I have a Samsung LN52a650. Standard cable, no option for HD cable. So I have an HD antenna as well that picks up all the local stations. The problem is there is only one coaxial input on the a650. I guess I could get a A/B switch for the cable/antenna, but ultimately I'd like to use my Logitech Harmony One remote to control the choice of two sources so I don't have to manually switch it everytime. Any suggestions?

10/18/2008 3:56:33 PM

What do you need an HD antenna for? That tv of yours has a digital tuner, and TWC broadcasts all the digital channels through standard cable. You need to do a channel search and include digital channels as well. Try keying in 5.1 or 5-1 using the standard cable hookup.

10/18/2008 4:01:32 PM

Agreed ^

10/18/2008 4:04:50 PM

yep, twc will get them to you the same as that digital antenna will..so basically it's useless

10/18/2008 4:49:02 PM

I actually have nc state cable, which if I'm not mistaken is analog and carries no hd source

10/18/2008 6:41:06 PM

^Trust me, its there. Just follow my instructions.

10/19/2008 9:53:50 AM

hmmm... i don't think comtech rebroadcasts the HD feeds from TWC... i could be wrong though

10/19/2008 1:38:50 PM

i didnt think they did either. I know my TV didnt find them. might search a little harder when i get back to the dorm..

10/20/2008 7:36:40 PM

yah mine didnt find anything either. which leaves me back to my original problem: i need some sort of A/B switch for the antenna and cable, and would really really like one that can be switched thru my remote

10/21/2008 2:36:38 PM

you could take a splitter and just run it backwards first to see what happens

basically, instead of using it to split the signal, you would be combining two sources

try that and report back

10/21/2008 2:46:33 PM

move out of the dorms...
Alternately, get a input selector and deal with going back and forth

10/21/2008 3:49:26 PM

Quote :

"move out of the dorms..."

would love to. however my wife and i have an apartment in one of the dorms as she is the RD. it's a huge help for her grad school being paid for and them paying our housing and some food. it would be too difficult for us to afford living off campus as a newly married couple


I'll try the splitter backwards, though from my research online that doesn't seem like it will work.

10/21/2008 3:53:54 PM

i've seen it work for some other setups where ppl said it wouldn't.. give it a shot at least first

10/21/2008 5:18:55 PM

hell, they are cheap enough that if it doesnt work, its no big deal

10/21/2008 5:21:14 PM

^^ i'd love to see proof of that, anywhere, where you have 2 active, powered transmission sources running into 1 dummy splitter and it can sort out what its getting.


The only way i can see 'reverse splitting' the connection like would be if he had a cable box and a HD antenna, and only had 1 of them powered on at a time. Otherwise, you have a non-intelligent piece of metal that will have 2 different electrical signals coming in with 1 output, and they'd run all over each other.

10/21/2008 6:04:23 PM

well considering that the signals are on different frequencies, it shouldnt be a problem

10/21/2008 9:20:29 PM

People actually do the "reverse splitting" a lot in houses where you are broadcasting something like a satellite 2nd tv on a particular frequency, but still want to broadcast something like an OTA antenna over the same wiring. Aficionado is right, as long as the signals are on different frequencies, it works fine.

10/21/2008 9:54:07 PM

now why can't y'all just say "muxing?"

10/21/2008 9:57:31 PM

^ ... or "combiner"

Most "splitters" are actually described as "splitter/combiner" which means exactly that ... they do both.

something like:

http://www.summitsource.com/product_info.php?ref=1&products_id=5271

10/21/2008 10:11:35 PM

Quote :

" you have a non-intelligent piece of metal that will have 2 different electrical signals coming in with 1 output, and they'd run all over each other. "

God I was worried he was an EE or PY major. That would have made me die a little inside.

Anyways, that's basically what you have with cable television- except it's hundreds of signals at once instead of hundreds + a couple more as it is in this case. The fact that you can carry multiple signals and frequencies on a single unintelligent piece of metal is why cable television even works in the first place. There's a chance what he's doing wouldn't work with digital cable- since I don't know if the digital cable frequency ranges overlap with the HD broadcast frequencies. On regular cable however, there's no problem since HD broadcast is meant to coexist with standard definition channel frequencies- which is what ResNet rebroadcasts.

10/21/2008 10:18:54 PM

Quote :

"now why can't y'all just say "muxing?""

I lol'd.

10/21/2008 10:34:22 PM

Quote :

"now why can't y'all just say "muxing?""

because the only thing i could think of was splitter but backwards from how most people use it

10/22/2008 12:14:47 AM

i'm just being facetious

10/22/2008 7:15:11 AM

Quote :

"People actually do the "reverse splitting" a lot in houses where you are broadcasting something like a satellite 2nd tv on a particular frequency, but still want to broadcast something like an OTA antenna over the same wiring. Aficionado is right, as long as the signals are on different frequencies, it works fine."

actually that's what i was doing i believe..not that it matters at this point

10/22/2008 7:46:56 AM

So I used a splitter in reverse as suggested for awhile. It's OK, but when watching cable it gets pretty distorted - think weak over the air analog signal - when the HD antenna is on. Still looking for a better solution if anyone has one.

1/2/2009 3:29:02 PM

You could run one of the coax into an vcr then run some rca cables to the tv.

1/2/2009 4:05:11 PM

hmm thats a possibility. There's gotta be a more ideal solution i would think

1/2/2009 7:48:28 PM

Maybe http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=5433863&st=diplexor&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1051826213389[/link]

I know it works for a satellite signal and an antenna

[Edited on January 2, 2009 at 7:54 PM. Reason : ]

1/2/2009 7:53:45 PM

if you run the RCA from a VCR, do that for the cable, of course

1/2/2009 10:25:01 PM

^^ That is probably what you want: a diplexer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplexer

Quote :

"The diplexer is a different device than a passive combiner or splitter. The combiner is not frequency selective. There is also a power "loss" difference - a combiner takes all the power delivered to the S port and equally divides it between the A and B ports. A diplexer does not."

In other words, you're probably going to see less signal loss if you actually plunk down the money on a diplexer rather than simply trying to reverse a splitter.

Edit: Although things may be a little dicey, I guess - satellite HD uses the whole range, so a diplexer won't work:

Quote :

"Diplexing will not work with HDTV DBS systems, as they use the low broadcast/cable range (and the high range all the way up to 3 GHz) for the additional satellites.[citation needed] This can itself be considered a form of triplexing."

[Edited on January 2, 2009 at 10:47 PM. Reason : satellite]

1/2/2009 10:35:38 PM

hmm i think I'll try a diplexer and see how it goes. Thanks guys!

1/3/2009 7:59:07 AM

you can get an a/b switch that can be remote controlled. i've got one by psyclone that's got 4 inputs.

radio shack has one that's a/b only for $45. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049643


forgive me if this doesn't help or has been already mentioned.... i got bored after a couple posts.

1/3/2009 9:22:08 AM