Homelab Episode 5: Custom TV Stations

[@MikeDest]

I'd create a tv station that is nothing but music videos from the 80s and 90s mixed with old commercials breaks.

[@25566]

Agreed but fuck commercials

[@boyburger]

Yessssss

[@Vandius24]

Imagine being able to afford cable in the 80's and 90's, must have been nice.

[@ek1578]

No one bought cable back then, you just made friends with a guy who knew a guy and got a cable box from him. And those little line filter things for HBO.

[@polerix]

I've been trying to make this MTV or MuchMusic clone with commercials, weird animation breaks, and lots of video programming. I'm using OBS and Blue Titler, but i am still struggling to find a decent playout solution - something to automate the playback of videos, make playlists, automatically fit commercials and animation clips in between station id breaks. I used to do this on DOS in the 90's with radio station software.

[@MrDarkDragone]

For the hum, it sounds like a 60hz tone. 60hz is also the NA power frequency so its probably a bad ground or a ground loop. If you are using a usb power adapter to power the pi try running it off a power bank instead and see if thats where the loop is. If not then it may be the blonder. I think they make ground loop isolators for coax, I know for sure they make them for RCA connectors.

[@clabretro]

thanks! I tried a coax ground loop isolator but no change. I'm thinking something off in the power supply, maybe the filter caps?

[@MrDarkDragone]

@@clabretro Possibly, do you get that noise if nothing is hooked to the blonder but the tv?

[@microcolonel]

​@@clabretrocould it between the source and the isolator?

[@tekvax01]

I work at a tv station, and we have an internal cable system. We had major neutral current loops between our technical and utility power systems; something on the lines of 90amps, if memory serves. Those ceramic RF isolators are crazy expensive. Something like $50 dollar a piece. We had an entire crate of them, because we needed to isolate every general powered TV monitor from our technical power system.

[@JaredConnell]

I was gonna say a ground loop isolator but if that didn't work you can try a ground lifter plug and see if that helps then you know its a ground problem. You could leave it on there but it's definitely not ideal lol

[@Baulder13]

I just want to say this channel is great. You're humble, learning as you go, winging it at times and recognizing mistakes. If I had your space and the money I'd totally be tinkering around with random things like you.

[@clabretro]

Thanks, appreciate it!

[@EricMilward]

As a 10 year cable technician now IT Professional, this video just warms my heart 🥰

[@chilly_willy_allentech8328]

how do you get more than 1 channel to add/insert to 1 cable ..ihave 2 coax--- hd antana on1 and comcast cabble on coax 2 and doing channell 3and 4 insert with bnc spliter + hd antana on 1 cable for catv on 3 and whant to go more channels so i got 10 more hd rf modulators with programable out chanels from ammazon at $22 each now how do i insert all the outputs to the same coax cable

[@br3nd4n]

This is an awesome experiment. I remember watching a episode of hak5 in the early 2000s where they showed how to do this in your home when everything was 480p and you could watch Revision3 shows back when hdmi was rare and only in very high priced equipment. Please keep making content like this, it's inspiring!

[@clabretro]

Ha, awesome. And thank you! Definitely more videos coming.

[@callmebigpapa]

1/2 way thru this video I realized I was used to seeing the tiny versions of these with just 1 channel for output. This is a great idea. This channel never disappoints.

[@MartinPaoloni]

About the humming Blonder Tongue: take it apart, clean it and make sure all grounding panels have good connection! I fixed a Technics Av receiver by doing just that. Super awesome project!

[@clabretro]

Thank you! I'll definitely try that when I crack them open to see if I can fix them up.

[@jasongreene303]

@@clabretro A vey little dab of silicone grease on the contacts will keep those connections happy.

[@gazehound]

This is actually a genius idea. I'm so bad at just sitting down and choosing a show to watch. It would make it much more appealing if i could just sit down, turn on the TV, and watch whatever is on, no ads.

[@eduardoanonimo3031]

Put ads, but for goods that no longer exist...

[@PsRohrbaugh]

I did tech support for an apartment complex with an almost identical setup (down to blonder tongue) some odd 20 years ago. Cable TV came in, and there were 3 or 4 RF modulators set to empty channels. Then, the signal went through a distribution amp and into some beefy RG11 or similar. One RF modulator showed movies, one had a computer with a PowerPoint showing current events.

[@DarkT3ch]

Just watched this again, I think I'm going to build one of these for myself because I notably suffer from the same problem, more than enough to watch but too indecisive to watch it. On a side note, your channel has become one of my favorites!

[@clabretro]

Thank you! I'll eventually have an update on this setup after I get through some other projects.

[@robindfuller]

I’ve often thought this would be a great idea. All we need now is an AI generated presenter and voice over that comes in during the end credits. Mix in some trailers and old adverts/commercials too.

