my friend asked me this and i have no idea since i dont have one…
how do you tape a program from directv through vcr? is it the same as normal tv?
My Sony direcTV reciever has IIRC (it’s in storage) two full sets of stereo audio, composite video and S-video outputs to connect to any component such as a VCR or stereo system. AFAIK there is no provision for copy protection like the Macrovision on DVD and tape. VHS tapes are good but Hi8 tapes made with an S-video connection were astonishingly sharp.
I have DishNetwork. Maybe it works the same.
I tape off of the satellite dish all the time. Just put your VCR to channel 3, have the TV at channel 3, and use your remote to pick the channel you want to tape.
When you hook up the VCR, I think you put the Satellite dish cables into the VCR, then the VCR cables to the TV. Sorry, I’m not really technical, so I can’t give a better description than that. But the answer is yes, you should be able to tape off of a satellite dish.
Yosimetebabe - you’re using the RF connection. That works but you’ll get much better picture if you connect to the audio and video connections. Not all TVs have those connections but your VCR almost certainly does. The friendly nerds at Radio Shack can help you out and it should cost more than $10 for the right cable.
If I may butt in: what you’ll probably want to do is, hook up your dish receiver and your VCR in the order opposite that shown in most dish manuals. That is, you want that coax cable to go from antenna to VCR to dish receiver to TV, rather than from antenna to dish receiver to VCR to TV. That way, you can record from regular TV (antenna) stations, even while watching the dish.
In addition to the above, hook up a 3-lead RCA cable (that’s what I’ve always called 'em, is there a more appropriate name?) from the dish receiver to your VCR. If you don’t have a Hi-Fi VCR, you’ll need to get a stereo-to-mono cable; Radio Shack’s got 'em. If you’re not sure, and your VCR’s not labeled “Hi-Fi” in big letters on the front, look at the back. If there are three ports in a row (yellow, white, red), you have a Hi-Fi. If there are only two (yellow and white), you have a mono.
Connecting the cable is easy, since the ports (and the cable) are color-coded; just hook the same color to the same color, from the OUT ports of the dish receiver to the IN ports of the VCR. When you want to record from the dish, record from that line input, and you’ll get amazing audio and video. To find the line input, look for either a button on your VCR remote marked something like “TV/LINE” or a VCR channel called L or L1 that’s below channel 2 when changing channels with the up/down buttons.
Anyway. If you need more help, don’t hesitate to ask…
I have DirecTV and the way I have mine hooked up is this:
From the dish to receiver to vcr to t.v. Set both t.v. and vcr to channel 3. Keep in mind that unless you have two receiver boxes, you can only record what you are watching. IOW, you can’t record channel 202 and watch channel 501.