My mother-in-law bought a new VHS/DVD combo and wants to record on it
and play it back later. She has cable, but the combo has no antenna
in or out; so I bought an RF modulator thinking that was the fix; it
wasn't. I have to be able to get video out from a source (which the
RF mod doesn't have; it is video in) to put into the combo input. The
only thing I can think of is to use her old vcr/dvd combo (vcr is
broken) to inbetween everything but I am afraid it will degrade the
signal. Any suggestions on a sensible hookup with the way they
manufacture stuff today without RF mods?

In article
,
harryhomer wrote:
My mother-in-law bought a new VHS/DVD combo and wants to record on it
and play it back later. She has cable, but the combo has no antenna
in or out; so I bought an RF modulator thinking that was the fix; it
wasn't. I have to be able to get video out from a source (which the
RF mod doesn't have; it is video in) to put into the combo input. The
only thing I can think of is to use her old vcr/dvd combo (vcr is
broken) to inbetween everything but I am afraid it will degrade the
signal. Any suggestions on a sensible hookup with the way they
manufacture stuff today without RF mods?

Is it not possible to get a cable box with baseband out? Using RF for this
is a cludge.

--
*If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

I don't understand how a VHS recorder can NOT have an RF/cable input, unless
it were designed solely for VHS to DVD dubs.

Take it back, and find one that does.

William Sommerwerck wrote:
I don't understand how a VHS recorder can NOT have an RF/cable input, unless
it were designed solely for VHS to DVD dubs.

Take it back, and find one that does.


I went thru the same thing. Sometime back, in preparation for the grand
debacle that is the US DTV transition, there became a rule
for any VCR sold in the USA. If it had an RF tuner, it had to have
an ATSC tuner. DTV is a poor match for VHS, so format conversion is
necessary. Early on, there wasn't any HDTV to watch, so people
wouldn't pay the BIG cost increase for something that couldn't
record what was available, so VCR's became tunerless.
If it has an RF connector on the back, it's likely a passthru only.

On Sep 6, 9:32*am, spamme0 wrote:
William Sommerwerck wrote:
I don't understand how a VHS recorder can NOT have an RF/cable input, unless
it were designed solely for VHS to DVD dubs.

Take it back, and find one that does.

I went thru the same thing. *Sometime back, in preparation for the grand
debacle that is the US DTV transition, there became a rule
for any VCR sold in the USA. *If it had an RF tuner, it had to have
an ATSC tuner. *DTV is a poor match for VHS, so format conversion is
necessary. *Early on, there wasn't any HDTV to watch, so people
wouldn't pay the BIG cost increase for something that couldn't
record what was available, so VCR's became tunerless.
If it has an RF connector on the back, it's likely a passthru only.

What is posted above is what I have run into. All new VCR's, etc. are
sold without RF Modulators because of HDTV. I am trying to figure out
some way to make this work and the only thing I can think of is what I
posted above with hooking the old VCR to the new but running the risk
of screwing up the video because it is going through 2 devices.

harryhomer wrote:
On Sep 6, 9:32 am, spamme0 wrote:
William Sommerwerck wrote:
I don't understand how a VHS recorder can NOT have an RF/cable input, unless
it were designed solely for VHS to DVD dubs.
Take it back, and find one that does.
I went thru the same thing. Sometime back, in preparation for the grand
debacle that is the US DTV transition, there became a rule
for any VCR sold in the USA. If it had an RF tuner, it had to have
an ATSC tuner. DTV is a poor match for VHS, so format conversion is
necessary. Early on, there wasn't any HDTV to watch, so people
wouldn't pay the BIG cost increase for something that couldn't
record what was available, so VCR's became tunerless.
If it has an RF connector on the back, it's likely a passthru only.

What is posted above is what I have run into. All new VCR's, etc. are
sold without RF Modulators because of HDTV. I am trying to figure out
some way to make this work and the only thing I can think of is what I
posted above with hooking the old VCR to the new but running the risk
of screwing up the video because it is going through 2 devices.

DTV converter box works just fine. Problem is that you get only one
channel.
There are a few older cable boxes that have unlocked ATSC tuners and
built-in timers.
You have to set the channel timers on the cable box and again on the
VCR. Picture is no worse than from a NTSC tuner.

Another option is to get a VCR with two AV inputs and an NTSC RF input.
Put a converter box on each one.
I have two dual-AV Vcr's , one single-AV VCR and four DTV converter
boxes and three cable boxes. Doesn't completely
solve the problem, but goes a long way. I'm afraid to ask how much of
my electric bill is due to all that crap.

A better solution would be a DVD recorder with ATSC tuner.
I tried a couple of older DVDRW recorders with NTSC tuners
and a DTV box.
I NEVER got a complete recording. The recording process
is so fragile that it can't recover from an error.
A plane passing overhead that disrupted the signal for an instant
caused the process to crash.
It should just give up and keep going. All the ones I tried
crashed and aborted the recording. Ditto for any kind of DVD
write issue. USELESS.

Hi!

She has cable, but the combo has no antenna
in or out

That's going to make it more complicated than it has to be, because
the use of an external tuner is going to be required. And she'll have
to make sure that the external tuner is set up properly so that the
VCR will record from it.

I believe the best solution will be to return it for a unit that does
what is needed--and has a built in tuner capable of receiving the
programs to be recorded.

William

In article ,
"William Sommerwerck" wrote:

I don't understand how a VHS recorder can NOT have an RF/cable input, unless
it were designed solely for VHS to DVD dubs.


In the waning years of VHS, VCRs began to be supplanted by VCPs. (Player
vs. Recorder.) Turns out that most VCRs were used only to play rented
movies, not record off the air. So in an effort to keep the retail price
at $29 or so, they dropped the record capability.