coax --> rca --> auxiliary video??? (1 Viewer)

[Ted Lee]

hi all -

i had a customer come into the store and ask me this question. tbh, i wasn't sure...

can someone take a coax line, add an f-to-rca adaptor, then plug it into a video input ... and get a picture?

doesn't seem possible, but i thought i'd ask.

ted

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Yes.

CATV coax is made with 75 ohm coax - which is what all video cables are made with.

The problem is the coax->RCA interface. The RCA adaptors are not usually 75 ohm so you could get reflections/ghosts in the image. (Think of hitting a speed-bump at 55 mph).

Now - people have tried to cheap-out and make their own component video cables from CATV coax and the "F-to-RCA" adaptors - but the results have been mixed.

But you can actually make your own video cables using guidelines like this from Chris Whites Website. The trick is to buy analog-video coax (at about $1.49/ft) and good RCA plugs. The web site I listed shows you how.

 

[Ted Lee]

ahh...so it would work. interesting...thx bob!

 

[Allan Jayne]

No.

Actually it depens on where the coax line is coming from. If it is meant to go into the TV's antenna jack, yhou need to run it through a VCR first to tune the desired channel. (coax to VCR's antenna in jack and RCA plug cable from VCR's video out to TV or A/V receiver video in.)

If you have a length of "antenna coax" connected to nothing and you put RCA plugs on both ends, you can use it to connect composite (yellow jack) video sources or even component video sources.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Ted Lee]

ahh...okay...now this makes more sense. i do believe this was the customer's intent...

 

[John Garcia]

If we are talking about CATV, then they would lose the audio portion, since a composite video input is video only.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Ahhh... so the question was NOT about making a video cable, but feeding CATV signals directly to the video input on a television. Great catch Allan.