SIF=Sound Intermediary Frequency. Is the distance where the sound carrier is from the video carrier. Note that you can select the channels in "steps", one step is the channel width and it can be 6, 7 or 8MHz. The Sound IF can be at 4.4, 5.5, 6 or 6.5MHz, depending the TV standard. For example, PAL B have the channel width 7MHz and the sound is at 5.5MHz while PAL D have the channel width of 8MHz with sound at 6.5MHz. If your TV (only the oldest ones, I think) is made for PAL B, then you will hear no sound if the transmission is in PAL D, but the image will be ok. Newer TV sets are multistandard however and are able to demodulate the sound at 5.5 and 6.5MHz if were meant to be used in a multistandard area. For example, in Europe, there are different TV standards (PAL BG in western Europe and DK in Eastern Europe). Australia use PAL B and D so any SIF you select, will be ok. Edit: About selecting between VHF and UHF, I would suggest using VHF because the RF signal being at a lower frequency, it passes easily trough obstacles like walls made of rocks, bricks and armed concrete. Basically it have a larger range. Also, older TV sets do not have UHF band or is not so sensitive.
Australia used PAL B on both VHF & UHF on 7MHz wide channels, being the only case where UHF used 7MHz spacing. PAL D was used on UHF 8MHz channels in Europe, New Zealand, etc. Other than the sound IF spacing, the video was the same as with PAL B.
Not sure about Europe in general but in central Europe any VHF-only TV would be properly old, as in from the 1950s. UHF was introduced in the early 60s I think, if not late 50s.
@@Ragnar8504 The US implemented a requirement for televisions to tune UHF stations natively in the mid 1960's due to lobbying from Kaiser Broadcasting who owned several UHF stations. To this day televisions are required to tune the UHF bands natively.
It would be an old television, indeed that does not have UHF receiver mode, at least in the U. S. Of A. A long gone tube (before solid state) Zenith television a relative used for years could receive UHF signals, but only display it in black and white, as the CRT was grayscale only.
I have done a similar thing for my RC truck and an AV to RF converter, its a rolling TV transmitter with a 4 watt wide band RF amp. I live in a very wooded area and 5.8ghz wouldn't even work in my yard. But 200ish mhz has no problem going through buildings and trees. There's zero latency too and a microphone with an op amp i can hear the wildlife i sneak up on also fitted IR lights to it.
@Buy-n-large Google motorola RF module. I think they're just general-purpose telecommunication amplifiers made in the 90s. I tied the output of a cheap amazon converter to one, got the idea from an old camera I took apart. The antenna doesn't have to be exact because you can just change the channel.
I had a similar idea, I have a remote controlled model mini minor, I've cut a hole in the fake windscreen for some clear plastic, ready for a UHF camera I have, but that's as far as it's gone. I thought it would be cool sitting in front of my loungeroom TV driving a car around my version of 'Land of the Giants', however on a more practical note, being able to inspect the under floor parts of my house without wasting several hours and getting awfully dirty (and a lung full of dust) seemed like a good idea.
I remember recently seeing someone on a forum showing something similar but never found out what it was. Glad you made a review, definitely look into it, thanks
This might have been a transmitter for something called The VCR Rabbit. People would connect this to their VCR & send it to other TVs in their house, usually came with a receiver unit.
i think i remember this. i think a friend of mine’s dad had one - he had everything under the sun that was remotely electronic in nature. i remember he had this laser disc player too where all the discs were the size of an LP and many of them had pictures on the LP/disc correlating to the movie. No one else I knew growing up had any thing like them and I guess they never took off, at least not where we were (this was early 1980s with the laser disc thing). I don’t remember when he got the device that would allow us all to watch the same movie on different TVs, though, but it had to have been by late 80s/early 90s - does that sound about right? do you remember when this was?
A late friend lived in a building that had a pre-existing rooftop antenna system. When she lived there (Late-2000's/early-2010's) most residents had abandoned it for subscription digital services. (Satellite and broadband cable) I imagine if this were connected to it--with a substantial boost in signal--it could've provided the entire building with it's own private TV channel, if not radiated an RF signal strong enough to wireless-ly reach receivers within the building... and perhaps a few others close-by.
My understanding is that broadcasts are more limited by power than the size of the antenna. My college radio station didn't have a full license and definitely 'pushed it' as much as they could. Periodically they'd get calls from one of the commercial stations on a nearby frequency asking them to turn down the power.
@@alextirrellRI Years ago an unlicensed radio station was allowed to broadcast up to 10 watts (I don't know if that is still allowed or not). The last university I worked for and spent the bulk of my teaching career at had such a station (along with two licensed FMs and a licensed AM for NPR). The unlicensed station could be received from approximately five miles away from the tower. Since the station was intended to only serve the campus community that was fine, it was listenable anywhere on campus. The station was mainly staffed by communications major students. Since I was an accounting and tax professor I did not have involvement with the station other than the occasional interview segment during tax season but I was also interviewed by the local TV stations so I was used to it. The professor that does the TV interviews nowadays is much better at it than I was IMO but I did get called back every year by the local TV stations, even for several years after retiring from teaching.
