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Topic starter
2020-04-12 12:20 pm
Hey there, everybody!
First of all: Happy Easter to all of you!
Second, I hope you are all healthy and well in this very strange time of the Corona pandemic!
I have just received a TV set that I want to install in a location where I don't have an outlet for the cable TV signal.
Of course I could run a cable from one of the rooms with a wall outlet but that would include some destruction in the walls around the doors to feed the cable through and if needed I will do so.
But given my new hobby in the field of electronics and microcontrollers I just had the idea to build a wireless bridge with some esp boards. (If fast enough I would prefer the tiny esp-01 boards that I have lying around.)
To evaluate my chances I'd like to pose some questions in the hope of finding answers here.
- I read that the max data rate ranges from 44.92 MHz to 51.34 MHz on QAM 256 (7 or 8 MHz)
Would this be the first limiting factor considering the WiFi speed achievable with these little boards? - What would be needed to actually read the "data" from the wall? I don't see the least bit of voltage on the pin of the coax-cable that I use to connect the TV?
- I would think sending via udp-packets should be possible? (In my understanding DVB-C is already a digital signal, so my basic and probable naive idea was to simply read the signal on a pin of the esp, send it over to the other esp and feed it back to a connector to plug in the TV.)
I am aware of my naivety so if someone could shed some light on it I might have a direction to turn to from here on!
Best regards,
demski
2020-04-12 3:03 pm
I hope your having a great Easter as well.
As far as your television problem I don't think there is a simple good news solution using digital circuitry. First I'm no expert on digital TV and there maybe someone out there who can provide you a much better solution.
Even though it's called digital TV the signal that comes out of your wall coax is not digital. Digital signals like we normally think of (0-5 volts) do not travel well over long distances. The signal in the coax is essentially a radio wave form. The same way a modem is required for you to receive the digital internet from your cable service a similar device is needed for digital TV. My knowledge is lacking on knowing what frequencies the cable company uses to transmit the various channels but they are numerous.
Other than running a coax cable to the new location, a wireless digital TV repeater or using your household WiFi to stream video services to the new location I'm short on suggestions.
Topic starter
2020-04-12 4:08 pm
Thanks for your reply!
I have looked into available wireless repeaters but all I could find were more complex solutions that would completely transform the cable signal into WiFi to have IP TV all over. (like this one: https://en.avm.de/service/fritzwlan/fritzwlan-repeater-dvb-c/overview/ )
Whilst this being nice to have, I found only rather expensive stuff that would be too much for the occasional use. On top of that the "new" TV is a used one that was delivered to me – broken and that I fixed – being just that bit older to not have any IP-capabilities.
And a repeater that just transports the cable signal through the air seems unavailable. (I might not have looked thoroughly enough yet because the idea of making it myself was far more intriguing and enticing…)
I'll dig deeper into DVB-C reference to find out about the nature of the signal!
Thanks so far!
D