In the attic antenna

[ZzZ]

I have a captive works cw800 and I was thinking about hooking a TV antenna to it, I see theirs a input for a antenna in the back of the receiver I'm not sure if my TV is digital since they just change the signal over to. My TV is a RCA Model # F32689 and was Manufactured in 2001. I guess my question would be can I take the cw800 and hook it up to my TV would I still need that converter box they talk about?

[tom.m1]

hello
yes

[ZzZ]

Originally Posted by tom.m1

hello
yes

Hey Tom I was thinking if the receiver is digital and I just hook my antenna to it, wouldn't the box convert the anlog signal to digital? I was looking to just but a tv antenna at wal-mart and see what I can pull in for stations at least get a couple you know.

[CANIAC]

Should work ZzZ. Don`t believe there is any analog being broadcast now.I`m using my coolsat 8100 HD just for this.Pretty nice to record the locals in HD (NASCAR,Football).You should be able to do the same only in sd.Nice to read someone is getting every penny out of there box....

[Sagittarius Bob]

Yes ZzZ,

You can do exactly that. Assuming the CW 800 has an ATSC (digital) antenna input. I don't have one so I don't know. If it's just an NTSC (analog) input it won't work at all. If you live in a fairly large metropolitan area you may get quite a number of channels.

I live on the southeast coast of florida and pick up 54 digital channels with a $29 Radio Shack antenna.

Good luck

[CANIAC]

Something else to think about ZzZ.With a good true fta setup,The antenna and recording capabilities you will be a happy camper....

[CANIAC]

Hey Sagitarius Bob this cw800 that ZzZ has QPSK Tuner.I have wondered about this and still can`t find any solid answers.If youre box has QPSK Tuner can you bring in the locals That are broadcast in HD? This is interesting..

[Sagittarius Bob]

Originally Posted by CANIAC

Hey Sagitarius Bob this cw800 that ZzZ has QPSK Tuner.I have wondered about this and still can`t find any solid answers.If youre box has QPSK Tuner can you bring in the locals That are broadcast in HD? This is interesting..

Hi Caniac,

Good question... unfortunately I don't have the definitive answer either. If I had to guess I would say no. Over the air broadcasts are ATSC only, here in the US except for some local low power analog stations that are allowed to continue broadcasting until 2012 I believe.

My guess is that if the input doesn't say ATSC or Digital then it won't work

[SolidBrass]

The antenna section of the CW is just a pass-through. If you have a digitial TV, and if the attic antenna is good enough to pick up the signal correctly, this will work. However, if you do not have a digital TV, you will still have to use a converter in-line, perferrably before the CW box.

[Sagittarius Bob]

Originally Posted by SolidBrass

The antenna section of the CW is just a pass-through. If you have a digitial TV, and if the attic antenna is good enough to pick up the signal correctly, this will work. However, if you do not have a digital TV, you will still have to use a converter in-line, perferrably before the CW box.

I'll take your word for it SB but I don't get it. RF in to RF out or what? I don't get the point of that.

[SolidBrass]

Originally Posted by Sagittarius Bob

I'll take your word for it SB but I don't get it. RF in to RF out or what? I don't get the point of that.

It works the same as the RF in and RF out of a VCR except that there is no tuner in the CW for OTA reception. When you are using the VCR, the signal is routed to the OTA tuner in the VCR then to the recorder and finally to the TV. If playing a tape, the RF in is blocked and the tape signal is sent via RF out to the TV. If you turn off the VCR, the RF in/out is a passthrough to the TV so that the antenna feeds the TV directly. What the RF in/out on the CW does is to provide a central point for all of your connections. In theory, you should be able to use a single remote to control which antenna feeds your TV.

Think of the CW as a big switch. Long before people were able to use a single antenna for all stations, multiple antennas were needed. In remote areas, these were a necessity. There use to be an external switch available to switch between antennas. With the RF in/out connections, the switch takes place internally. When watching SAT TV, the RF from the SAT comes into the CW tuner and out the RF (or video) to the TV. Since there is no OTA tuner, flipping the switch to RF in routes the RF out to the TV. The CW box you have is not a digital box in terms of coversion. So, whatever is on the RF in goes to the TV via RF out when you select the antenna v SAT.

[Sagittarius Bob]

OK thanks Solid, I got it. I guess it makes a little bit of sense except that now days does anybody use RF out?

Come to think of it a funny story comes to mind. My brother-in-law bought a HiDef TV a couple of years ago. He had a cable sub with a major company. I was at his house one day about 4 months after he bought the TV. I said to him 'I thought you got a HD TV?' Turns out he had hooked the new TV up to the RF out on the STB. You know the result.

[SolidBrass]

RF out is still useful depending on your setup. If I am using a VCR or DVD, I hook up direct video. Before the digital switch, I used RFin/out through the VCR to the TV plus the video out. With VCR off, the RF passed through to the RF of the TV and I could use the VCR tuner instead of TV tuner. With VCR on, the RF was routed from antenna to VCR tuner then video in of the TV. If you are using OTA signals for HD, passing RF through should not mess up the HD signal to an HD TV. However, going from a DVD converted to RF might cause some loss, which is why I use video out to the TV when using this type of device.

Using this scenario with the STB, I would (and do/did) use the RF passthrough from the STB when not using the STB. However, with the STB on, RF from SAT goes to STB tuner out to video connections on TV. Using the RF out on the STB while using the SAT antenna could reduce your quality out to TV, so video out is the way to go. To receive HD from SAT to HD TV, the STB has to have the HD tuner. Therefore, CW 600, 700, and 800 will only give SD out unless you are using OTA signals, which should work fine with RF in/out passthrough.

I'm still using an older, good quality TV, logistics and money are the drivers here. I don't have a central switch yet, so the TV becomes part of the device switching using RF and video connections. Using the attic antenna, I am not receiving all the locals since the digital switch. Either the digital signal is not penetrating as much as the analog did or the digital converter is not sensitive enough to pick up the signal. I temporarily used a homemade antenna outside and things improved. Now that the weather is cooler, I hope to get things rewired (several rooms in the house are wired from the attic) to use an external antenna and upgrade the cables. Then when other conditions improve, I will upgrade the TV.

[Sagittarius Bob]

I don't doubt most of what you say SB however in the case of my brother-in-law's setup the HD would not and did not pass thru the VCR in either state (on or off). I guess it depends on the type of tuner on the TV. Some have all-in-one inputs. Some have separate NTSC and ATSC inputs.

One final note: You have to admit that VCRs are all but extinct for most folks.

[SolidBrass]

Laffs, I don't use my VCR for anything except for my home and travel videos that I am converting to DVD. I spent 25 years traveling around the world before DVD recorders were available. I just used the VCR example to show how the RF v Tuner pass the signal. Passing an OTA RF signal through a non-HD tuner to video out will lose HD. Passing it RF-in to RF-out should not lose the HD information unless the device is rebroadcasting through the tuner. This shouldn't happen when the power is off on the device.