Send a Foxtel box to another room via HDMI, TV antenna or Data cabling part 1

Setting up Foxtel in another room is all legal so you don’t have to worry, setting up a second, third or more room without a second set top box has its advantages and disadvantages, but it is a great way for you to save money in the long term with a little bit of outlay upfront, there are a few different ways to achieve and this and it will all depend on your overall requirements. From running a single HDMI cable to another TV in another room, to mixing it in with the TV antenna system to using a 3^rd party device specially designed for long cable runs and distribution.

HDMI cabling

The simplest and cheapest way is to run a HDMI lead from the Foxtel box to the second TV, but there are limits involved and some extra equipment is needed as well. If cheap and easy is all you want with high quality audio and video, then this option is all you will need, though on the back of the Foxtel box there is only one HDMI output, so how do we split the signal? Easy, we use a HDMI splitter. So to sum up this process we take a HDMI cable out of the Foxtel box and into a HDMI splitter, then one lead will go back into the original TV or amplifier and the second output lead will go into the new TV in the other room.

The advantages are;

• High quality video and audio to both TVs.
• Cheapest solution with without compromising the video and audio.

The disadvantages are;

• All TVs will see the same channel.
• HDMI has a limit of 20 meters, the longer the HDMI cable is, the more the will signal degraded, so the second, third or fourth TV would need to be in either in the next room or so for this fix to work.
• There is no built in option to change Foxtel channels from the second room without addition equipment.

Addition equipment to think about; if you would like the ability to change the Foxtel channel from the second room, there are devices available to transmit the remote control back to the Foxtel box.

Mixing it with the TV antenna

Mixing the Foxtel in with the TV antenna eliminates some of the problems from the first solution. Once the HDMI signal form the Foxtel box (or RCA signal, the yellow/red/white lead) is mixed in with the TV antenna through a digital modulator, only then will every TV antenna point be able watch Foxtel on a digital channel, and because we used HDMI to mix into the TV antenna, we will see the Foxtel on all the other TVs in a high definition channel (unless we used the yellow/red/white lead, we will then only see it in standard definition).

Advantages are;

• We are not limited to distance as much.
• We can send the signal to all the TVs in the house.

See the Disadvantages on part 2 of this blog.