Stream to coax and/or broadcast NTSC/ATSC

#1

Basically, what I want to do is be able to output something (either the screen, or a movie file, etc) in a standard either NTSC or ATSC format so a TV on the other side of the coax cable can turn to a certain channel and be able to watch it. What I’d really like to do is be able to broadcast these so any TV within, say, 100ft, could get them over-the-air, but a coax cable would be acceptable.

I haven’t been able to find any results on google, because whenever I search for anything related to ‘linux’ and the words ‘broadcast’ ‘NTSC’ ‘ATSC’ or the like, it is all just about receiving such broadcasts, I haven’t found anything about sending them.

One possible solution could be a graphics card that outputs to either composite RCA or s-video, hooking that into a RF-converter which would then send that signal out on either channel 3 or channel 4, but I’d really like to control the channel from software, and ultimately be able to broadcast on multiple channels simultaneously.

Does anyone know of any hardware and/or software currently capable of doing this? Or have ideas to get me started creating my own?

#2

Would LOVE to know what comes out of this, except I would want 1080p out of it.

#3

OK, I’m a novice when it comes to something like this but I did a little bit of research and I found: http://bellard.org/dvbt/ but he hasn’t released the source code and by the looks of it never will.

I continued searching and I found: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/ which looked promising to me but I’m not sure if that is quite what your looking for.

I also found:

Find a old video card that has a composite output and get a stereo 3.5mm to RCA cable. Connect them to a VCR input. Connect the TV out from the VCR to a amp. From where your cable service comes in place a coax switch to choose between cable service and your VCR. When switched to your VCR it should play your your computers output is to channel 3 or 4. I'm guessing the picture will look pretty crappy.

Like he said though the picture will probably be nowhere near the quality that we expect from television today.

Still not satisfied with the answers I had found I continued to search and I found this thread which contains what I deemed to be helpful information (not sure how helpful it would be to you…)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-1295331.html

Anyways, hopefully at least one of those links helps you out. If you do end up figuring it out I would love to see some type of ‘walk-through/tutorial’ on how you did it so I could attempt it in the future :slight_smile:

#4

That might be possible over ATSC, certainly not over NTSC.

[quote=“Newty, post:3, topic:420508”][quote]
Find a old video card that has a composite output and get a stereo 3.5mm to RCA cable. Connect them to a VCR input. Connect the TV out from the VCR to a amp. From where your cable service comes in place a coax switch to choose between cable service and your VCR. When switched to your VCR it should play your your computers output is to channel 3 or 4. I’m guessing the picture will look pretty crappy.
[/quote]

Like he said though the picture will probably be nowhere near the quality that we expect from television today.[/quote]

That is the same as I mentioned, just using a VCR as the RF-convertor. The quality should be the same as regular broadcast TV (not the new digital stuff). The same limitation applies though, only 1 channel and it has to be 3 or 4, no others.

edit:
Looks like this is probably what I want:
http://www.dveo.com/broadcast-systems/professional-8VSB-modulator.shtml
Input: MPEG-2
Output: ATSC over RG-6 (Coax)

But I don’t even want to imagine how much they cost, I may give them a call for shits and giggles later though. I wonder if anyone has came up with an open-source Linux-based solution for that, I just don’t know about the hardware side of it.

edit2:
This might be the ticket:
http://www.dektec.com/Products/USB2/DTU-215/
Oh shit, nevermind, it costs € 1.495

#5

why are you trying to use an technology which probably isn’t going to be compatible without expensive kit?
Is something like this (http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330) not viable?

or

Apple TV + (https://rubygems.org/gems/airstream) to stream from your PC, if you wanted to share the screen you could use VLC to capture the screen and output it to a stream to send to the Apple TV.