
Well, after talking to myself I just figured that out. :eek:

Most Blu-ray players will not output HDMI and component at the same time. He probably will have to change settings on the blu-ray to go from HDMI to component.

Never thought about that. What would you suggest? He won't be able to do that.