ALDI Video Sender £19.99 from 22/12/05

mk-donald

Picked one of the Aldi ones today for a friend and studied it before handing it on (thought not actually tried it).

Here's an outline of what you get and how it says it works:

There's a TRANSMITTER (Tx) and a RECEIVER (Rx) each with a rotating directional/disc 4.xxxGHz aerial to transmit the picture/sound from Tx=>Rx AND a 4xxMHz aerial to transmit infra-red remote signals back from the Rx=>Tx. (xx as I can't remember the precise numbers).

The Transmitter gets its video and audio signals from a 'pass through' SCART ie Male at one end and female at other end with a cable out of the side with Yellow-White-Red (Composite video/Left-Right audio) to connect via provided YWR cable to the Transmitter. So you can just insert the SCART at an appropriate point in your TV SCART cable setup to 'tap' into the signal as a source for sharing with the other room/TV.

(They also provide a 3.5mm stereo to White-Red so you COULD connect to a COMPUTER with a composite video output (Yellow) + get audio Left/Right via this adapter.)

The Transmitter also has a socket for the provided 3-headed InfraRed re-transmitter (when you operate a remote in the room with the Receiver) - ie you can feed the remote signal back to up to 3 devices (eg VCR, DVD, decoder).

The RECEIVER has yellow/white/red sockets to connect via provided YWR cable either directly to your TV or more typically via the provided Y/W/R=> male SCART plug (assuming your extra TV has a spare SCART socket). Alternatively there is a standard coaxial TV socket with a RF modulator set either to channel 43 or 36 (the documentation is confused as to which) so if your extra TV has neither SCART or composite video/audio inputs you can just connect with an aerial cable and tune the TV to Ch 43/36 to see what's coming in to the Rx unit from the Tx source.

Just one thing to make sure you don't mess up. The transmitter is labelled 12V and there's a 'transmitter' label on its 12V transformer; while for some unknown reason the receiver and its transformer are both 9V. There is at least ONE mistake in the instruction leaflet saying the receiver is 12V too! So don't mix up your transformers.

The only user choice is which of the four A-B-C-D channels to set both the Tx and Rx units to (eg to avoid any interference from close neighbours with similar devices).

All in all seems very complete package. Probably pick one up for my parents for Xmas present (so could watch NTL digital in their bedroom too) tomorrow if Aldi still have any left.

Note re cables/colours:
Yellow = industry standard colour for sockets/cables for COMPOSITE VIDEO
White = left audio of stereo signal
Right = right audio of stereo signal

saintscouple

Thanks to you OP. :T

Went into Aldi in Southampton, sign was up, but no stock displayed. Lucky grabbed an employee who said they had plenty of stock out back, but they don't display them. Why, I don't know??
Anyhow, asked for the silver model, as both tv sets are silver.
Got home, a quick scan through the instructions, and 10 mins later, I have full control of my sky+ box in the bedroom. Excellent picture quality on a 21' tv.

I had phoned sky last month about multi-room, and was told had to spend £50 on another box, then spend £10 a month in addition.
In the summer, i took the upgrade refurb sky+ offer of £50, thus had a spare sky box anyway. But to use my old box, i would be charged £120 installation, plus the additional £10 month .......... crazy i know.... so i told them where to stick it.

Serious thanks OP, my missues is so happy with me, that i won't be getting much sleep tonight <wink> <wink> That is, unless i hide the remote :wall:

m00nie

saints, you can use the old box as a freeview box in another room.

when they installed sky + they would have changed the LNB to a quad one so all you need to do is buy some wire and connect it to this and your old box.

zobnsaf

hi,
I also bought one of these in silver from aldi yesterday and I really recommend it. The picture quality is superb. They are placed quite far away from each other yet the picture and sound is crystal and no fuzziness appears on the screen.
The ir thingy also works perfect. it's as if you're actually in front of the source box! No need to keep pressing a button on the remote for the command to actually go through. Immediate response with the ir thingy!
After trying it out and went and bought another one and hooked em together so that i could watch the source box in two rooms! Now i have one spare transmitter!
Well recommended!
Go down to your local store and get one now!

Zobnsaf :j

p.s. what a bargain at £19.99 with 36 months warranty as well!

wazza

are you aware that if you connect the receiver to the PC and if the PC has a tuner card and a DVD recorder you have a cheap DVD recorder. You can record tv programs onto your hard drive or DVD recorder. works for me. have the pc in the study room where there is no tv.

