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| Connecting Cable, DVD, VCR, and Game to Old TV with One RF Input | |||||
| Question | |||||
| Hello Hank,
I am trying to connect a TV to a cable box, VCR, DVD Player and Game Cube so that all can be used without disconnecting the cable going into the TV to play the game. We can DVR programs in the cable box, but I would like to record them onto the VCR also. The basic equipment I have is: 1) A Scientific Atlantic HDTV cable box ( Explorer 8300 HDC ) ( has an Aux connection on the front for yellow, red and white cables. In back: Vidio Out connections ( red, blue and green), and Digital out-( white, red and black) and a second set of out connections for Audio and Vidio out (red, white, and yellow). 2) A Memorex Progressive Scan DVD/CD player: on back has Component Video Out ( red, blue and green ), S Video Out, Audio and Video Out ( yellow, white and red connections). It also has a separate orange connection for a Coaxial connection. 3) A Panasonic 4 Head Stereo Omnivision VCR player ( has Coaxial in and out connections, Audio & Video In and Out connections ( yellow, red and white). 4) A Sansui Television ( about 15-20 years old ). Only has a coaxial cable In connection. 5) A Nintendo Game Cube: (has wire for audio and video out connections. Also I have: 6) A General Electric Video/Audio Game Switch with connections for 4 sets of yellow, white and red connectors. Each set of connections also has an "S" connector. 5) An R.F. Modulator. Has cable in and out and Audio and Video connections. I have tried a number of times to hook the components up so we can watch TV from the cable box, watch a video from the Video player, or watch from the DVD player. We would also like to Play the Game Cube, and record from the DVD Cable box to the VCR player. So far we can only watch cable programs from the cable box. Any help would be gratefully appreciated. Nick Millemaci | |||||
| Answer | |||||
| On the cable box, the second columnn is not digital out. Only the black connection at the bottom is digital audio. The other two (white and red) are analog stereo audio.
Using green Y/V video and white/red OUT 1 stereo audio on the 8300HDC, output to the audio/video switch inputs. The input for video is yellow on the switch, but the output is green on the cable box. That's how the 8300HDC is designed for SD mode from OUT 1. Using yellow video and white/red stereo audio, output each of the other three devices to the audio/video switch inputs. Output the switch to the RF modulator audio/video inputs (white, red, yellow). Output the RF modulator to the TV. Each Device --> Audio/Video Switch --> RF Modulator --> TV To select the active viewing device, press one of the four buttons on the switch that corresponds to that device. That's the purpose and function of an audio/video switch. To connect the VCR to the cable box, output the second set of out connections from the cable box to the white, red, and yellow inputs on the VCR. Also connect CABLE OUT on the cable box to RF IN on the VCR. When done, you should have connected three RF cables and six sets of audio/video cables. That includes the RF cable from the wall to the cable box. After you have everything functioning correctly, buy a new TV.  Date: 2008-04-26 | |||||
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