aleicgrant 0 Posted April 23, 2009 hey there ok I am doing some research for a system. I had an installer out and he says its going to be a very challenging install. Reason being is the design of my house gives him pretty much ZERO attic space to run wires etc. So I got to thinking. Could I have him run the wiring from the cameras to a central spot then down to a power box. Then, using a multi switch that I have with Directv, could I use that to distribute to the dvr's in my house that have a secondary antenna input? This way I could turn on any tv in my house and see the video feed? This is the multi switch. I imagine I would need a central switch or something to cycle. I may be way off base but I would like to use the existing wiring inside the house to view the cameras but dont know what I need to pull it together thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scorpion 0 Posted April 23, 2009 When it comes to your construction technique, and you cannot run wiring then there is an A/B switch that you can put at the head end of your Sat distribution. You can modulate each camera to a TV channel, or you can take the monitor out with the quad screen and modulate this signal. This will allow you to see your cameras. The problem is if you have high def then putting these signals together may actually create more problems. If this is the case then the A/B switch will allow you to switch from the Sat signal to the modulated signal. The signal to switch back and forth is sent up the coax to the A/B switch. Affinity Digital Cable Combiner http://www.channelvision.com/products/index/88 http://www.channelvision.com/products/view/427/88 http://beta.channelvision.com/uploads/1215557281_P-0321_MixedSystem.pdf http://www.channelvision.com/ http://channelvision.com/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted April 23, 2009 So I got to thinking. Could I have him run the wiring from the cameras to a central spot then down to a power box. Then, using a multi switch that I have with Directv, could I use that to distribute to the dvr's in my house that have a secondary antenna input? This way I could turn on any tv in my house and see the video feed? This is the multi switch. I imagine I would need a central switch or something to cycle. I may be way off base but I would like to use the existing wiring inside the house to view the cameras but dont know what I need to pull it together As scorpion notes, you'll need a modulator for this - your analog camera video operates in a completely different frequency band than your satellite and TV antenna inputs. A simple version would be the devices that are used to modulate video games onto channel 3 or 4, for a TV to tune. A more readily-available one might be a VCR, that can take a composite video input (the yellow RCA jacks) and output it on channel 3 or 4. More typically, these sorts of installations use a commercial unit that output to a channel in the 200-300 range - most cable providers leave a "hole" in their programming for just such uses (for example, channel 199 may be listed as "security camera" and carries no other programming). These tend to be a bit pricey, however. If you want something that you can feed into the dish inputs on your satellite boxes, though, that's a whole other matter... I wouldn't be surprised that such a thing exists, but I've never seen one, and I can imagine they'd cost a pretty penny. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Squiffy 0 Posted April 25, 2009 It would be possible to couple it (into a satellite cable) using a 1.2GHz video transmitter which is readily available (probably some 900MHz transmitters too if you're in the USA). This would need to be loosely coupled (as in wrapping the output around the coaxial cable) or more directly by using a satellite splitter which provides DC isolation. However, this isn't really a practical solution as it's likely to interfere with existing satellite signals (sharing the same I.F. range) and your satellite receiver is probably digital whereas the 1.2GHz signal will be FM analogue. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zmxtech 0 Posted April 25, 2009 you could run video encoders-decoders etc with WIFI as the base setup. OR just strait IP cams and WIFI like I do here.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites