How do I get a digital TV modulator?
Sunday, 24 January, 2010
I have just bought a PVR (to save some recorded Foxtel programs). It appears to have a digital-only RF tuner (doesn't see the Foxtel analogue RF output channel). So, I'm looking for some way to convert the Foxtel output (RF or composite AV) to a digital RF channel (the PVR only has RF input!!). Any help would be great.
Thanks in advance!
Allan "Krusty" Krause, , Australia
 A bit of explanation is in order.
A PVR (Personal Video Recorder) usually has a TV tuner and a hard disk so it can record and play back TV.
Allan presumably has a Foxtel IQ receiver which is another type of PVR (but for the Foxtel channels).
The IQ has various outputs including an analogue TV output which can be played on an older analogue TV set.
Allan presumably has run out of space to hold his recorded programs on the IQ box and wants to off-load some to his new PVR but there is no input (such as component video).
So Allan would like to convert the output of the Foxtel IQ box to a digital TV signal so his new PVR can receive it.
In my opinion that's a bad idea. Yes there are devices that do that, but they cost hundreds of dollars. It would be cheaper (and better quality) to pay the money to buy a simple DVD recorder and archive the programs to that, using the composite or component outputs on the IQ box.
Or Allan could upgrade his Foxtel IQ to the IQ2 box which offers double the recoding capacity.
Or sell the PVR and buy one that DOES have video inputs.
Or buy a media server unit with a hard disk and use that to hold the programs, Paul Zucker
 Reader solutions
dingPosted: 06/06/2010 re: How do I get a digital TV modulator? hi mate,
you solution is here, you can get one of our DVB-T digital modulator from us.
we made this modulator just in place,at the right time, if you would contact me on sevenstarcomm@gmail.com I can sent you the user manu.ok! LeighPosted: 26/01/2010 re: Andrew's reply You must also realise that even Optical Media has its limits and should not be the only archive of critical storage, rather, it should be one tool in an arsenal. andrew peter collinsPosted: 25/01/2010 re: How do I get a digital TV modulator? Hi Allan. This seems to get messier the more i read it. PVRs were really only designed for time shifting programmes and storage...to a certain point. The question i would be asking myself is, "Can i get what i've saved on a pre-recorded DVD" available in a shop or online like Amazon? It's actually ironic that this question came up because i replaced my last VHS movie, Fantastic Voyage with a DVD i obtained through Amazon. I now have six tapes that i know i cannot replace but the quality of what is archived there is excellent. Unfortunately, PVRs were badly marketed to begin with. When video tape became a viable option in the early 80s, many people recorded movies on air rather than buying them because they thought they were saving money. The downside here is obvious. Like all analogue media, tape was subject to wear and people often used a tape more than once to record other movies and the spines of the tape started to look like a bad science experiment as the stickers were constantly peeled of and restuck to rename what was on the tape. The other tragedy was when i would get calls for help with chewed tapes and like a death knock i often told people that the tape was too badly damaged to resurrect. Recently, i went in to see a guy i know about doing some transfers to DVD. While i was in his studio, i noticed he was dubbing a wedding video to VHS tape from a High Definition Source. He had argued until he was blue in the face about the disadvantage of doing so but the customer insisted that all the copies be recorded that way...Grrr. When i see ads that offer pausing and re-winding live TV, i cringe. Like any computer hard drive, a PVRs hard drive can fail too. What happens to all your precious memories if they're not backed up? I use a PVR to time shift only and i have a S-VHS recorder on hand just in case. The days of recording and archiving programmes from free to air or cable are over. Foxtel had a real obligation to tell people that there was an inherent risk of trying to use their "IQ" technology for storage. There is no way i would ever use a PVR for storage. All hard drives fail at some point which is why my most precious stuff is backed up on discs. Good luck Allan, Cheers Andy. :) |