VCR and Cable Box

Factual Questions
1

I had my VCR hooked up to my converter box. The VCR then scans for channels so you can record programs and such. The VCR did not pick up any channels out of the cable box.

Then I hooked the cable to the VCR and the VCR into the cable box. The VCR now picks up all the standard channels, but not the digital channels. Plus I have to tune the cable box to channel 3 to play tapes.

Does anyone have any experience with this. I have a Sony VCR and AT&T Digital Cable. The VCR is cable ready, but not new.

Thanks.

2

A word of advice: Next time you purchase a VCR, get one that can communicate with your cable box. That’s what I did. In my case, since I tape stuff at all hours of the day and night, I often set up my alarm to wake me up in the dead of night to get up and change the channel on my box–but no more.:smiley:

3

All right, a place to talk about the insane (yet very useful) arrangement of cables in my home system!

The coax cable from the wall goes first to a splitter. One side goes to the cable box, the other to the VCR. Another coax cable goes from the VCR to the TV. A set of RCA cables goes from the cable box to an A/B switch; one side of that switch goes to the IN ports on the VCR, the other side to the VIDEO ports on my TV (for purposes of simplicity, I’ll leave out the A/B/C/D switch, the receiver, the Nintendo 64, and the DVD player).

So, when I wanna watch cable (the majority of the time), I have my TV on VIDEO and enjoy the output from the RCA ports of the cable box. When I want to record from a non-premium channel, the VCR can do that just fine, and I can watch premium cable while recording. When I want to record from a premium channel, I hit the A/B switch and record from the LINE on the VCR, setting the cable box to the appropriate channel; I can then still watch non-premium channels by changing from VIDEO on my TV to the regular TV (coax) input. To watch a tape, I put the TV on channel 3 and watch away. This setup gives me pretty much the best video and sound (and viewing options) possible from each device.

Now, just imagine what it’s like with the other stuff hooked up…

4

Oh, I got loads of vcrs, some only pick up channels if you tell it first you have cable. oTher wise, no…

5

Can you connect the VCR to the cable box and set the VCR to channel 3 or 4, the output of the cable box to the same?

6

I would call the local cable comp & ask them. It varies.

Eventually, you see, copy protection kicks in if you put the signal through too many boxes.