I have an older TV. I have a Direct TV box. And I have two separate DVD players. One is a DVD/VCR recorder combo. The other is a DVD player only. Until recently, I have been routing the Satellite and one DVD at a time through an older VCR player/recorder which has now stopped working after many years. Now, bypassing the old VCR, I cannot seem to get either DVD machine hooked up correctly to play or record. And, although my TV has yellow, red & white cable inputs, the TV is 18+ years old. Trying to plug the cables direct to the TV does nothing.

Can someone help? Thanks.

If you plug red, white, and yellow out of DVD into TV, and correct input is selected with DVD on, it should work, other wise try another source(DVD,VCR, Video Game) to determine if input to Tv is Bad or output of DVD is bad.

Let me explain further... For years I have been routing the TV through the Direct TV box via coaxial cable. The "Antenna out" on the Direct TV box was routed to the back of an old Akai VCR. When I added DVD, the yellow, red & white cables were also routed to the back of the Akai. This gave me TV, Satellite, VCR play & record, and DVD play. Everything worked fine.

Then I started having problems with the old Akai VCR, starting with failure to eject a tape, which is still in the machine. Even so, everything continued working EXCEPT VCR. More recently, something more significant has gone wrong with the Akai such that it cannot be controlled, like some other significant circuit has shut down. It can't be turned off unless it is unplugged, etc.

So, I'm trying to bypass the Akai altogether. I now have a Zenith DVD/VCR recorder/player combo, and a Toshiba DVD player. Whereas both would work before through the Akai, now I can't get either to show its software or playback.

Selecting "Source" has been mentioned among other things. I'm not sure if this is part of the issue, but I don't know how to select it in any event. I don't seem to be able to do it through the TV (and don't have a manual), and don't know how to do it through the other appliances.

If TV has red, white and yellow or other video inputs and not just the coax, then you need to press Video, Input, Souce or something like that. What does TV have for Inputs?

The TV has coaxial input, as well as a single yellow video and two reds and two whites (input and output audio, I think). Until I started attempting to bypass the Akai VCR over the last few days, the only thing that went to the TV was the coaxial cable FROM the satellite box.

As I mentioned, I do not have a manual for the TV. Can't find it. The TV works great, but is 18 years old. I do have manuals for all the other appliances and, at least for the DVD/VCR combo and the DVD player, the instructions essentially say "plug the yellow, red & white cables to the back of the player as shown and plug the other ends of the Yellow, red and White into you TV. But with either appliance, I get nothing showing on the TV when I do that.

In the past, the routine with the Akai would have been to turn off the satelite with the multi-function remote, leave the TV on and with the Akai VCR on, I would get a picture of the appliance's software or, if playing a recorded disc, I'd go right to the disc.

Once something went wrong with the Akai, all I get now is snow with vertical electronic waves where I once got a good DVD/VCR picture.

Just to clarify, I'm still running a coax from antenna out on the satelite box to the coax port on the Akai. Not sure what that is doing at this point. It was always hooked up that way when things were fine. I have not disturbed it. But there are no coax ports available on either of my two DVD appliances.

Still trying to figure out the "source" thing and where to find it.

If TV has none of the above names for inputs, try channel down(below cnannel 3),
Or up in the 90's. Since you have 2 reds, 2 whites, and 1 yellow. It is likely Audio/Video input, and a red and white for an output to an external amp or wireless headphones.

Well, I got everything working. And I want to thank you for your willingness to hang in there and try to assist.

In the end, I ran the yellow, red and white cables from the output ports on the DVD/ VCR appliance to the yellow, red and white ports on the back of the TV. I'm convinced that I did this before to no effect. But this time, I stood back and looked at the whole set-up logically. I said, "all I'm trying to do is by-pass (eliminate) the now-defunct Akai VCR. What do I have to do to accomplish this?"

I looked at the back of the Akai and the only thing that was left connected was a coaxial cable running from the output of the Akai to the "in from antenna" port on the Direct TV box. I eliminated this cable and, combined with the cables connected as described above, I was in business. I'm still not sure why, but I'm supposing that maybe the coax was somehow interfering.

Good deal, What are you using for an input? Take Care