Alright. I'm looking for a straight forward answer that isn't "you can't".

I used to have Dish TV. I had a SD receiver in my basement that fed into a splitter that in turn fed 4 SDTV coax jacks. So I could watch the same channel on all the TV (not a big deal, family usually in same area of the house at one time anyway). With RF remotes I could change the channel anywhere.

I dropped my Dish to save some money and have been getting OTA HD channels on all my HDTV's. setup is: OTA Antenna, 12db signal booster, 4 way splitter rg6 fed to the two HDTV's I have. Signal is great, HD shows are crystal clear.

Now, I am looking at returning to satellite (cable not an option). I want to go back to my original satellite setup but now in HD. from what I read the HD receivers can only feed on TV in HD which in my opinion is BS.

How can I take an Dish HD receiver, put it in my basement, hook it up to the RG6 and feed both my HDTV's with HD programming? ( I know it will be the same channel on both TV's, but I don't mind. What I do not want is an HDTV displaying SD when it should be displaying HD.

It seems to me that a manufacturer could make a satellite receiver that takes in their signal into the box and sends it out on one of the QAM channels (like maybe 3.1 or 4.1) Like SDTV's used to use 3 and 4. It just seems to me a little crazy that they would choose to only output using HDMI or Component when most homes are wired with coax.

I know it can be done, (never say can't). How can it be done? What do I need?

Thanks all in advance!

You basically would need to buy a broadcast grade encoder and other equipment to take the uncompressed feed from your Dish HD box, compress it and put it in the proper format to broadcast in your house.

Realistically for home use, it's not possible unless you want to outlay a huge chunk of cash. Last I heard the equipment would be $10k plus. There are no commercial grade "modulators" that can be used for what you want to do yet.

And at that - it would probably be cheaper to use 2 seperate Dish receivers if you want HD Sat at each TV.

Using the 2nd tuner on a 622/722 222 would still let you watch the Sat HD channels - but downconverted to SD.

One thing you could do would be to use a LONG HDMI or LONG component / analog audio cables to the 2nd TV, but then but TVs would be watching the same thing.

You could get a box for each TV for a lot less. The sat signal can go through your existing coax and the box at each TV will output the HD signal to your HDTV. AFAIK no sat recievers output HD over coax, only HDMI and component.

My DTV HR20 has a SD RF output that I send upstairs to my wife's sewing room via coax. If your DISH box has such an output, it can still send SD to multiple sets which is what it sounds like you used to do.

As already pointed out, you cannot send decoded HD over coax from your DISH receiver to different HD sets. You would have to get an HDMI splitter and run a separate HDMI cable tothe second set.

Why don't you just get a second DISH HD box, hook it to the second HD set, and be done with it?

Steve

Apparently Gefen has just released their wireless HD transmitter/receiver that will allow an HD signal to be transmitted to a remote TV. Other manufacturers have also announced similar products, but I'm unaware of anything else currently on the market.

Apparently Gefen has just released their wireless HD transmitter/receiver that will allow an HD signal to be transmitted to a remote TV. Other manufacturers have also announced similar products, but I'm unaware of anything else currently on the market.

Which costs $1000...Comes out to just over 16.5 years of paying the extra $5 a month for a second receiver....

I didn't say it was cost-effective. If I remember correctly, Monster and another company have also announced similar products, somewhere in the $600 range. As far as I have been able to determine, nothing on the market yet. Probably going to be quite awhile for the cost to get reasonable. I read a review on the Gefen unit that indicated there are video artifacts in the picture as a result of the compression. No question that an additional receiver is probably the best solution.

Jaylarge,
The problem is that RF over coax, composite video and S-video receivers and tranmitters use the NTSC SD 480i video standards. Only VGA. Component and DVI/HDMI interface standards support higher resolutions
QAM is distribution standard for the broadcast of compressed and encoded digital video and the actual video can be in different resolutions such as 48o. 720p, or 1080i. It is not a video display interface resolution standard.

What is the range on the Gefen box?

30 feet

Anyone going to make a HD modulator...