[@blmartech]

Pseudo TV had that

[@eDoc2020]

For the second BT modulator, if you haven't figured it out already, you might be mixing cable and air TV frequencies. Except for channels 2-13 they are incompatible. The Channel Plus and TV are probably set to over the air frequencies but the second Blonder-Tongue modulator is probably set to cable frequencies. Set all to cable (what I'd recommend) or all to air and it will likely work. For the Channel Plus, it seems choosing 65 or higher will switch it to cable frequencies and 14-64 will be over-the-air.

[@clabretro]

Interesting, I'll have a look at that. Thank you!

[@blastingoff]

This is awesome. Imagine if you could somehow have it fetch era appropriate ads a certain length every certain period of time, based on when the show currently playing debuted. Give you that final bit of the "real" tv experience.

[@benwilson5546]

Oh my goodness, Thank you! I started working at mediacom with a bunch of computer experience but essentially no understanding of Radio Frequency modulation, and this is a great project

[@clabretro]

Thanks!

2:53 because most TVs still have analog TV support, and it‘s really easy to build a basic RF modulator, there even are many RF modulators available to this day, also from China. There are more expensive DVB-T/ATSC modulations, but they aren‘t as cheap.

[@DjAle1]

I saw one with HDMI input on aliexpress. An analog one to be clear.

[@fernwood]

Fantastic video! I have something similar going on with audio: legally acquired mp3s on a professional open source DJ system (Rivendell), hooked to an FM transmitter that's within the FCC limits on an empty channel. Any radio in my house can tune in. I also stream it to a few friends online. The best part is, we usually have radios going in every room, so walking around the house we hear the same music. It's kind of like being in a movie with an ever-present soundtrack going on in the background. Sure I could've gone the whole-house audio distribution, but this is much funner, especially since we can use things like a small boombox outside. Maybe I'll do something with video like you some day.

[@clabretro]

That is very awesome. Love that you're actually transmitting on FM, way cooler than something like a Sonos setup!

[@SirFrag32]

I do something similar with Alexa devices and a speaker group for whole-home audio.

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

Frequency: 81.7 FM ??

[@Retroman8077]

Love to see this.

[@migillett]

I used to work at a university and we had a Blonder Tongue modulator for a local access channel we ran. That thing didn't have a day off since the late 90s. The signal would sometimes get snowy and we had to go by and hit it a couple of times to get the signal to clear up.

[@clabretro]

Haha. Yeah I'm thinking these have tonnnns of hours on them, hence the need for some maintenance.

[@migillett]

@@clabretro I honestly don't think they even make analog modulators anymore. We tried to find a replacement for ours and there simply wasn't anything out there. Most everything is digital these days. We used ZeeVee modulators for our HD digital broadcasts and they were temperamental. They had built in mpeg2 multicast though, so that's fun.

[@TylerLasagna]

I am definitely interested in seeing the update to this and the script that goes along with it. Just bought my first Pi in hopes to complete this myself!

[@clabretro]

Nice! Cleaning that up is on my sooner-rather-than-later list so I'll definitely do a follow up video on it!

[@AlisonJames-l3j]

i love this idea.no adverts and all you're favourites

[@darthkielbasa]

Turning your lab into a headend. Respect.

[@TylerAdler]

I have been doing this for years but with IP TV and its all we watch now. This was really cool!

[@clabretro]

nice!

[@arbyyyyh]

Oh man, back when I was in middle school, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we had an old tv studio that was built in the 60s. Early 2000's we brought it back to life to do video announcements in the morning and the Blonder Tongue logo unlocked a wrinkle! We used to switch one of the in-school channels to Comedy Central when we could get away with it 🤣

[@clabretro]

haha that's awesome.

[@dumbcomputing]

I've worked with analog Blonder Tongue units longer than I should have (had a good time). My last job I worked for a school district that had an internal cable system which distributed channels to dozens of schools across a larger city. We recently decommissioned analog in 2021. We had around twenty 'educational cable channels' a few would be something like Discovery, TLC, the news networks, and a few municipal channels. We used Blonder Tongue agile modulators that were fed from Comcast cable boxes. Humming with these units was very common most likely due to decades of persistent use straining capacitors and resistor that somehow leached into the audio circuitry. Distribution came out of our data center with clean power and the audio would persistently hum on many units. Other units would have come and go instances of humming and others were likely running for 15+ years with no humming issues at. On two occasions I was able to eliminate hum by replacing the distribution amplifier which is separate from the built in amp on the modulator. I am not an expert and received no training on analog cable distribution or agile modulators. It became part of my job to figure out this system for many years and looking back it was really fun to learn.

[@clabretro]

Very cool. I've heard from others that hum was a big problem with these. Whenever I get around to re-capping I'll post a follow up video.

[@ianmobbs804]

all of my being aspires to have a personal futurama/simpsons channel. i didn’t know i needed this, thank you!

