Quote:
Originally Posted by Shandysplace
Another reason we need to do something is the conversion to all digital next year. The solution, if we can find one, won't be cheap.
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Sharon and Andy, without knowing exactly what the setup is, I believe that we can easily solve your problem with an almost free (with the government voucher program) digital converter box and a little rewiring.
A digital converter box is a digital receiver/tuner. It will take the digital broadcasts (which all regular television stations must broadcast in Feb. 2009) and let you view them on really any television (old analogs) or monitor (depending on the monitors input abilities). This could even be a laptop screen if you have input jacks for outside sources.
The gov is giving away $40 vouchers for the purchase of these digital converters, which cost between 40 and 70 dollars usually. This program is for those people who don't want to buy a new expensive digital television, but instead can use this converter and their old television sets.
Everybody keeps thinking they have to buy new digital tvs next year, which they don't. Keep what you have and just use a converter box, and you are good to go. If you had cable or satellite, you weren't going to be affected anyway, and could use your old televisions as is. Each household is eligible for 2 vouchers (as long as they have funds).
https://www.dtv2009.gov/
We may have to add a signal splitter, depending on how your TManor monitor is setup, but it may already have inputs for more than one source.
I promise you for less than $50 bucks (using the voucher program), we can make your bathroom wall-mounted Tmanor monitor function as a television set, and you can watch broadcast television on it as well as hookup cable (with possibly another add-on) to it. If you have a vcr or a dvr, you most likely already have a cable tuner built in to them. You would just use the vcr/dvr as your cable box. Simple. We may just have to run a few wires, which won't be hard.
Let me know if this is the route you want to go, and I'll research the digital converters to see which one we will want and the output/inputs they have on the various models. Finding one with a QAM tuner (cable signal) also would be ideal. That way, one box could accept your digital television signals and cable signals. They make them, but I don't know if they will be in the price range I originally told you. They also make dvr's that have both a tv digital tuner(ATSC) and QAM tuner in them. That would also solve your situation and give you the ability to record. Either a dvr or a digital converter box could serve double duty. You could use it at home, when you're not camping.
It shouldn't be hard or expensive at all. If you can get Bill and myself a model number of your Farenheit unit, it's possible that it may have the necessary input jacks on it. If that's the case, all we would really need to do is hook the outside antenna to the converter box, the converter box to this input on the Farenheit, and you would be good to go. You could probably reach everything from outside your trailer, by removing the cover where your refrigerator is.
I was able to rewire a lot of my electronics from there when I added an dvd/radio to my trailer. I also rewired mine at that time where I can plug my portable satellite into the trailer outside jack and then plug my satellite receiver inside the trailer. We are doing something very similar with yours. We are just using a digital converter box instead of a satellite receiver. It's easy.
LCD TV Install
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