I use a Channel Plus 4 Channel model to distribute 3 satellite boxes to 7 televisions (Directv), and the PQ is fantastic (hardly degraded). Ideally, I'd someday like a HD modulator, but not yet available.

Unless your TVs are all 40" or greater ,HD, to me, is not a huge deal.

Hard to say, it's not as simple as an analog modulator, you need something that can handle uncompressed digital, recompress it and pass it using either ATSC or QAM as a transmission standard.

There is an interesting article in this month's Sound & Vision mag that discusses various wireless HD transmission devices announced at the CES. Reported prices are high, $900+.

Anyone going to make a HD modulator...

I use a Channel Plus 4 Channel model to distribute 3 satellite boxes to 7 televisions (Directv), and the PQ is fantastic (hardly degraded). Ideally, I'd someday like a HD modulator, but not yet available.

Unless your TVs are all 40" or greater ,HD, to me, is not a huge deal.

I do the exact same thing (but I distribute 2 satellite boxes and a DVD player to 6 TV's) and it works fantastically. I also agree that the current lack of an HD solution isn't a big deal. 4 of my TV's aren't HD anyway (19", 20", 32", 36").

Strange the OP never came back...

nope, i'm still here. Just been busy. I appreciate all the input and see that coax will not work. I have found where I can get a hdmi splitter and 25 to 50ft of hdmi to run to my different tv's I know that it will be the same channel, but that is not a problem since the fmily is rarely watching different tv's in different rooms.

With a splitter, a couple of long hdmi's, a remote extender. I will have about 250.00 into parts. Dish charges 7.00/month for an additional hd receiver and I will be on a 24 month commitment. The first HD receiver is included in the base price of my programming, but I plan to have a total of 3 tv's hooked up soooo.

7x2=14.00/month for the additional receivers for 24 months = 336.00 for the contract term. And, since my coax runs are not tied up with satellite signal I can keep them sending my local OTA channels over my coax feeds in my house and into the coax connection on the hdtv's Which means I can watch different channels on different tv's as long as one is OTA. I also save 5.00/month by not having to pay for local channels over satellite which aren't HD in my area anyway. And I currently get about 15 local channels OTA.

Total savings by not buying a box for 3 tv's over the 24 month commitment is 5x24 for local channels 120 + 336.00 for HD receiver fee less 250.00 for cost of cabling and splitter = 106.00 and I don't have continuing costs beyong my contract term.

I did look into HD transmitters, they seem a bit pricey. I also saw some HDMI to Cat5e (since I have Cat5e run all over my house), but the converters are a bit expensive, once I add up all that I need.

Thanks all

Just be warned when splitting HDMI, you could run into handshake issues with the built in copyright protection when trying to run two sets at once. Try testing out everything before you bury the cabling in the walls if possible.

Also understand that not all equipment (sources, switches, TV, cables) work well at long distances.

Incompatibilities tend to crop up more on long runs than on short ones.

Ensure the splitter you use is HDCP capable. A passive splitter (electrical device) like a 4 port coax splitter will NOT work. An active splitter essentially creates a seperate HDCP link with each display.

They tend to be expensive. Not sure where you are finding one + 3 25-50 cables for <$250.

Just be warned when splitting HDMI, you could run into handshake issues with the built in copyright protection when trying to run two sets at once. Try testing out everything before you bury the cabling in the walls if possible.
A plain HDMI Y splitter will not work since it can not handshake with more then one destination concurently. You would need a a powered HDMI splitter/distribution unit

Anyone going to make a HD modulator...
ZeeVee makes some HD modulators.

$499 ZvBox
$999 ZvBoxPLUS
$2499 ZvPro

I found some parts at firefold.com The standard 1x4 is 129.99 or the 1x4 extend 100' for 189.99. They also have 25' hdmi for 26.99. I've found various reviews and all have been positive about their product. does anyone here have any input?

Thanks

ZeeVee makes some HD modulators.

$499 ZvBox
$999 ZvBoxPLUS
$2499 ZvPro

So $499 gets you VGA, $999 gets you component and $2500 gives you rack ability, RS-232 control and assignable inputs if I'm reading that correctly.