OK...

Have a ChannelPlus Video Distrubution system in my home that utilizes a modulator and one regular digital cable box to send video throughout my house (I have 12 TV's). I recently upgraded to HDTV in my bedroom (seperate HD Receiver) and thought I'd upgrade another room to HD as well...

Now, I already ran component cables and a digitial cable to the TV but here's my question. As it has been touched on before, if I switched my regular digital cable box to an HD cable box, the HD Cable box will only output video on EITHER component or RCA, not both. I realize that I could just buy another HD Cable Box and pay the cable company another $12 a month for the extra box, but is there a component out there that would split the component or distribute the component into 1 component out and one RCA output? This way, I could still feed my modulator with a crappy RCA video signal and yet run the component cables to feed my HDTV...

Does this make sense what I am trying to do? I'm trying to save the cost of getting a third cable box from the cable company. From a pure cost standpoint, I could save $12/month X 12 months = $144 a year?

You realize that you won't be able to see the HD channels anyway as they won't down convert and come out on the RCA anyway? So, you wouldn't need an HD box, just a regular digital box as you had before (don't know if that changes your cost paradigm).

I'm also curious about your other statement. I have the SA83000HD box and it spits out component and s-video simulataneously on analog and non-HD digitial channels (never tried it on composite). Are you sure that on regular channels it won't send the video out both ports? I've googled and there are others that say the 8300 box outputs on both component and composite simultaneously, just not component and HDMI simultaneously. If you are trying to do this on an HD channel it just won't work.

EDIT: Here's a thread that touches on the ability to do both component and composite simulataneously:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8333643&&#post8333643

You could use a product like our Model 1361. It is a video downscaler, which can pass through your Hi-def component video to a HD monitor, but also outputs composite, s-video, and standard def component simulaneously for your distribution system.

Best Regards,

Trent Davis



Edited for clarity

Just got back from vacation and read the reponses. THANKS...

I do realize that I won't be able to watch HD shows over normal RCA connection... however the rest of the house will be able to watch regularly broadcast shows through the modulator and then when I tune to an HD channel, the whole house will go blank but the one TV in the Cinema will show HD.... that's what I'm trying anyway...

I'm going to check to see if the regular RCA works on the box while the composite is also plugged in... if this works... then my whole thread was a mute point.