My new DVD player

The BBQ Pit
1

Hooray, hoorah, I thought. I’m buying my very first DVD player. Tra la freakin’ la.

I cannot hook this thing up. “Just attack the red, white, and yellow plugs to the red, white, and yellow sockets on your player and your TV,” it says. Sounds easy. Only my TV doesn’t have red, white, and yellow sockets. It has a big black cord labelled ANT and a power cord.

The TV is connected to a VCR. The VCR does have yellow and white sockets, but not a red one. Attaching the cords there produces a vague shadow which is Quite Definitely that of the beginning the "Monty Python and the Holy Grail (special edition with millions of bonus features for the enterprising soul who can pass the test of hooking up the blasted player).

The VCR is connected to a digital cable box. This does actually have red, white, and yellow sockets, but attaching the cables here has no effect.

I call customer support, and am directed to an automated service that will cheerfully send me a probably unhelpful fax, assuming I have a fax machine, which I don’t.

I find Sony’s web page, which has an automated e-mail system which I don’t plan to find very helpful either.

You know what I want? I want stinking H.H. Gregg to send over that oh-so-helpful employee to do this for me. Do you think he’ll come over if I threaten to return it? He does, after all, work on commission.

Why does this all have to be so difficult? Why do the instructions for these things never, ever reflect the real equipment in front of me? Is it really so expensive to staff a support line with live knowledgeable people? Am I just an idiot? Will I ever get to watch my First DVD?

Darn it all, this was supposed to be fun, and instead I’m left feeling like an idiot.

2

You need an RF Modulator which you can get at Radio Shack. That should solve your problem.

3

You need an RF modulator. $25 @ Wal-Mart, and problem solved.

4

How important is it for you to have stereo sound? I can fix this for you for about a buck-and-a-half. You see, I too have an “antique” TV that does not have stereo inputs. Plug the yellow into the yellow input on the VCR. Go to Radio Shit or Bogus Buy, and get a splitter that has 2 female RCA jacks (the hole part that takes the kind of plug that is on your cable) leading to one male RCA plug (the part with the sticky-outty bit–the gender thing is really quite descriptive). Plug the splitter into the audio in on your VCR (the white), and walla-walla-washington, you’ve got all the sound and the picture.

Of course, now I want to upgrade my TV and get a surround-sound system. Digital. With HDTV and wall-mountable flat screen…why do I feel horny all of a sudden???

5

[Marvin the Martian]Oh dear, I seem to be lacking an RF Space Modulator.[/Marvin the Martian]

Which, by the way, cost $40 at the local Radio Shack, if my memory serves me.

Personally, I got lucky and have a neighbor who had a TV with the red/yellow/white sockets in the back, but he still couldn’t get it to work with his DVD properly. So he got a new TV, and gave me the old one. I hooked it up, turned the DVD on, and got the same response - no DVD picture. Then I noticed that the TV had an automatic channel sensor - it searches for signals when you originally set it up and keeps them programmed. So I told the TV to search for new channels that hadn’t yet been found, and voíla! DVD-compatable TV literally saved from the trash heap! Yay me!

6

Hook up yellow (video) to the yellow on the VCR. Hook up the white to the white one on the VCR. Hopefully, you’ll get monophonic sound.

Set your VCR to alternate input, and your TV to the channel you watch the VCR on.

Voila.

7

Actually, I was under the impression that you couldn’t hook a DVD up through the VCR… something about copy protection or some damned thing.

I haven’t tried myself though.

8

Although in doing that you may have problems with Macrovision blacking out the picture. The RF Modulator is still the best way to go in my experience.

9

Hurrah! The chocolate chip cookie goes to Mr. Cynical! We have Python! I repeat, we have Python!

I tried Mr. Cynical’s suggestion first on account of it was free, and setting the VCR to alternate input was indeed the missing step.

I’m sure the $30 piece would have worked, too, but free is better.

Thank you all for helping me out. I’m so happy.

10

See now, there’s your problem. Did you really attack the plugs? Or did you just give them a lame kick and leave it at that?

You gotta show these plugs who’s boss!

11

But, but… Oh, argh. Silly me for thinking someone who has said that they read the manuals really did.

I really am glad you got it up and running.

12

Hey, I did read the manual, but it had no instructions at all for attaching it to anything but the TV and the kind of wildly expensive speakers that are not ever going to be an issue.

Yes, I should have figured that out, but it’s been years since I read the manual to my VCR, and in fact I don’t think DVD players were commonly available when it was written, so I doubt it addresses the question.

But go ahead and make fun of my technical abilities or lack thereof. It’s all terribly simple- once you’ve done it. I’m good at other things, but I haven’t had enough new electronic stuff to get much experience with it.

I’m just glad I have SDMB, because there is really no one I can call in for these little irritations.

Anyone want to come change the lightbulb on my ten-foot ceiling?

13

FisherQueen, I’m sorry. I have no way to defend what I said to you, and I shouldn’t have let my work burnout spill over here. I was being mean, and stupid, and I’d better shut up before I start sounding like Ike Turner.

My bad. I had no right to take my general hatred of folks who buy consumer electronics, throw away the manuals, come running back to the store for help… and dump all that on you.

So, anyways, I’m sorry for what I said. I was out of line.

The Macrovision thing IS going to be a problem with many discs, though…

14

Sure! There’s this useful little gizmo you can pick up at Wal-Mart to help, this claw sort of thing on the end of a stick. $10, as I recall.

Really, I’m not mocking you.

15

(the Hamster is worn out, this might be a double post.)

Sure! There’s this useful little gizmo you can pick up at Wal-Mart to help, this claw sort of thing on the end of a stick. $10, as I recall.

Really, I’m not mocking you.

16

No big deal, Darth, I come into the Pit, I can take a little sarcasm.

A little sarcasm was mostly what I was dealing with my light-bulb problems- but I will check my Friendly Neighborhood Wal-Mart and see if I can find the device you describe, as it would be easier than borrowing the ladder from the landlord again.

17

Hey, I’ve set up my DVD through my VCR, and haven’t had any problems yet. Are there just certain DVDs that give you trouble?

18

The problem is evident by simply viewing, the copy protection effects will be visible if you record the DVD to tape, then play the tape. If the DVD is protected with Macrovision, the picture will alternately darken and lighten.

This can be disabled on some DVD players, some don’t do it at all while others have it always on (like mine). Even then, the copy protection has to be encoded into the DVD to begin with so YMMV by individual title.

19

FisherQueen, with the DVD set up the way you did it, you’re not going to get a perfect picture, either, on the discs you can view. You may notice strange things, like artifacts (little pixel bits), or a slow darkening and lightening of the image over the course of the movie, or some other stange image issues. Not a major issue, but just don’t be mystified when it happens. Just an FYI.

20

Uh - make that not evident by simple viewing…