[@clabretro]

do it!

[@thesavo]

A little bit of Emeril to "kick it up a notch"would be to insert electronic programming guide data for each channel. Oh. Look that episode you like is on in two hours.

[@probnotstech]

Very cool! I have a similar setup and we use it all the time. Similar reasons you mentioned - sometimes it's just nice to turn on the TV and not have to choose an episode. Regarding the hum on the modulator, it sounds like a 60Hz hum. Check the DC output from the power supply inside - make sure there's no 60Hz ripple. If there is, some of the filter caps will probably need replacement. Also, the Blonder Tongue modules have manual adjustments on the front to control modulation - try adjusting those to make sure the video isn't over or undermodulating.

[@clabretro]

Thanks, your videos were actually a huge inspiration for this project! I did try adjusting front controls but no luck... so yeah I'm thinking it's time to dive into those power supplies.

[@BobHolowenko]

I did this like a decade and a half ago in a condo. We put the security DVR out into an unused channel on the local CATV plant. I had to dodge ATSC (band new to us at the time) and DOCSIS with band pass filters. We notched out a channel that was not a poorer quality simulcast of another channel lower down the channel plan and modulated in its spot. It was pretty popular to have in PIP or just left on.

[@clabretro]

nice!

[@prottentogo]

That's actually a brilliant idea to defeat choice fatigue.

[@willosfloppydrive]

You can broadcast over the air using a simple pair of rabbit ears antenna to transmit and recieve if your have at least one antenna to transmit and at least one antenna per tv to recieve.

[@clabretro]

Yeah interesting idea, I don't have any antennas but I might have to try that someday.

[@meatpockets]

This would be fun to play with if there’s an unused station in your area but be careful since so much of the analog TV spectrum has been re-allocated to cell phones now. It looks like everything past UHF channel 38 has been sold off.

[@willosfloppydrive]

@@meatpockets thats very good information! Yes, the channel range has suffered due to cell phone towers.

[@shrikedecil]

1) Case up the the R-Pi's. 2) DIN Rail for something to mount *to* 3) Drill/mount the R-pi cases to DIN 4) Search a DIN-to-Rack bracket that you like. I picked $20-ish metal cases that are heat-sink-ish - - all lined up with larger fan coverage. I've long wanted something that only worked briefly: Something like the HDHomerun, "NTSC/ATSC/Coax in, *ethernet* out" That, and a home network jukebox that worked sensibly.

[@clabretro]

That's a great idea! I had no idea those DIN-to-Rack brackets existed... I'm going to have to think about how else I could use those.

[@tOSdude]

I have a set of cheap boosters hooked up to my VCR that let it transmit over the air within my house. It's the first time my little portable TV has shown anything in years.

[@clabretro]

nice!

[@Zach_Miller]

I never had luck with Blonder Tongue mods in my home either, ended up saving up and getting a refurb contemporary research mod off ebay and it works great

[@IxoranX]

Very cool project! I would recommend looking into something like DizqueTV to create your own TV channel schedules or to randomize your Plex content and/or add Flex(Commercials) between content. Just a thought, loved the setup.

[@clabretro]

Oh cool, I hadn't seen DizqueTV before.

[@IxoranX]

Yeah, it's very simple to set up and use, and can be used for simple stuff like playing random episodes of a show, or super complex stuff. I particularly like the fact that I can use it to play random shows while maintaining episode sequentiality.

[@deNslor]

was about to mention DizqueTV - it's great for an application like this. I've got mine pulling shows from plex, as well as the libraries of ads that it pulls from as well to inject in the spaces between shows for extra nostalgia :)

[@djgawler]

Super cool. If you do come up with the script, would love to see it.

[@clabretro]

Definitely, I'll post updates when I get it up and running.

You need a title generator or whatever that component is called to superimpose a custom station logo for every individual channel! Easily doable on the Pi as well, but that would only be half the fun.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

Always use coax if doing this. Shielded cable is critical for long cable runs 👍

[@ZacharyJonEngel]

I just acquired 6 of these blonde tongue components from a rack I bid on from my old high school. A steal at $45 They were used for school wide broadcasting. Hopefully going to put them to use for a similar project!

[@clabretro]

That's an amazing deal!

[@simsanutiy]

Nice setup and great idea! I've had a modulator made specifically for Mega Drive (Genesis in the States) that connected through that weird s-video-like port. Had a lot of fun playing from the other side of the room. Sadly, it died, and I have nowhere near enough skills to fix it.

[@DecouvrirLaTechnologie]

nice content. thanks for sharing this project ! I have a lot of projects going on in my homelab but analogs signal where not even on the map. i have some coax in the walls that i dont use. what a great way to use it.

[@clabretro]

Thanks! Yeah it seemed like a good excuse to mess with it haha

[@rayk32]

I've been wanting to do this as well. Thank you for this video. Definitely interested in scripts too.