I’ve done the same thing but with an rf modulate and two distribution amplifiers and an antenna. I connected a roku to the hdmi input and have the pro remote so it isn’t intact res and reaches anywhere to change channels. Or I can use the app on the phone. Works great and the range is about the whole house.
To get the proper effect, you’d have to put together an “end of broadcast day” spot to be played at midnight, followed by proper static until 5 or 6 am, and then a “start of broadcast day” spot. At least, that’s how it worked here in the US. (I hate that you have to explain that basic fact of life for youngsters to understand the movie Poltergeist.) I hope that you make yours as over-the-top Australian as possible.
If you linked that up to a power on timer, you'd save a bit of power by only having it run in the sensible hours, heck, you could define your own TV hours, no point in having it running when you'd normally be in bed.
I watched Poltergeist just a few years ago.The most shocking thing about the movie was that I used to hear people speaking in the static noise too when I was a kid. Of course it has a simple explanation,white noise consists all kind of frequencies of random sounds in it,so you can hear whatever you wish from it😅.
@@alisharifian535 I'm into amateur/ham radio, where you often spend your time listening to static trying to make out really weak stations - hopefully they are really there and it's not my imagination. In a few years the younger ones will wonder what on earth that 'static' is, as digital sets don't do that
I think that was the same in most countries. Here there was an announcement, followed by a peaceful image of the flag moving in the breeze in front of the Parliament while the anthem played.
Ooh yes!!! I had been planning to do something like this after building my storeroom A/V rack, though in my case it'd be closer to how TH-cam user 'clabretro' did it as I'd have multiple channels. I saw an analogue RF modulator for sale on AliExpress that could transmit 3 channels, and I've wanted to get one or two in order to have multiple channels available to me when I want to mess around with analogue tuners, however I'd also want the setup to be compact so I can store it in my A/V rack, which is also why I'm prioritising building that first. (4:59) I plan to do this too, but using little external DVB-T2 tuners that run off 5V power, that way a multi-port USB power adaptor could help keep the setup compact. I'd specifically have to find ones that have RCA connectors for composite A/V out as some of them would have SCART connectors instead. (5:22) I'm planning to do this too, using an array of older Raspberry Pi boards set to output composite A/V and automatically launch into VLC to play specific channels off of my Tvheadend server, of which there would not only be over-the-air TV channels, but also Streamlink and disqueTV channels, using a specific Tvheadend playback profile to have it use FFmpeg to re-encode the streams in standard definition and a codec they can decode. I'm aware the Raspberry Pi 5 can output composite video, but I plan to use older boards as they'd typically be cheaper on the used market and most of the work would be done by the server. It certainly helped that, before Mediacorp (Singapore) shut down their PAL-B/G transmitters, I channel surfed on my Philips DVD recorder (from 2004, so it only had an analogue TV tuner) and took notes on the frequencies, which I was able to cross-reference years later on Wikipedia to get the channel numbers, which I could then input into the encoders to have the channels on their original analogue channel numbers.
Thanks a bunch for sharing this. I've recently tried using only video streamers but they havent exactly worked well. Had no idea someone had made a modern alternative. ALso thanks for the case!
We had a device like this at home in the 90s. A video sender, don’t know the brand. It was only a fixed channel/freq it was set to. We used it to transmit the VCR signal to my bedroom as a kid. We only had 1 rental VCR.
If you connect a TV antenna to the output you can increase the range considerably. Of course it's directional, the bigger the antenna the more directional. This also works with the outputs of VCRs and computers. UHF antennas are a bit more practical indoors.
Potential relevant meanings for “COT”: “Change Of Trim” (of a potentiometer) “Card Or Tape” (storage media) “Computer Operator Terminal” “Continuity/Operability Test” “Component Operational Test” “Current Operation Time” or if all else fails, “Cup Of Tea” 😄
Using a couple of these units on different frequencies with a proper antenna and an amplifier with enough power to cover the entire house and running different video streams from a couple Raspberry pi's and you could run your own local multi channel in house TV network. Great video!
That thing is harmless as long as you don't connect a power amplifier behind it. In some regions the old analogue TV frequencies have been re-allocated to different services.
Instead of the antenna connect it to the internal coax wired to the rooms of your home, as if it were the antenna. All the sets can hook to it. Not as convenient as wireless broadcast, but less interference and better signal.
I always wanted a Ramsey TV6 Analog TV Transmitter Kit, but you can't get them in the USA anymore because they are illegal. The Ramsey manual is online, so if I knew what I was doing, then I might print a PCB and make my own.
i love this so much! thank you for sharing. this has so many possibilities. I honestly think everyone should have one of these in their home for a “just in case” use at the very least. i don’t like channels that constantly catastrophise (is that a word?) everything - doomsday type content. However, there is content that is valuable to everyone on those channels without constantly saying that you need these things because the world is going to end (if it’s ending who cares). There’s always natural disasters and with solar flares becoming more frequent and attacks on infrastructure becoming more realistic, EMP weapons being potentially used and reports of ships cutting cables in the ocean that are vital for information and networks, etc. these have real world uses. It would be so nice, really vital, to have something like this on hand if even something temporary happens to be able to reach out to others, have entertainment, and more importantly to be able to hopefully find news outlets and updates that have switched to analog during the crisis. for more fun uses, I am thinking in terms of how people people used to have their own channels and shows that they would broadcast, things like Wayne’s World were modeled after. I believe those were still analog, but something similar even if it wasn’t. That would be so much fun for kids to try and set up for friends and such and to get them interested in learning about older technology and how it evolved, etc. Lots of potential here for a variety of uses. quick question: are we not able to watch old VHS movies and such on digital TVs? I haven’t really tried.
