rob@panda.UUCP (Robert S. Wood) (02/25/85)
While doing my President's day shopping at Hi-Fi Stores, I saw a 29.95 "Stereo Decoder" for cable TV. In asking questions the salesman said that MTV was transmitted down the cable at 92.9 and I could receive it on my regular stereo, while watching the TV on the decoder box. I did not buy the item thinking it was just a splitter, and put a regular splitter in front of the cable box. (Putting it after the box gave me no stations at all.) I was able to find the regular FM stations on the cable, but no MTV, Showtime, or others. There was one strong constant beep I found but nothing else during the scan. I have a Panasonic PV-1730 VHS Hi-Fi VCR and a Sony STR-AV560 receiver. Questions. Should I buy the item from the hi-fi store? Should I pay the cable company $3.00 per month? Is there any other alternative? Rob Wood (decvax!genrad!rob)
dw@rocksvax.UUCP (Don Wegeng) (03/03/85)
Most of the cable companies that I am familiar with insert the stereo
MTV signal onto an unused portion of the standard FM band. Many also
insert "pseudo-stereo" audio from HBO, Showtime, etc. All that you
need to receive these signals is a standard splitter inserted before
the cable decoder.
You say that you were able to receive your local FM stations using
such a set up. Were they received on their normal frequencies? Many
cable companies insert these signals on slightly shifted frequencies
to avoid interference from the signal broadcast over the air. If the
local stations are received on their proper frequencies then their
signals were probably not inserted by the cable company.
/Don
--
"Do you always act normal, or are you just teasing me?"
arpa: Wegeng.Henr@Xerox.ARPA
uucp: {allegra,princeton,decvax!rochester,amd,sunybcs}!rocksvax!dw
|| ihnp4!tropix!ritcv!rocksvax!dwterryl@tekcrl.UUCP () (03/06/85)
Also, try looking at the stations that broadcast just the channel and programming info for the day. My cable company also broadcasts the FM frequencies for the various simulcasts(multicasts?) stations.