[@clabretro]

It's been fun to play around with. I'll definitely have a script update.

[@imark7777777]

FYI if you end up with a camcorder Cable you can swap the red and yellow leads which swaps the right channel with the video channel. This works as long as you don't get a MP3 player whatever that means compatible cable. This standard is sort of thanks to Apple as they wanted left and right to be compatible with the standard 3.5 cables Devices headphones but also have the video for the iPod video. Camcorders went the other way as they were only mono left plus video and added the right channel later. Then things get muddy when we switched to using the fourth conductor for microphone input on the iPhone well android use the third conductor. This tends to mess up a lot of devices that don't ground the Jack properly expecting the ground to be on the fourth position which doesn't work because it's going to the microphone.

[@clabretro]

That's good info... I'm sure I'll end up with an old camcorder cable eventually!

[@lelandclayton5462]

I did this before. I had eight channels using eight Blonder Tongue MICM-45DS. I used a old PC with a USB2.0 add-in card to get four more USB ports then used eight HP T100 multi seat clients. Also used eight VGA2AV adapters to turn the VGA signal to composite. From there it was all software. Had a multiseat environment going and each seat loaded a bare minimum X11 session with VLC loading up automatically playing a playlist at random. Think the whole setup cost me about 125 bucks. The RF modulators was given to me but I had to build a power supply for it. I ran the system for a couple of years then the PC power supply died and by then I was the only one using it so I gave up on it and sold off the modulators on eBay.

[@clabretro]

Impressive!

[@fluffycritter]

This is a pretty nice idea. I used to do something similar with my music for having a 24/7 custom radio station, transmitted to the various radios in my house using a cheap FM transmitter. The bogosort tool is a pretty nice way to generate a playlist, although VLC seems to have a playlist shuffle option built-in with the -Z flag. My home doesn't have coax to where I need it and I only have a single "smart" LCD TV, so if I were to set something like this up I'd probably use ffmpeg's RTP streaming thing and an appropriate Android tuning app or something. But most of the shows I watch are highly serialized so I don't think this would really work for my viewing habits anyway, and I'm happy with Plex on my Synology. Still, really cool idea to think about.

[@clabretro]

That's a very cool use case with the custom FM radio station... I hadn't even thought of that.

[@georgecaveington1661]

I hear the AV adapter cable for the Microsoft Zune uses the same pinout as the Pi. I have one so I can confirm it works out of the box.

[@elesjuan]

This is a pretty neat idea. Ten years ago I would've been all over this, but these days, I mostly just watch stuff from youtube via plex using an overly complicated python program. FYI - I got curious about Blonder and Tongue equipment, there's a 12er of AMCM 860D's on there if you're interested in adding a few more channels. Those units appear to allow channel changing via the front panel of the module, which is cool!

[@clabretro]

Yeah in hindsight I think I should've gotten one of the configurable units.

[@Legolad]

If you haven't found a solution for the 60 cycle hum yet, here's another thing to check. Make sure all your analog audio cables are run at least 18" away from any power cables. These old analog cables will pick up a 60 cycle hum when they are run alongside (parallel to) any romex or power cable. We used to have to run them 18" apart and only cross them at right angles to avoid that hum.

[@clabretro]

Thanks, I'll bet I had power cables pretty close in all my tests, so I'll give that a shot!

[@tekvax01]

I have a similar modulator, you must correctly set the audio level, aural carrier, and video level, or it will not transmit a proper RF signal. It is better to set it up with a spectrum analyser, but you can get them close by eye, and sound, with a bit of luck. With my modulator, you must send a video signal first, or you will not hear an audio signal. Also, if the video level is too high, it will bleed into the audio and you will hear the 60 hz buzz of the two vertical fields beating off each other and the sum of the audio carrier. fun stuff indeed! One of my RF modulators does have a nasty 60hz buzz in the power supply, so that may be where your issue is coming from. Put an oscilloscope on the power supply, and check the voltage and ripple. Oh, and the dip switches are very complex to get in the correct cable TV bands! I just stuck with the VHF channels 2 to 13.

[@clabretro]

Thanks! Believe it or not I don't have an oscilloscope (on the todo list :)) nor do I have a spectrum analyzer. The hum on mine is so ridiculously loud that I have to believe it's related to the power supply though. But you never know -- my first port of call will be a recap when I get around to it, and if that doesn't do the trick I'll have an excuse to buy some more gear.

[@blackwatchbandstudio]

Ah, so cool. I wanted to do something similar a few years ago for classic Doctor Who serials, keeping the episodes of each storyline in order but jumping around through the years, maybe design some custom idents... maybe someday. I know there are a few different dedicated media player micro PCs (for museum exhibits and things like that) as alternatives for the Pi, although I don't know how configurable they would be

[@novamaster0]

It might be a lot of work on the front end, but you could just take all the multi-parters and just combine them into one big file. Honestly with as many channels did 'marathons' it might not be a bad idea to just not randomize shows as much.