My digital televisions here in the States still have RCA connections so an old VCR can be connected without much issue. However, the picture will be in a 4:3 format with black bars on the left and right.
Couldn't you do then same with an old VCR, and antenna amplifier and antenna? I mean, most old VCRs will modulate the video input and put it out on TV channel 3 or 4. So if you put that signal to an amplifier and an antenna, isn't that all you need?
I honestly don't remember if it's the one you sent me or not. I have another one that's a web server, but I can't remember which is which. This is the one I used to use for live-streaming in the shed.
Cool little widget. The green looks fine and your case design is great! Nicely done! But yeah, you need to add your logo in the top corner, intersperse some ads and have announcements of the upcoming movies now... :D
4:49 PAL B/G/H uses 5.5 MHz audio offset, to place it behind the 5.0 MHz "wide" video signal. Basically all of Central Europe, as well as Australia/New Zealand used this. Conclusion: An old, non-multi-norm-PAL-TV has been used, since newer models should be compatible to all PAL norms.
How to increase range is simple. Get a signal distribution amplifier with multiple outputs and modify it to have only one output being fed all the signal to an antenna pick a channel that you want to use and cut or make an antenna tuned to the frequency. This wont get you more than a mile or 2 range with the antenna placed four or five feet above your roof. But really thats pretty good . By the way this works for fm too. If you use one of those little fm transmitters you can plug into a headphone output on your phone or walkman.
Der Siemens FD200 ist auch ein Computer mit TV Tuner aus der selben Zeit. Habe auch einen Wandler für analog TV Ist prinzipiell ein alter Hut. Aber der ist recht klein
In the 90’s I was a otr trucker here in the us. Not related but I owned a sega game gear with the tv tuner and I used it many times. I never was big on tv but it was an option. Anyway just something this reminded me kf
SIF according to chatGPT SIF defines a standard video frame size and frame rate, used in older video systems like MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. It is typically: • 352×240 pixels for NTSC (30 frames per second) • 352×288 pixels for PAL/SECAM (25 frames per second) Purpose of SIF SIF was designed to reduce the bandwidth required for video transmission while maintaining reasonable video quality. This lower resolution was often used in early digital TV broadcasts, video CDs, and streaming video applications over constrained bandwidth. In a broadcast context over UHF/VHF, SIF could have been used for testing or for lower-quality broadcasts, particularly when conserving bandwidth or fitting more channels into a limited spectrum was a priority. SIF in NTSC Broadcasting • NTSC Overview: • Standard used primarily in the Americas and Japan. • Analog signal transmitted over 6 MHz RF channels. • Typical resolution: 480 interlaced lines (525 total lines with overscan). • Frame rate: 30 fps (29.97 fps in modern NTSC for color TV). • Interaction with SIF: • SIF resolution for NTSC is 352×240 pixels, a reduction from full NTSC (720×480 pixels in digital). • This reduced resolution allows lower bandwidth requirements in digital compression, such as for MPEG-1/2 systems used in early satellite or cable broadcasts. • Transmitting SIF over NTSC channels involves encoding the video into MPEG-1/2 and modulating it to fit into the standard 6 MHz bandwidth. SIF in PAL/SECAM Broadcasting • PAL/SECAM Overview: • Used in Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia. • Analog signal transmitted over 7 MHz (some regions) or 8 MHz RF channels. • Typical resolution: 576 interlaced lines (625 total lines). • Frame rate: 25 fps. • Interaction with SIF: • SIF resolution for PAL is 352×288 pixels, which is half the horizontal resolution of full PAL (720×576 pixels in digital). • By downscaling to SIF, broadcasters could conserve bandwidth in digital transmission systems, such as MPEG-1/2 for satellite TV. • SIF content encoded in MPEG-2 could fit within the standard PAL bandwidth (e.g., for SD channels in DVB-T systems).
It is very similar to a WiFi antenna connection, but it's gender reversed. The screw thread is the same size, but the antenna is a male connection, when a WiFi antenna is usually a female connection.
Oh shit, bought this tiny helper tool on all, works well, but have bad issue, zenner diode(D1, near type C) on the supply, it is burns when transmitter switched off by K3 switch, cuz the power is still on zenner diode, but might be higher than 5.1 volts, then it is burns. When it work power little bit lower than 5.1 volts and zenner diode is not working and still be ok, but when shutted down it's working, you need precision stabilized power supply if you want to left that diode alive, but IC's is rated to work at 6 volts and higher. The sad thing, this transmitter transmits mono sound, it's has no stereo modulator...
The output might be a little hot but sure it should work. you could feed it into your house TV antenna network, assuming you have one antenna feeding multiple rooms, just use a splitter in reverse near the antenna to combine the two signals. If the signal strength does prove to be a problem, attenuators can be obtained from a decent TV antenna supplier, or you could make your own by butchering the innards of an old splitter etc.
