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March 1, 2004 • Vol.2 Issue 3 Page(s) 90-93 in print issue
Double Your DVD With X10 Pass Along Your Audio & Video Signals

DVD players and satellite dishes give you plenty of viewing options, but usually only for one TV. Watching DVDs on
a second TV means buying a second player, as well. With satellite TV, you can buy a dual-output dish, but then you need a second receiver, which means an extra outlay of cash. And if you have a third TV, say that nice little 13-inch TV/VCR combo tucked away in your study, you can add a third signal only with a separate switch, and of course a third receiver. And yes, in case you were wondering, this is the same X10 that likes to populate your Desktop with those stunningly annoying pop-up ads about its products.

Fortunately, you can get around these issues as long as you're willing to put up with at least some loss in flexibility. Companies, such as X10 Wireless Technology (www.x10.com) and RF-Link Technology (www.rflinktech.com), offer products designed to beam video and audio signals wirelessly from a source in one room to a TV in another. The source can be anything with video and audio output signals: cable box, VCR, DVD player, satellite receiver, television set, or even a PC. These devices work by transmitting signals on the 2.4GHz band and let you choose among multiple transmission channels to avoid interference from other wireless transmissions.

These products consist of two essential components and a few optional ones. Essential are an A/V transmitter and an A/V receiver. Cables from the source device take the signal to the transmitter, which beams it wirelessly to the receiver, which in turn transfers the signal via wires into the remote TV. The optional components include an infrared relay for beaming remote control key presses from the remote control unit to the source device, and, if the source device is a PC, a remote mouse.

So what's the loss in flexibility? Simply this: What you see on the second TV is precisely the same as what's showing on the video source. If you're watching a movie on your DVD player or your satellite receiver in the living room, for example, you can beam that movie to the TV in the bedroom, but you can't have different movies on each of the TVs. In other words, the A/V beaming system simply increases by one the number of video/audio outputs from the source, resulting in the ability, essentially, to share the signal with a remote television. The remote TV itself doesn't necessarily have to be on—most video outputs from TVs function with that TV powered off—but the device providing the video, such as the cable box or satellite receiver, must be on and tuned to the channel you want.

Obviously, this is an important limitation, but it's equally important to look at ways in which an A/V beaming kit can actually remove limitations in your current viewing configuration. In all likelihood, for example, you have at least two video sources in your entertainment center: a DVD along with a satellite receiver or a cable box. Because these devices are connected to a single TV, unless your TV supports multiple inputs and multiple displays (such as picture-in-picture), you can watch only one of these sources at a time. With an A/V beaming system, one person can watch a DVD on the TV in the entertainment center while you use the A/V beaming system to transmit a different signal, from the satellite receiver or cable box, to a second TV. With a setup such as this, you're actually making more efficient use of the viewing resources you have available.

The Equipment

For this article, we'll focus on X10's Entertainment Anywhere (www.x10.com/products/x10_vk57a.htm). To complete the potential for beaming signals, we'll add the company's RemoteSENDER kit. These products are readily available and have proven themselves reliable performers over the past few years. Entertainment Anywhere costs $79.99, and RemoteSENDER will run you $39.99. You can buy both from the X10 site and be sure to look for special offers while you're there. The company frequently bundles products and provides lower pricing as an incentive.

Entertainment Anywhere consists of a transmitter, a receiver, and the Anywhere 2000 Remote. The remote works like a typical remote control device to control your TV, satellite player, and cable box, although where it works with your specific equipment depends on whether codes for your equipment are included. (We had no problems with ours during testing.) But the remote goes one important step further, functioning as a remote control for the CD and DVD player on your PC. We'll call it a mouse remote in this context, and a TV remote for controlling your other devices.

The mouse remote feature lets you control DVDs that are playing on your computer's DVD drive, so you can transmit the signal to a TV through the transmitter and receiver. If you want to transmit from your standalone DVD player, you can use the TV remote features instead. If you buy any of the company's home automation products, you can use the Anywhere 2000 Remote to control light switches, thermostats, and more.

The RemoteSENDER kit includes two pyramid-shaped components: a transmitter and a receiver. The kit extends the range of IR-based remote control devices so that you can control your TV, satellite receiver, and other devices from the room in which you are watching the beamed signal. Without it, you have to leave that room each time you want to change the channel or make other adjustments on the video source. Of course, you can always yell for someone else to do this for you, but oddly enough the other people in the house usually find this method annoying.

You can buy all of Entertainment Anywhere's products separately on the X10 site. Entertainment Anywhere 2000 bundles the transmitter, receiver, remote, and software, but if you already have one or more of these items you can buy the rest independently. The kit simply bundles products to provide a lower overall cost.

