Wiring: wiring is pretty much as you would expect from such a cabinet, with 120VAC, CATV, and Audio cabling, but for this project, there is also some 12VDC wiring. The only unusual thing here is the QS53D supplies 12VDC in the center conductor of the recreational vehicle's TV Antenna connection. This "trick" supplies 12VDC to the active amplifier on the WineGard Sensar antenna.

Essentially, the coax from the antenna to the QS53D performs a double duty. It supplies 12VDC up the coax for the RF Amplifier to function, and provides the RF signal path to the coach. This is a rather common configuration in residential antennas, but what is unusual here is the QS53D's ability to supply the 12VDC power source. Typically this is provided by a second box supplied by the antenna manufacturer.

With the new wiring configuration, the 12VDC antenna power source is now from the Sensar Pro, not the QS53D. Fortunately, the "Power" switch on the front of the QS53D is to turn off 12VDC to the antenna - not to power the video switch. Let me say that again... the power switch on the front of the Quest QS53D turns power on or off to the antenna. The video switch itself is always powered (hence the on-off "boondock" switch I added.

Therefore in the normal operation of the video switch, the power switch should be left OFF. I did confirm with WineGard that probably no harm would come to the Sensar Pro if the switch were to be inadvertantly turned on, but the best practice would be to leave this switch OFF.

As well, the green LED next to the power switch shows the status of the 12VDC power to the antenna, so that should be off as well.

One difficulty with wiring such a setup these days is that virtually all current generation DVD/Blu-Ray players no longer have composite (Video + Audio L+R) outputs, but rather only HDMI. Fortunately, I was able to find a HDMI to Composite adapter for the DVD's HDMI only output. Many of these adapters exist; some converting HDMI to Composite, Composite to HDMI, and so on - so make sure you buy the correct adapter.

Since the video switch has a composite to RF modulator, I could use the composite input of the switch to get the DVD output to the TV. One concern however is that I am essentially going through two different converters, and I was a bit worried about signal quality. As to be expected, the signal does degrade a bit, but only usually noticeable with text (menu setups, etc). However, this loss of quality in video - such as playing DVD movies do not seem to be noticeable.

In reality, the RV manufacturers should be installing HDMI switches and cabling, but until they do, we're stuck with 50yr old technology... unless of course you want to wire your coach with HDMI cabling.

The HDMI adapter I bought was supposed to be self-powered with the option for USB power. However, I found it would not work unless I powered it via USB. Fortunately, there was a spare USB connector on the rear of the Sony DVD player that I was able to use to power the HDMI adapter.

The WineGard Sensar Pro device is a RF signal scanner as well as an adjustable RF amp. I call it an "Antenna Tuner" for lack of a better term as it allows you to fine tune the antenna's direction. Unfortunately with digital signals, you cannot tell how strong the signal is - either it works or it doesn't. The Sensar Pro alleviates this issue by scanning TV stations and displaying the signals it found, as well as a signal strength. This allows you to rotate the antenna to obtain the strongest signal.

One issue in using the Sensar Pro is that the channel displayed is the RF channel. Unfortunately, when TV broadcast stations converted to digital signals in the late 2000's they kept their analog identity. For example, a TV station in my area - Channel 8, still calls itself Channel 8, which is it's old analog channel. However, it actually transmits on Digital channel 42. So you would have to tune the antenna with the Sensar Pro using channel 42, not channel 8.

And to make matters worse, there is no direct correlation between the station's identity channel and it's true broadcast channel. The only real way to identify the real channel is to look up the station's call sign (WVVT, etc), on-line. One of the best places to do this is WWW.TVFool.Com.

These issues aside, the Sensar Pro is a great addition to obtaining the best TV reception from your RV.

The XBox is connected via composite video directly to the TV in the salon. This is pretty straight-forward and no issues here. Yea, it's an old XBox, but really, we don't play games much... in fact, the only game I still play is when my eldest son is with us in head-to-head mode. I sure like (trying) to beat him at that game. On the other hand, it is not always sunshine when you go camping, so it provides a rainy-day alternative to moping around the campground.