RedOnRed

I've bought one of these and set it up but have a couple of questions...

As far as I can see, the only way to run this sender is by cloning another TV and thereby taking control of the source TV from another room. What then happens is our TV in the living room has the channels being changed by the TV that has the sender receiver on it upstairs.

What I want is the sender to be able to send the signal to a TV without taking full control of the TV where the transmitter is. Is that an option with this?

Additionally, i've just hooked it up to send they Sky signal from my Sky+ box, but can't seem to get the Sky+ remote to work on it. Anyone else had this problem?

mk-donald

RedOnRed wrote:

I've bought one of these and set it up but have a couple of questions...

As far as I can see, the only way to run this sender is by cloning another TV and thereby taking control of the source TV from another room. What then happens is our TV in the living room has the channels being changed by the TV that has the sender receiver on it upstairs.

What I want is the sender to be able to send the signal to a TV without taking full control of the TV where the transmitter is. Is that an option with this?

What you are 'cloning' is whatever signal is passing through the device the TRANSMITTER (Tx) is getting its signal from - ie typically the SCART Tx gizmo where it is picking up the signal going "into" gizmo (see direction of arrows on SCART Tx gizmo). So if you want it to clone your Sky box you'd connect it into the back of your Sky box and NOT into the back of your television.

So for example you could have a DVD player in one room (even without a TV attached to it) with the Aldi Tx Scart plugged into the DVD player's back and Tx'ing to another room and a TV connected to the Aldi Receiver (Rx) where you're then able to watch the DVD and use the DVD player's remote to control the playback.

(Alternatively you could be cloning a device that has a Yellow/White/Red set of sockets that you've plugged the Tx cable into. Though you'd need to be clear whether that device's YWR sockets are themselves set to "output" a signal - on some devices they are additional INPUT sockets only, or you may be able to use the device's setup to set the sockets to output too.)

The InfraRed (IR) transmission back from the Receiver (Rx) box to the Tx is completely 'ignorant' - ie it will just pass through whatever IR signals pass by the Rx box and retransmit those through the IR cable and its three gizmos on the Tx box. So if you wanted to control your Sky box you'd only press buttons that change the Sky box and NOT any buttons that did things to your TV for example. [Don't know if/how the Aldi set is compatible with the Sky remotes, just talking about the principle here.]

MKD

saintscouple

RedOnRed wrote:

I've bought one of these and set it up but have a couple of questions...

As far as I can see, the only way to run this sender is by cloning another TV and thereby taking control of the source TV from another room. What then happens is our TV in the living room has the channels being changed by the TV that has the sender receiver on it upstairs.

What I want is the sender to be able to send the signal to a TV without taking full control of the TV where the transmitter is. Is that an option with this?

Additionally, i've just hooked it up to send they Sky signal from my Sky+ box, but can't seem to get the Sky+ remote to work on it. Anyone else had this problem?

With reference to your 2nd question, at 1st though my sky+ remote would'nt work. But moving the IR sensor on the sky+ box fixed the problem... have a fiddle.
Maplins do a non-branded sky+ remote for £9.99 - can program remote to control tv as well. Sorted.

RedOnRed

saintscouple wrote:

With reference to your 2nd question, at 1st though my sky+ remote would'nt work. But moving the IR sensor on the sky+ box fixed the problem... have a fiddle.
Maplins do a non-branded sky+ remote for £9.99 - can program remote to control tv as well. Sorted.

That's interesting if you managed to get your Sky+ remote working with it. I tried moving the sender remote sensor all over the Sky+ box IR remote sensor earlier today without any success.

plonky_2

tdodd wrote:

Have you tried changing channels on the router or the video sender/receiver? FWIW my network is on Channel 11 and my sender/receiver on Channel A (of A/B/C/D).

Is it actually your network that is the problem or is there some other interference? Does the problem vanish if you turn off the router?
Another thought - is there something substantial blocking the signal between the sender and the receiver? These signals do not cope well with metal or water or anything thick and solid in the way, so an immersion tank stuck between the two in a direct line of sight would be a real problem. Maybe you can move the sender or receiver by a few feet and see if that improves things.

I have it on the "best" channels on each i.e the combination that minimises the interference, presumably the ones at opposite ends of the spectrum.

It is definitely the router. Disabling wireless (which is no hassle) makes the interference disappear immediately and all works well.
Because there is only the single wall between the router and the video receiver, the signal from the router is too strong. The second receiver is 2 walls away and is not affected.