J Nitro

Imagine… A Fully-integrated Whole-house Video Distribution System

Want to watch HDTV or Satellite TV in every room in your home? Want to see a list of CDs, MP3s or DVDs on the TV in the bedroom? A video distribution system can make it happen.

There are many options, and we can design a system that meets your needs. Call or email us today for a free quote! Read on for more details on the different options:

Whole house Video distribution systems traditionally have been systems that distribute your cable TV or roof-top antenna to TV sets in different parts of your house. We use RG-6 quad shielded coax cable in our installations, since it is the highest quality cable, and it has the best noise rejection capabilities. We also run two cables to every location. This allows flexibility and expansion to be built into the system. But today, video distribution systems are capable of distributing other video sources (Security cameras, Satellite, VCR, DVD or HDTV) to some or all rooms in your home. Typical price to wire a house for basic video is around $1000.00. There are several ways to distribute video:

• Modulators—A modulator is a device that takes low-level video, and modulates onto a channel that can be viewed on any TV in the house. The most common use of a modulator is in your VCR. Your VCR usually modulates it's output onto channel 3 or 4. You tune your TV to channel 3 or 4, and you see the movie that is playing on the VCR. Usually, you have your VCR attached to a single TV, but if you had it attached to the main cable feed, ALL TV's in the house could watch the movie being played! The problem with this is that you may already have a TV station that uses channel 3 or 4, and the VCR would interfere with that channel. Now, imagine a device that could modulate onto any unused channel… Channel 35… Channel 52… That device is made by a company called Channel Plus. Channel Plus makes modulators that can modulate 1 or more devices onto any channel that you want. You simply connect the audio and video outputs of your VCR to this device, and connect it's output to the cable system. So, lets say your cable company has stations on channels 2 through 48. Using modulators, you could put the VCR on channel 50, the Video security camera on channel 52, and the DVD player on channel 54! Since this method of video distribution runs over the main coax cable plant already installed in your house, the only cost associated with it is the cost for the modulators themselves. Modulators cost around $250.00 each for a single modulated channel, to $650.00 for 4 modulated channels installed. Because of the change to Digital TV (DTV), modulators don't make much sense anymore.
• Line Level Video—If you have a newer TV set, chances are that it has line level video inputs. So, instead of using the channel 3 or 4 modulator in your VCR, you probably have it connected to your TV by connecting the "Video Out" on your VCR to "Video In" on your TV set. This is line level video! The reason you connect it this way is because line level video has better picture quality than if use the modulated output. So, in a line level video distribution system, you distribute the "Video Out" of your VCR or other devices to all of the TV sets in the house! The down side to this method, is that the video quality is not very good. Also, all of the TV's in the house must have line level video inputs, which are found on any newer TV. This method of Video distribution is typically used in conjunction with an audio distribution system from companies like Xantech or Elan.  Elan makes a device that can take up to 8 video inputs and distribute them to 8 rooms and is controlled by IR. The Audio/Video distribution amplifier is the most expensive part of this system. Typical cost of this system is around $2500.00 installed, but also includes some audio and IR control capabilities.
• Higher Quality Video Distribution—Composite video is fine for some applications, but what if you want to distribute high quality video from a central DVD player or HDTV receiver? Component, HDMI or DVI Video Distribution is what you want. Companies like Channel Plus make products that will distribute high quality video and digital audio over a Cat5 or higher cable. It is a 2-part system, the transmitter part would go next to the DVD player, and the receiver would go near the TVs that you want to view the DVD player on. So the DVD player will connect to the transmitter via S-Video, Component, HDMI or DVI Video connections, and a Coax or Fiber Optics cable for the digital audio connection. The TV would connect to the receiver using the same connections. There are also large switching devices that can switch multiple HDTV inputs to multiple HDTV outputs, and these devices are coming down in price.
• Satellite TV Distribution—Satellite TV can be distributed throughout the house in several ways. The easiest way would be to put a separate satellite receiver in every room that has a TV. Then you would use a device called a Multiswitch that takes an input from the satellite dish, and splits it into 4, 8 or more satellite receiver outputs. The other option is to put a receiver or receivers in a central location and distribute the audio/video using one of the above methods (Modulator, Low-Level Distribution, Component, HDMI or DVI distribution).
• HDTV Distribution—HDTV distribution can be done in several ways. It really depends on how you are receiving the HDTV signals. If you have an Antenna that receives local broadcast HDTV signals and TVs in your home that can receive these signals (so they have built in HDTV or digital tuners) then it is very easy to do. All you need is Coax cabling to all of your TV locations, and a good antenna installed on your roof or in your attic. If you get your HDTV content from a Satellite TV or Cable TV provider, then you can use the same cabling as long as you put a Satellite or Cable TV box at each TV location. You could also just use one Satellite or Cable TV box and distribute the HDTV content throughout the house using a Video distribution system (see Component, HDMI or DVI Distribution above).