Analog passthrough
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Analog passthrough is a feature found on some digital-to-analog television converter boxes. Boxes without the analog passthrough feature only allow older, analog-only TVs to view digital TV. Those with analog pass-through allow both digital and analog television to be viewed on older TVs.
Before digital television, passthrough originally existed in VCRs (and later PVRs and DVDRs) that connected to a TV set using RF connector, allowing the TV antenna or cable TV signal to be switched to pass through the VCR, or have VCR output added as an extra channel.
All digital-to-analog converter boxes have both an antenna input (which accepts the coaxial cable that formerly went directly to the TV) and an RF output (which now goes directly to the TV). They may also have additional outputs. Any converter box converts the digital signal for the current digital sub-channel to an analog signal (at the reduced screen resolution of the analog standard), outputs that signal onto analog channel 3 or 4 (set by the user to avoid any conflict with local over-the-air channels) and sends that signal to the analog tuner on the TV. With a box that lacks analog passthrough, no other signals are sent to the output, so all analog stations are lost.
In the US, this primarily affects low-power and broadcast translator stations, as these are exempt from the FCC mandate to switch to digital broadcasting in 2009, as well as foreign signals that will remain in analog form. A small number of TV receivers were also manufactured with built-in broadcast radio receivers; these included some small portable devices or (more rarely) sets marketed for hotel/motel use. If used with DTV converter boxes, these will need analog passthrough in order not to block incoming FM radio signals.[1]
The solution
Some converter boxes offer analog pass-through, meaning that the same output cable which carries the converted digital signal (on analog channel 3 or 4) while the converter is operating also retains all remaining analog signals upon turning the converter box off.
While this typically works to some extent with the converter box on, there is often significant signal strength reduction and/or interference on the original analog channels.
Analog pass-through signals are passed only to the coax output, not to any other outputs provided by the unit. While other converter outputs may still be connected and used for digital TV reception, the coaxial RF output must remain connected to pass analog TV signals.
Some VCRs and TVs have receivers that detect active composite video or S-video connections. When they detect these connections, they are designed to accept signals only from those sources, which can cause issues with the described arrangement. In such a case, the two options would be to use the coax output exclusively, either when viewing analog TV only (which requires plugging and unplugging cables) or full-time (with the reduced digital TV quality produced using the coax output).
The majority of TVs have a button on the unit and/or remote labeled something like "TV/VIDEO", "INPUT" or "AUX", which manually switches between coax and other sources. This eliminates problems when using both sets of connections simultaneously.
