TV's and VCR's

[tpatton]

Many TV's have a yellow RCA jack marked "Video" and a pair of Red/While ones called "Audio".  Another input device (besides TV cable), like a VCR or a DVD player, can go into them, they can be selected somehow, and the VHS tape or DVD can be seen on the TV screen.

But TV's lack these Yellow/Red/While RCA jacks.  Can a DVD player or a VCR still work with them?

I don't see how, but it also seems strange that a TV set maker would willfully ignore this possibility.

Please forgive this very nonBottlehead question.  I'd ask it on Audio Asylum, but that Forum baffles me.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[4krow]

  If I remember correctly, the VCR may have an coax out. The TV should have a coax in, and that would be the connection. Also, the VCR may have two of these coaxial connectors. One would be to hook up to the TV, and the other would accept the cable company coax so that you could still use it. The VCR would simply pass on that signal when a tape was not in use.

  DVD players would be the same.

[tpatton]

I'd tried this before, with no success, but your post encouraged me to try again, and this time it worked.  The crucial difference was that the TV needs to be set (on the TV itself, not by the remote) to the channel not used in one's area--I believe it's always either channel 3 or channel 4.  On the remote, channel 3 is just an ordinary channel: NBC in my case.  But on the TV itself it's blank, and a VCR can play its tape there. 

I actually use my VCR as the TV tuner, in one TV set-up, but that's irrelevant.  All I said above worked on another TV, which isn't connected to the wall in any way, only to the VCR, since no TV signal is available.  (Comcast would sell me another, but I don't need more than the two that come standard.)

Thanks for getting me started on this again--your solution was basically right.

[4krow]

 All that connection stuff drives me a little more insane than before.   The other day, I was trying to figure out how come my Quickie had distortion at higher levels. The short story is that it didn't but the unit it was driving doesn't handle anything over 1 volt or so. Try try again, sometimes it works.

[Grainger49]

There are items at Radio Shack for just this problem.  To find the one you want you need to know what types of outputs your DVD player uses and it sounds like the only input your TV has is an F-Connecter (antenna/cable connection).  Armed with this information even a Radio Shack salesman/woman can probably get you the right device.

BTW, I started selling electronics at Radio Shack in the late 60s.

For instance, this might be it:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103095#

[HF9]

Your description sounds like the joy I have every time my parents rearrange their house and I get to help. They also have the old TVs and VCRs lacking in composite connectors, so you run the coax from the VCR to the TV and plug the antenna into the VCR. The last time I was there I got them to get themselves a NEW VCR with DVD recording!!! Thankfully that one has composite connectors.

There's also a situation where the VCR / DVD player/ etc. has composite outs but the TV doesn't. Radio Shack has that FM modulator so you can convert from one to the other.

[Paul Birkeland]

But TV's lack these Yellow/Red/While RCA jacks.  Can a DVD player or a VCR still work with them?

It's probably cheaper to buy a newer TV ($15, check thrift stores/street corners) that have composite connections rather than buying the RF modulator to force it to work (might be $20-30).

-PB