As a ham, I have a transmitter that was built from a kit years ago and it transmits to switchable UHF channels, I even have a small power amplifier made from the power brick from a UHF Motorola Mocom 35 which gives me about 10 watts output when the transmitter is programmed on certain UHF bands. Now the fun part is that living in the EU and working on a frequency within the ham band I can transmit at 10 watts but it’s a NTSC signal and old euro analogue TV's cannot receive the signals. I do have several flat computer monitors that do have built in NTSC analogue tuners.
For a while I owned a massive late-70s Hitachi TV (wood grain) that was multi-standard. The only use I had for the NTSC capabilities back then was running a US-spec Super Nintendo. It was pretty worn out though, so when I was offered a new-ish Samsung CRT for free I scrapped it.
I looked this up and all the listing state if you use the AV input, it can't output N, which I assume means NTSC. Do you have an NTSC TV to test? Really want one, but need NTSC. Thanks!
@@Ragnar8504 Wal-Mart still has a wall of televisions in its stores but they are almost never turned on. In later years when they were turned on they were connected to an internal video system, unable to actually tune broadcast or cable channels.
A nice little transmitter, shame there is no option to stretch the pic a bit for less top and bottom bars (yes you'd lose a bit from the sides) You seem to have a nice collection of TV's, I'd like one of those ball TV's, but I'll probably never find one. I do have an 'Apple TV', however it's not what you have, it's not even made by Apple, it's a TV shaped as an apple, complete with a stem and leaves sticking out the top. I've thought of doing something similar, but via the TV antenna 'network' in my house, However having all the computer gear running just in case I wanted to watch a random old movie, seems like a awful waste of power. Maybe a Raspberry Pi etc....
i don’t have a 3D printer. would you be interested in potentially making a few of the cases and selling them? i’d love to get a case. thanks in advance. if not you, maybe someone here would be interested. please let me know.
The are known as Analogue Component VHF & UHF TV modulators Can do the same with HackRFOne Software-defined radio (SDR) UHF VHF SDR Software TV Staton (Can Run them on Raspberry Pi's \ Mini PCs) But they can also Do Analouge TV (With Nicam Stereo Can even get them To Restore TeleText TV Services ) & Digital TV (DVB T1, T2, C & S) & RADIO FM (DAB+, HD Radio) You should NOT be using with Antenna ... only a RF Cox Cable CCTV Local RF loop / patch Now You have your own Home Private (Pirate) Cable Company only a RF Cox Cable into the TV VHS antenna ports
There are literally dozens of sellers of this transmitter. If the link I provided doesn't deliver to your location, just find a seller that does. I got mine delivered to Australia for $67 AUD (€40).
Random devices like these are like gold in the sand.
I love this idea so much. It almost makes me wish I lived in a big apartment complex so I could run a pirate TV station lol.
Broadcast Star Trek Discovery untill they ask me to leave!!!
Lol, a pirate TV station would get shut down so much faster than pirate radio
If you're transmitting just enough to cover a small apartment complex (and nobody tells on you), who's going to ever know?
@@johnphillips4783 Well, wider bandwidth so maybe more likely to be found. But its such low power...
SIF=Sound Intermediary Frequency. Is the distance where the sound carrier is from the video carrier. Note that you can select the channels in "steps", one step is the channel width and it can be 6, 7 or 8MHz. The Sound IF can be at 4.4, 5.5, 6 or 6.5MHz, depending the TV standard.
For example, PAL B have the channel width 7MHz and the sound is at 5.5MHz while PAL D have the channel width of 8MHz with sound at 6.5MHz. If your TV (only the oldest ones, I think) is made for PAL B, then you will hear no sound if the transmission is in PAL D, but the image will be ok. Newer TV sets are multistandard however and are able to demodulate the sound at 5.5 and 6.5MHz if were meant to be used in a multistandard area. For example, in Europe, there are different TV standards (PAL BG in western Europe and DK in Eastern Europe). Australia use PAL B and D so any SIF you select, will be ok.
Edit: About selecting between VHF and UHF, I would suggest using VHF because the RF signal being at a lower frequency, it passes easily trough obstacles like walls made of rocks, bricks and armed concrete. Basically it have a larger range. Also, older TV sets do not have UHF band or is not so sensitive.
Australia used PAL B on both VHF & UHF on 7MHz wide channels, being the only case where UHF used 7MHz spacing. PAL D was used on UHF 8MHz channels in Europe, New Zealand, etc. Other than the sound IF spacing, the video was the same as with PAL B.
@@georgekozak225 Thanks for corecting me. I got that info from my old notes from around 1998 when I was interested in color TV.
Not sure about Europe in general but in central Europe any VHF-only TV would be properly old, as in from the 1950s. UHF was introduced in the early 60s I think, if not late 50s.
@@Ragnar8504 The US implemented a requirement for televisions to tune UHF stations natively in the mid 1960's due to lobbying from Kaiser Broadcasting who owned several UHF stations. To this day televisions are required to tune the UHF bands natively.
It would be an old television, indeed that does not have UHF receiver mode, at least in the U. S. Of A.
A long gone tube (before solid state) Zenith television a relative used for years could receive UHF signals, but only display it in black and white, as the CRT was grayscale only.