[@jaysonl]

5:48 - Oooh, I see Dreamcasts in the reflection off that CRT!

[@clabretro]

Oh yeah... got a deal I couldn't say no to on eBay a couple years ago 😂

[@RaidOwl]

Yo this is super cool!

[@clabretro]

thanks! definitely some more tinkering to do on it but it's coming along

[@msthalamus2172]

For CC TV like this, is there any notable difference when the output is to VHF low (2-6) or high (7-13) vs UHF channels? Thanks!

[@clabretro]

Not that I've noticed (but it's been awhile since I tested lower channels)

[@chilly_willy_allentech8328]

You need a good vhf-vhf-uhf Modular’s and pick some used channels

[@alfblack2]

I keep remembering Marvin the martian when you say RF modulator. hehehe

[@NiddNetworks]

New convert to your channel - loving the stuff you're doing. One thing I have to say though re. your rack: The weight really should go at the bottom, otherwise it won't be stable.... For me it's always UPS first (but we use large 5-10KVA UPS) - so for you, probably would need to be Servers, then UPS, then your other bits :D I just don't like to think of you being stuck under a tipped rack!!

[@clabretro]

ha yeah. the fact that the servers are the full depth of the rack helps a lot, but definitely no more weight going up top.

[@HokeyBugle]

This is the coolest thing ever I’d love to build a channel that plays from my library of ripped Blu-ray’s. My only hang up is figuring out how to automate programming blocks For example if I want Star Trek at 7pm every night, but to play the episodes in order. I’d need something a little more advanced than a playlist. I feel like a script to create “up next” overlays and schedule images between episodes is all I’d need to create a full fledged channel.

[@HokeyBugle]

I would set shows to start on every half hour (or hour for longer programs) and fill the time between when one has ended and the next is starting with the schedule image or short videos like funny commercials or KZbin videos

[@MarshalArnold]

We're you able to get the rack RF modulators working? I don't see a follow-up video on your channel and was curious what the faults were.

[@clabretro]

Not yet, I haven't gotten back to them yet. I'll for sure film a video whenever I get around to fixing them up.

[@JzJad]

My initial reaction was neat idea, then you pull out the laser disk and player, just got better lol

[@jayturner5242]

I had no idea channel numbers had set frequencies, is that a US thing or just something I never really noticed? (I'm UK based)

[@clabretro]

We're just NTSC here in the US vs PAL over in the UK, so I imagine it's nearly fundamentally the same. But I'm definitely not an expert!

[@johnbucki5567]

Hey! Heads up, the "TCL Roku TV composite adapter" happens to have the right pinout!

[@gtprojects9662]

Awesome setup...so the issue you are probably having with the headend modulators is you are overdriving your TV. They were meant to drive a whole cable system and normal output is anywhere from 40dbmv to 60dbmv.... your TV is designed to run a video signal at 0dbmv. Also, you can overmodulate your video and/or audio. To really set it up correctly you need some sort of RF meter to get your settings and levels correct. I can give you a few pointers and a few things to try if you want to get things working a little better. 👍

[@clabretro]

Thanks! Yeah I've been thinking about getting an RF meter... I'll reach out if I'm stuck whenever I get around to tinkering with these again!

[@drachamberlain]

When I was a kid I took a Nintendo rf adapter plugged the coax in the out on the vcr suddenly i was watching my brother play games on any TV in the house. I wonder if the rca from the Nintendo adapter was composite video? Maybe a Cheaper alternative for the rf modulator

[@clabretro]

Ha I remember doing that too

[@NickBair316]

I'd do this with 80's cartoons with commercials!

[@giannolamichael]

Have you tried to que a regular VLC Playlist that encompasses your media directory and just setting the script parameters to auto shuffle?

[@clabretro]

Yeah that's another good option too.

[@allanegleston4931]

if u r going to do this , make sure u read the government regs (fcc has the athority to levey fines) make sure your signal power dosnt go past your propertyline . i have always wanted to do this . sounds like fun.

[@tankgrrl]

Not the same thing, but somewhat related, I have an old RasPi model B which has composite out hooked to CRTs in my game room. When the power comes on it loops old video game and Max Headroom ads.

[@clabretro]

haha awesome!

[@hgbugalou]

We had a ton of these when I did IT at a hotel. Very niche and pricey at the time.

[@clabretro]

I'll bet, gear like this is always so pricey when it's new.

[@BobSmith-g4o]

I did something similar but with raspberry pi randomly streaming my mp4 collection over ports. Using VLC as a client. I use Apache as a front end tv guide.

