Suggestions for physical setup for capturing

[SansGrip]

My apologies if this question has already been asked a million times. I didn't turn up anything useful while searching, but it's possible I was using the wrong keywords.

Currently I have a digital satellite receiver attached to my AIW Radeon 7500 via coax.

While a single line of coax was the easiest thing to run through my basement, I'm not very happy with the quality. Audio levels are very low (I've had to use the mic input on my sound card and the driver's mic boost option), it's mono, and looking at the on-screen guide gives one a dramatic demonstration of how much noise coax is adding.

My sat receiver outputs S-video, composite, and coax. At the moment I'm taking the S-video into a A/V receiver along with the composite audio output.

Finally, the situation is complicated by the fact that I needed about 30' of coax to get from the receiver to the capture card, taking the shortest route.

Things I've considered are:

1) Splitting the composite audio and running one pair along with the coax. This at least should give me better levels and stereo.

2) Replacing the coax with all three composite lines.

3) Splitting the S-video (is this even possible?) and running it with the audio.

4) Using some kind of RF transmitter/receiver.

I have searched in vain for authorative information on maximum cable lengths, etc., and found only bickering ;).

I'd be very grateful for any suggestions.

[fellaw]

There's a device available at radioshack which may help you:
2.4GHz Wireless Room-to-Room Audio/Video Sender (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F002%5F004%5F004%5F000&product%5Fid=15%2D1972)

[SansGrip]

There's a device available at radioshack which may help you:
2.4GHz Wireless Room-to-Room Audio/Video Sender (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F002%5F004%5F004%5F000&product%5Fid=15%2D1972)

I found one here (http://www.radioshack.ca/estore/Product.aspx?language=en-CA&product=1518971&category=Video+Accessories+Miscellaneous&catalog=RadioShack) that even has a built-in IR remote extender.

Sounds ideal, since I need an extender anyway. But -- and this could be a big but -- what about the quality?

[fellaw]

I don't know. Depends on how deep the a/v signals are quantitzed.

@all:
Anyone in here ever used such a device??

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

i don't think these rf modulators work well-->for sure they'll introduce
some stuff taht wasn't present in original signal...this is cheap (or not so cheap 80$????) and not ment for hi quality.....

i think cables will do better job....even on so big distances...
i've linked cca 7-8 meters (30feet?how long is that?...hehehe) of cable (i used coax.antenna cable as a composit cable...and put extra wire for audio.....mono is good enough for me....)

you say you have s-vhs output?
try using that->for instance..use existing coax cable as a "chroma" lead for that (chroma) portion of svhs signal as it's more prone to interference.....
for luma try using anything you got..hehe
(inspect if luma & chroma have one ground in circuit.if they do you dont need all 4 wires,but 3...1 for chroma signal,1 for luma signal,1 for ground....i don't have any svhs source so ididn't check that out...)
also you can use that ground for audio also (as for SURE the device that outputs svhs and audio has common ground for all these signals!
i have yet to see devices with few separate grounds for every signal!)
so you would need all together 5 wires-->3 for video,2 for audio
(common ground for all...)

you can cut this to 3 if you use composite->2 for video,1 for audio
(mono)
(audio and video share common ground just as in all devices-->tv,vcr etc.)

coax alone sux!throw that solution....anything is better (either svhs or composite)
tuner on card is not good thing to preserve signal!

the trick is to lead the signal that is already amplified-->such as composite output of VHS vcr,etc.
that way you'll go further than to simply take antenna and put extension coax-cable to it (ok so this doesn't qiute apply to you "without-a-grip",but bare it in mind....)

also svhs should be better than composite.....

(so consider your 2) and 3) solutions)

cheers

Ivo

[SansGrip]

i don't think these rf modulators work well-->for sure they'll introduce some stuff taht wasn't present in original signal

That's exactly what I'd expect too.

i used coax.antenna cable as a composit cable...

Interesting idea. I checked various web sites for S-video cables and the longest I found was 12' (~4m), but didn't even consider using coax cable for S-video...

use existing coax cable as a "chroma" lead for that (chroma) portion of svhs signal as it's more prone to interference..... for luma try using anything you got..hehe

What exactly makes up a coax cable? I'm guessing the central "thick" wire carries the A/V signal and the "mesh" is ground (I don't know the technical terms for any of this).

I'm also guessing that coax might do okay even over such a long distance because, if I remember rightly from my electronics classes all those years ago, it's the resistence that gets you, and the thicker the wire the lower the resistence... Right?

So you're suggesting, perhaps, that I use the coax as chroma and ground, another (thick) single-core cable for luma, and two more cables for audio? How thick would you suggest the audio cables should be over 30' (~10m)?

I'm just trying to imagine how on earth I'm going to attach an S-video jack to this thing... :D

/me goes off to ask Dr Google about the S-video pin layout.

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

S>What exactly makes up a coax cable? I'm guessing the central "thick" wire carries the A/V signal and the "mesh" is ground (I don't know the technical terms for any of this).


_who cares about technical terms (especially english ones..hehe)
yes you got it right.....
i guess that "mesh"(ground) could be called shielding.....


S>I'm also guessing that coax might do okay even over such a long distance because, if I remember rightly from my electronics classes all those years ago, it's the resistence that gets you, and the thicker the wire the lower the resistence... Right?

_right

S>So you're suggesting, perhaps, that I use the coax as chroma and ground, another (thick) single-core cable for luma, and two more cables for audio? How thick would you suggest the audio cables should be over 30' (~10m)?


_they don't have to be thick at all-->with such low power signals you can use almost anything....(i use pretty thin wire for audio lead...no problems...)also for luma is the same...did you saw original out-of-store svhs cables?not thick at all...

but sure the thicker the cable the better it conducts...

as i've said use what you have and see what you'll get.if it's ok then you solved it....
if you don't have cable you can try buying "tasker" (i don't know does your country use that name etc.) cable....the same as in chinch cables (it's simillar to coax,only smaller and mid-wire is composed od many smaller ones..i don't know the english term for this...however it's many small wires twisted into one.....)
that should suffice....
(cause you would need some big holes in wall for few coax cables.wouldn't you..hehehe)


S>I'm just trying to imagine how on earth I'm going to attach an S-video jack to this thing... :D

_attaching s jack to this beast?on the ends you can use simple thin wire (mentioned chinch cable).....
i connect to my chinch ports with "crocodile" clips (coax.cable has clips on the end and i connect those to usual chinch cable that goes to capture card's chinch video in....)
even there ,no signal loss.......

S>/me goes off to ask Dr Google about the S-video pin layout.

_you can hardly get it wrong..and even so nothing can be burned..heheh

[SansGrip]

you can hardly get it wrong..and even so nothing can be burned..heheh

Thanks, I'll give it a shot :)