I have done a similar thing for my RC truck and an AV to RF converter, its a rolling TV transmitter with a 4 watt wide band RF amp. I live in a very wooded area and 5.8ghz wouldn't even work in my yard. But 200ish mhz has no problem going through buildings and trees. There's zero latency too and a microphone with an op amp i can hear the wildlife i sneak up on also fitted IR lights to it.
Interesting. What transmitter are you using? How much power output?
@Buy-n-large Google motorola RF module. I think they're just general-purpose telecommunication amplifiers made in the 90s. I tied the output of a cheap amazon converter to one, got the idea from an old camera I took apart. The antenna doesn't have to be exact because you can just change the channel.
I had a similar idea, I have a remote controlled model mini minor, I've cut a hole in the fake windscreen for some clear plastic, ready for a UHF camera I have, but that's as far as it's gone.
I thought it would be cool sitting in front of my loungeroom TV driving a car around my version of 'Land of the Giants', however on a more practical note, being able to inspect the under floor parts of my house without wasting several hours and getting awfully dirty (and a lung full of dust) seemed like a good idea.
This device is perfect for retro pocket TV
Getting one for my 3 Sinclair pocket TVs
I just bought one of these and hooked it up and it works really good
I like the anlog tv channel idea!
I remember recently seeing someone on a forum showing something similar but never found out what it was. Glad you made a review, definitely look into it, thanks
Excellent video Bruce!
This might have been a transmitter for something called The VCR Rabbit. People would connect this to their VCR & send it to other TVs in their house, usually came with a receiver unit.
i think i remember this. i think a friend of mine’s dad had one - he had everything under the sun that was remotely electronic in nature. i remember he had this laser disc player too where all the discs were the size of an LP and many of them had pictures on the LP/disc correlating to the movie. No one else I knew growing up had any thing like them and I guess they never took off, at least not where we were (this was early 1980s with the laser disc thing). I don’t remember when he got the device that would allow us all to watch the same movie on different TVs, though, but it had to have been by late 80s/early 90s - does that sound about right? do you remember when this was?
A late friend lived in a building that had a pre-existing rooftop antenna system. When she lived there (Late-2000's/early-2010's) most residents had abandoned it for subscription digital services. (Satellite and broadband cable) I imagine if this were connected to it--with a substantial boost in signal--it could've provided the entire building with it's own private TV channel, if not radiated an RF signal strong enough to wireless-ly reach receivers within the building... and perhaps a few others close-by.
My understanding is that broadcasts are more limited by power than the size of the antenna. My college radio station didn't have a full license and definitely 'pushed it' as much as they could. Periodically they'd get calls from one of the commercial stations on a nearby frequency asking them to turn down the power.
@@alextirrellRI Years ago an unlicensed radio station was allowed to broadcast up to 10 watts (I don't know if that is still allowed or not). The last university I worked for and spent the bulk of my teaching career at had such a station (along with two licensed FMs and a licensed AM for NPR). The unlicensed station could be received from approximately five miles away from the tower. Since the station was intended to only serve the campus community that was fine, it was listenable anywhere on campus. The station was mainly staffed by communications major students. Since I was an accounting and tax professor I did not have involvement with the station other than the occasional interview segment during tax season but I was also interviewed by the local TV stations so I was used to it. The professor that does the TV interviews nowadays is much better at it than I was IMO but I did get called back every year by the local TV stations, even for several years after retiring from teaching.
I’ve done the same thing but with an rf modulate and two distribution amplifiers and an antenna. I connected a roku to the hdmi input and have the pro remote so it isn’t intact res and reaches anywhere to change channels. Or I can use the app on the phone. Works great and the range is about the whole house.
To get the proper effect, you’d have to put together an “end of broadcast day” spot to be played at midnight, followed by proper static until 5 or 6 am, and then a “start of broadcast day” spot. At least, that’s how it worked here in the US. (I hate that you have to explain that basic fact of life for youngsters to understand the movie Poltergeist.) I hope that you make yours as over-the-top Australian as possible.
If you linked that up to a power on timer, you'd save a bit of power by only having it run in the sensible hours, heck, you could define your own TV hours, no point in having it running when you'd normally be in bed.
I watched Poltergeist just a few years ago.The most shocking thing about the movie was that I used to hear people speaking in the static noise too when I was a kid. Of course it has a simple explanation,white noise consists all kind of frequencies of random sounds in it,so you can hear whatever you wish from it😅.
I could do this to broadcast tornado warnings to the rest of my apartment building. "This is the E B S. Take shelter now!"
@@alisharifian535 I'm into amateur/ham radio, where you often spend your time listening to static trying to make out really weak stations - hopefully they are really there and it's not my imagination.
In a few years the younger ones will wonder what on earth that 'static' is, as digital sets don't do that
I think that was the same in most countries. Here there was an announcement, followed by a peaceful image of the flag moving in the breeze in front of the Parliament while the anthem played.
Ooh yes!!! I had been planning to do something like this after building my storeroom A/V rack, though in my case it'd be closer to how TH-cam user 'clabretro' did it as I'd have multiple channels.
