My TV is now some distance away from the socket for the terrestrial TV aerial so I'm looking for ways to avoid the need for a cable between the two. We watch very little terrestrial TV so I don't want to invest a lot of time/money in solving the problem (digging out walls, floors or ceilings is not an option) but it would be good to have a back-up to the internet connection. We're in a weak signal area so an internal aerial isn't an option.
- I'm wondering whether it would be viable to site a STB near the aerial socket and then connect the STB to the TV (or A/V amp) with an HDMI wireless link - has anyone tried this with success (or failure)?
- Is there another solution that I should be investigating?
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Bernard Peek
The STB is likely to have a media-server accessible via a WiFi network.
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Paul
There is a SiliconDust tuner, with Ethernet and Wifi output. The packaging seems smaller than the older ones (which were the size of hifi component boxes).
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To work with the Ethernet (if you wanted to do that), you could use Power Line Networking, and send the Ethernet signal over mains to a matching Power Line unit elsewhere in the house, where it comes back out as Ethernet.
But with Wifi available, there is no need for a Power Line technique. The box can Wifi to your router.
There is much research still to be done, about a unit like that. For example, if the networking is 802.11n (old school), there isn't likely to be a lot of margin on four channels of output. Newer Wifi standards don't guarantee much of anything. Boxes like this, the design could have some amount of old school materials (be based on a SOC, and not modular design, and only the silicon tuner chips would be separate, which is the RF front end).
If you used the DVR feature, you would need Guide Data (which always has an annual fee -- any time someone attempts to offer such data for free, usually the service stops pretty quickly).
This isn't the same unit, but I bet the silicon inside it is the same, and it runs different firmware. But the "behaviors" (no remote control) should be similar enough. I can't see a reason it would use the encrypted channels feature, as it's just not the same kind of TV. The UK version would work with different standards. I was hoping for a takeapart, to show what the chip count is like. You won't be running ATSC 3, so there wont be a problem with audio where you are. We don't run ATSC 3 here either, as far as I know. If we do, then I would consider it to be very poorly advertised if so. My tuner and STB are 8VSB, which is the older standard.
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There are likely to be better versions of that, and that's just an illustration of a box. There is not generally a lot of head-to-head competition for that company. Other tuning solutions don't generally match them for feature set. Maybe there is a patent involved or something.
Since broadcast TV is a dying thing, the choices of chips for the job, might not be as wide as it was at one time. That's part of the problem when shopping for tuners, is the question of "what is left" for chips.
The existence of a box like that, is not an indication that the tuner industry is "healthy".
Paul
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Andy Burns
When you say "some distance" would the STB's remote control still reach from the TV's position? I had a quick look but none of the wireless HDMI dongles I saw include infrared magic eyes.
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Pancho
The most flexible way is to convert the TV ariel signal and stream it over your LAN connection/WiFi, but you need to be able to convert the video stream both at the ariel end and the TV end. It depends how you watch internet TV, maybe modern TVs can already accept video streamed over the LAN from something like Tvheadend?
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alan_m
Enigma2 receivers running something like OpenVix can operate in client mode over your home network. One receiver is connected to satellite or an aerial (you just have to chose one of the dozen or so boxes that has tuner to suit your method of reception) and captures the EPG etc. The remote box on the network connected via wi-fi or ethernet then has all the relevant information from the first box and you can select via the remote box's remote control what you want to watch. This switches the tuner on the first box to the relevant channel and the remote box outputs the video/audio via a HDMI lead to the TV.
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You need a enigma2 receiving box to support a terrestrial signal but the second box can be a don't care with regards tuners as it just needs to be running something like Openvix (free). The second box can be a cheaper box but it needs to support wi-fi. Some of the cheaper Enigma2 boxes have inbuilt wi-fi but others require a USB wi-fi dongle.
If going down this route ask in the user forum (it a fairly active forum) Note: The forum is about to migrate servers, or server software, and there have been warning posts about the servers being down while this happens.
Forum
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scroll down to ViX Team Images Support Discussion
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This is a moderated forum - with multiple moderators
Openvix
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Enigma 2 receivers (note: not all on this page a Enigma2)
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The Natural Philosopher
The solution I am adopting is to have a TV Server running TVheadend with a dongle and use a client application on a computer to put the TV on the screen.
Kodi is the simple way out if you don't like configuring software.
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Theo
A couple of Pis, one with a TV HAT running TVheadend and one plugged into the TV would do it, with wifi between. The main downside (once you've set it up) is that you get to use the Kodi UI for navigating TV channels - not sure the EPG/etc is as friendly as that you can on a TV.
Theo
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Adrian Caspersz
Wireless HDMI extenders are around £50 if you avoid the more expensive business focused "solutions" - probably worth a shot (easy to setup and use) but be careful reading adverts which confuse them with things that do Mirroring functions with computers and mobile phones. There may also be issues with distance degradation and interference to/from WiFi networks sharing the same radio channel.
Or, you can just stream live TV - My Amazon stick shows all the major UK channels.
Make up an emergency DVD of comedies, place it inside a wall mounted case - "break glass in case of internet failure".
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