MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > I just created an analog TV broadcast in...

I just created an analog TV broadcast in my living room

posted a year ago by MaximRecoil (4153)
19 replies | jump to latest

https://i.imgur.com/B21Isb6.png

The folded dipole antenna (which I made from 300-ohm twin-lead cable) is transmitting and the rabbit ears are receiving. They are very close together because I don't have an RF amplifier. If the two antennas were even so much as a foot apart I'd get practically no reception.

The source is a Blu-ray rip of a 1970s Columbo episode. I re-encoded the original 1440 x 1080 (letterboxed to 1920 x 1080) 20.7 GB h.264 file down to a 720 x 480 (DVD resolution) 1.47 GB h.264 file. This is the equivalent of an NTSC broadcast master.

The broadcast master is being played from a Blu-ray player via a USB flash drive, and the player is connected to a VHS VCR via a composite video cable. VCRs have a built-in RF modulator, so they are effectively TV transmitters (selectable for transmitting on channel 3 or 4), albeit very low-powered ones. The folded dipole antenna is connected to the VCR's RF output jack in order to act as a transmitting antenna, and the rabbit ears are connected to the CRT TV's RF input jack in order to act as a receiving antenna.

The result is a very nostalgic look to the picture. There's a little bit of "snow" and some subtle RFI patterns, like a typical TV broadcast from years gone by when you had less than 100% perfect reception (which was usually the case for me).

We had 4 channels when I was a kid in the '80s: 2 (NBC), 5 (CBS), 7 (ABC), and 12 (PBS). Only channel 5 had [almost] perfect reception. 7 was maybe 90% perfect, 2 was about 50% (at best; sometimes it barely came in at all), and 12 was about 75%. This broadcast I just rigged up looks about like channel 7 did back then.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20594) a year ago

That is the same line up we had before cable as well. I however, seem to remember ABC being the most clear in my area.

[–] MaximRecoil (4153) a year ago

We got cable in 1989. It was something like 20 or 21 channels, and it had one of those push-button cable boxes like this...

http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/f59abc3dba3fe314e3ffc4451f8a0a8a-cable-channels-televisions.jpg

... though I don't know why, because both our TV and VCR were new at the time (got them both on Christmas, 1988), and they were both "cable ready," i.e., they could tune in channels 2 through 80- or 90-something. Those cable boxes were really only necessary for older TVs with a dial-type tuner.

When the cable guy went to install cable, he found that he didn't need to; there was already a cable running into the house. That was a mystery at first because Dad bought the house in 1960 and no previous owner would have had cable TV because it didn't even exist around here that long ago. After asking Mom and Dad about it, we found out that they had cable radio in the 1970s before I was born and/or old enough to remember, which I didn't even know existed. But it used the same infrastructure as the later cable TV, so all the cable guy had to do was activate it.

Before cable, I was glad that CBS came in the best, because my two favorite shows were on CBS: Magnum, P.I. and The Dukes of Hazzard.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20594) a year ago

I’ve never heard of cable radio before. I did catv design for a big cable provider for years and I’ve never heard anyone mention such a thing. I was working there in the early 2000s and there were a couple of guys who were in the business since cable launched in our area in the late 70s. I’ll have to ask one of them about it.

[–] MaximRecoil (4153) a year ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_radio

I assume that, around here (central Maine), it was carried by the same company that offered cable TV service, and I'm guessing that if you only wanted cable radio rather than cable TV or both cable TV and radio, it was pretty cheap, maybe a couple dollars a month. Basic cable TV in the late '70s and early '80s around here only had about 9 channels and was about $9 a month.

We had one of those 1970s console radios when I was a kid, similar to this one...

https://img.thrfun.com/img/221/903/value_of_a_magnavox_console_stereo_x3.jpg

... and that's what the cable would have been connected to.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20594) a year ago

That one is in very good shape. I have one in working condition here at my home that I’ve been wanting to refinish for years. It’s sitting on my back porch. 😀

[–] MaximRecoil (4153) a year ago

I've never been able to find a picture of the exact model that we had. I know it was an RCA though, while that one I linked to is a Magnavox. It had an AM/FM radio, record player, and 8-track player.

