How to send a Foxtel box into another room via HDMI, TV antenna or Data cabling part 2

Disadvantages are;

• There is no built in option to change Foxtel channels from the second room without purchasing addition equipment.
• HDMI modulator will cost more then an AV digital modulator, AV digital modulator use the yellow/red/white leads, there is a very noticeable picture quality difference between the two standard definition and high definition digital modulates.

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

HDMI over cat6 data cable for multiple Foxtel boxes and longer runs

This option can solve all of the problems listed above, there are also a few different options we have available by converting the HDMI into data cable.

The first advantage is, if you have a need to only transmit the Foxtel to one room, we can mix the HDMI signal from the Foxtel box on to a single data cable and then run the data cable up to 70 meters to any TV your home or outside into the man cave. This option is ideal for long runs and only to a single TV.

The second option is, locating all your Foxtel boxes in a single room/cupboard/comms cabinet so they are all out of sight and then mixing them all into a matrix box. This type of system is too complex to explain in this blog but it can be expanded for example up to 8 inputs and 8 outputs, all 8 TVs have the ability to see all 8 inputs/devices connected, so in simple terms you could input up to 8 Foxtel boxes and transmit to 8 TVs OR input 4 Foxtel, 2 Blu-ray players and a PS4 (as the PS4 uses Bluetooth for the controllers, you would have to be in the next room for this to work) and leave the last one spare for future use. This option gives you the ability to also change channels as well from all the rooms.

Disadvantage;

There is only one disadvantage, if you have an old TV connected and it is only a standard definition, the matrix will down scale the image to suit the oldest TV (to eliminate and conflicts in the picture), this means if you have a new HD TV or UHD TV, you will see the image in standard definition, this is only because if the old TV, once all the old TVs are updated, only then will the matrix transmit in full HD.

Summary;

Depending on your requirements will depend on the equipment need, there is no reason why you can not do any of this yourself, but you need to understand that the more complex the system you go the more critical it is to correctly install the equipment, if not done correctly damage can occur to the equipment or the equipment connected. We always recommend something like this to be installed by a repeatable home theatre installation company.

See part one of this blog

Written July 2015