No stereo audio on Cable TV

[YamahaFreak]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

Well, technically speaking, any signal coming out of an RF Modulator (the Coax Output of a cable box or video game) shouldn't be stereo, it should be mono (at least that's the way they used to work in the days of VHS and video games from the N64 era and before.)
So unless they've changed RF Modulators since then so that they output stereo audio now, then there shouldn't be stereo audio coming out of the coaxial output of your mini-cable box...

Having owned half a dozen RF-only TVs from the 80s and 90s that don't have any other input connections, and that have onboard stereo speakers that produced stereo sound connected directly to the coax jack in the wall or an antenna at the time, I know this to be incorrect, or at least incorrect at that time. I now have no way of testing this theory (lack of either direct cable service from the wall or NTSC OTA signals) so I'm not sure if it's still the case.

Relatedly, one of my laments is not being able to find an RF modulator that will take a stereo audio signal from a game console (e.g. Nintendo 64) and output said stereo audio to an RF-only TV with stereo speakers onboard!