I just got digital. I know comcast can answer the question, but they will keep me on hold forever. Previously, with standard cable, I could record one show and watch another. Now, with digital, I set the TV to channel 3 and the digital box is the tuner. How do I record a show on my VCR? Do is set it to the channel (say 21) that the show is on, set it to three and set the digital box to 21, or something else. I assume that I can no longer record one show and watch another.
You’ll hav ethe VCR connected between the output of the digital box and the TV. Set the cable box for the channel you want to record and the VCR to channel 3, or whatever channel you have to set the TV to to watch. I don’t think you can watch one channel while you record another, unless you also have access to analog content. Connect the cable directly to the TV and see if you can tune any channels. If you can, you can watch those while you record the cable box output.
Queen of taping digital programs here. If you have a cable box (digital or not), you cannot watch one program while recording another. You also cannot tape programs on different channels unless you change the station on the box. If this makes no sense, I’ll give an example. You set the box to record channel 34 from 9:30am to 10:00am. You cannot record a second program later that day unless it is on channel 34. Unless of course you are home to change the channel. With a cable box, the TV is always on channel 3 or 4, and the stations are tuned in via the box.
I doubt that ALL your channels are digital. On my system (Time Warner), all the channels below 100 are analog. That being the case, I put a splitter in the cable before the cable box. One leg goes to the box and the other to my VCR. Now, as long as the channel is below 100 I can record on that channel and watch something else on the TV.
This is a real drawback to going digital. Are there any plans in the works to rectify this situation?
I have digital with a cable-supplied DVR (a la TiVo).
I can record one show while watching another.
I can record two shows simultaneously, but if I’m going to continue to watch TV, I must watch either one of those shows.
Or…
I can just turn off the set and both programs will record.
dauerbach, I just called my son who has Comcast digital cable in the next town over.
Although Comcast offers a DVR (just like Charter does), he has a TiVo and can record one show while watching another, but cannot record two shows.
DVR is a wonderful convenience. But sometime this month, I understand, we will no longer be able to whizz through the ads of recorded programs as we do currently.
Maybe we’ll start using the VCR again. I don’t see how how cable can stop us from fast forwarding a tape.
Back in the day what I used to do to get around this was to switch around the order of my input and outputs. The normal default setting was this…wall to VCR, then cable box, then TV. I can record all analog channels, and record while watching another channel. When I needed to record something on a digital channel I switched it to wall to cable, then VCR, then TV. Then the VCR could record whatever the channel the cable box was tuned into. (I also had a splitter & and A/B switch that allowed me to watch any analog channel while the VCR was set up to record a digital channel.) It was a pain to do, but I kept this up for two years!
Now I have a DVR box from my cable company and I no longer have to swap coaxials anymore! Yay. VCR’s are rapidly disappearing (thanks to DVR’s), so I doubt you’ll ever be able to by a VCR that handles digital cable. So the simple answer is get a TiVo or a DVR box from your cable or satellite provider. If they don’t offer it now, they probably will in the not too distant future…
Here’s how I’ve got my cable setup now. I can record three things at once (though I’ve only ever recorded two things at once).
Cable comes out of the wall and is split into two. One leg goes to the Digital cable/DVR box from my cable company. That is hooked back into my TV using the component audio/video cables, not coaxial cable. I can record two things at once here.
The other leg off the splitter goes into my trusty VCR, and its output goes back to the coaxial input of the TV. The TV and the VCR recieve all of the analog cable channels (below 100). The VCR can record independent of what’s being showing on the TV, so I can have the DVR recording two channels, the VCR recording a third, and I can watch any other analog cable channel on my TV by switching the TV/VCR setting to TV.
Not that I’ve done that yet.
The DVR cable converter box is here today. I have one, and man, is it sweet. It even records from the high definition channels, although that makes the hard drive run out of space really fast.
Running the cable from wall to VCR to box, rather than wall to box to VCR, works if all you want to record are the analog channels. What I’ve done in the past is a masterpiece of Cable Warriorship: first, the wire goes from the wall to a three-way splitter. Split #1 goes straight into the back of the TV. Split #2 goes to “A” on an A/B switch. Split #3 goes to the back of the cable box. The cable box output goes to “B” on the A/B switch. The common lead from the A/B switch goes to the input on the VCR. Finally, two sets of red/white/yellow RCA cables connect from the back of the cable box to the TV and from the back of the VCR to the TV.
With the above setup, you normally leave the switch in the “A” position, watch TV through the cable box on “VIDEO 1” on your TV, and the VCR can record from the analog channels without changing a thing. To watch what you’ve recorded, you change the TV to “VIDEO 2”. When you want to record from the cable box, switch the VCR to channel 3 and flip the A/B switch over to “B”. Now, here’s the best part: you can change the channels on your TV and watch the analog channels while still recording from the cable box! Neat, huh?
Technically, I’m leaving out a few details, because there was also a four-way RCA switch so that I could rotate the Nintendo in there, with the common sound leads from everything going directly to my audio receiver, plus a DVD player, and all that jazz. But that’s too complicated to explain in text. Just trust me, it was a masterpiece of home theater wiring.
My cabling is much simpler today, since I bought a TV with seven sets of inputs on the back, and a new DVD player/audio receiver in one, plus got that cable DVR box. Life is sweet.
I did the exact same thing with my Comcast set-up.
Since I can’t afford the additional expense of DVR right now, I just bought another VCR to record analog content elsewhere in my apartment. My main VCR is hooked up the normal way, right after the cable box (wall, digital cable box, vcr, tv coaxial input). My DVD player is hooked up directly to the TV’s rca (composite?) connection. The XBOX is hooked up to the VCR’s rca inputs.
A question for those of you who put the VCR before the cable box: how do you watch the programs you record?
- Tune the cable box to channel 3.
- Set the VCR’s TV/VCR setting to VCR.
- Enjoy!
Occasionally when I had cable trouble the people on the phone would snipe at me for not having the cable box first in line and force me to switch the cables before they would go any further in assisting me. I don’t think it was the cause of any of the problems I had. I don’t think it was ever really the cause of any problems I had though…the VCR should act as a pass through for any signals they send over the coaxial…