You will also need patch cords to connect the A/V units to the video source and the remote TV. All of these cords are available at your local electronics store, but if you've worked with stereo equipment or other electronic connections in the past, you might very well already have some in your house. Connecting the A/V transmitters to the video source requires standard A/V patch cords with RCA plugs. You can buy patch cords that include all three necessary plugs—one for video and two for stereo audio—at both ends, but if like many people you already have stereo patch cables, you can simply buy a single RCA cable to go with it.

You should determine available connections before you buy the Entertainment Anywhere equipment. Your source equipment (such as a TV) must have both a video output jack, typically labeled Video Out, and audio output jacks: Audio Out—L(eft) and R(ight). You can connect the receiver to the remote TV with a simple coax cable, but if that TV has standard RCA A/V jacks (that is, composite video), you'll get a better
picture. To date, the A/V transmitters and receivers do not include S-Video connectors, so don't plan to use an available one of these.

Knowing the available connections in advance is crucial. If you plan to beam from the TV in the living room to the TV in the bedroom, for example, your living room TV must have a Video Out jack. If it does not (and many older TVs do not), you can use the cable box or VCR as a source, but at least one piece of equipment must have that video output plug. You can't connect from the source to the transmitter with a coax cable.

X10's RemoteSENDER
transmitter and receiver

Set It All Up

Position the A/V units. The first step in setting up your beaming system is to position the A/V transmitter and receiver. Place the transmitter near the video source, close enough to connect the patch cords (or, if you prefer, buy longer patch cords and place the transmitter wherever you wish). The important point about the positioning of the transmitter is the ability for the receiver's antenna to pick up the signal. To this end, try to place the transmitter in a straight line, and as close as possible to the receiver.

For example, if the transmitter is in the living room and the receiver upstairs in the bedroom, place the transmitter as high off the living room floor as possible (such as on top of the TV) and with as direct a line to the receiver as you can determine. Getting this line usually means adjusting the antennae on the transmitter and the receiver so that the flat sides point directly toward each other.

Place the receiver, meanwhile, within cabling distance of the remote TV, and in a reasonably open location. This way, the antenna will have the greatest chance at actually receiving the signal. Although the signal will transmit through walls and floors, as with all 2.4GHz wireless signals, the fewer obstacles the better.

Connect the A/V units. To connect the transmitter to the video source, run standard RCA patch cords from the video output jack on the video source to the Video In jack on the transmitter, and from the audio output jacks on the video source to the Audio In jacks on the transmitter. These jacks are color-coded: The video jacks are yellow, and the stereo audio jacks are white and red. Unless your video source is quite old, it will have identically colored jacks. Make sure the cords are plugged into the correspondingly colored jacks on both source and transmitter.

If you are using your PC as a DVD source, the same rules apply. However, in this case you are plugging the patch cords into the DVD decoder card or the PC's video card and sound card, and depending on your equipment, you might not have suitable jacks. If not, check with the card manufacturer to see what you can do about this situation; in some cases you can get an adapter, but in other cases you might have to buy new equipment. Alternatively, you might have a video card, such as the ATI All-in-Wonder series or the Matrox Millennium series (among others), which ship with a multicord cable that plugs into the card and provides you with all the connectors you need.

Connect the receiver to the remote TV. You can run a coax cable from the To TV jack on the receiver to the coax terminal on the TV or run A/V patch cables from the Video Out and Audio Out jacks on the transmitter to the correspondingly colored video and audio input jacks on the TV.

Set the channel and test the transmission. With the transmitter and receiver in place, it's now time to see if everything works. Before doing so, make sure that both units are set to the same channel. Each unit has a TV Channel switch on the bottom of the box that lets you make this setting. Next, adjust the antenna on the transmitter so that the flat side points in the direction of the receiver, and the antenna on the receiver so that the flat side points toward the transmitter. When you have done all of this, turn on the two units using the Power switch on each unit's side.

Now, turn on the DVD source and the remote TV. Set the remote TV to the channel corresponding to the input jacks into which you have connected the receiver. For example, you might have to set the channel to 00, or 91, or AV IN, or whatever setting your TV requires to show this input. If all is well, you'll see on the remote TV the DVD movie playing on the source device.

If all is not well, make sure the cables are connected properly (in particular, be sure you haven't confused inputs with outputs on video source or TV) and the remote TV is set to the correct station. If you still encounter problems, check that both A/V units are set to the same channel and that the antennae are aimed in the right directions.

Set up and test the RemoteSENDER units. The RemoteSENDER kit also consists of a transmitter and receiver, although this time in the shape of pyramids. When you press a button on the remote control, the transmitter takes the remote's IR (infrared) signal, converts it to a radio signal, and sends it to the receiver. The receiver converts the signal back into an IR signal, which is picked up by the device you're attempting to control (TV, cable box, etc.).

Remember to put the RemoteSENDER transmitter and receiver in the opposite configuration of the A/V transmitter and receiver. Locate the A/V transmitter with the RemoteSENDER receiver at the video source, that is, and the A/V receiver with the RemoteSENDER transmitter at the remote TV. You're sending the video signal from the source to the TV, in other words, but you're sending the signals from the remote control device in the opposite direction.

