Lobby security camera

[Kirby59]

Why does the older Shaw cable converter have our building's lobby security camera channel on I think channel 394 but it is not present in the Bluecurve TV channel lineup?

[rstra]

The BlueCurve box doesn’t support the security cameras.

[mdk]

@Kirby59 -- not present in the BlueCurve TV

Shaw uses a different communication protocol to feed the BlueCurve TV/PVR than the communication protocol used to feed all their older Set Top Boxes and PVRs.  Your security-camera system sends only using the older communication protocol, which is not compatible with the BlueCurve's input.

Does your TV have both HDMI-input (receiving the HDMI-output from the BlueCurve) and a coaxial-input port?

If so, it might be possible to add a coaxial-splitter:

Wall-port --> 1-to-2 splitter -> BlueCurve -> HDMI port on TV

Wall-port --> 1-to-2 splitter -> coaxial port on TV

On your TV, use its "source" (or "input") button to select the coaxial-input, and use the TV's tuner to select channel 394, to view the security camera.

On your TV, use the "input" button again, to select the HDMI-input.

Give this a try, and report back.

[rstra]

It would need to be a camera connected to an analog modulator for that to work.

[Kirby59]

I already know that. My question is WHY DOESN’T IT support it. That’s not a great upgrade if you ask me. Shaw needs to do something about it as that is critical to see who is at the buzzer panel for us living in downtown Calgary. It’s a dangerous area. 

[Kirby59]

I realize that. I think Shaw could do something about  it. Or should. Giving less for more is not my idea of a great upgrade. 

[mdk]

@rstra -- It would need to be a camera connected to an analog modulator for that to work

Why? When you tried it, did it not work for you?

Any "modern" TV with both HDMI & coaxial input has both an analog tuner and a digital tuner.

The digital tuner is used for "peasant TV" -- free, unscrambled, over-the-air, high-definition, broadcasts by local-to-you TV stations, using your personal TV antenna.

If you have a VHS player, its technology outputs analog signals over coaxial cable, and you can connect that coaxial cable to the coaxial-input on the TV, so that the TV's analog tuner can be tuned to analog channel 3 (or 4).

[Kirby59]

The lobby camera feed cannot be manipulated by the end user. Either it comes in on the Shaw channel lineup or it does not. I am aware of the alternatives they are just not as convenient as changing the channel. 

[rstra]

@mdk Shaw frequencies are not the same as over the air broadcast frequencies, that’s the reason you need a cable box. Like I said, if it were an analog modulator attached to the camera the splitter option would work, I think channel 117 (can’t remember exactly). 

[mdk]

@rstra -- Shaw frequencies are not the same as over the air broadcast frequencies, that’s the reason you need a cable box.

True, but irrelevant.

Just try my suggestion to use a coaxial splitter, to feed the "Shaw frequencies" into the BlueCurve, and to feed the analog output from the security-camera system into the TV's analog tuner.

In the past, you have stated that the one cable feeding into the home can carry both the BlueCurve and the "legacy" signals. So, inserting the splitter will work.

If the security-camera system produces unscrambled digital output, the TV's digital tuner will process it.

Note that before the installation of the BlueCurve, the person was able to view the security-camera. The signals from the security-camera system and the feed from Shaw TV co-existed on the one cable.

Try it, and then tell me I'm wrong  (this is a shout-out to the late, lamented, Vancouver-based TSN1040 sports-talk radio programming that Bell "killed", last week).