What is the most inexpensive way to rig up a dvd player to a tv? Bulk? Several tvs; DVD players; long wires...?
This is for an art installation. I want to know what the cheapest wire I can get away with to send the video signal, and I want to crimp on the RCA plugs. But I don't know where to start. Help Please??
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- Just buy cheap RCA wires. Radio Shack sells them in all kinds of lengths. To splice (or crimp) an RCA jack has to be done correctly or it won't work. They are set up like an antennae wire in that the positive is the center and the negative is the outer. It's just easier to buy the cables.
- Composite video over RCA is probably the cheapest, but I think you'll find you won't save any money attaching the connectors yourself. Unlike F-connectors, RCA plugs can't be easily crimped, they're usually soldered. You can find cables for 50 cents each here: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021803&p_id=653&seq=1&format=2 The other issue is splitting the signal. You didn't say how many TVs are connected to a player, but you may need a distribution amplifier like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270397296924 I bought an 8-output composite amplifier on eBay for $25 recently, but the seller no longer has them for sale. Hope that helps.
- Toby - I agree with the other answers but you left out some needed details in your question. If each TV will have it's own DVD player then that is easy. Just use standard AV cables to wire each player to each TV. If one DVD player is going to feed many TV's that gets a bit trickier. An easy way to do it is to get a modulator. Then you would connect the audio and video out of the DVD player to the modulator input and the modulator would convert those signals to a channel 3 or 4 signal. Then all you do is wire one simple cable TV type cable from the modulator to each TV - you get audio and video in one shot. You will need to make sure all your TV's have the ability to tune analog cable channels (some newer TV's do not). Look for "NTSC tuner" in the specs for the TV. Another approach is to feed the video from the DVD player using a video distribution amp as mentioned by someone else. The problem comes in with the audio. You do not want to run line level audio with RCA cables over a long distance. It will not sound good and you may pick up humming and buzzes on the audio. A better way to do it is to feed the audio from the DVD player into a cheap stereo receiver and then run speaker cable to each TV location and mount a small speaker next to each TV. A stereo receiver could feed up to four remote speakers at each TV.
- I don't think the others understood your question. You want to make your own RCA video cables, correct? You want two conductor shielded wire for the video cables. If you're connecting audio also, you can probably get away with unshielded, but for any long run, you're probably better off with shielded. The video below shows you how to do it.
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