The following compnents need to be hooked together:
New model TV set (audio I/O and video I/O present)
DVD Player
Stereo VCR
Digital Cable Terminal
Receiver
OK… now the goal is to set everything up so that it functions properly with this added condition:
I wish to be able to tape movies from the digital terminal yet still be able to change channels on the TV to watch something other than what I am taping.
If possible, can you tell me how to do this, both with using the receiver for video, and a way without using the receiver for video?
The easy stuff is straightforward (assuming you have all the right input/output jacks in your TV and your receiver):
DVD:
Attach the DVD’s video out to the TV’s video in.
Attach the DVD’s audio out to the receiver’s DVD input (when watching a DVD I always use the surroundsound from the receiver.)
VCR:
Attach the VCR’s video and audio out to the TV inputs.
You could attach the audio out to the receiver like I suggest with the DVD, but I usually just use the TV speakers when watching a VCR. If I want I can switch the TV audio to go through the receiver (see below).
TV:
Attach the TV’s audio out to the receiver’s TV input.
Here’s the part I’m not sure of, because I have satellite rather than digital cable. Assuming they work the same way:
Attach the TV’s video and audio out to the VCR’s video and audio input. This might cause you problems if you only have one audio out on your TV.
However, this still doesn’t allow you to tape a show that you’re not watching. That’s because the channel selection is done via the digital cable box, not the TV. If there is a way to do this, I am not aware of it. I vaguely recall some threads on this topic, but I’m not sure.
If you had regular cable, then of course you just attach the cable into the VCR, and you could tape a show different from the one you’d be watching. The sticking point is digital cable having a decoder box.
Oops. Forgot to mention that the cable output from the decoder box attaches to the cable in jack on the TV. Obvious I know, but thoroughness is next to godliness… or something like that.
I run the cable TV feed to my VCR coax input. I then run my VCR coax out to the TV coax in.
CABLE -> VCR (coax) -> TV (coax)
I then run the VCR RCA outputs & the DVD RCA outputs to my Receiver’s VCR & DVD inputs. The RCA A/V outputs of the Receiver go to the A/V inputs on the TV.
VCR (rca) -> RCVR
DVD (rca) -> RCVR ----> TV A/V inputs
The TV works by itself from the cable side, the VCR can record the cable and play as usual on channel 3 (or 4) of the TV.
I can also turn on the receiver and play the VCR sound across all the speakers (although frequenlty don’t because the I just get stereo and the TV does that pretty well).
The DVD must be played through the receiver when the TV is in “A/V video” mode.
I used to feed the audio-out on my TV into the Receiver, too, but stopped when I figured out how lousy regular cable sound sounded when I played it on my big stereo. Digital cable service may be different on this, though.
On my system I took the coax cable line from the wall into the back of my TV, my TV has 2 coax outputs. I took one output to the digital cable box, from the cable box I took the S-video into the TV and the digital audio out to the Dolby receiver. I then use the cable box RCA outputs into the VCR rear input. I can then watch and record digital cable and if I get tired of the program I can switch the input on the TV to watch the non-digital cable stations. I took the 2nd coax out from the TV into the VCR. I can then watch digital cable while a non-digital channel is recording. I don’t have a way of watching a digital cable channel while recording another digital cable channel. my layout is not perfect, but I hope that it helps you.
The digital cable box does the digital cable tuning. Most VCRs will do analog cable tuning, which you can use, but you can’t get the digital cable channels then (you’ll get something like channels 1-70 or so).
To use this, hook the cable from wall into the VCR coax in, and the the VCR coax out to the digital cable descrambler. There are problems with this, though. I didn’t have a very high signal, and couldn’t get some of the higher up channels (MTV2 at 220 for instance) after doing this. The digital cable box has to be closer to the wall. Obviously if you put your VCR downstream from the cable box, then it will only see the decoded cable signal and you can only record what you are watching.
Since I have a crap TV with only one coax input on the back, here’s how my similar setup went before I had an A/V receiver:
cable in from wall -> digital cable box -> coax out to VCR -> coax in to TV
My DVD hooks RCA video and audio into the RCA video and audio in to my VCR. This means to watch a DVD, my VCR has to be on and tuned to A/V input. One can buy a box from Radio Shack (or anywhere) to do the same thing if you are short of inputs. These will IIRC accept S-video as well.
With the A/V receiver, all video and audio RCAs go to the receiver (as well as optical ins from the DVD and the MP3 server), and then the RCAs out to the VCR and VCR coax out to the TV.
The real best way to do this is to phone your cable company and see if they offer digital cable receivers with PVRs. I think that some models will allow you to record digital shows and tune and watch another, but I am not sure.
Interesting. For those of you who wire your DVD video output into your receiver rather than your television, can you articulate why you do it this way?
As I mentioned, I wired my DVD component video output directly to the TV component input. Is it because it’s component rather than RCA or S-video?
I had a similar situation with a TIVO thrown into the mix. TIVO will not let you watch something different if it’s taping…
SO (This assumes your TV has multiple inputs S-Video, RCA, Component, Coax)–>
My work around was to split the cable wire right out of the wall.
One goes into the cable box, out of the digital cable box with RCAs into the TIVO, out of the TIVO with an S-Video into the TV and RCA Audio into the Reciever.
Two goes into the VCR Coax, Out of the VCR Coax into the TV Coax. TV RCA Audio sound out into the Receiver VCR Input. This way if my wife has the TIVO taping something, I can switch the TV Inputs from S-Video to Coax and the Receiver from TV to VCR and watch away. The only thing I lose is that my TV coax input only has the 70 regular cable channels instead of the 300 digital channels. As far as I know, the only way to fix this is to get another Digital cable box.
The DVD goes to the Component Input on my TV, with the Digital Line going to the Receiver.
Now for your situation the above would work if you split the cable and sent one to the Cable Box then VCR and Using the VCR RCA Outs to the TV. The second cable Coax could go right to the TV.
But really it all depends on your equipment. Paticularly the TV and Receiver.
Most receivers do video switching. So, one can then have the digital cable into one video in, the DVD into another, the VCR into another, the computer into another (for example), and switch audio and video together only by switching the input select on the receiver.
It all depends on your receiver and your TV. If you are going in using composite signal, only relatively new receivers do composite video switching, so unless you have one you are better off going directly from your DVD to your TV. If you are using S-video, since most A/V receivers do S-video switching, it shouldn’t be an issue.