And Digital Broadcast TV is wonderful?

murphey

murphey

Touchdown! Greaser!
PoA Supporter
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
11,962
Location
Colorado
Display Name
Display name:
murphey
I'm baffled. I have a VHS recorder/player hooked up to the "new and improved" digital TV. I can play VHS tapes and watch them on the TV. I have a DVD recorder/player hooked up to the "new & improved" digital TV. I can play DVDs and watch them on the TV. Looks like this:

ANT -> TV
DVD(out) -> TV
VHS(out) -> TV

So far so good. But when I re-patch so I can record VHS,

ANT -> (in) VHS (out) -> TV

Nothing. Can't record, can't get the pass-thru signal to the TV.

Same for the DVD:

ANT -> (in) DVD (out) -> TV

Can't record, can't get the pass-thru signal. So, I'm in deep doo-doo if I want to record any of the Olympics right now.

Any suggestions?
 
First question. does your TV have a digital tuner or are you using a decoder box?

If you have a TV with a digital tuner, your old VCR is pretty much worthless. the VCR mostlikely canot understand the digital signal that your tv understands.

If you use a converter box it usually outputs the signal on something like channel 3. In that case you will need to set your converter box to nbc, have the VCR record on channel 3, and set the TV to whatever pass through channel you have set up on the VCR.
 
murphey said:
I'm baffled. I have a VHS recorder/player hooked up to the "new and improved" digital TV. I can play VHS tapes and watch them on the TV. I have a DVD recorder/player hooked up to the "new & improved" digital TV. I can play DVDs and watch them on the TV. Looks like this:

ANT -> TV
DVD(out) -> TV
VHS(out) -> TV

So far so good. But when I re-patch so I can record VHS,

ANT -> (in) VHS (out) -> TV

Nothing. Can't record, can't get the pass-thru signal to the TV.

Same for the DVD:

ANT -> (in) DVD (out) -> TV

Can't record, can't get the pass-thru signal. So, I'm in deep doo-doo if I want to record any of the Olympics right now.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

You did not say if you got a signal from the ant to the tv. Do you?
You didn't state what connections on each unit you used.
are you using rca jack connections or coax?
Need more information please.
 
Is your VCR capable of decoding digital TV signals?

As of June 2009 analog TV signals are no longer being transmitted. If your devices are set up for the old analog TV they will not record the new signals. It may even be that that just trying to get the signals to pass though may not be possible if there is filtering going on in the device.
 
murphey said:
Can't record, can't get the pass-thru signal. So, I'm in deep doo-doo if I want to record any of the Olympics right now.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
skip using the antenna cables altogether. Does your TV and your VCR have audio and video connectors? These would look something like this:

TivaxAudioVideoOut.jpg


If so go to Radio Shack and get a set of cables to hook up this way for recording. You will only be able to record what you are watching doing this but at least it will get you started.
 
smigaldi said:
Is your VCR capable of decoding digital TV signals?

As of June 2009 analog TV signals are no longer being transmitted. If your devices are set up for the old analog TV they will not record the new signals. It may even be that that just trying to get the signals to pass though may not be possible if there is filtering going on in the device.
Click to expand...

yup - that's the problem on the VCR - altho it has a tuner, it's an analog. But I'm surprised at the DVD recorder. Must be a filter in the DVD. I really don't want to buy anything else right now, just had to buy a new computer (motherboard on the old one gave out).

Yes, it's a digital TV. And somewhere around here, I have a DTV box but I really don't like the quality of the picture. Fortunately, the primetime stuff is being repeated at 3 AM EST the following morning.

Afternoon naps are invaluable right now!
 
smigaldi said:
I don't think he is trying to pick those up to record the Olympics up though.
Click to expand...

Probably not, but there are some areas of Colorado (in the mountains) where that's all there is - even for the major networks. Translators are classed as LPTV.

Technically, until those move to digital there will be a few analog outlets around.
 
As Scott suggested above, if your TV has composite video and stereo audio out, you should be able to connect those to the VCR's auxiliary input, and record (EDIT: as long as you are actually watching whatever source that you want to record). I have successfully done this with at least one of my HDTV sets (although the video, as fed out, was a little squeezed looking because of the difference in aspect ratio.
 
Last edited:
And just to stir the pot a bit.... who uses tape VCR any more? :rolleyes::D
 
wsuffa said:
Probably not, but there are some areas of Colorado (in the mountains) where that's all there is - even for the major networks. Translators are classed as LPTV.

Technically, until those move to digital there will be a few analog outlets around.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

Another topic:
Isn't the ISTM band still using analog TV? I think most of the licenses belong to the US Catholic churches too.
 
Last edited:
SCCutler said:
As Scott suggested above, if your TV has composite video and stereo audio out, you should be able to connect those to the VCR's auxiliary input, and record (EDIT: as long as you are actually watching whatever source that you want to record). I have successfully done this with at least one of my HDTV sets (although the video, as fed out, was a little squeezed looking because of the difference in aspect ratio.
Click to expand...
Do digital TV's downconvert the broadcast formats (e.g. 1080i) to NTSC? If not I don't think VCR is gonna work with the the video output from the TV.
 
gismo said:
Do digital TV's downconvert the broadcast formats (e.g. 1080i) to NTSC? If not I don't think VCR is gonna work with the the video output from the TV.
Click to expand...

Mine does (at least, my InFocus DLP HDTV does). Like I said, it munged-up the aspect ratio, but was watchable.
 
smigaldi said:
Agreed.