Put the RemoteSENDER transmitter close to the remote TV, and the RemoteSENDER receiver close to the video source unit. It's impossible to be more specific because actual functioning depends on your situation. Try to place each unit as much in front of the controlled device as you can, keeping in mind that the RemoteSENDER has to be able to "see" the IR component of the device itself. The IR component for TV sets, DVD players, satellite receivers, and other such devices are invariably on the front of the unit, so that's where the RemoteSENDER units should be.

Once you plug the RemoteSENDER units into an electrical receptacle and put them in place, getting them working is a matter of trial and error. To see if the transmitter is working, hold the remote control near it and look for a flashing light when you press a button. When all is set up correctly, you'll be able to use the remote control exactly as if you were sitting in the same room as the video source.

Install the Anywhere 2000 Remote. The Anywhere 2000 Remote has a small receiver and X10's BOOM software. Insert the batteries in the remote, plug the cable from the receiver into the serial port on your computer, and then power on the computer. Next, install the BOOM software from the included CD; this software lets you control, from a remote location, software such as Windows Media Player, Real Jukebox, and Winamp. You use the remote for playback, rewind, pause, and volume control; press the appropriate button to send the command signal through the receiver and into the PC.

All Together Now

That's it. You're wired and ready to go. Sit in your study or bedroom and watch DVDs or satellite stations beamed from the family room downstairs. Watch DVDs on your big-screen TV that are actually playing on your PC. And on, and on, and on. This video beaming system will help you avoid buying additional DVD players, satellite receivers, and digital cable boxes, and it even lets you show, say, a DVD movie simultaneously on two TVs.

Video quality isn't as high as you'd see with an S-Video or component video connection, and the sound quality is noticeably lower than that of your wired connections. But the quality of both the sound and the video will be entirely acceptable for most purposes (such as the vast majority of TV programming), and the convenience of the setup significantly outweighs the downgrade in quality. Convenience, after all, is what this inexpensive solution is all about.

by Neil Randall

Two Rooms & A Single Video Source

X10's Entertainment Anywhere lets you watch the same DVD on TVs in two rooms with only one DVD player, or you could watch one cable movie on two TVs with only one cable connection, and you'll never miss the tangle of wires.

Save Your Bucks
How much do you actually save by using a system like this? The chart below outlines the possibilities. If you keep in mind the lessening of video quality and the loss of some flexibility in what you can watch at any given time, the savings can be significant.

Device Cost Pros Cons

Entertainment Anywhere plus RemoteSEND-ER $108 Watch DVDs, cable TV, satellite TV, videotapes on a remote TV; you can also play music CDs and MP3/WMA files on your home theater's audio equipment Can't watch different cable or satellite channels on main TV and remote TV; can connect the remote TV to a different video source. Lower picture and sound quality and interference from other devices

Cable TV $80 to $150 per year to rent extra cable box; no box necessary with
basic cable Watch different TV stations on each TV; higher picture quality Doesn't help for playing DVDs
remotely; monthly cost of renting cable box

Satellite TV $100 for second
satellite receiver Watch different stations on each TV; higher picture and sound quality Cost; no help for playing DVDs remotely

2nd DVD Player Cost Starting at $39 Watch different DVDs on each TV; best possible picture and sound quality Cost of second player

Wireless Interference

X10's Entertainment Anywhere transmits using the 2.4GHz frequency. Because this frequency offers a broader signal range than the 900MHz frequency used in earlier versions of the product, you'll experience much less interference from other devices in your house. This is, however, a radio frequency, and as a result interference can occur.

Microwave ovens cause problems because they operate in the 2.4GHz frequency and tend to be poorly shielded. If you're beaming a DVD signal between TVs using Entertainment Any-where, expect interference (which appears as bad reception on the screen) when you simultaneously use the microwave oven. 2.4GHz phones create fewer problems, but simultaneous use with Entertainment Anywhere still results in some loss of picture quality. You can help matters by keeping the X10 equipment at least 10 feet from the microwave, but even here you'll experience at least some disturbance.

To try to prevent interference, use the channel selection features on both the X10 equipment and (where possible) the interfering equipment. The X10 transmitter and receiver have 2.4GHz Channel Switches on the bottom of the units. If you're experiencing interference, try a different channel, making sure you've selected the same one for both the transmitter and the receiver. (This has nothing to do with the TV Channel selector.) If you get the X10 gear and the microwave working fairly well together in this manner, but your 2.4GHz cordless phone still causes problems, try different channels on the phone itself.

If you have equipment that operates in the newer 5.8GHz range, you're in luck. You'll get no interference even with simultaneous use. Of course, the other way around the cordless phone problem is to unplug it while watching your DVD. After all, you don't leave your cell phone on in a movie theater, do you?

You don't, right? Thank you.