weetarded apartment

[farqueue]

hello, i am no tv expeert. recently moved into my new apartment to suddenly have found these ports instead of the standard normal TV jack... i cant seem to find anything that i can plug into it to watch tv

pics here
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/467/2607062022ld3.jpg


on top it says FTA, at bottom it says SAT...
what kind of converter do i need???

its like i need an adaptor to screw on etc..



ok now for photos taken with my isight (above - crappy photos taken by motorola v3 razr)

OK LADS, went down to the local electronic store and they dont even know what i'm talking about

here are more pictures taken with my iSight on my macbook :)
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3/photo1bf3.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4949/photo3tb2.jpg
http://img41.imagevenue.com/loc403/th_85794_Photo_2_403lo.jpg
http://img140.imagevenue.com/loc349/th_85799_Photo_4_349lo.jpg

[EricNau]

What country are you in?

They look like the standard coaxial connections to me.

[farqueue]

What country are you in?

They look like the standard coaxial connections to me.

hello, i am from new zealand/.

its something i have to screw on, in nz, most of the tv antennas that we plug into dont require any srewing

btw, any ideas what those two words mean?

[EricNau]

FTA = 'Free To Air'
SAT is short for Satellite

Unfortunately, I have no idea what type of adaptor you would need because I do not know what your normal connection would be.

[TBi]

Free To Air
and
Satelite

I'm guessing they are digital connections (or analog satelite ones), reminiscent of the satelite connections on the back of my Sky box.

Ask your landlord.

Oh and most electronic/electrical/tv shops will have the necessary converters.

[Chundles]

Just to empathise with farqueue (brilliant user name by the way) we here in Aus/NZ don't have all this fancy cable box stuff, our free-to-air TV comes in over antennae that plug straight into the TV via a coax cable (no screwing in required, it's just a plug) and all the rest just uses composite/component/HDMI cables.

I'm unsure about the new digital Pay TV stuff as nobody really uses it (too expensive and all the good TV is on free-to-air). Maybe it would use a screw in connector.

Come to think of it, I think the Pay TV stuff does use a screw in connection but free to air is just a plug-in coax cable from the antenna.

[EricNau]

Just to empathise with farqueue (brilliant user name by the way) we here in Aus/NZ don't have all this fancy cable box stuff, our free-to-air TV comes in over antennae that plug straight into the TV via a coax cable (no screwing in required, it's just a plug) and all the rest just uses composite/component/HDMI cables.

I'm unsure about the new digital Pay TV stuff as nobody really uses it (too expensive and all the good TV is on free-to-air). Maybe it would use a screw in connector.

Come to think of it, I think the Pay TV stuff does use a screw in connection but free to air is just a plug-in coax cable from the antenna.
You pretty much just described the US also (with the exception of good free television). :(

[bartelby]

You need Co-Ax cables with male F-Type connectors for those.

[Chundles]

You pretty much just described the US also (with the exception of good free television). :(

Pay TV here is only good for sports coverage for obscure overseas events and rugby/rugby league replays as well as documentaries and movies.

Everything else (and I mean everything) is on our five free-to-air channels.

[EricNau]

Pay TV here is only good for sports coverage for obscure overseas events and rugby/rugby league replays as well as documentaries and movies.

Everything else (and I mean everything) is on our five free-to-air channels.
We have about 5 free-to-air channels that air all of our network programs (e.g. LOST, Desperate Housewives, CSI, etc.). ...Just for the average American that isn't enough so we spend $50 a month to get networks like The Food Channel, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, TLC, HGTV, Comedy Central, HBO, etc. etc. etc.

[generik]

Pay TV here is only good for sports coverage for obscure overseas events and rugby/rugby league replays as well as documentaries and movies.

Everything else (and I mean everything) is on our five free-to-air channels.

Not entirely true.. where is my Battlestar Galactica?!

[Killyp]

Those are BNC conenctors. You are used to coaxial connections. It is highly likely that is your usual RF feed, so all you need is a BNC to RF coax cable. :)

[TBi]

BNC connectors don't screw on.

[dmw007]

You pretty much just described the US also (with the exception of good free television). :(


Yep, no good free air television here. :(

[EricNau]

You might get more definite answers if you could post higher quality pictures, as it is now it's hard to tell exactly what type of connecters those are.

[displaced]

They're certainly F-Type connectors.