[@maik.576]

Thumbs up for Futurama👍🏻

[@TheTrulyInsane]

Awesome idea, I would be very interested if you could figure out a thin client method of this, I don't own a pi and don't really want to, I have multiple dual xeon servers that I haven't even gotten close to putting a real work load on even though they are running everything I need, this could be awesome if it can be done on a proxmox vm or container somehow.

[@clabretro]

Exactly! I'd rather not deal with the pis either. I'll let you know if I come up with something.

[@PsRohrbaugh]

It's possible to have multiple sound cards in a PC, and have each instance of VLC connect to a different sound card. Then you just set up multiple monitors. Either use video cards with VGA out and use a scan converter, or buy a HDMI to composite adapter.

[@TootNuggetEdits]

This would be so cool to see working in a biggish house with coaxial cables routed already. Also i am sure you have seen the rack mounts they have for raspberry pi's. Repurposing a 1u or 2u Chassis for housing everything could be a solution. It would be neat to see how the Blonder Tongues would react if you wired a USB-C 12V Power Trigger Module to it, ive seen people power up and play games on a ps2 with one! and in a rack setting it seems like it could be efficient!? Also what does the jumper do in the Blonder Tongue that has no video?

[@JohnMiller-mmuldoor]

9:43 nice subtle dig

[@underintact134]

I think what I would do is get one of those old TV tuner cards (if they still even make them) and set it up as a proxmox container and run it that way

[@KurtJP223]

You need to download some Late 00's adverts to play in between episodes for full nostalgia.

[@veldtwalker]

This might not be a 100% related, but on my Retro Pi I had a hum like that out of the RCA ports. Spare USB soundcard and some configuration file magic later and the hum was gone!

[@clabretro]

Oh nice, I'll keep that idea in mind if I can fix it in the modulators!

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

5:21 Cable TV channel 22 ? BTW, Japan has this Widescreen Sony Trinitron WEGA with BS (Broadcast Satellite 11 - 12 GHz) analog tuner). Also Japanese Cable and Antenna modes (62 channels for AIR up to 770 MHz and 62 channels for Cable up to 470 MHz; unlike Americam Cable TV frequencies have 125 Cable ready TV channels that also includes UHF over the are and Japanese VHF channels. Cable TV 22 is Japanese VHF TV channel 4.

[@clabretro]

interesting!

[@cheerbeerification]

I really want to try this but with a qam modulator for HD and maybe even 4k.

[@ToucheFarming]

all I ever hear is DVD or VHS, you do not hear anything about Laserdiscs anymore! also when I hooked a Pi up to an old CRT, there was TRS cable someone said to buy that actually did work. it was something one of those raspberry pi online retailers sold on their site (and can pick up on Amazon). Forgot what it was called but I think it was like $20 and it actually did work

[@clabretro]

I found some good pi TRS cables on eBay as well.

[@ToucheFarming]

@@clabretro ah nice! I liked your video and I’m looking into a way to use this same method for retropie. Just need a way to get the controller working in rabbit room

[@mito-pb8qg]

Late shoutout for Daria. Great show. :D

[@alphebetguy]

Now hook it upto a antenna and operate a pirate tv channel. UHF ftw!

[@kylehazachode]

Can you make a scrolling tv guide channel? Displays you the upcoming shows on your two channels. Maybe have old school infomercials and local commercials play on the top half of the tv guide channel? Get distracted by the commercials and have to wait for the scroller to loop around to the beginning again.

[@clabretro]

I've been thinking about something like that, some small interludes to make it feel a little more authentic but not enough to be annoying.

[@FailedSquare]

Someone may have already mentioned this but i have a feeling that the audio issues are related to use of the splitter to combine signals. Its worth testing without the splitter mixing to see if that resolves it

[@clabretro]

Oh good call out, I don't think I got it on film but the audio issues were present even without the splitter (can't say I would've thought to try that specifically though!)

[@FailedSquare]

@@clabretro then it's very likely a bad filter cap in one or multiples of the equipment. I watched this as I was falling asleep the other day but I do remember you taking the lid off one of the modulators. I'm new to your channel so idk if you dabble in repairs at all but re-capping is pretty easy like a 3/10 on the difficulty scale. Might make a fun follow up video

[@clabretro]

That's what I'm thinking too, yeah I'm not expert but I can replace some caps. I'll have a follow up whenever I get around to it!

[@GuantanamoGG]

would it be possible to set something like this up but stream over plex or channels on apple tv?

