Wireless Tuners

Wireless tuners and AV transmitter/receivers; whats next, cocoanut shells with a string?

Wireless tuners or AV receivers are a new type of device that adds a dimension of convenience to households where one TV receives a subscriber line and a second TV is added. If youre not prepared to wire another line through the house or cant use another receiver, a wireless tuner could fit the bill. For example, lets say you have an entertainment center in the basement and youve just added a TV to the bedroom. The entertainment center has had the satellite receiver for years and you have no intention of running a wire to the bedroom and you especially dont want to buy another satellite receiver. A wireless tuner is for you.
The most popular AV receivers come in two distinct types. The bluebloods among you might want to use the Belkin AV remote TV. Belkin is a popular and established name in the electronics power protection market. They make very good surge suppressors and other peripherals designed to keep your AC pure. Belkins AV remote sets up a single receiver from one TV and a transmitter at the other. The transmitter will have an audio/video input and you hook up the output of your satellite receiver to this. Then it sends the sound and vision from whatever is being received on the satellite receiver. The receiver then sends the audio/video signals through the AV outputs to the TV you watch through the AV inputs. Its a deceptively simple task only recently made affordable. The Belkin AV remote runs at around $500.

There is a slightly more affordable option for the more frugal. The RF Link AVS 5811 will save you considerable change. It performs the exact same job as the Belkin units but only costs $140. The transmitter and receiver are about the same size as Belkins. Both are conveniently small but instead of a tower look, the RF Link has a rounded look like a portable CD player. Both of these transmitter/receivers can transmit up to 350 feet which should be plenty for most houses. The Belkin transmits at 5 GHz where the RF Link runs at 5.8 GHz.

Unfortunately the best video these do currently is S-Video, and no HDTV will be sent in this manner with the current levels of technology. The other big drawback here is a lack of a way to change channels on the remote switching device. Whether using satellite receiver or cable box you have to devise your own clever way of changing channels while youre lying in bed. There are options however: a remote transmitter/receiver that can send IR to the cable box would accomplish this, but nothing like it is provided from either of these devices, so a remote control for the wireless tuner would be a separate device.