Can I record TV on a VCR through RCA ports?

Factual Questions
1

I brought home a VCR from China that works just fine here(even the current is no problem). I went to hook my cable up though it and found that it didn’t have a cable “port” for me to put the cable in(and out). Instead, it had something called “rf” in and out. Anyway, to play tapes, I’ve just used the Red, Yellow, and White RCA ports that are common.

Can I record through these and if so, how? I just want to record whatever is on tv, even if I have to leave the TV on instead of record directly through the cable.

Thanks!

2

Do you have a cable box? It should have the red white and yellow RCA plugs labled ‘out’.

If not a cable box, does the TV have the output jacks? Not all do, my newest one doesn’t but the older one does.

3

The RF (radio frequency) in and out ARE the connections for the cable. The cable coming in from the wall goes to the RF IN connector (presumably a standard F-56, if it’s something else like a European SCART connector, you’ll need an adaptor), and you can use either the RF OUT to the TV’s antenna/cable in jack, or you can use the RCA A/V connections.

4

Yes, you can record through RCA inputs, if the VCR has separate input and output ports.

5

Well, they look like cable connections like normal, but the cables I bought at Radio Shack(which I’m positive are correct) don’t seem to fit into the in or out.

What’s up?

6

On most (US) VCRs the RF In and RF Out (sometimes called Antenna In/Out) are round screw-on connectors about 1/2" diameter. This should match up with the cable coming from your wall that provides your cable TV service. If you have different connectors, you may need to get adapters, or spend $40 and get a VCR built for the US market.

7

I bought some adapters and I hooked my cable up through the VCR. How do I record television, though? I don’t have a cable box so right now, my configuration is just:

Cable Outlet into VCR into TELEVISION. I can watch television with no problem, but all my VCR is right now is a router inbetween my Cable Outlet and My VCR. How do I record anything? When I push record while watching tv, it just records blackness.

I have watched the VCR by using RCA ports.

8

You need to use your VCR to tune the cable, and keep your TV on channel 3. Or just use the RCA outputs from your VCR into your TV.

This usually means you have to turn on the “TV/VCR” feature on your VCR. Then, everything you watch is through the tuner on your VCR. Then just hit record.

9

Does your VCR have a channel selector? You should be able to select the channel you want to record on the VCR and that channel will be recorded. The RF out that goes to the TV should be set to ouput on either channel 3 or 4 selected by a switch, and that channel will carry whatever is selected on your VCR.

Or you can forget the RF out and use the RCA outputs to the TV.

Again, since this VCR is (I assume) made for the Chinese market, all bets may be off as far as supporting US TV channels.

10

If you do not have a cable box and your cable goes direct into the TV, it means you have a cable-ready TV. That means your TV is able to decode the cable signals and figure out what is on each channel.

Your VCR doesn’t care what you are doing with the TV; there is no output from the TV that provides input to your VCR. The cable is the input to the VCR.

It is possible that your VCR is NOT cable-ready. For VCRs that are not cable-ready, the only solution is to use a cable box, which takes the cable signal as input and puts out a signal that is typically switchable to be on the frequency for either channel 3 or channel 4. Let’s say you select channel 4. Then you set the VCR to watch channel 4. Suppose you set the cable box to watch ESPN on channel 56, you just leave the VCR on channel 4 and you’re watching (or recording) ESPN.

This setup has the disadvantage that you cannot record one channel while watching a different one on your TV, assuming you don’t reconfigure the cabling.