[@clabretro]

Some folks mentioned setting up ersatztv for a more modern approach

[@AdhamOhm]

My custom TV station would be a 24 hour weather channel with current radar and satellite maps and forecasts. Like the real Weather Channel, but without the bloat like reality TV show rubbish. I missed my opportunity years ago to buy a working WeatherStar 4000 headend unit (the thing that generated the Weather Channel's local forecasts back in the 90s). Getting it to operate would have been difficult though because I believe it needs a telephone uplink to the local NWS office to get weather data. I don't think NWS uses landline anymore. 😂

[@clabretro]

Those weather headend units are so awesome. probnot's tech has a really killer emulated setup (was part of the inspiration for this video I made, in fact): kzbin.info/www/bejne/paWQmIx7fryBgNU

[@Saintel]

😀I used Real Time Integrated Ultra HD 4K Encoder and QAM Modulator (H-4K-UHD-QAM-IP) in my rack and this idea using a Docker on my Synology NAS.

[@krisclem8290]

If the ground pin isn't moved on the trrs jack couldnt you just rearrange the rca plugs?

[@clabretro]

Hmm maybe, I'll have to try it.

[@TVJAY]

You should look at the VeCoax ATSC modulators so you can "broadcast' in HD.

[@clabretro]

Interesting, wasn't aware of those!

[@TVJAY]

@@clabretro I installed a bunch at a local hotel. They won't win any awards for quality (when compared to the $30k ones I have at work) but they are good

[@TVJAY]

I wish I still had access to that hotel. I would totally make a video on one for my channel.

[@TheRetrostationTV]

Channel master atsc modulator best.. also could you attach to outdoor antenna and signal boosters? Hmmm 😂

[@joshua_lee732]

Since seeing this I went down a rabbit hole and now I broadcast over the air 24/7 a local artist music feed powered via kodi plus some talking heads news and chit chat. I dont recommend this btw since you kinda need a uhf license and need to register with the FDC

[@clabretro]

Very cool! Yeah I'll probably just stick with my coax haha.

[@lausilva]

This project is so fucking cool, i want to do this after i buy my house!

[@RonGrethel]

Honestly I'm trying to do something similar with radio. I'd like to o be able to tune to a radio station, and turn on a TV to a custom channel, and have that station playing

[@clabretro]

Some other folks mentioned they did that!

[@williamheckman4597]

Cool idea... Is there a single piece of hardware that would allow multiple inputs then allow you to broadcast out to multiple RF Channels? Or do you just get a splitter with more inputs ?

[@clabretro]

Yeah those channel plus units can take two RCA inputs and put them each on a channel with one coax out, but you can also just use splitters and several input devices.

[@BrennonBaxter]

So im really digging on this, and i really want to do it in my house. Is there a Cheapish kind of way to get more channels. my current idea is to host an IPTV server, showing different curated content streams from my local media library but im getting lost as to how i would change the channel. i would prefer more than 3 honestly, and even 1 or 2 can get expensive. i guess its just hard for me to find the information im trying to learn about. Like would this be possible with an RF PCIe card, or do you have to have individual channel carriers for each channel? while id like to stay away from it, I suppose something like a raspberry pi with an HDMI output to RF mod would work and i could set up a wifi button or bluetooth button to change the channel on the Rpi to change what channel is making it to the rf modulator but that kinda takes the fun out of it. Could you help me out a bit with some more info or ideas?

[@clabretro]

I've been thinking about this as well. There's two expensive/hard parts - you need RF modulation per channel you care to tune to on the TV as well as a video stream to feed each modulator. Even though I have three modulators (some of which don't even work yet lol) I want more than three channels as well. I think I'm going to solve it with software, similar to that IPTV idea. I've written a bit of code that you can point at several "source" folders (think a folder containing the seasons of a TV show). One folder will be "live" at any given time, actually displaying on the device. The device of course would go into one of your modulators. But behind the scenes the software would be _pretending_ to play through the other shows/folders. Then via a web interface or something you could switch which folder was "live" -- it'd be like it was playing naturally while you weren't watching that one. Sorry if that's confusing haha. Basically that way I could have multiple streams of media available on any given RF + video combo, and I'd use software to switch what was showing. It's of course nicer to switch between multiple channels, but that means more modulators and more computers. So I think the auto-playing behind the scenes of things which aren't live is a good compromise and stays within the spirit of a TV channel. I have some really crappy alpha code of this: github.com/clabland/go-homelab-cable. It's on my list to pick it back up and get it really working the way I want. Anyway! What a ramble. That IPTV server is an idea... I'll have to look at that. Let me know what you come up with!

