I have Comcast cable TV in my house. In my computer room I have a HDTV with an attached HD cable box. We just upgraded my bedroom TV from an old standard TV to a HDTV. The Cable box in the computer is just 2 rooms from from the bedroom, and since we would hardly ever want to watch something different in both rooms at once, I want to clone the display, and have a remote extender to be able to change channels.
So, how do I clone the display and be able to control the cable box from the other room? The rooms are close enough to do wireless (same floor, only 2 walls to go through as a direct line), or to do wired (go up into the attic and then down to the other TV).
So, does anyone have know what I need to buy, or order, or a person to hire to be able to do what I want?
Thanks.
I have no answer to the OP, but it is, every day, increasingly apparent that the present paradigm of digital communications is so badly fragmented, there are simply no interlocking pieces. Things can only be done after experimenters discover workarounds. Has everything already collapsed so irretrievably into chaos, or is there any hope that there will ever be a standardization of all the moving parts?
Are intellectual property laws responsible for this? One cannot make a part that will work in conjunction with another part, because to do so would violate somebody’s patent protection.
I have a fairly long HDMI cable run in my house. It’s a unidirectional Monoprice cable. Be sure if you go that way to get it directly from their website. Some “Monoprice” products on Amazon and eBay are fakes.
For remote control, I use a (gasp) VCR Rabbit from years ago. (Just for the remote part, not the signal.) I have looked into replacing it but there’s really nothing better for a reasonable price.
If you want to spend bucks, there’s all in one cables and adapters to carry the video and remote over something basic like Cat6 or coax.
The main trick is switching/splitting the signal. The signal will have HDCP DRM in all likelihood. A simple HDMI splitter won’t work. (OTOH …;)). So I can only officially advise using a switch. Some come with a remote.
WiFi and such probably won’t cut it. Save the frustration and go wired.
Check out AVSForums for the real lowdown. (But those people like to spend real money.)
You can get an IR repeater for the remote, and a hdmi splitter that might work with your cable box, and run the wires all around to make this work (It’s a fairly long wire run though, so might be pricey). Wireless solutions would probably be more complicated.
I’d suggest just having a new cable drop put in in the bedroom and getting a box for in there. Or swapping the box from room to room if needed and you want to save on box purchase/rental.
Additionally, a Roku Streaming Stick is about 50 bucks and comcast has / will have a Roku app so you can just stream your cable tv over the internet to any tv.
There are some cable boxes that still have both active HDMI and component outputs - my Google Fiber TV Box is like that. One set is connected to the HDMI, the second is connected to the component. And as FTG mentioned, there are some HDMI splitters that strip HDCP. As far as I know, you are not breaking any law doing so. You are probably violating the terms of the agreement between the content provider and the cable company, but that is not your problem. Hollywood has decided to use content licensing to un-invent the VCR.