# Coaxial Cable and rca



## tech2000 (Aug 30, 2008)

Does anyone know it it is possible to have a cable with the coaxial connector on one end and a rca connector on the other end? I know there are adapters that do that, but they are only about 1 inch long total. I need something that is longer than that and just a cable.


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## Chris15 (Aug 30, 2008)

To me, coaxial connector could mean one of a large number of different connectors. Could you specify what you mean by coax connector? Do you mean a BNC?

It should be possible to make a cable with whatever connector you want on each end...


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## museav (Aug 30, 2008)

You could probably make or purchase a cable with a BNC on one end and and RCA jack on the other, but I'm curious as to why you couldn't use a cable with an adapter on one end, that would probably not add any significant cost, it may actually cost less, and would likely be easier to find.

And in addition to Chris's point on the variety of 'coaxial' connectors, since this is the Multimedia and Projection forum let's also verify that you're taking about video and not S/PDIF or something like that.


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## tech2000 (Aug 30, 2008)

oh yeah, sorry I was tired last night...I meant bnc to rca
I was curious because I was trying to put together a video monitoring system and keep the cost as low as possible without distorting the picture. although, I guess I could use an adapter, I just didn't know if it would work to go from a camera (bnc) to rca through a signal distro/amp and from there into about five tv monitors via rca. (All tvs would be separated by 40+ feet)


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## LekoBoy (Aug 30, 2008)

See, I thought by coaxial connector you meant F connector. I know it's consumer, but all the cable I have uses F connectors, and I have adapters to make it into RCA or BNC as necessary. Attaching an F connecotr is easier and less expensive than attaching RCA or BNC. I can buy the RG-6 and connecotrs at Lowe's.

I would take the camera signal (and audio if possible) into an RF modulator (about $30) and then split it using a CATV splitter ($1 for 2way, $4 for 4way) then plug into the Ant IN on the TV's. Set the channel on either 3 or 4, and you have picture and sound. You can spend way more and get a better picture and run everything composite or even RGBHV and run seperate audio lines, but if it's just for backstage and greenroom, why bother?


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## tech2000 (Aug 30, 2008)

Actually, I think we have a couple of rf modulators...that could be easy.
will the signal be very visible after going about 120-150 feet then splitting to go another 20 feet in either direction?


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## wadeace (Aug 30, 2008)

you could always build your own cable very easily, with crimp, and now screw on connectors.


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## Chris15 (Aug 30, 2008)

Fresnelkid, The problem with F connectors is that by very nature of their design, they have to use a cable with a solid centre core. This tends to be less flexible than some of the nice video coaxes you can get. I also tend to find they can be a stiff connector to do up...

Remember that what you can get away with in splitting analogue audio you can rarely get away with for video. To split video, you really do need a video splitter...

If you have a monitor/s that don't have RF inputs, then an old VCR will likely do the job quite nicely.

And stay away from those new fangled digital tuners, they don't work on your analogue modulated signal...


Muse, he could be talking about video as in SDI even, and that would change the ball game somewhat, not to mention RGBHV, but for simple old composite, you can get away with more...


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## tech2000 (Aug 31, 2008)

my biggest problem would be getting the video to each of the tv monitors with a decent picture, which is why I was going to use a video signal distribution/amplifier


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## waynehoskins (Aug 31, 2008)

A VDA should do plenty fine. A 1x6 (or however-many) throwdown VDA or two is good to have on hand anyhow.

Presuming of course we're talking about composite. If we're talking SDI, then it's a different game.


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## mbenonis (Aug 31, 2008)

I'd recommend going the RF route if you need to do more than two TV's. A simple RF modulator and a video amplifier should do the trick. Make sure you buy an amplifier that has a gain equal to the loss of your splitter. Good RG6 has a loss of about 1.5 dB/100' at 50 MHz (approximately ch 3/4), so for your application you're looking at a loss of about 4 dB - not much for distribution. An amplifier providing 10 dB of gain would be plenty sufficient for your needs.


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## themuzicman (Sep 1, 2008)

I actually just recently had this same exact conundrum.

I was given two CCTV camera's to monitor my stage with, their only output being BNC, and all I had was Coax (200ft that I had to run from my catwalk to my booth!).

Here is the problem I ran into:
Because I was cheap and didn't want to go and purchase actual CCTV monitors (with true BNC adapters), I learned the hard way that on certain TV's, only certain inputs will work.
i.e. A BNC Camera out - to coax- plugged into a TV may not give you any useable signal.
------
I do not remember what combination worked, and I can't find out (moved on to bigger and better things), but I do remember the end solution:

Camera BNC to Coax, ran to RCA that was fed to a VCR that rebroadcast the signal in Coax to every TV in my school. 

