Signal combining Question

[tazman]

Hi All

A couple months back I signed up with Charter cable.  Not so much for their cable TV service but for their phone and internet.  I have a Samsung DVD-AR650 NTSC / Cable tuner / DVD recorder / player.  It has only 1 input for both off air and cable TV.  I was told by the installing that I could use on of those signal combiners to combine the signal from the cable and my outdoor antenna and feed that to my Samsung receiver and then using my receiver to switch from ether the cable signal or OTA reception.  I tried a satellite diplexer to combine the signal, but that did not work.  All I have is the basic cable TV service.  I would like to still use my outdoor antenna for some of the local broadcasts.  Is this possible to do?  If so what do I need to combine the signal properly?  Or is this something will not work at all.

[TV Tommy]

While what you want to achieve is possible, consider reviewing the FREQUENCY
of what input signals you want to combine.

ie.  Charter cable contains an ANALOG video channels on the following frequencies
54-88MHz   108-550MHz... therefore if you COMBINE Off-air with that, you will have conflicting input carriers.   (they place DIGITAL information... phone, internet, digital cable carriers in the 550-750 MHz range).

Off-air 8VSB channels are...

WTMJ        ch 4 is on ch 28 (554-460 MHz)
WITI         ch 6 is on ch 33 (584-590 MHz)
WMKE-CA ch 7 is on ch 20 (506-512 MHz)
WMVS       ch 10 is on ch 8 (182-188 MHz)
WISN        ch 12 is on ch 34 (590-596 MHz)
WVTV       ch 18 is on ch 61 (752-758 MHz) *** this will change
WCGV      ch 24 is on ch 25 (536-542 MHz)
WVCY       ch 30 is on ch 22 (518-522 MHz)
WMVT       ch 36 is on ch 35 (596-602 MHz)
WBWT-LP  ch 38 is on ch 31 (562-568 MHz
WMLW-CA ch 41 is on ch 13 (210-216 MHz)... also simul on ch 58-2
WJJA         ch 49 - No 8VSB broadcast, yet
WPXE       ch 55 is on ch 40 (626-632 MHz)
WDJT        ch 58 is on ch 46 (662-668 MHz)
WYTU-LP  ch 63 is on ch 17 (488-494 MHz)      



Sounds to me like you need an AB switch, allowing you to CHOOSE which set of RF inputs you want... CHARTER, or ANTENNA.

Hope this helps!

TV Tommy
I can do that

[mhz40]

You got very bad information.  Don't do it.  It will not work.

[tazman]

Thanks for the input.  I had tried the diplexer like I said.  But that did not allow tuning of all the signals.  Probably like TV Tommy said, there are too many overlapping frequencies.  As far as I can tell Charter only has digital HD feeds for 4,6,12,36 and 58.  Nothing for 18 or 24.  That was the only reason for still wanting to use my outdoor antenna.  They could add more if they eliminated the duplicate digital SD channels for all the ones they carry in HD.  I don't rent one of their cable boxes, so maybe there are other channels I'm missing.  All I have is the unit I mentioned before.  I really don't care about cable or any other pay TV all that much.   It was just an extra kicker that came along with the internet and phone service.  The only extra TV watching we do is movies and we either rent or buy those.  I signed up with Charter out of necessity.  I had Netwurx wireless before and I had become very displeased with their service this past year.  DSL is not available to me so I went with a special that Charter had for 12 months of internet, phone and basic cable for $69.97 a month.  Not bad for their 5 meg. package.  Just hope they have another deal when the 12 months runs out.

P.S.
When the weather gets warmer that I feel like climbing my tower, I will have a Motorola 2.4ghz subscriber module and dish for sale.

[LoadStar]

Yup - attempting to do what you are attempting to do will not only not work - it'll likely end up with a Charter guy outside your house disconnecting your service, because your wiring is backfeeding into the wiring for the rest of the neighborhood.