[@BrennonBaxter]

@clabretro Ersatztv is an iptv server I was tinkering with, it's pretty simple to host and can run simultaneous always live channels, which you can point your middle device to (server(ersatztv) > middle device(rpi) > rf mod) for channel selection. In my case, I run a jellyfin server for my media, and it offers "live tv" which you can point to ersatztv, so in theory I can have my middle device as a user of jellyfin and use it to select which channel to watch, it's output would feed the rf modulator. Ersatztv has a guide system as well which is also fed to jellyfin. From the dashboard in jellyfin you can control currently active devices, so from any other device you can just change what your rpi station would be tuned to. Even maybe writing a script on the pi to rotate tuned channel every so many days. To be clear, jellyfin isn't required and I'm sure you could use a desktop web player on the rpi to access the ersatztv streams, just describing my use case with my existing infrastructure a bit here. I'm really hoping there is a software solution to have something output multiple rf channel frequencies out on 1 rf device, which is where my rf pcie card thought was. I suppose you could open up a 2 channel rf modulator and adjust its output channel frequency to have it display on 5 and 6 rather than 3 and 4. But again that isn't the solution I'm looking for. My head is thinking like a police scanner, where the modulator rolls through known frequencies displaying each. Some unfounded math says that 4 channels each 30 fps only needs to output that channel frequency for a few milliseconds and the tv tuner side of things shouldn't detect a channel dropping out as the modulator rolls through the others, that should, in theory allow multiple channels on 1 rf out. Spitballing and grasping a bit here but yeah, my current mindset.

[@BrennonBaxter]

Just a quick update, Through google-fuuing long enough, i decided to try the search term "IP modulator" and i think i found devices that are more tailored for our use case. I specifically ordered a Harmonic NSG 9116. it was a bit impulsive but i think its everything im after. 8 output, dual carrier, so either 1 feed per coax with fall back, or 2 feeds per coax, up to 16 feeds total, Web interface for configuring everything. Just a heads up, this specific model/brand has admin accounts for setup so if you find one make sure that the user/pass is given to you with the purchase, unless you feel like penetration testing it for awhile until you break into it. The price tag wasnt too bad either.

[@CrisHarrison]

Ok, but i realy like kodi on debian12, this output is ethernet, so this begs question: how do i get stereo audio, lets say chan 3 analog, how do you get this feed onto the house cable safely?? ~~ Cris Harrison

[@EverScrolls]

I've had this idea for a while, but my issue is I wanna set up at least 10 different channels. But setting that up sounds ultra expensive >< ugh. ANy ideas?

[@clabretro]

I've actually got something cooking for this... I want to run multiple content streams per physical channel. I'm writing some software to help do it -- basically you can have multiple content sources for a channel, but only one of the sources will be playing video at a given time. In the background the app will make sure it's cycling through the files to mimic a TV station, and then I'll have some UI to switch which "stream" it's actually playing at a given time. Anyway it's a mess right now, I haven't had enough time to work on it, but eventually it'll get there! github.com/clabland/go-homelab-cable

[@КсанАфотин]

Выходной усилитель перегружен. Нужно выставить 65-70 dBm на выходе устройств.

[@Blasterxp]

Could the splitter backfeed?

[@clabretro]

I think so, but I tested without the splitter and it was the same issue. I'm thinking it's the power supply.

[@mousegamingnsfg]

Interesting, what do i need to acquire to do this myself? any links to share?

[@clabretro]

Basic ingredients are anything that can output composite (RCA) and then an RF modulator (which can take that RCA input and output coax on a particular channel). I happened to use the ChannelPlus brand but many cheap RF modulators were made over the years.

[@Retroman8077]

What is up with all the Dreamcasts? Didnt think we saw them huh

[@clabretro]

Got an eBay deal I couldn't refuse. They're all Japanese models, about half of them work just fine. I was going to fix them up but of course haven't gotten around to it yet haha. Fully fixed up two of them I think with SD card and noctua fan mods.

[@KannonRomano]

Did you ever get a python or similar script to work with vlc to shuffle and autoplay a playlist on boot?

[@clabretro]

ehhh sorta, I use it a bit here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nX2sk4l6jLKmgJo a version of the source is here: github.com/clabland/go-homelab-cable. but I mention in the other video, it's kinda broken at the moment. I owe you all an update.

[@KannonRomano]

@@clabretro I just abounded the VLC or omxplayer idea cuz I couldn’t getting it working on boot up. Ended up going with Libreelec and kodi on a raspberry pi and used a kodi plug in called playback resumer. It allows u to auto play and auto resume on reboot and shuffle as well. Worked out great

[@clabretro]

Very nice! That's a great setup too.

[@ricardoacosta2561]

Did you release the episode randomizing script? If so where?

[@clabretro]

ehh yeah: github.com/clabland/go-homelab-cable but it's in bad shape. I mention some updates in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nX2sk4l6jLKmgJo it's on my list of projects to get back to, i owe you all an update there to get it in a working state.

[@alicesmith2636]

This is so cool!

[@popmastaa]

Super cool stuff my dude. I’ve been thinking of making a similar set up. But instead of tv with shows playing I want to make a audio only radio that switches between Spotify playlists. I’m sure it’s much easier than this haha. But as someone with no skills in the raspberry pie field it alway seems intimidating to start. If anyone has any tips out there please let me know.

[@clabretro]

Nice! I'd just start on your main machine to figure out how you'll consistently get audio from Spotify continually like that. Not sure if they have APIs, that'll be the trickiest part.