Another topic:
Isn't the ISTM band still using analog TV? I think most of the licenses belong to the US Catholic churches too.
Click to expand...

Don't know for sure. (Most of the Catholic Church stuff was in the old MMDS/LMDS - or simply MDS bands IIRC). I thought that most of that went digital (and were used for "wireless cable" operations) - and in many areas the those bands have been converted for use by wireless internet.

gismo said:
Do digital TV's downconvert the broadcast formats (e.g. 1080i) to NTSC? If not I don't think VCR is gonna work with the the video output from the TV.
Click to expand...

TVs themselves may not. If you have a converter or separate tuner, it will downconvert to NTSC.

smigaldi said:
It has to. Otherwise most people would get no use out of the converters.
Click to expand...

But I'm not sure that's true for many of the newer "true HDTV" TV sets, which are using HDMI (which incorporates content control/DRM). It is true for converters... the federally subsidized convertors were prohibited from having a high-def output.
 
wsuffa said:
Don't know for sure. (Most of the Catholic Church stuff was in the old MMDS/LMDS - or simply MDS bands IIRC). I thought that most of that went digital (and were used for "wireless cable" operations) - and in many areas the those bands have been converted for use by wireless internet.
Click to expand...
The bands were subdivided and the small scale TV stuff was slipped into spaces. There are interleaved channel still ion one part of the band.


wsuffa said:
But I'm not sure that's true for many of the newer "true HDTV" TV sets, which are using HDMI (which incorporates content control/DRM). It is true for converters... the federally subsidized convertors were prohibited from having a high-def output.
Click to expand...
A newer HDTV set would not need a converter box now would it? It would already come with a digital tuner.

What Lance and I are talking about is the converter boxes that allow someone with a NTSC only analog set to receive DTV. The boxes that the feds were giving out coupons for. Those old analog sets would only have RF in analog tuners and maybe a base band video input.
 
smigaldi said:
It has to. Otherwise most people would get no use out of the converters.
Click to expand...

I was referring to the digital receiver built into the TV, not an external converter. I have one (DTV) here, I'll check the manual to see if it can perform this conversion. With my system the AV receiver handles that task WRT the VCR feed.
 
smigaldi said:
What Lance and I are talking about is the converter boxes that allow someone with a NTSC only analog set to receive DTV. The boxes that the feds were giving out coupons for. Those old analog sets would only have RF in analog tuners and maybe a base band video input.
Click to expand...

gismo said:
I was referring to the digital receiver built into the TV, not an external converter. I have one (DTV) here, I'll check the manual to see if it can perform this conversion. With my system the AV receiver handles that task WRT the VCR feed.
Click to expand...

????? Did I miss something?????
 
wsuffa said:
????? Did I miss something?????
Click to expand...
No I did. I was multitasking. Reading PoA and on a web conference. I thought Lance was talking about the down-converters boxes that people were getting for their analog TVs. Oops!

But to answer Lance's original question I do believe the base-band video output is down-converted from the DTV to an analog signal. I say that because my mother-in-law has an HDTV and we use the baseband in feature with a DVD that we hook the video and audio cables up. The DVD player is not HDTV capable at all and is running NTSC. I think if you are still seeing the RCA jacks that is compatible with the analog stuff and if you want the digital video signals you use HDMI.
 
Last edited:
smigaldi said:
No I did. I was multitasking. Reading PoA and on a web conference. I thought Lance was talking about the down-converters boxes that people were getting for their analog TVs. Oops!

But to answer Lance's original question I do believe the base-band video output is down-converted from the DTV to an analog signal. I say that because my mother-in-law has an HDTV and we use the baseband in feature with a DVD that we hook the video and audio cables up. The DVD player is not HDTV capable at all and is running NTSC. I think if you are still seeing the RCA jacks that is compatible with the analog stuff and if you want the digital video signals you use HDMI.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're talking about feeding a NTSC signal to a HDTV. I was talking about the reverse (sending a downconverted HDTV signal from the TV to a VCR). I looked through the 100 page manual for my Sharp Aquos HDTV and there's simply no mention of this capability or lack thereof. The TV does have a "Monitor Out" set of AV and SVid connections but other than pointing out their location on the back of the set the manual is silent on them. I have tried to route the video from those jacks through my AV receiver and then back into the TV on the HDMI input connection but that doesn't work and I believe that's because the TV doesn't feed the monitor output connection with a TV signal when the HDMI input is selected for display but I'm not certain if that's true.
 
SCCutler said:
As Scott suggested above, if your TV has composite video and stereo audio out, you should be able to connect those to the VCR's auxiliary input, and record (EDIT: as long as you are actually watching whatever source that you want to record). I have successfully done this with at least one of my HDTV sets (although the video, as fed out, was a little squeezed looking because of the difference in aspect ratio.
Click to expand...

unfortunately, there's no video out. but I do have far too many splitters (using one right now to feed both DTV signal and satellite signal to the TV). No doubt I can
cobble another splitter with the DTV converter.
 
gismo said:
It sounds like you're talking about feeding a NTSC signal to a HDTV..
Click to expand...
I talked about both.

I am saying that when you see that RCA, yellow jack on a HDTV it is analog video in or out, not an HD signal. If you want the HD signal you go to the HDMI in or out connector.
 
smigaldi said:
I talked about both.

I am saying that when you see that RCA, yellow jack on a HDTV it is analog video in or out, not an HD signal. If you want the HD signal you go to the HDMI in or out connector.
Click to expand...

I agree that an RCA composite video output is likely to be NTSC, but nothing says it's active for sure when a HDTV signal is being displayed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top