I saw an analogue RF modulator for sale on AliExpress that could transmit 3 channels, and I've wanted to get one or two in order to have multiple channels available to me when I want to mess around with analogue tuners, however I'd also want the setup to be compact so I can store it in my A/V rack, which is also why I'm prioritising building that first.
(4:59) I plan to do this too, but using little external DVB-T2 tuners that run off 5V power, that way a multi-port USB power adaptor could help keep the setup compact. I'd specifically have to find ones that have RCA connectors for composite A/V out as some of them would have SCART connectors instead.
(5:22) I'm planning to do this too, using an array of older Raspberry Pi boards set to output composite A/V and automatically launch into VLC to play specific channels off of my Tvheadend server, of which there would not only be over-the-air TV channels, but also Streamlink and disqueTV channels, using a specific Tvheadend playback profile to have it use FFmpeg to re-encode the streams in standard definition and a codec they can decode. I'm aware the Raspberry Pi 5 can output composite video, but I plan to use older boards as they'd typically be cheaper on the used market and most of the work would be done by the server.
It certainly helped that, before Mediacorp (Singapore) shut down their PAL-B/G transmitters, I channel surfed on my Philips DVD recorder (from 2004, so it only had an analogue TV tuner) and took notes on the frequencies, which I was able to cross-reference years later on Wikipedia to get the channel numbers, which I could then input into the encoders to have the channels on their original analogue channel numbers.
Been looking for something like this a long time!
Thanks a bunch for sharing this. I've recently tried using only video streamers but they havent exactly worked well. Had no idea someone had made a modern alternative. ALso thanks for the case!
Some of that static is the Cosmic Microwave Background!
Love how you're using this, pop on the telly and watch whatever is on!
What a great way to watch I Love Lucy.... with Rabbit Ears!!!
If you could boost the output to 1KW you could start a new TV channel to cover a whole town!
I would absolutely add in some Vintage commercials to the play list.
That's a great idea!
Old black and white ones would be cool, modern ones are too 'in your face'
We had a device like this at home in the 90s. A video sender, don’t know the brand. It was only a fixed channel/freq it was set to. We used it to transmit the VCR signal to my bedroom as a kid. We only had 1 rental VCR.
This is brilliant
If you connect a TV antenna to the output you can increase the range considerably. Of course it's directional, the bigger the antenna the more directional. This also works with the outputs of VCRs and computers. UHF antennas are a bit more practical indoors.
Potential relevant meanings for “COT”:
“Change Of Trim” (of a potentiometer)
“Card Or Tape” (storage media)
“Computer Operator Terminal”
“Continuity/Operability Test”
“Component Operational Test”
“Current Operation Time”
or if all else fails,
“Cup Of Tea” 😄
Quality. Breathing new life into old CRTs. Love it.
Thanks I bought one.
Using a couple of these units on different frequencies with a proper antenna and an amplifier with enough power to cover the entire house and running different video streams from a couple Raspberry pi's and you could run your own local multi channel in house TV network. Great video!
love it
That thing is harmless as long as you don't connect a power amplifier behind it. In some regions the old analogue TV frequencies have been re-allocated to different services.
Yeah, if nobody ever notices it, she's good.
@@dash8brj the 600 mhz band is now used for 5G cell service
Instead of the antenna connect it to the internal coax wired to the rooms of your home, as if it were the antenna. All the sets can hook to it. Not as convenient as wireless broadcast, but less interference and better signal.
In that case it would be just as easy to just use a standard RF modulator... or an old VCR.
@@alextirrellRI I agree, but that also assumes you have either of those. And they don't give you channel / frequency versatility.
@@bobblum5973or digital inputs in many cases such as HDMI from a PC
So cool! Big thumbs up! ^^
Wow that's freekin cool.
Great, it’s very similar to my idea, except I want to live stream video of the game.
Love it great review will get one
What a cool device!
Brilliant! (Also potentially troublesome if you signal boost, could interfere with reallocated frequencies)
Great content Bruce, I've tried something similar in the past with some adapters and modulators.
SIF = Sound IF. NTSC would be 4.5Mhz.
Yes, I figured "S" was for sound, it was the "IF" I wasn't sure about.
@BranchusCreations intermediate frequency
@@BranchusCreations Sound Intercarrier Frequency ...?
I love it!
I always wanted a Ramsey TV6 Analog TV Transmitter Kit, but you can't get them in the USA anymore because they are illegal. The Ramsey manual is online, so if I knew what I was doing, then I might print a PCB and make my own.
2:24 BigClive's Australian relative
i love this so much! thank you for sharing. this has so many possibilities. I honestly think everyone should have one of these in their home for a “just in case” use at the very least. i don’t like channels that constantly catastrophise (is that a word?) everything - doomsday type content. However, there is content that is valuable to everyone on those channels without constantly saying that you need these things because the world is going to end (if it’s ending who cares). There’s always natural disasters and with solar flares becoming more frequent and attacks on infrastructure becoming more realistic, EMP weapons being potentially used and reports of ships cutting cables in the ocean that are vital for information and networks, etc. these have real world uses. It would be so nice, really vital, to have something like this on hand if even something temporary happens to be able to reach out to others, have entertainment, and more importantly to be able to hopefully find news outlets and updates that have switched to analog during the crisis.
for more fun uses, I am thinking in terms of how people people used to have their own channels and shows that they would broadcast, things like Wayne’s World were modeled after. I believe those were still analog, but something similar even if it wasn’t. That would be so much fun for kids to try and set up for friends and such and to get them interested in learning about older technology and how it evolved, etc. Lots of potential here for a variety of uses.
quick question: are we not able to watch old VHS movies and such on digital TVs? I haven’t really tried.
