Hello Scott,
One of my many hats I wear and am not properly appreciated for is maintaining the cable system at the hospital I work at.
You can easily make your own little head end.
You will need to spend a few dollars on RF modulators and cable taps,
but will find it works well.
I have installed a few different versions at a some of our satellites as well.
An RF modulator is merely a device like the RF modulator coming off your VCR, i.e. ch3 or 4 output, only the signal is much stronger and variable.
The cheapest route is fixed modulators, set to a fixed channel.
Since you are using an antenna off air system, I would suggest using a few (unused) channels between 2-14.
Here in the Chicagoland viewing area, used channels on VHF are
2,5,7,9,11. So 12,13,14 would be my first choices. Helps avoid adjacent channel interference. 8 and 10 would be my next choice.
Feed composite video and audio (mono), from each sat receiver, to separate modulators.
Feed another from your TiVo.
Put in a CCTV camera pointed at your front door, Garage, etc on another RF modulator channel. You get the idea...
Each modulator "IS" it's own channel.
Next, tie it all together with a tap for each modulator.
Feed the tap with the output from the RF modulator.
Making your own head end combiner with the taps.
To clarify, a tap has an IN, OUT and TAP.
Make short jumpers with F connectors on each end.
Connect the taps together via the Ins and Outs.
For on-air systems there is a little trick to tying in the on-air antenna
to all this. Just has to do with the way you feed the first tap, I believe. If you are interested in going this route, I will take a look at one of the systems I built in our dialysis unit. It's been some years back, I can't remember it all. But a quick reference is available in the morning with a quick walk down there. That one is the cable coming in to the unit, and three VCRs that patients bring their tapes from home to view while on dialysis.
I'm getting ready to tie in a single VCR to a modulator in our Post Partum wing for informational tapes to be played for the brand new mothers.
Blonder-Tongue make great modulators.
The fixed units were around $125 each last time I ordered any.
I think the model number is PCM-55 or such.
The agile (channel variable) varieties are MUCH more expensive.
It does help to have a variety of taps on hand like I do,
from 6 to 20 dB or so. Usually around 9dB taps will do well.
I know this may seem a little extreme, but it's really fairly simple once you've ever seen it done. Hooking in CCTV cameras is very cool.
Really, all this is pretty much the way the original Cable TV systems were built years ago.
And I've got news for you, MANY mom pop systems are still this way.
Basically, I run a small city cable system at work.
Wish I could make the revenue the cable companies rake in, Hi !!!
I'm on the wrong end of this stick...
Let me know if you're interested, I'd be glad to look up the specific parts you will need.
Now, having said all that, they do make a module that does all this for you in one box call ChannelPlus.
Go to this web site at Skyvision,
I think you will be impressed with this unit.
It is very stable and reliable.
For around $400, you will have one great system.
Much easier to do than what I just described.
Sorry for all the bandwidth above, but it gives you a certain amount of appreciation for what ChannelPlus brings to the table.
I've been doing business from work and home for years, and find them to be a very solid and reliable company you'll be glad to deal with.
http://www.skyvision.com/store/d_chanplus.html
In particular, I am referring to this unit at this page.
http://www.skyvision.com/store/mi3000259.html
If I can be of assistance, I'm always available to you Scott.
73' Clay N9IO
