Any Cable guys here?

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Wee Hooker

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Like most folks, my house was wired for Cable TV when it was built (in 2012) . A couple of years back, I got bored with 164 channels (and there is still nothing on) so cut the cord and installed a HDTV Digital antenna. ( Installed the antenna in the attic and connected it's output to where the Cable feed had been coming into my splitter (and out to 6 TV's around the house.) It's been great mostly. 40+ free channels with super clear pictures most of the time.
That said, there are times when the family laments for a specific show on Animal Planet, History Channel, AMC etc. The Cable company (which I still get internet/WIFI from) is running a deal where I can get basic and 10 other channels of my choice for $21/mo for 2 years. I have to admit, it's the first time I've been tempted.
So my question is can the existing home wiring be somehow shared between the Antenna and Cable sources or would I need to run new/more wires to each TV?
If not, are there other options? ( most of the TV's are smart with WiFi capability)

Sorry, I B A Mechanical Engineer and never did well in signals processing :-)
 
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You can not share the coax cable with 2 separate signals unless it is muxed /split by the cable company as it does to offer their tv and internet. If the cable company offers wireless boxes from the master box IE (Dirctv Genie or The Dish Hopper) then you could be wireless. To my knowledge at this time Comcast / Time and Cox do not offer wireless boxes.
 
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Has your cable company gone digital? Cable and OTA TV use different formats, so changing from a broadcast station to a cable show is not a single button event unless you are using a cable box with a HDMI cable connecting it to your TV.

If you try to run cable and OTA into the whole home using a combiner you will likely run into issues involving the large difference in signal strengths. Besides, many cable companies insist on a box so that won't work anyway.
 
Doesn't it depend on what make of TV a person has?

I have a somewhat older Sony tv. The hand held controller has a button "INPUT". WHEN.....I had the Direct TV dish, both the outside antenna and the Direct antenna were on two different input jacks on the rear of the tv set....When I wanted to watch Direct tv, I would use the input on the hand held to tell the tv which signal to use. When I wanted to watch the local stations, regular tv, using the antenna on the roof. I would use the input button and select TV, or use the button to select Cable, or in my case Direct tv, so no further switch boxes were necessary for selecting which system I wanted to watch..

So the long and short of it, does your TV have two input jacks on the rear of your tv set, one for regular and another for cable or satelite, and your hand held has the switch to control which you want to watch?


WuzzFuzz
 
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JMO

NO EXPERT but my feeling is that streaming will be the not too distant future & the "providers" will get your $ with the WIFI service. For that many TV's & if into gaming I think you would want a 300 internet speed (which now kinda starts around 100, where it was app 40 not that long ago). 4K is almost obsolete with 5K being built in @ Mexico beach following the hurricane. 6K,7K,8K not too far off. Back to the present, the same shows you now get with your current system will "likely" come with the basic service you are gonna pay for, so WHY?
 
It's a long story but we ended up replacing four of our TV's with HD 4K SMART models in the last year. The others two aren't far behind those. Pictures are BEAUTIFUL with the antenna (better than we had with cable service). The ease of the ROKU smart format is what hooked us though. Very simple to navigate and all kinds of free channels are included. The prices were just dropping through the floor on them last summer. Anyway. All have internally selective "source" selection via the start menu. Some have two inputs.
That said, I've decided I'm still done with cable (and the games they played.) Just got my blood pressure where I want it :-)
 
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WuzzFuzz said:
Doesn't it depend on what make of TV a person has?

I have a somewhat older Sony tv. The hand held controller has a button "INPUT". WHEN.....I had the Direct TV dish, both the outside antenna and the Direct antenna were on two different input jacks on the rear of the tv set....When I wanted to watch Direct tv, I would use the input on the hand held to tell the tv which signal to use. When I wanted to watch the local stations, regular tv, using the antenna on the roof. I would use the input button and select TV, or use the button to select Cable, or in my case Direct tv, so no further switch boxes were necessary for selecting which system I wanted to watch..

So the long and short of it, does your TV have two input jacks on the rear of your tv set, one for regular and another for cable or satelite, and your hand held has the switch to control which you want to watch?


WuzzFuzz
Click to expand...

This WuzzFuzz guy nailed it!!
This is also how mine works these days. And as long as the "cable box" or other signal delivery device goes right TO the tv, it should do most everything.
Biggest issue might be if you get "scrambled" signals, they have to go thru whatever device that outfit uses to unscramble them.

There also used to be "A-B switches" that directed the signal. Most "input" buttons on the remotes take over that job.

I'm not a cable guy, but I do play one when tinkering with tv's. :)
 
Wee Hooker said:
It's a long story but we ended up replacing four of our TV's with HD 4K SMART models in the last year. The others two aren't far behind those. Pictures are BEAUTIFUL with the antenna (better than we had with cable service). The ease of the ROKU smart format is what hooked us though. Very simple to navigate and all kinds of free channels are included. The prices were just dropping through the floor on them last summer. Anyway. All have internally selective "source" selection via the start menu. Some have two inputs.
That said, I've decided I'm still done with cable (and the games they played.) Just got my blood pressure where I want it :-)
Click to expand...

None of my input selections have the "blood pressure" option, and I didn't see any mention of it in the user manual. You must have way better TV choices than we do. :D
 
345sire said:
None of my input selections have the "blood pressure" option, and I didn't see any mention of it in the user manual. You must have way better TV choices than we do. :D
Click to expand...

I was just referring to the old days where I had to battle the Cable co every 3-6 mos with rate changes, channel line up shifts (never to anything I wanted) and/ or service outages. There was always some issue. It's seemed like every time I'd get satisfaction, it was short lived. Then they closed down the Cable office and to do ANYTHING in person, now takes a 72 mi drive. That lack of quality service (and uncontrollably growing bill) was what got me looking at antenna's to begin with. (That was in 2016 as I prepared to simplify life in my upcoming Retirement.

So as for choices, I now have beautiful reception on 100's ( thousands
when you factor in Roku wi-fi) of free programs at my finger tips. This cost me all of a $35 HDTV antenna off Ebay and nothing since.

Got to remind this old engineer that sometimes what I have is just what I need :-)
 
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Wee Hooker said:
It's a long story but we ended up replacing four of our TV's with HD 4K SMART models in the last year. The others two aren't far behind those. Pictures are BEAUTIFUL with the antenna (better than we had with cable service). The ease of the ROKU smart format is what hooked us though. Very simple to navigate and all kinds of free channels are included. The prices were just dropping through the floor on them last summer. Anyway. All have internally selective "source" selection via the start menu. Some have two inputs.
That said, I've decided I'm still done with cable (and the games they played.) Just got my blood pressure where I want it :-)
Click to expand...

Cable and satellite TV services are highly compressed. OTA TV has the most data bandwidth so has the best picture. My buddy tells me that the picture goes pixelated whenever they do a ticker-tape drop or something similar at a sports or entertainment event. I don't see that on the OTA signals at my house.
 
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