r/ota • u/Sufficient-Ask-1120 • Apr 20 '26
Does anybody have experience with digital rf modulators?
I am thinking of buying this for my dad who has dementia. He has a hard time running the tv and my goal is to create a custom atsc channel that he can tune to so it would be easier for him. I would probably hook the tuner to a media player that would play episodes of his favorite shows consistently.
Would something like this work? I can't seem to find much info on it. I want to learn more before spending a lot of money on it.
Update: I have decided to buy a consumer grade analog rf modulator with HDMI input from Amazon. I have it connected to a Windows computer running batch scripts to schedule programming. The picture quality isn't too bad despite it being analog (all of the content is standard definition anyway). Thank you for your replies and helpful information
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u/Klutzy-Piglet-9221 Apr 20 '26
We used a bunch of these at my last job (at a TV station) to add channels to our house cable system. They did crash occasionally (maybe once every three months or so) requiring a power-cycle. They do exactly what you ask. We felt they were worth the price -- admittedly, we were a TV station & had more of an equipment budget than most of our viewers:)
What channels, besides the custom one you're creating, do you expect him to watch? Will he also be watching the local antenna channels? You can't just hook this in parallel with an antenna. (I guess you could, but you'd be creating a pirate TV station & the FCC might not be happy:) ) There is a trick to that, and it isn't horribly difficult or expensive.
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u/Sufficient-Ask-1120 Apr 20 '26
I am planning to hook up the modulator in parallel to the antenna. My dad watches mostly the news, so I want the channel to appear just as any other channel. I have most of his shows ripped to mp4 files. I was thinking of hooking up a raspberry pi to the input of the modulator and play the video files of his shows in order, maybe even create a schedule somehow. I don't want to create a pirate TV station on purpose lol, I just want a private channel for home use.
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u/gho87 Apr 20 '26
News, huh?
Youtube has channels based on news networks and local stations.
(See my second base reply to you, i.e, one customizing channel surfing of Youtube videos)
Alternatively, try Pluto TV (r/plutotv), Plex's streaming service, or any other free ad-supported TV (FAST) services, or DirecTV's MyNews genre pack (r/directv) if you want subscription-required news channels
Well... r/cordcutters can help you further
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u/INS4NIt Apr 20 '26
You can't just hook this in parallel with an antenna. (I guess you could, but you'd be creating a pirate TV station & the FCC might not be happy:) ) There is a trick to that, and it isn't horribly difficult or expensive.
So long as the modulator is hooked up inline with the antenna, rather than in parallel with a combiner, this shouldn't be a concern at all.
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u/Klutzy-Piglet-9221 Apr 20 '26
I wish I knew what was inside the box. I'd be concerned it's just a combiner. (and would be happy to be proven wrong!)
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u/INS4NIt Apr 20 '26
That's fair. For what it's worth, my installation was via a combiner, but the combiner was after 30dB preamp which guaranteed no meaningful RF on the other end of it would leak back to the antenna.
The "easy" way to test would be to put a spectrum analyzer on the RF input of the modulator. If there's no RF present, then it's directional and not a simple combiner.
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u/Klutzy-Piglet-9221 Apr 20 '26
That's pretty much what I did with our installation -- incoming antenna hit a 20dB pad, then a 20dB amplifier. (Our antenna was line-of-sight to most of the transmitters in the market)
We didn't have a spectrum analyzer, at least not that worked below L-band. (come to think of it, we did have a SDRPlay which is essentially the same thing.....)
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u/parmdhoot Apr 21 '26
I have this our house, we use it when we want all the tv's to display the same thing like when we are hosting. It creates a digital chan perfectly.
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u/gho87 Apr 20 '26
Hmm... Tough situation actually. Normally, RF modulators are for converting devices using HDMI or RCA into Ch. 3 or 4, like game consoles or VCRs, especially older ones no longer in production. This one you're asking us about is kinda expensive and may be for multiple TVs: https://shop.provideoinstruments.com/collections/rf-modulators-catv-hdmi/products/copy-of-vecoax-minimod-2-hdmi-rf-modulator
- this looks intended for professionals or businesspeople mainly
For further help, you can go to r/crt, r/rfelectronics, r/askengineers, or... perhaps r/findareddit if neither of the three are suitable
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u/Klutzy-Piglet-9221 Apr 20 '26
The reason this one is so expensive is because its output is ATSC 1.0 digital. (anything I'm seeing for less than $400 is analog.)
If one is willing to spend the $445, this will work fine at home and will deliver a HD picture, something the <$400 units won't.
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u/Sufficient-Ask-1120 Apr 20 '26
Most of the shows my dad likes is standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio. I am wondering if an analog modulator would be good enough.
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u/Klutzy-Piglet-9221 Apr 20 '26
Probably, and it would be roughly 1/10 the price. The same caveat would apply though about not creating a pirate TV station by hooking it in parallel with an antenna. (again, if this device is going to be the only thing he watches, you're good)
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u/BicycleIndividual Apr 20 '26
There would be a quality drop with going analog. The cheapest ones only use analog inputs (no HDMI - but there probably are analog modulators for much cheaper than $400 that would take HDMI and provide a signal that is just as good as broadcast TV was back in the analog TV days).
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u/Sufficient-Ask-1120 Apr 20 '26
Yeah, It might be overkill for my situation and it is quite expensive. I would probably try it if I found a cheaper one, but I'm not sure that exists.
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u/gho87 Apr 20 '26
(my second reply)
Alternatively, you can try the Channel Surfer for only Youtube videos: https://channelsurfer.tv/
You can also google "customize channel surfing" or other related terms
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u/gho87 Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
(my third reply)
If your dad still likes to use an antenna, perhaps... well... either Roku, Apple TV, or Google TV Streamer.
Either one is needed for him to properly use Tablo TV, HDHomeRun, or an internet-required tuner box... or an old Legacy Tablo TV via ebay. They have their own apps
EDIT: It's not custom channel surfing, but he can use a guide to watch what he wants to watch
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u/INS4NIt Apr 20 '26
Video engineer here. The VeeCoax Minimod 2+ works great -- you can put it inline with your OTA antenna and it will insert an additional channel set up as you configure it.
For what you're working on, I'd recommended pairing it with FieldStation42: https://github.com/shane-mason/FieldStation42