[–] AndyKing1967 (34470) a year ago

The guy that broadcasts the random stuff has competition, lol 🤣👍

[–] MaximRecoil (4153) a year ago

LOL, yeah, except "Pirate Joe" can broadcast all over town and into neighboring towns, and I can't even broadcast a full foot away. He broadcasts ATSC (digital) too, which modern TVs receive, while only older TVs can receive my NTSC (analog) broadcast.

I'd like to have a low-powered RF amplifier so I can at least broadcast throughout my house instead of just an inch or two away. For that matter, I'd like to have Pirate Joe's setup, but I don't want to take the legal risks that he does.

[–] AndyKing1967 (34470) a year ago

"Pirate Joe" can broadcast all over town and into neighboring towns, and I can't

….yet.

[–] MaximRecoil (4153) a year ago

I wonder if anyone would even notice an NTSC TV broadcast around here. Most TVs these days don't have an NTSC tuner to begin with, and the FCC killed off NTSC broadcasting in 2009, so even among people with older TVs, what are the chances of them connecting a VHF antenna to an obsolete type of tuner and searching through channels that have been nothing but static for the past dozen years?

[–] AndyKing1967 (34470) a year ago

I guessing fairly remote.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20594) a year ago

I do have an antenna on my home that I use during hurricanes if the internet or cable service is lost so that we can still access local news. It’s come in handy when all the lines are down. When I scan for channels it groups them into analog and digital and I’d always guessed the analog ones were NTSC. Our camper has a similar system that scans in the same way.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20594) a year ago

Maybe maximrecoil can tell us if those systems would pick it up.

[–] AndyKing1967 (34470) a year ago

And so the Moviechat community channel was born.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20594) a year ago

Yes! But we need to provide streaming in this day and age. Oh, and an app also. 😀

[–] AndyKing1967 (34470) a year ago

Old school - matches the style of the site - no high faultin, fancy stuff.

[–] MaximRecoil (4153) a year ago

Yes, analog TV channels are NTSC if you live in an NTSC region such as North America.

I assume you have an older TV if it scans for analog channels in addition to digital channels:

If you have an older TV set, chances are it has an NTSC tuner.

An NTSC tuner can receive only analog TV signals.

NTSC tuners are considered obsolete these days. This is because most countries in the world have stopped analog TV broadcasts.

In the USA, since 2009, it is mandatory for all TV broadcasts to be digital.

https://www.freevideoworkshop.com/difference-between-an-ntsc-tv-tuner-and-an-atsc-tv-tuner/

That last line isn't entirely accurate, but it's accurate for full-power TV stations. The deadline for low-power stations to switch to digital was September 1, 2015, and the deadline for low-power translator stations (i.e., stations that simultaneously rebroadcast the signal from a primary station in order to extend coverage area) was July 13, 2021:

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/low-power-television-lptv-service

So as far as I can tell, there shouldn't be any [legal] analog TV stations in the US anymore by now. For the most part there haven't been any since 2009.

[–] bogdonovich (60) a year ago

Ah the good ol' days.....except in rural arkansas we could only get CBS and missed out on all the cool shows...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt9kxPwWbB0&t=1s

[–] MaximRecoil (4153) a year ago

Like I mentioned in another post, my two favorite shows were on CBS (Magnum, P.I. and The Dukes of Hazzard), but not having ABC and NBC would have sucked. I never would have been able to watch Sledge Hammer! without ABC (one of the funniest shows ever IMO). Also, Star Trek reruns were carried by my local ABC affiliate station every weekday at 5 PM. Knight Rider, Family Ties, Cheers, Saturday Night Live, and Late Night with David Letterman were on NBC.

I liked some of the shows on PBS too: 3-2-1 Contact, Mathnet, Nova, The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, and various wild animal documentaries, especially the ones where they were out on the African plains in a classic Land Rover. There were also some old British sitcoms like Are You Being Served? on there, which I didn't care much for, but I watched them when nothing else was on.