Best way to use OTA digital TV and basic cable on same TV from remote equipment cabinet? (1 Viewer)

[pbaum]

Hello all -- this forum looks like a great and I am looking forward to participating in this great resource. Please bear with a newbe question that may be obvious to the veterans...


I have been lurking here and in stores learning about equipment, setup, and different options in the home theater world. One thing that has been bugging me is how to hook up both basic cable and OTA digital TV to a LED TV. I have dug into the archives here and read some threads on this, but I know options change pretty quickly in this world, so I wanted to get members thoughts and opinions.


Here is my situation: We currently have a equipment location that is outside the room that the TV will be located in (about 50' of cable away...) This was done to satisfy the inner decorator of my better half. Anyway, I have 1 run of RG6 coax, 1 run of HDMI, and 1 ethernet run from the equipment cabinet to the box where the new TV will be located. In the equipment space, TV sources will be OTA Digital TV feed and basic cable. The basic cable uses no converter box.

What is the best way to utilize both TV feeds into a LED TV (I am considering one of the Samsung 55" units...)? I can't run anymore coax, or other additional wires as the walls are finished.

Since some members of my family are very gadget challenged, I need to keep this fairly easy to use. I am strongly considering investing in a new receiver with HDMI in and out if that helps....


Any thoughts are very welcome. Thanks!

 

[Robert_J]

The new receiver doesn't help. You need either a cable box to convert your basic cable to an HDMI signal or an OTA HD tuner to convert that signal to HDMI. With only one RG-6, you need to convert one of the 2 signals. If digital audio from the TV tuner then you are out of luck because you didn't run enough cable. Most TV tuners use optical outputs to send 5.1 surround sound from the tuner to a receiver.


If you had run two RG-6 then you would have issues as well because most TVs only tune in OTA or cable but not both at the same time.

 

[pbaum]

Originally Posted by Robert_J

The new receiver doesn't help. You need either a cable box to convert your basic cable to an HDMI signal or an OTA HD tuner to convert that signal to HDMI. With only one RG-6, you need to convert one of the 2 signals. If digital audio from the TV tuner then you are out of luck because you didn't run enough cable. Most TV tuners use optical outputs to send 5.1 surround sound from the tuner to a receiver.


If you had run two RG-6 then you would have issues as well because most TVs only tune in OTA or cable but not both at the same time.

Robert,


Thanks for the advice. Do you have any specific equipment to recommend that would take the OTA signal and convert it to HDMI? I assume I would then run this into the reciever and it would handle the multiple HDMI sources.

On the digital audio stream, I have been reading about the newest features of some of the recievers that allow an audio signal to run back down the HDMI line to the reciever so that the 5.1 can be utilized. This would be nice, but I suppose if I run the basic cable directly into the back of the TV, I won't have much for sound anyway. I would be better off with the OTA digital signal for a decent sound stream.


Thanks. Carl

 

[Robert_J]

Just Google "OTA HD tuner" for different over the air boxes. I don't use them so I can't recommend one. Yes, connect it to the receiver which will handle the HDMI switching.


That return path HDMI thing is rare. You probably need to make sure both the TV and the receiver support this. You will be surprised that a lot of the network programs are in full 5.1 surround sound.