RF to A/V converter, does it exist?

[camarotuner]

Found a whole hell of alot of A/V to RF converters, how about one that goes the other direction?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Found a whole hell of alot of A/V to RF converters, how about one that goes the other direction?

Never seen one.

I'm sure it's technically possible, but it would be more along the lines of a VGA box where it would have to do some electronic type conversion to the signal.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

If I'm not mistaken... can't you run an RF into the "ANT" input on most VCR's and hook it up to your TV via A/V cables. Then you'd have to you a VCR remote to select the channel to match the setting on your game system or whatever... And of course, I also think you can turn A/V into RF via a VCR too.

But please, someone correct me if I'm wrong as I have used a VCR to this extent in years.

Now as far as a device that is made for this sole purpose, I don't know one off the tip of my head... and don't feel like researching it right now.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

If I'm not mistaken... can't you run an RF into the "ANT" input on most VCR's and hook it up to your TV via A/V cables. Then you'd have to you a VCR remote to select the channel to match the setting on your game system or whatever... And of course, I also think you can turn A/V into RF via a VCR too.

But please, someone correct me if I'm wrong as I have used a VCR to this extent in years.

Now as far as a device that is made for this sole purpose, I don't know one off the tip of my head... and don't feel like researching it right now.

Everything about what you just said seems to make complete sense ...

... and I'm sitting here wondering why I had never thought to do that all these years ...

... and then I recall that when I HAD a VCR it would have normally already had the coaxial cable from the cable line running into the "Antenna In" portion of the VCR.

While I have yet to try this with an Atari 2600 or other RF only game system, the ONLY thing that I could think of that would cause an issue would be some type of video lag in that setup, which isn't very likely.

[y-bot]

There is an RF to A/V convertor inside of a VCR and that's why it works perfectly for this situation. They do sell stand alone units but they are super expensive (around $100 a few years ago anyway). An old VCR is your best bet.

y-bot

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

See here:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118282

I wonder if RF demodulators are going to become more common/cheaper now that more and more TVs are coming out with no built in tuner or RF input?


...word is bondage...

[Little Samson]

I have my RF/RCA inputs going into my VCR, AV ouputs going to a VGA box, and a VGA cable going into my computer monitor.

I always get funny questions when I sell something like an Odyssey^2 on eBay with pictures of it playing through my computer monitor!

[Trebuken]

The last time I used a VCR for this it worked for some systems, the newer ones, and not for the older...go figure.

If you search ebay for 'demodulator' it will show you some boxes that were formerly for some sort of interactive. I have one of those and it works great...it's alot cheaper than a demodulator...

[8bitCaged]

Try this its big but it might work http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/51...r_AR_005_.html

[GarrettCRW]

Try this its big but it might work http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/51...r_AR_005_.html

No, that's one of the beastly things that takes composite and ports it to coax for older TVs.

[blue lander]

I just use a VCR, too. Try finding an older one, though, they seem to work better.

[MrSparkle]

i dont really see the point unless your tv doesnt have the coax input, your still going to lose all the video quality from having rf in the picture in the first place.

[y-bot]

It's good for using Commodore monitors and other things that don't have coax input.

[The-Bavis]

I was also looking for one of these a couple of years ago. One website I found that used to sell them actually wrote on the product page something like, "A good VCR costs $40. Buy one of those instead."

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

The last time I used a VCR for this it worked for some systems, the newer ones, and not for the older...go figure.

Were you using switchboxes or a direct adapter like this one?


Switchboxes can be pretty flakey, especially with older systems, so an dapter like that one is always recommended whether you're using VCR or not. But I can't think of any reason why the tuner in VCR would work with newer systems and not older ones unless maybe it has some kind of autoswitching like a switchbox built in or something, which I've never seen, but who knows...

i dont really see the point unless your tv doesnt have the coax input, your still going to lose all the video quality from having rf in the picture in the first place.

It's got nothing to do with improving the image quality. It's just--as you already said--for those of us whose TVs don't have coaxial input or a built in tuner.


...word is bondage...

[rbudrick]

I have a little box I bought from TurboZoneDirect years ago that converts AV to coax. They it for all the folks that didn't have RCA ports on their TVs, which was me at the time. Duo's don't have a coax out.

But yeah, they do make them, and they require a power outlet too.

-Rob

[AdamAnt316]

The closest thing I've seen to what the OP wants to do is a Sony "Stereo TV Tuner," model ST-7TV. It seems to be the rough equivalent of a cable-ready VCR, but without the VHS mechanism. It is able to tune both (analog) OTA or cable, and has numerous RF inputs and outputs, along with a set of stereo A/V outputs. It even has it's own video-to-RF converter, but it's function seems to be entirely separate from the rest of the tuner. I paid $10 for mine a couple of years back; there are a couple of Sony stereo tv tuners on eBay, but they're priced at way more than that, for some absurd reason. If something like this can't be located inexpensively, a VCR would probably do the job just as well.
-Adam