Greetings all,

Did a forum search and didn't come up with much, so thought I'd ask here. Is there a combiner available that will "combine" the signal received from a Philips HDTV Indoor Amplified antenna (MANT510) and a goofy, CATV setup, whereas the CATV signal is actually an old-school wireless broadcast signal that goes from an antenna, then to a cable box, and then to the TV? (confused yet?)

In other words, I'd like to combine the two into one so that my father doesn't have to get up and switch the Philips back and forth between "CABLE" and "ANT", as the cable wire currently runs into the Philips, then out via one 75ohm cable. Therefore, he can pull down either the digital or cable broadcasts (the cable broadcast is coming in on Channel 3 on the TV; no other way to do it in his setup).

Kind of like this:

________________CABLE \_________COMBO_______HDTV
____________HDTV ANT_/


His manual for his Sharp LC32D41U mentions a "Combiner-readily available"; is there?


PS So in closing, he'd dial up his channels ideally this way:

3 = Cable box (adjusts channels there with his cable box remote)
Digital Channels = HDTV tuner

Don't hold me to this, but I think it will work, provided the following ...

1. You use a passive splitter, but backwards. I had just read something about this just yesterday.

2. Channel 3 analog does not interfere with anything on the OTA antenna ... which is shouldn't since it's all UHF for digital.

3. You don't want the analog OTA channels, of which channel 3 might be used.

The only thing that I could think of that may monkey up the works would be if the signal from the antenna somehow mixed in with the signal from the Cable Box. If there is a Channel 3 OTA in your area, maybe that could mess up the Cable Box's incoming signal.

A splitter is only a few bucks, so it's worth a try. I don't think any harm will come of this set-up.

If it doesn't work, I think they sell A/B switches with remotes. Sure, it's another remote, but at least you don't have to get up.

ft

EDIT - BTW, does the cable box have any other outputs, other than RF? If it had composite/s-video/component, then you could just use those inputs on the TV.

You can't combine the two (overlapping frequencies), if you are not getting HD from the cable leg, just take the output of the cable box using composite, S or whatever it has and feed another input on the TV.
If you are getting HD from the cable use the component , HDMI or DVI to feed the TV.
Keep the OTA in the RF input. The only thing to switch is the input to the TV via remote control!!

Unfortunately, the cable box is an ancient kind that has no video or audio outputs, so I can't just run those to the HDTV and use the Philips for OTA. So that's out, but...

Probably try the splitter idea (with a high quality one). If no worky, then go for the A/B switch with remote. That should work.

Any other suggestions, I'd appreciate. Thanks!

phillyphil,
Did you ever figure out if this can be done? I have the same problem, and am wondering what the options are.

I want to connect an antenna for OTA HD, and also connect cable directly from the wall (no cable box). Both connectors are the coax F-type, but my HDTV only has one input of this type.

Can anyone help us???

phillyphil,
Did you ever figure out if this can be done? I have the same problem, and am wondering what the options are.

I want to connect an antenna for OTA HD, and also connect cable directly from the wall (no cable box). Both connectors are the coax F-type, but my HDTV only has one input of this type.

Can anyone help us???
Going to have to use an A/B switch. As posted earlier, overlapping frequencies makes combining CATV and OTA onto the same cable not an option.

You could use an old VCR tuned to channel 3 to generate audio and composite video to connect to the television.

I think he just wants to combine the Channel 3 (or 4) output of the old-fashioned Cable TV converter box, with the full-bandwidth OTA signal.

Something like one of these should be OK:

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=40-SC3
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=SPSC3
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=SPSC4