Crazy Off Topic - Old School TV Tech

[Bahnstoermer1647545488]

Here's the story, since the question won't make sense without it.

 

Mom has a new TV with tons of inputs, but specifically no video output. She also has a DVD/VCR combo box that has S-Video, Component Video, and the old yellow "RCA"? video input and outputs, but NO coax input/tv tuner.

 

She wants to be able to record TV on the VCR still (she's a mom after all), but I can't run the coax into the VCR and then out to the TV because the VCR has no coax input, so the coax input has to go into the TV. But, there's no video output on the TV, so I can't route the signal that way either.

 

She doesn't have a cable box that I think should give us multiple output types that we could take advantage of, and if wrapped into a big package of cable TV channels, will refuse to get one. She has and wants only basic cable as a package / payment.

 

It seems to me what I need is a either a "cable box" from Time Warner that doesn't have a big channel package associated with it (need to check with them on this), or a separate, cheapie "tuner" that will convert the Coax/RF into S-Video, "RCA" /yellow + sound, or Component Video plus sound and have a splitter to route the single coax signal from the cable company to both the TV tuner and the VCR. She'd have to manually make sure both tuners were set to the channel she wanted to watch & record, but it would work without a bigger monthly fee.

 

Any ideas here? Looking for confirmation / correction of my reasoning and any alternate suggestions - I haven't paid attention to TV technology my whole life, so there are gaps in my knowledge

[Patterson]

Tv's dont have outputs. They arent sources.

 

You have to run from the cable box to the tv as well as the vcr using RCA cables ( Red, white, yellow). All you need is a RCA splitter. Very cheap.

 

OR just buy her the package that includes the DVR.

[Bahnstoermer1647545488]

Tv's dont have outputs. They arent sources.

 

You have to run from the cable box to the tv as well as the vcr using RCA cables ( Red, white, yellow). All you need is a RCA splitter. Very cheap.

 

OR just buy her the package that includes the DVR.

 

LOL, I know TV's aren't sources, but it sure seems like they could have a duplicated output.

 

I like cheap, but I don't think an RCA splitter would help, I have no RCA source to split.... ? Again, there is NO cable box, none.

[Clifford Automotive]

Im confused.

[wnaplay1647545503]

I am confused as well.

Your mom has a tv and wants to record the basic 4, 6, 8, 10 channels to a vcr, and she doesnt have cable?

[Nitrousbird]

Well, you are SOL without buying some stuff. The past few years they have stopped putting tuners into DVD/VCR combos - stupid, but cheaper I suppose.

 

Your solution to piss her off the least:

 

2-way splitter, feed one directly to the TV

Some kind of cable tuner box on the other side of the 2-way splitter, then feed that to the VCR input. Feed the output of the VCR to the TV

 

That said, she won't likely be happy with that either, as she will have to manually set the channel on the tuner box for whatever she wants to record, as the VCR won't be able to setup to change the channel on a timer to do that.

 

Better options:

- Get a DVR

- Search for an older VCR that has coax in/out

- DVD Recorder with coax in/out. She will probably be super happy with that, and they work very similar to a VCR

 

The better options will let her do what she likely wants to do - setup recordings for when she is away. What she has now isn't going to pull that off.