My digital televisions here in the States still have RCA connections so an old VCR can be connected without much issue. However, the picture will be in a 4:3 format with black bars on the left and right.
Couldn't you do then same with an old VCR, and antenna amplifier and antenna? I mean, most old VCRs will modulate the video input and put it out on TV channel 3 or 4. So if you put that signal to an amplifier and an antenna, isn't that all you need?
The amps create a little too much "noise" to be useful. You might get a mediocre signal VERY close to your VCR, and not much else.
Thank you for this!
Great video and humour
If I remember correctly, they made a converter at the time of the switch to use to get reception.
It was rather bulky.
I want one, i don't need one, but i want one anyway! Also, that 2012 Mac Mini looks kinda familiar...
I honestly don't remember if it's the one you sent me or not. I have another one that's a web server, but I can't remember which is which. This is the one I used to use for live-streaming in the shed.
That’s cool
Green is okay!
Cool little widget. The green looks fine and your case design is great! Nicely done! But yeah, you need to add your logo in the top corner, intersperse some ads and have announcements of the upcoming movies now... :D
4:49 PAL B/G/H uses 5.5 MHz audio offset, to place it behind the 5.0 MHz "wide" video signal. Basically all of Central Europe, as well as Australia/New Zealand used this.
Conclusion: An old, non-multi-norm-PAL-TV has been used, since newer models should be compatible to all PAL norms.
Can U use a Outdoor TV Antenna on a Analog TV Transmitter to broadcast a Analog TV station
subbed.
same!
Ive bought a digital receiver that has an analogue output and I'm able to watch digital TV on my old analogue TV 🙂
How to increase range is simple. Get a signal distribution amplifier with multiple outputs and modify it to have only one output being fed all the signal to an antenna pick a channel that you want to use and cut or make an antenna tuned to the frequency. This wont get you more than a mile or 2 range with the antenna placed four or five feet above your roof. But really thats pretty good . By the way this works for fm too. If you use one of those little fm transmitters you can plug into a headphone output on your phone or walkman.
I do this I have both Digital tv channels and a UHF one and the HD ones play films on my TVs
Great idea
Der Siemens FD200 ist auch ein Computer mit TV Tuner aus der selben Zeit.
Habe auch einen Wandler für analog TV
Ist prinzipiell ein alter Hut.
Aber der ist recht klein
@1:09
Can you watch BD media on old screens?
Ive been thinking about doing that!!!
In the 90’s I was a otr trucker here in the us. Not related but I owned a sega game gear with the tv tuner and I used it many times. I never was big on tv but it was an option. Anyway just something this reminded me kf
Clicked for Goldberg
Subbed for boxy tech 💯
now get a pi zero w 2 and hook it up and run retro tv channel.
SIF according to chatGPT
SIF defines a standard video frame size and frame rate, used in older video systems like MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. It is typically:
• 352×240 pixels for NTSC (30 frames per second)
• 352×288 pixels for PAL/SECAM (25 frames per second)
Purpose of SIF
SIF was designed to reduce the bandwidth required for video transmission while maintaining reasonable video quality. This lower resolution was often used in early digital TV broadcasts, video CDs, and streaming video applications over constrained bandwidth.
In a broadcast context over UHF/VHF, SIF could have been used for testing or for lower-quality broadcasts, particularly when conserving bandwidth or fitting more channels into a limited spectrum was a priority.
SIF in NTSC Broadcasting
• NTSC Overview:
• Standard used primarily in the Americas and Japan.
• Analog signal transmitted over 6 MHz RF channels.
• Typical resolution: 480 interlaced lines (525 total lines with overscan).
• Frame rate: 30 fps (29.97 fps in modern NTSC for color TV).
• Interaction with SIF:
• SIF resolution for NTSC is 352×240 pixels, a reduction from full NTSC (720×480 pixels in digital).
• This reduced resolution allows lower bandwidth requirements in digital compression, such as for MPEG-1/2 systems used in early satellite or cable broadcasts.
• Transmitting SIF over NTSC channels involves encoding the video into MPEG-1/2 and modulating it to fit into the standard 6 MHz bandwidth.
SIF in PAL/SECAM Broadcasting
• PAL/SECAM Overview:
• Used in Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia.
• Analog signal transmitted over 7 MHz (some regions) or 8 MHz RF channels.
• Typical resolution: 576 interlaced lines (625 total lines).
• Frame rate: 25 fps.
• Interaction with SIF:
• SIF resolution for PAL is 352×288 pixels, which is half the horizontal resolution of full PAL (720×576 pixels in digital).
• By downscaling to SIF, broadcasters could conserve bandwidth in digital transmission systems, such as MPEG-1/2 for satellite TV.
• SIF content encoded in MPEG-2 could fit within the standard PAL bandwidth (e.g., for SD channels in DVB-T systems).
Alas, ChatGPT has not provided the right answer. SIF stands for Sound Intermediate Frequency.
