joefromperry Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 I apologize in advance for the long post. So, I swapped out the old TVs on my 2003 Signature with smart TVs, so I can connect with the internet just fine. The problem is that I can't use any antenna or cable hookups from a pedestal. The old/original setup had everything connected with the composite cables (red, white, yellow) coming from an a/v controller in the front cabinet. The coax from the antenna and cable hookup in the bay goes to the amplifier in the cabinet above the driver seat. Evidently the two inputs (antenna and bay cable) merge somewhere, because only one input goes to the amplifier. Then there are two other coax cables coming off the amplifier, one says TV and one says AUX. The Monaco owner book says antenna/cable works through the old VCR, which had a coax into the ANT port; from there composite cabling went to a switcher, and from there a whole spaghetti mess of wires went all over, including the Bose up there near it. I mistakenly thought that since the manual said everything went through the VCR, the coax cable that was connected to it would be the one from the ANT port on the amplifier. Well, it doesn't. In fact using a tone tracer starting with the amplifier end of the coax that was connected to TV port, none of the three coax ends in that a/v cabinet are the other end. My next step would be to trace the AUX cable to see if any of the cabinet ends are it. Frustration. So I guess the question to the group is: has anyone with a similar original setup redone their cabling, and can you please tell me which cables/wires run where? As mentioned, my goal is to be able to use the cable from pedestal, or antenna on roof, to the front and bedroom TVs. I'll figure out the Bose sound stuff later. By the way, the wiring schematics in the large wiring book are useless for this. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald H Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 Following Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad A Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 I am in a very similar boat. 2003 Signature 42 Triple Crown that is one year new to me. PO installed a new tv in the front but not new enough to do what I need it to do (about 7 years old). The difference between you and I is that all of my stuff works as should. Everything is run through the switch box over the passengers head in the cabinet. Coach is at the shop for a couple more weeks but if you still need help with wiring when it gets back I might be able to help. My problem is trying to convert all the old stuff so it will work with HDMI cords, and not having the remote to the Bose so I cannot change anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 I'll throw in what I know of my 06 Diplomat. I have a rooftop antenna with its own coax going to the switcher box. From there I have 3 tvs I can send antenna to. In my driver's rear bay, i have 2 inputs--one for outside cable and one for outside satellite (pedestals). That one labeled cable goes to the switcher box and works like it should. The one labeled satellite...I'm not sure if it's hooked up correctly or not, but I do not think it is as the PO added a rooftop satellite at some point and the connections seem to be off. I have a rooftop Dish that I ran to my DVD input on the switcher and it branches from there. Here's what I have learned. When I plug into the pedestal cable, I click cable as the source for each of my 3 tvs and have to reprogram them at that time using auto channel search. I also make sure I have the TV set to the appropriate channel 3 or 4 that the switcher is set for. If Ieave a park and hook to another park's cable, I would repeat the process. My switching box is the original that came w/the coach and it is on my list to upgrade the AV at some point. One suggestion: get you a plain TV w/a coax input and hook it to the pedestal first and get it working right. Then hook that TV to the next coax output you can find--maybe at that amplifier? and go from there. One thought: you said that 2 cables leave the bay, but only one comes in to the amplifier. That implies there is a splitter somewhere and from personal experiences in years past, those have a slide on them to choose the input. I'd think finding that splitter/combiner would be key. Keep us posted. Take pics and post too. If you haven't checked, pull the cover off the cable inputs in the rear bay and make sure they are tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan K Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 5 hours ago, joefromperry said: The coax from the antenna and cable hookup in the bay goes to the amplifier in the cabinet above the driver seat. Evidently the two inputs (antenna and bay cable) merge somewhere, because only one input goes to the amplifier. Our 00 Sig has a switch in the side cabinet above driver to select park or antenna source before going to amplifier. I have since removed the amplifier and installed active antenna head. Park signal should not need an amplifier anyway. I got rid of all the old switching and use coax going to bedroom and outside tv for antenna and Dish receiver. Hdmi to front tv. Wish it was hdmi all around but for the relatively small screens it works fine for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joefromperry Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 Thanks for the input, Ivan, Steve, Chad, and Gerald. Based on your feedback, and that received from the Monaco Owners Facebook group, I'll try some things tomorrow when I can. Steven, you said your switcher is connected to your three other TVs. How? Do you have coax going to each of them? I don't, so I'm looking at my options if I want to do anything besides using wifi with the tv apps. I'll keep you all posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 4 minutes ago, joefromperry said: Steven, you said your switcher is connected to your three other TVs. How? Do you have coax going to each of them? I don't, so I'm looking at my options if I want to do anything besides using wifi with the tv apps. I'll keep you all posted. The original box that came with mine has multiple inputs and push buttons for the TVs. They do send the signals via coax to each TV however, I have my rooftop satellite wired separately using HDMI. Here is a link to a selector box you could look into. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SWGSESO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_KQ1DKDR6PKEA200BDP54?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 There is fancier equipment out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joefromperry Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 Thanks, Steve. That's the same box we had in a couple previous motorhomes. My problem is not having any coax to the other TVs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
granvillebarker Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 In my coach there’s a splitter after the antenna amp, and the cables goto the tv’s and where the vcr used to be from there. The splitter is behind the panel holding the tv amp in my dynasty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhReally Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Joe, just a couple things to keep in mind as you sort your tv problems. 1- many campground cable tv services WILL NOT WORK if you have the rv antenna booster powered on while trying to get a cable signal, and 2- many TVs WILL NOT WORK (especially if a few years old) with the digital signal from the campground cable - nothing to do but try to update the TV's firmware or get a newer TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan K Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 If you want to to stay with the RCA cable for your rear TV for now, there are cheap TV tuners with all kinds of outputs, including RCA, of course that adds an other remote to the bunch you already have. I use one to feed a projector in the shop and it works fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivylog Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) When replacing the old TV in our 04 Dynasty, I got rid of the switching box... new TV has multiple inputs. X2 on the antenna amp has to be off for the park cable TV to work because both the OTA coax and the park’s cable go to the amp. X2 on splitters after the amp for multiple TVs... only one output coax from the amp. X3 on having to channel search every time you move or switch from OTA to park cable. OP, this statement doesn’t add up “The coax from the antenna and cable hookup in the bay goes to the amplifier in the cabinet above the driver seat. Evidently the two inputs (antenna and bay cable) merge somewhere, because only one input goes to the amplifier.”... they do not join together. Sounds like you have the amp below with 3 inputs and 2 outputs. Set one output is on the faceplate of the below amplifier. Edited January 29, 2021 by Ivylog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miacasa_2000 Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Joe I have a 2003 dynasty that had all that you described and also the ir repeaters for the remotes. I went new and simple only original pc I still use is the a/b switch. Check your rear tv I had a coax cable there that went to the front. To make it easier for me I enlarged the holes in the back of the cabinets on both sides by quite a bit. anyway I found the coax from the rear tv and the one straight from the bay and the one from the roof antenna by way of the booster. So my a/b switch has the antenna on one side the bay coax on the other and out to a splitter and to the front and rear tv's. like I said simple for that part. I did install a blue ray/dvd surround sound player to use the original surround system when I need it. Don't use my dish anymore and sounds like you don't either because I too use the internet to stream. It's also easy to add tv boxes, modem/routers etc. this way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joefromperry Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 Okay, just a minor update. I realize that there is no splitter before the amp box above the driver seat. What is labeled "aux" is the input from the cable coax from the pedestal, and the antenna label is obviously correct. I still haven't located where the cable from the "tv" port on the back of the amp goes to. Tone tracing the cables in the a/v area above passenger seat was non-productive. To be continued, hopefully, in the near future. Thanks again for the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Would the TV port not go to the TV or to the switch box before the TV? I don't have an amplifier on mine so I'm not sure. Can you post pics of what you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ready2retire59 Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 When I replaced the 2 tvs in our '03 Windsor, I found 2 splitters (one behind each tv). I don't know what the front tv splitter does but the rear tv splitter goes to the rear tv and to the outside (in the bay) tv jack. On a related note to miacasa_2000, what is the brand and model of the blu ray dvd surround sound player that you installed? Thank you, Tony C '03 Windsor, '05 Ram 1500 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miacasa_2000 Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 sorry had no computer for a while anyway it's a Philips not sure model # Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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