I have an old GE VCR, works great, no problems with my old Zenith TV. I got a new RCA TV. I have cable so I hooked it up the same way-coaxial cable from the wall into the VCR and then from the VCR to the TV.
The TV works fine. When I turn on the VCR, most of the functions work fine. However, the onscreen programming flashes for a second and then the screen goes blue. In addition, when I turn on the VCR with the VCR remote, the TV goes off or on at the same time too. I thought that maybe the remotes were on too similar frequencies, so I programmed the TV remote to work the VCR using the instructions provided with only slight difficulty.
Currently, I can use the remote provided with the TV for all TV functions and the following VCR functions: on/off, play, fast-forward, rewind, channel change on the VCR, and record/OTR. However, every time I use either remote to work the VCR to say change a channel I get a quick flash of the channel and then it blinks blue before settling on the channel again. When I use anything that should come up on the screen, like programming, or pause, I get a quick flash of the screen I want and then the blue screen of death.
The TV has every kind of hook-up known to man. The VCR has the coaxial cable hook up and a separate audio/video plug set with one for each. Is it worth it to try to use the audio/video plugs and if so how do I connect them when the TV has two audio inputs, L and R? Should I just accept that the devices are incompatible and I won’t ever be able to program my VCR and go buy a new machine? Is my VCR to be relegated to only playing prerecorded tapes? Must I enter the 21th century and get DVR? (I am trying to avoid paying for digital cable).
Any help will be appreciated before I go spend money on more cables that may or may not work.
Yeah, Id try that. It looks like the tv doesnt like the coax. You should have a standard rca video connector on the vcr: yellow for video and red and white for audio. Find the matching connector on the tv and try that.
I’ve hooked up a mono VCR to a stereo TV like you describe with RCA cables, and it works fine. You have two options - you can plug your VCR’s audio out into one or the other of your TV’s audio in, in which case one speaker will work and one won’t, or you can go to Radio Shack and pick up a Y-shaped splitter for about a buck that lets you plug your one audio out into both of your audio ins. In this case, both TV speakers will play exactly the same sounds.
You need a cable box. I really doubt that your cable TV company is sending out analog TV signals - everything’s digital now and your old VCR is either going to need its own cable box or digital convertor, or to be relegated to only playing tapes.
I just wanted to add that my cable company is still sending out analog signals for the basic channels. Actually, I was surprised to find that I got some digital channels on the TV, but most of them (60+) are still in analog. I have excellent TV and VCR reception without a box.
Charter cable is still sending out analog (as well as digital) and plans to continue through 2012 at least. No digital converter box needed, but the channel numbers stop at 100.
The FCC requires cable companies to keep analog going until 2012. Of course, sneaky bastards that they are, they sometimes move some basic channels off the analog tier and onto the digital only tier, so it still might be worth getting a cable box.
So you are asking how to connect a mono VCR to a current model TV. Reminds me of the problem I’m having connecting my quadrophonic 8-track. I’ve decided to upgrade to a nice cassette deck.
My advice is you may want to look into making the leap to get a DVR. I think the technology has been out long enough to be considered stable at this point.
Sorry for any typos in this post. I dropped the box of punch cards with my response and I hope I got them back in the correct order
You might not need the Y-cable. Most devices I have allow a single connection to the left channel to be interpreted internally as a mono signal and routed to both channels. They typically say “L-Mono” on the socket.
They can keep analog or provide you with a single, no-cost digital set top box - cite. Many have elected for the second. Which is not nearly as useful as keeping analog channels around if you have a VCR.
Is it any better with a DVR? And do those cable boxes let you use multiple TVs still?
The way my provider has it set up, analog goes to every TV, even if you have digital. You have to pay extra to hookup multiple TVs on digital.
Incidentally, the basic package (all broadcast channels) is free for a year, which is nice in a place where we can’t pick up the over-the-air signals. It has made me think about actually getting cable again, instead of just watching TV online.
The problem is that the cable box aka digital adapter has to do the tuning - the tuner on the VCR or DVR isn’t used. So if you want to change channels for unattended recording, you’re out of luck.
Some DVRs use an IR-blaster, which is a device that simulates a remote control. You put that in front of the IR receiver on the cable box, and it will send the signals to change channels at the right time. The problem with that is that they aren’t 100% reliable, so it may not change channels or change to the wrong channel.
And you need a cable box for each TV you want to watch the digital channels on.
