Cable Tv Without A Box

[glgincnc]

Is there such a cable/adapter that would allow me to connect a male coaxial cable in one end, and have three RCA connectors at the other end (Audio left & Right, and Video) so I can run the cable signal through my receiver without a "Cable Box"?

[Church Key Kid]

Yeah....

It's called a VCR.

[glgincnc]

Originally posted by glgincnc
Is there such a cable/adapter that would allow me to connect a male coaxial cable in one end, and have three RCA connectors at the other end (Audio left & Right, and Video) so I can run the cable signal through my receiver without a "Cable Box"?

I am using my VCR, but I want to split the "cable" to also run straight into the receiver so that I do not have to have the receiver in "VCR" position. I do not want to limit my ability to watch one show and tape another. If I only run the cable through the VCR, I can only watch whatever channel the VCR is tuned to!

[Johnny L.A.]

When I lived in Lancaster (CA) our cable came out of the wall and just went into the back of the teevee or VCR. This was very handy because I could tape one channel while watching another. I could also set the VCR to tape one channel at one time, and then change channels to tape another program.

When I moved to Los Hideous I had to get a cable box. Now I can only tape one channel, and I have to be home to change channels if I want to tape something else. (Supposedly the box is capable of changing channels itself, but I've never been able to program it to do so.) Also, I must watch the channel I'm taping; so if I want to watch one show and tape another, I'm out of luck.

I called the cable company and they said that some of their customers don't have boxes, but that option is not available in my area. They said they would eventually make all of their customers use the box. (Now, years later, I suppose that has come to pass.) They said the reason they use boxes is because their customers would steal the signal if they didn't. They said if I wanted the (rare) option of taping one channel and watching another, they would be glad to rent me another box.

[NutMagnet]

Generally, there is no video input on the receiver. The video out of say, a DVD player is either RCA (single jack) , progressive scan (3 RCA jacks - Y/Pr/Pb), optical (single jack) or s-video (single jack). This goes directly to the TV, since the receiver does nothing to the video signal. The remaining audio connectors (usually RCA) go to the receiver.

There are boxes to convert one type of jack/signal to another, try
http://www.hometheaterworld.com They may have something.

Do you have a TV that has 2 antenna inputs? You can connect the coax feed to a coax splitter ($3 - Radio Shack), run one to antenna 1, the other to the VCR and from there to antenna 2.

A converter box like this http://www.hometheaterworld.com/keydigtwocha.html may work. I can't be sure from the info provided) It looks like more than you need, but it has 3 RCA outs which you will have to have on your TV. The 2 audio go to the receiver, the video goes to the TV. Turn off your TV sound and you can use your audio speakers thru your receiver.

On preview, I see Johnnie L.A. has posted something which reminds me... There are some cable boxes that are decoders as well as channel changers. These are usually found in high-density areas (NYC) where it's easy to tap into other peoples' cable, so they scramble the signal. This kind of box has to go first in the series, to decode the signal. It has the unhappy feature of only feeding the one selected channel from there, so you can't split the signal.


_{Oh, and glgincnc...? Buy a vowel}

[shelbo]

Originally posted by glgincnc

I am using my VCR, but I want to split the "cable" to also run straight into the receiver so that I do not have to have the receiver in "VCR" position. I do not want to limit my ability to watch one show and tape another. If I only run the cable through the VCR, I can only watch whatever channel the VCR is tuned to!

Are you sure? On my system, the coax cable goes into the VCR coax "in", and a second coax cable goes from the coas VCR "out" to the TV coax "in". With this set up, the VCR records what ever channel it's tuned to, and I can set the receiver to whatever I want (or I can tune to channel 3, and set the VCR to VCR, and watch that). No fancy splitting of cables necessary.

[BobT]

Right now, I have a digital cable hookup so I have to have the converter box, but I can still watch another channel while taping one as long as I use a splitter and an A/B switch.

I just can't watch one scrambled channel while taping a different one.

[handy]

" If I only run the cable through the VCR, I can only watch whatever channel the VCR is tuned to!
"
Can't you just push the 'tv/vcr' button on the vcr, to use the tv tuner to see a channel?

[bdgr]

Originally posted by NutMagnet
Generally, there is no video input on the receiver. The video out of say, a DVD player is either RCA (single jack) , progressive scan (3 RCA jacks - Y/Pr/Pb), optical (single jack) or s-video (single jack). This goes directly to the TV, since the receiver does nothing to the video signal. The remaining audio connectors (usually RCA) go to the receiver.

A lot of recievers, like my JVC surround proccessor, have video in's as well as audio. That way, when you switch the surround from dvd to vcr or cable, it switches the video signal as well.


I know where I live, you can get analog cable straight out of the wall, but the digital requires a box. The analog is only basic cable of course.

[SenorBeef]

I think you might be looking for an RF modulator.