The antenna connection, is it F-type, or SMA?
It looks almost the same as a connector on a WiFi antenna…
It is very similar to a WiFi antenna connection, but it's gender reversed. The screw thread is the same size, but the antenna is a male connection, when a WiFi antenna is usually a female connection.
Oh shit, bought this tiny helper tool on all, works well, but have bad issue, zenner diode(D1, near type C) on the supply, it is burns when transmitter switched off by K3 switch, cuz the power is still on zenner diode, but might be higher than 5.1 volts, then it is burns. When it work power little bit lower than 5.1 volts and zenner diode is not working and still be ok, but when shutted down it's working, you need precision stabilized power supply if you want to left that diode alive, but IC's is rated to work at 6 volts and higher. The sad thing, this transmitter transmits mono sound, it's has no stereo modulator...
Would hooking up a TV directly to the antenna output (using 75 ohm coaxial cable) work?
The output might be a little hot but sure it should work. you could feed it into your house TV antenna network, assuming you have one antenna feeding multiple rooms, just use a splitter in reverse near the antenna to combine the two signals.
If the signal strength does prove to be a problem, attenuators can be obtained from a decent TV antenna supplier, or you could make your own by butchering the innards of an old splitter etc.
A good FOSS alternative to Plex is Jellyfin, I use it
Could there be any issues with the broadcast interfering with digital radios or mobile networks? Hopefully it's all kosher with the ACMA 🙂
I have one of these - where are you located in oz? I'd love to talk about it!
I'm in western Sydney,
As a ham, I have a transmitter that was built from a kit years ago and it transmits to switchable UHF channels, I even have a small power amplifier made from the power brick from a UHF Motorola Mocom 35 which gives me about 10 watts output when the transmitter is programmed on certain UHF bands. Now the fun part is that living in the EU and working on a frequency within the ham band I can transmit at 10 watts but it’s a NTSC signal and old euro analogue TV's cannot receive the signals. I do have several flat computer monitors that do have built in NTSC analogue tuners.
For a while I owned a massive late-70s Hitachi TV (wood grain) that was multi-standard. The only use I had for the NTSC capabilities back then was running a US-spec Super Nintendo. It was pretty worn out though, so when I was offered a new-ish Samsung CRT for free I scrapped it.
Do they make an ATSC for USA ?
Or only PAL ?
PAL and NTSC
SIF = "Sound Intermediate Frequency"
I looked this up and all the listing state if you use the AV input, it can't output N, which I assume means NTSC. Do you have an NTSC TV to test? Really want one, but need NTSC. Thanks!
I'll have a look, but I don't think I have any NTSC TVs.
Finally something simple.
Maybe it's a poor translation of Addition and Contraction? Maybe they translated - to contraction, and then somehow shortened that to COT.
Setting up dozens of sets all showing the same thing is the reason to use this.
That would make an interesting backdrop for a TH-cam channel
Are there still stores that have walls of TVs doing this? I've been to electronics stores recently but can't remember looking at the TV department.
@@Ragnar8504 Wal-Mart still has a wall of televisions in its stores but they are almost never turned on. In later years when they were turned on they were connected to an internal video system, unable to actually tune broadcast or cable channels.
@@Ragnar8504 In TV shops they typically use HDMI distribution amps
SIF = Sound Intermediate Frequency, I guess. Not strictly accurate though. It's the separation between sound and vision subcarriers.
COT ... COnTinue?
A nice little transmitter, shame there is no option to stretch the pic a bit for less top and bottom bars (yes you'd lose a bit from the sides)
You seem to have a nice collection of TV's, I'd like one of those ball TV's, but I'll probably never find one.
I do have an 'Apple TV', however it's not what you have, it's not even made by Apple, it's a TV shaped as an apple, complete with a stem and leaves sticking out the top.
I've thought of doing something similar, but via the TV antenna 'network' in my house, However having all the computer gear running just in case I wanted to watch a random old movie, seems like a awful waste of power. Maybe a Raspberry Pi etc....
i don’t have a 3D printer. would you be interested in potentially making a few of the cases and selling them? i’d love to get a case. thanks in advance. if not you, maybe someone here would be interested. please let me know.
👍
The are known as Analogue Component VHF & UHF TV modulators
Can do the same with HackRFOne Software-defined radio (SDR) UHF VHF SDR Software TV Staton (Can Run them on Raspberry Pi's \ Mini PCs)
But they can also Do Analouge TV (With Nicam Stereo Can even get them To Restore TeleText TV Services ) & Digital TV (DVB T1, T2, C & S) & RADIO FM (DAB+, HD Radio)
You should NOT be using with Antenna ... only a RF Cox Cable CCTV Local RF loop / patch Now You have your own Home Private (Pirate) Cable Company
only a RF Cox Cable into the TV VHS antenna ports
50 euro plus a tenner shipping. and ali just shows "not available in your country" .... yeah nah thanks
There are literally dozens of sellers of this transmitter. If the link I provided doesn't deliver to your location, just find a seller that does. I got mine delivered to Australia for $67 AUD (€40).
I just use a digibox
I really wish I found this video much earlier so I didn't have to buy a 50 ft HDMI cable and HDMI to AV adapter xD