They're pretty standard coaxial cable connectors. You'll find them on the backs of satellite and cable TV receivers. My cable service here in the UK terminates on my wall with two of these connectors -- one for the cable TV receiver which I don't use, since I have satellite, and one for the cable modem.

You'll want one of these (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=27877&criteria=f%20coax&doy=26m7) adapters.

Or, if you can find just a F-type plug somewhere, they're really easy to stick onto the end of a length of coax. Just strip the outer casing and fold back & braid the shield wire. Then strip the inner casing almost to the base, and screw on the F-type over the top of the braided shield wire. The core of the coax itself forms the 'pin' of the plug.

[rjphoto]

You said your are "From New Zealand". Does that mean you are "IN" New Zealand?

The photo is blurry so it makes it hard to diagnose. Try taking another shot a little farther back, use the zoom and flash. Also take a photo of the type of plug on your cable. that may help also.

I work with AV productions and presentations - ie: VCR & TV/LCD prjector set ups. From the looks of it I would call the wall jack an RF connection. In the US we have 2 types of plugs that work on that. One screws on and the the other slips on. The screw on is used mainly for industrial type set ups where as the slip on is used mainly for consumer set ups.

[farqueue]

OK LADS, went down to the local electronic store and they dont even know what i'm talking about
i searchd my whole apartment - no TV like connectors found - only these


here are more pictures taken with my iSight on my macbook :)
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3/photo1bf3.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4949/photo3tb2.jpg
http://img41.imagevenue.com/loc403/th_85794_Photo_2_403lo.jpg
http://img140.imagevenue.com/loc349/th_85799_Photo_4_349lo.jpg

[farqueue]

bumpy bumpy

[Mr. DG]

Displaced is right - they're f-connectors, usually used to connect satellite dishes to satellite decoder boxes via satellite co-axial cable. The cable is essentially the same as normal tv aerial cable except that it's shielded. it can also carry a small charge so you may get a tiny shock when touching the end of the cable. no big deal though.

As displaced said, get an adapter and some normal tv aerial cable, plug into the FTA socket and the other end into your tv. My guess is your cable / sat company will pump some fta channels out through that socket. You may need to retune your tv to find anything.

[kjwebb]

As another poster has posted, it's an F-connector.

Might want to look at http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.filereader?44c88311006cd0c0273fc0a87f99073f+EN/catalogs/CTG0000158 and http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.filereader?44c88311006cd0c0273fc0a87f99073f+EN/catalogs/CTG0002016 (especially this page) as Dick Smith Electronics stock a range of F-Connectors.

Unfortuantly, I am not sure if it's a F59 or a F81 connector.

[redeye be]

Just get yourself to your local electronics shop. They'll be able to sell you a convertor.
I'm also used to the "simply plug in" connectors. These are different yes. I've seen them in person ( :cool: ).

Edit: it looks like it took me more than 7 minutes to write this short post...

[displaced]

...it can also carry a small charge so you may get a tiny shock when touching the end of the cable. no big deal though.

Hehee... unless you've got your other hand on the earthed casing of your satellite receiver, in which case the tiny shock becomes quite a buzz :D Tasty!

As displaced said, get an adapter and some normal tv aerial cable, plug into the FTA socket and the other end into your tv. My guess is your cable / sat company will pump some fta channels out through that socket. You may need to retune your tv to find anything.

Yeah, most likely. Although based on the 'FTA' and 'SAT' indicators, and the fact it's in an apartment block, I'd imagine these two connectors are part of the building's distribution network. They'll have one traditional aerial feeding the FTA socket in each apartment via a booster setup.

The SAT socket is probably wired into a communal satellite dish. I don't know how satellite TV is standardised in NZ, but if it's like the UK, they'll have one dish with a quad LNB (the bit at the end of the arm on the dish) connected to four amplifiers. Each amp boosts one part of the signal (high-band vertical / low-band vertical / high-band horizontal / low-band horizontal), and then the combined feed of all 4 components are sent to each SAT terminal in the block. You'd then get your sat receiver and hook it up, and subscribe to whatever pay-tv sat service is available in NZ -- possibly Sky, the same as the UK.

[oingoboingo]

Don't panic, I don't even know what those connectors are actually called (although everyone else in this thread has named them)...I moved into an apartment in Sydney about 3 years ago and it had them too. I went to the local K-Mart, and they had converters to regular coax for about $5 from memory, just in the electronics section. Just go to Dick Smith / Tandy / K-Mart / BigW / whatever and I'm sure they'll have converters for next to nothing.