The end result was a rather blurry signal, from so many connectors and adapters and stuff. Useable, but not optimal. But I do remember that whatever the short range solution was, it had a quite beautiful signal for the simplicity of it all, and was really really great.

I want to say it was just BNC to Coax to RCA.
Here were the parts needed (I used radio shack for simplicities sake, just to show some good examples):

RadioShack.com - Cables, Parts & Connectors: Connectors & connectivity: A/V connectors & adapters: Standard "F" Connector to BNC Jack *Standard "F" Connector to BNC Jack *

RadioShack.com - Cables, Parts & Connectors: Connectors & connectivity: A/V connectors & adapters: RadioShack Gold Series "F" Connector to Phono Plug Adapter *RadioShack Gold Series "F" Connector to Phono Plug Adapter*






sorry for my rambling =/


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## museav (Sep 1, 2008)

themuzicman said:


> I was given two CCTV camera's to monitor my stage with, their only output being BNC, and all I had was Coax (200ft that I had to run from my catwalk to my booth!).
> 
> Here is the problem I ran into:
> Because I was cheap and didn't want to go and purchase actual CCTV monitors (with true BNC adapters), I learned the hard way that on certain TV's, only certain inputs will work.


I think this goes right back to the point being made, BNC and RCA are simply connectors and the connector itself does not define the signal involved. As an extreme example, would you plug a camera, DVD or VCR video output into your audio mixer and expect it to work simply because it is an RCA connector on both?

Unfortunately, blame much of this on the growht of 'prosumer' products. In the pro world you used to always know that an F connector was RF, a BNC baseband video (SDI in the digital world) and an RCA unbalanced, line level audio (S/PDIF for digital) and it should still be that way in any professional install as there are reasons for the connectors used for each application. However, prosumer gear often blurs that line as they do not always follow these practices.

As another example of where 'prosumer' and computer products have impacted things, Technically the terms "TV" or "television" actually infer a display with an integrated tuner, any video display without an integrated tuner is a monitor. But many people think of monitors being for viewing a computer and a TV being for video, sometimes leading to confusion when the terminology is used differently.


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## themuzicman (Sep 1, 2008)

museav --
I know where you are coming from with all of this. I purposely took the cheap way out, 1. because it was just high school and 2. I didn't know any better, and didn't have time (or money) to learn.

I don't go out and advocate being ignorant of the technologies involved, and now I know the difference between all of that. Though now it is good to be in a theatre department where the proper way to do things is also the way that is taught (and funded!).


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## seanandkate (Sep 1, 2008)

There are BNC to RCA adapters out there that work fine. I use them all the time.


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## waynehoskins (Sep 1, 2008)

themuzicman said:


> I was given two CCTV camera's to monitor my stage with, their only output being BNC, and all I had was Coax (200ft that I had to run from my catwalk to my booth!).



Doesn't make any sense.

"I was given dimmers to light my stage with, their only output being stage pin and all I had was 12/3".

Coax only describes the type of cable. What kind of coax (there's more than one) and what it's terminated with are related to the application and are not tied to the word "coax".

If you say "coax" in a video outfit, you're gonna get some 75-ohm stuff with BNCs, either SDI-rated or RG-59 or mini.

If you say "coax" at the ham club, you're gonna get 52-ohm RG-8, 8X, or 213 with PL-259s. You might get LMR-400 or -600 at a VHF/UHF club.

Depending on whether I know you from radio or from video-broadcast, the word "Coax" without any additional qualifiers to me carries one of those two meanings.


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## waynehoskins (Sep 1, 2008)

themuzicman said:


> Because I was cheap and didn't want to go and purchase actual CCTV monitors (with true BNC adapters), I learned the hard way that on certain TV's, only certain inputs will work.
> i.e. A BNC Camera out - to coax- plugged into a TV may not give you any useable signal.



Well, duh. That's like plugging a telephone modem into an Ethernet network and expecting something useful to happen.


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## tech2000 (Sep 2, 2008)

yeah if you go bnc to assuming you mean F connector to the tv, you need a modulator in there.

which would have the best video quality?
bnc to F to modulator to distribution/amplifier to about 4 or 5 tvs
or
bnc to rca to distribution/amplifier to about 4 or 5 tvs
?


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## SHARYNF (Sep 2, 2008)

If you have control over the wiring to the additional tv monitors (so that eachis run in what is called home run setup ie the tv monitors are not daisy chained) then keeping it base band (ntsc composite just using a distribution amp will work best, give you the best quality.

If on the other hand you are connecting into an existing cable tv distribution system then you would go with a modulator (frequency agile (ie allowing you to select the frequency the tuner on the tv will use, a combiner so that your modulated signal (RF) is added to the cable distribution system). QUALITY will be as good as the modulator you use and how good the cable tv system is .

Sharyn


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